Napoleon and Bullet

Thanks to Cecil for sending me this link to learn the Napolean Dynamite dance. Now I have something to do over the summer :P

So update number 4 on the Magic Bullet. I returned our defective one to Target sans box. They took it and credited the Amex but didn't allow a straight exchange. Of course that makes no sense but I'm sure folks there don't get paid enough to figure out how to "over ride the system." The cashier wasn't exactly Chloe O'Brien. So whatever. This weekend we took the 20% off coupon for Bed, Bath and Beyond that comes in the mail every week and got another one for $48. I used it last night to whip up an egg and butter to make chocolate chip cookies. It was...okay. If the contents of the container aren't sitting right down on the blades, it doesn't do anything and you have to detach the container and shake it to settle your contents back on the blades. It's kind of annoying. The good thing though is that it's easy to clean and put away unlike the hand mixer I was about to use. I guess if you mix little bits of things or sauces really often it might work out for you if you can get past having to shake the stupid container every once in a while to settle the contents.

evolution of dance

I have to admit that one of my few talents in life involves emulating dancing club goers who either hear a different beat in their head from everyone else at the party, or have no shame in breaking out dance moves that people born in the late 1980s have never seen before. My specialities include the sprinkler, the lawnmower, the Nordic Track (you'll see this one at raves), the Roger Rabbit, and the running man (with particular attention to rhythmic head turning with each slide). And that is why I so appreciated this video that Jane sent me.

uni adventure

We saw sea urchin at Ranch 99 last night so Simon decided to conquer it. It was no easy feat. Who the hell knew it would spew red crap. Once he got in and split the thing in half I almost fell on the floor. I expected it to be full of that orange goodness like you see at the restaurant but nope. There were valves and jaws and slime and tubes and all this nasty shit. I screamed when I saw the inside. It was like something from out of a horror movie. The fresh uni tasted, I dunno, a lot more fragrant than the stuff at restaurants. It tasted kind of like perfume. To be honest, I like the restaurant stuff a bit better. The fresh stuff was a bit intense.

sea urchin

oozing red stuff

EEEEEEEWWWW!

Simon spooning out the roe from the ugliness

all for this

hamster Jedi

Hamster Jedi

APAHM

It's Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! Time to set your Tivo to record some really great programming on your public TV station. If you don't see related programming during prime time on your local PBS station, write them a letter and cc: alerts@asianmediawatch.net. Some info about APAHM courtesy of Asian Media Watch.

HISTORY IN BRIEF

Efforts to establish a national Asian Pacific American Heritage celebration began after concerned Americans saw that the contributions of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) were omitted from the 1976 U.S. Bicentennial Celebration. The month of May was chosen in recognition of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants on May 7, 1843, and of Chinese Americans who helped build the Transcontinental Railroad which was completed on May 10, 1869. It was also chosen to encourage educators to incorporate Asian Pacific American history into the curriculum while school is in session.

APAHM began as a one-week celebration enacted by Congress as Resolution 72 and signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. It was the result of legislation introduced by Congressmembers Frank Horton and Norman Y. Mineta (House of Representatives), and Daniel K Inouye and Spark Mastunaga (Senate). In 1990, APAHM was expanded into a month-long celebration annually recognized by Proclamation of the President of the United States of America, and later enacted into Public Law 102-450 on October 23, 1992 by Congress which permanently designated the entire month of May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Colbert

Colbert's speech at the White House and the video

Apparently the media didn't know what the heck to report about this so it's largely been swept under the rug.

my week off

Since my thesis is being read, my job this week was to grade student work (not hard) and lounge around and watch TV. Aside from everything on HGTV (other than the gardening and country style type shows) I've been hooked on Top Chef. Sadly my favourite Lee Anne Wong was cast off today. Guess they couldn't have an Asian woman win Project Runway AND its sister show Top Chef on Bravo. I truly thought she was the best. While Dave is my favourite personality on the show, he's probably the least experienced chef left. Because The Real Housewives of Orange County immediately follows Top Chef, I've gotten hooked on that too. There is something sickly addicting about watching a bunch of spoiled brats and their even more spoiled parents live their pathetic meaningless lives. It kind of makes me wonder if people who aren't born into money but become rich later in life will gradually turn into the shallow self-absorbed low lifes in this show. One of the women did come from more humble beginnings but she too was walkin' around with huge implants, bleach blond hair, and stupid ideas about what life problems are about. Even her mother was complaining about how she'd changed. After exhausting the good stuff on Tivo each day, I've been reading Cute, Quaint, Hungry, and Romantic: The Aesthetics of Consumerism. Great laugh out loud kinda read. Slightly pretentious use of language (learning those GRE vocab words a couple years back sure came in handy) but I'm finding that's what makes his writing so funny.

Stick It

So I saw the trailer for the MTV movie "Stick It" which is supposed to be the gymnastics version of "Bring It On." I'm not normally drawn to stupid teen comedies like that but I'll watch anything that has to do with gymnastics. Turns out there's a whole whack of real gymnasts in the movie including Carly Patterson, Bart Connor, and Elfie Schlegel. I tried to dig up the stunt doubles for the gymnasts to see if I know any of them but they aren't credited on IMDB for some reason. There's also a Canadian connection here. The lead is played by Missy Peregrym who was born in Montreal, raised in Surrey, BC (snicker snicker) and now lives in Vancouver. She's also 5'7" which is entirely unrealistic for a gymnast. I hate when they do that in movies. Be real already and cast a 5' midget like me. Vanessa Lengies, the co-star, was born in Montreal. At least she fits the bill at 5'2". Anyways, I have yet to see the movie. I can't wait.

blanks

I don't know why I'm filling this out but Dean and Sarah did. I'm going to be different and only do half of it because I'm lazy.

Finish the Sentence
I'm always: wondering what I should eat next
I love saying: my life sucks
I think flowers are: not permanent enough
My fav Beatles song is: Yesterday
My parents are: unaffectionate
I hate: bigots
I love: soft boiled eggs
I was born: a very long time ago
Sometimes I try too hard: to get things just perfect
I work well on things: when I don't have to work with a team of idiots
My childhood was: spent listening to ching chong taunts and ignorant questions about being Chinese
My school: has tiles missing from the ceiling and profs who make less than I did in the tech industry
I love to read books about: the experiences of Asian North Americans
I'm addicted to: being online
I drink too much: on the weekends when I'm not the driver
My earliest memory is: going to emergency after the window of our screen door slammed shut on my fingers
The last place I went on vacation was: Chicago
I think living far away from: sunshine, friends, and boyfriend is going to make me very depressed
I want to live closer to: Whistler
The President is: frighteningly dull
The Media: are what I research and analyze at school
Right now, I should be calling: Simon to see if he's lost money in Vegas
The glass is: too damn close to the edge of the table, move it to the center before it spills dammit
Kids can be: the devil's spawn
Kids were mean to me when they: poured something on the floor to watch me slip in the hallway my first week in junior high
Music companies are: too often the topic of undergrad papers I have to grade
I despise it when: ignorant people dismiss racism in the media by saying we can't take a joke
If I could go anywhere it would be: all over Europe, Asia, and Tahiti
I love to shop: in the bargain bin
Malls are a really fun place to: observe obnoxious teenagers making asses of themselves
I had fun when: I had a regular pay check that amounted to more than $400 and change

insomnia

I can never sleep when (1) I've had a nap (2) Simon's out of town. Last night I managed to satisfy both conditions. Simon's out at Interop in Vegas and I fell asleep at 9pm for about 1/2 an hour. By the time I dragged myself to bed, I was wide awake again. I really wanted to go for a bedtime of 11pm but after rolling around for an hour and a half I did the unthinkable. I turned on the lights, went downstairs and made a bowl of oatmeal. I never eat in the middle of the night. I thought that was just something people do on TV. But after trying to eat low carb all day just for the hell of it, I was craving carbs. After the oatmeal I had some whole wheat crackers and cream cheese. Brushed my teeth, went back to bed, and turned on the TV. I watched some special on American Pie and what's come of the careers of all its actors. By the time that was done, it must've been past 1:30 am. So much for going to bed early. I'll give it another shot tonight, maybe after a nice nightcap, and something to take care of these allergies that came with the beautiful weather.

day without an immigrant

Never a dull day in this country. Today is "Day Without An Immigrant" and there are rallies and marches taking place in many major cities here. I don't know how many immigrants walked out in Vegas, but if they did, I wonder how the hotels are doing. I wonder how the farms in California are doing. I wonder what people looking for construction help outside Home Depot are doing without the hired help. I wonder how many Americans realize the contribution of these people to our way of life in America. I hope they realize that today and support the plight of these immigrants. I'm sure it wasn't easy for them to walk out, lose a day's wages, and risk detainment to demonstrate that there needs to be immigration reform. Critics argue they should just go about immigration legally. What these folks don't realize is that the immigration process is not what it was 30+ years ago. It's a ridiculously long and near impossible process. For example, "Siblings of U.S. citizens from the Philippines currently wait a staggering 23 years."

And in your conversation about the events today, be conscious of how you refer to people.

youth hate crime

How is this not a hate crime? I don't get it. They're only getting charged with aggravated sexual assault. How about attempted murder?

HOUSTON -- A Hispanic boy who authorities said was viciously attacked and sodomized by two white teens shouting ethnic slurs also suffered cigarette burns on his back and numerous other injuries.
...
The attackers stomped on his head with steel-toed boots, poured bleach into a patio-umbrella pole and sodomized him with it, tried to carve something in his chest, and doused his body with bleach, investigators said.

Canada's dollar

Canadian dollar is stronger than ever. Since I live here, all that means is that I can buy less stuff when I visit home. But, still, hooray for Canada!

Bullet update part three: I called Target and they said I can return the whole thing even without the original packaging. We'll see if the person working there tomorrow is of the same opinion. We're gonna go for the exchange and give it another chance.

bullet update

So I got a bunch of comments/IMs/emails from friends who have been considering the Magic Bullet but didn't want to buy one until someone else recommended it. *hi Dan, I didn't know you still read this :) *

Well here's the update. On the weekend Simon put all the pieces in the dishwasher and threw out the box. Wasn't until yesterday that one of us found the time to try it. I wanted to make cheese cauliflower soup and thought it would be a quick way to grate the cheese. Well, I'm sad to report the damn blades didn't even turn. Not even one revolution. I'm sure it's due to my bad luck that we got a defective one. So now what? I found the receipt in my purse (Simon you're so lucky I always hang onto them for a few days) but we have no box for it anymore. So we need to (1) get someone else's box (2) try and return it to Target sans box. Pain in the ass. I also have a semi-functional desktop computer and PDA, a broken IR keyboard, and busted speaker in my car. Things that require a battery or power cord always break on me. I should just become ahmish.

private activities

I was in a class today and witnessed something horrifying. An older student sitting next to me took out a nail clipper and, yes, started to clip her finger nails right there during lecture. It's not even a big class. There were maybe 40 people there. The instructor talks really loud so she didn't hear it (or somehow managed to ignore her). But I was absolutely disgusted and traumatized....yes traumatized. Clipping your nails is a PRIVATE activity that you do, not only in your house, but in the bathroom. There is nothing more disgusting except maybe public nose picking, phlegm horking, or farting. So anyways, this woman was clipping away for a good 5 minutes leaving the clippings on a sheet of paper. I thought, okay well at least she's going to take that paper and dump all that nasty shit in the garbage can, but just as soon as she was finished she picked up the sheet and tossed her nail clippings on the floor next to her desk. Holy shit, I recoiled in horror and damn near went into convulsions when I saw her do that. You know how gross it is to see nail clippings on the floor all curvy crusty and yellowish? But that's not all. She decided to finish off her in-class public manicure by filing. I don't know about you but the sound of filing makes me cringe. In my mind the sound is closely related to chalkboard scratching and I had to resort to plugging my ears as discretely as possible. After the break, I could take it no longer and moved to a desk on the other side of the room.

homebody

Except for dinners out on Friday and Saturday night, I didn't go out this weekend. It was nice to get 11 and 9 hours of sleep because 8 just ain't cutting it lately. I really think I operate best on 10-11 hours of sleep. I spent Saturday morning on my thesis and then we hit the gym and ran some errands. With our ten percent off coupon, Simon managed to come home with two goodies from the As Seen on TV corner at Target - the The Magic Bullet and Smart Spin Stackable Containers. We'll see how these hold up. Right now our "set it and forget it" rotisserie has a broken hinge and our vaccuum sealer no longer vaccuums and seals.

That night our Entertainment Book coupons took us to Matsusono for all you can eat hot pot, grill, and sushi. The vent system was impressive. Unlike Hot Pot City, you don't come out of there smelling like your dinner and attracting all the neighbourhood's stray cats. They had prawns, sashimi, eel, huge oysters, kalbee, beef tongue, halo halo and all sorts of goodies. A very confused looking white couple came in and didn't eat anything except fruit for a good 20 minutes. I think they were waiting for someone to show them what the heck to do with the appliances on their table and a buffet of strange raw meats and seafoods. Unfortunately the people sitting in their line of sight was Simon and I and we happened to be sucking the brains out of about 20 prawn heads at the time. I'm sure that was more disgusting than helpful for them. After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed home, watched Cinderella Man, and then I spent the rest of the night on the can. Damn you Matsusono. If their restrooms were any indication, they probably need to tighten up on the sanitary issues there. Something was definitely not right and I shudder to think of what it might be that caused my "digestion problem."

Sunday we did a Top Chef marathon thanks to Tivo (could anyone be more in love with himself than Stephen the sommelier?) By afternoon I had recovered and we hit the gym again where I ran my 3.5 miles (42 minutes) which is a big deal for me being very much on the chunky side lately thanks to campus visits and too much restaurant eating. I totally could've done 4.5 but the place was closing. Next time. And now it's past my bedtime.

acknowledgments

Not to get ahead of myself, but the current draft of my thesis contains a big blank page on page V. That's where you're supposed to write your acknowledgments. This reminds me of high school when I had to think of something to write for the yearbook in grade 12. It seems so serious and...permanent. I'm really at a loss for words. I don't want it to sound like a bad Emmy acceptance speech. Can anyone direct me to some acknowledgments that are interesting, clever, maybe even witty and memorable? Or perhaps you can suggest your own in the comments here.

roomate postings

So I'm starting to browse roomate postings in Seattle again. Not because I really want to get into that situation (unless I can find someone just as anal about cleanliness as me and cool with my friends and bf visiting), but because the ads are so damn funny. The "we want a CHRISTian roomate" postings have lost their novelty but there are still many that crack me up. Some tidbits from one I just read and flagged for best of. That last bullet is very true of one person I know who was always insisting on QT (quality time) with her roomate which was totally not in the rent agreement!

- You have to not do drugs. Yes, this includes pot, just because it's easier to say "No Drugs Of Any Kind" than to say "Mayyyybe" and get a bunch of potheads explaining to me how they're "totally functional" and by the way can they pay in bud?
- You have to not be a LOUD drunk with LOUD drunk friends. You're welcome to come in a 2am blacked out and end up sleeping in the shower because you "can't find" your bedroom, as long as you don't do it loudly.
- You have to be relatively clean. I don't mean you need to walk around with Kleenex boxes on your feet, but don't leave your dishes in the sink the entire week, rinse your pubes out of the bathtub when you're done showering, etc. Your room can be a total sty (we'll just spray Frebreeze under the door or something)
- You have to be somewhat friendly....Yet please don't be annoyingly needy and like bang on closed bedroom doors because you're lonely.

WHAT WE'RE LIKE:
Jon: Modeled his personality during his formative years off David Spade and Chandler from "Friends." Works as a publisher downtown. Kinda metro but no-doubt likes the ladies. Can fix your computer, give deep-tissue massage, cook you dinner, recommend a good book, and beat up that drunk guy that followed you home.
Logan: Laid back homo. Thrives off of laptop, iPod, anime. Dead pan sarcasm. Likes beer and burgers. Frequents coffee shops to get work done. Enjoys the occasional bar; gay or straight. Gets along best with girls but can blend in with the boys. Insane crush on hugh jackman.

bake sale

I was headed to my meeting on campus today. There was live music at Malcolm X Plaza and tables set up all over the place for some sort of Multicultural AIDS Awareness day. It was a warm beautiful sunny day and I love it when there's live music on campus. As I got closer to the action I noticed the College Republicans club had a booth. I remember, they had some posters advertising their presence yesterday. They decided to be funny and host an "Illegal Immigrant Bake Sale" staffed by the privileged white boys in the club (and one very confused Asian kid). The ad read "legal immigrants $1.00, illegal immigrants - free." Ah, very funny. Free baked goods/free ride for illegal immigrants. I get it. I wanted to jump over the table and go apeshit on those Abercrombie wearing motherf*ckers but I noticed that there were many students peacefully holding up signs supporting immigration. They stood side by side quietly and effectively blocked the booth from plain view. The sight of those students demonstrating by standing in front of the Republican booth warmed my heart.

In other campus news, my school's president had 10 students suspended for protesting military recruitment on our campus. What kind of message is that sending?

I'm glad to see social activism alive and well here. I don't think I witnessed this much protest back at Simon Fraser. I definitely never saw the police called in to physically "mediate" conflicting groups like I have here on several occasions.

quake and grading

I don't have my meeting with my chair until tomorrow. I expect her to give me feedback that'll take me a solid week to address before the final version of my thesis goes out to my committee. So, until then, I'm going to sit here on my ass and do absolutely nothing so I can rest my grey matter. Right now I'm watching some History Channel special on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It's a really good one. Bit of trivia here for ya. The banks here in SF burned down to the ground and the money kept in fire proof vaults had to sit for days to cool off or they'd risk spontaneous combustion. But there was a one Bank of Italy owned by a guy named Giannini located in North Beach. He didn't have vaults like that so he took his horse and buggy and cleared the cash out of his bank (I guess before the whole building burned down around him). He covered up the money with oranges to thwart thieves and headed to his home in San Mateo (where I live!). He later brought the money back up to the city to set up loans for people and was clever enough to begin importing lumber from Oregon to start rebuilding San Francisco as well. It was said that, without him, San Francisco might not have gotten back up on her feet. His bank became what is now Bank of America.

In other news, one of my friends from school was grading papers in the lounge today. We were laughing about the quality of some of the stuff students turn in. We have our bad days too and sometimes what we turn in isn't publishable shit, but it certainly isn't this bad. The highlight in his pile of papers was a long run-on sentence constructed by stringing together a series of fragments, none of which made any sense on their own. But the winner by far was the student who spelled his own name wrong. We double checked. His name is definitely Jeff, not Jiff. There really should be trophies for this kinda thing. I suggested circling his name with a big red marker, but he chose not to embarrass the student any further. I totally would've done it.

Happy Easter

Down here in the US it's school/work as usual. No 4-day weekend for Easter like in Canada. Hope you have a good Easter (or Passover) anyways. Remember that bunnies are NOT good gifts and they usually end up being abandoned and sometimes having to be put down (or worse, set free in the wild) because people don't realize they're not really caged pets and not beginner pets for kids. They need to walk around like cats and can be trained to go in a litter box. They cannot live in a cage. That also means having some furniture/moulding chewed up. If you want to give someone an Easter gift, give chocolate instead. Here's a photo of my Bunny (now resting forever peacefully in my parents' backyard after living to age 8 last year) and a photo of a really really big 22 lb. giant continental rabbit. In comparison, my Bunny above was about 6 lbs.

10 best jobs

Check out this video talking about the 10 best jobs in America based on salary, opportunity for advancement, employee satisfaction and other stuff. #1 software engineer, #2 college professor.
I guess that means if I can actually find employment post-Phd, I'll be in a pretty good position. I'm mostly looking forward to long summer vacations, not the typical 2 weeks off a year.

damn you Canucks

I have seen more than half a dozen Canucks games. No, that's not a whole lot but in Vancouver they were really expensive and down here they don't play the Sharks that often. I have yet to see a winning game. I had to un-designate myself as driver to deal with this tonight. Damn you.

what a week

I turned in a draft of something that resembles a thesis today. Needless to say I'm brain dead. But tomorrow night I'm going to see the Canucks redeem themselves at the Shark tank. I'm designating myself driver so they had better win. I won't be able to drown my sorrows. I mean, dropping from 1st to not making it to play offs?? Okay, it's late, I'm tired, allergies are bugging me. I have nothing much else to say. Oh, except that I watched Wake Up, Ron Burgundy which is made up entirely of deleted scenes from Anchor Man. The plot is a little weak (obviously) but it's pretty twisted and definitely funny.

hot prof

I went to Google a prof at my school (Dina) to find her email address and stumbled upon this article about the benefits of being an attractive prof. It's an older article and not all that well written but it's kinda funny. My favourite part is this:

The good news is that looks are just one of many factors that affect student evaluations. In addition, the bar for beauty is probably low for academics (beautiful professors are about as rare as genius members of the World Wrestling Federation, says the University of Chicago's Mr. Kolb), so clearing it may be easier.

weekend

We did the unusual and went out on a Friday and not Saturday. We were planning to go celebrate a friend's birthday on Friday but he never returned calls and was obviously hiding from the inevitable because he had gotten completely sloshed on Thursday too. Oh well. We were already on the road so we did a little Polk Street barhop starting at Vertigo, home of cheap drinks. That night it was 16 oz. mango or raspberry margaritas for $5. We also got a "volcano" that feeds 5 for $18.50. the middle part has a bit of 151 which is lit on fire to look... well you know. The highlight was my friend Will (already quite drunk) snorting the last bit of 151 into his right nostril with a straw. We headed to the much talked about Grubsteak for late night eats after hitting R Bar (frat boy bar from hell, a little piece of the Marina (eeeew) transplanted on Polk and a place I will never ever go to again because I got unholy flashbacks from high school where I was one of few English speaking ethnic minorities among 2000 arrogant, ignorant, narcissistic white kids) and Blur after that. Apparently Will was throwing up (through his mouth I hope) until 2pm the next day.

Yesterday was productive. Had lunch, worked on my thesis at the library while a jack rabbit outside the window sat and stared at me for over an hour, good work out at the gym and the whole hot tub steam room routine, friend over for dinner and a movie. We watched Chronicles of Narnia which I thought was dreadfully boring. Actually I fell asleep and not just because of the 4 glasses of Manischewitz Wine. Watching only the evil characters die (with absolutely no bloodshed because it's Disney) and the "good" characters repeatedly triumph over evil with nary a scratch was gross and annoying. And the ending where they all get crowned king and queen and have a bunch of talking animals bowing down to them was too much cheese for me to handle. Sorry for the spoiler but who fucking cares, it was such a lame movie. I don't know. Is this the kind of fantasy that goes through the minds of stupid kids?

Update: I didn't realize Will already posted a blog about Friday. His is better (though weirdly reads a lot like mine) and has photos of the now infamous 151 snorting. His memory of the evening is blurry though. I did not dare Simon to drink the middle of the volcano. That would mean consequences for me, like carrying him upstairs. I'm sure one of us dared Shannph or Will and Will being Will took the offer.

my ghetto dinner

Last night was a Toastmasters night which means that I get home at 9:30 (or later if we go out for drinks afterwards) and Simon works late and goes out with friends for dinner. But since I'm chained to this stupid computer working on my thesis, no post Toasties drinking and eating for me. So I had THE most ghetto dinner ever. I just got back in town Sunday night so there are no groceries and I hate grocery shopping so I rummaged around for anything edible to eat before I headed to my meeting. And what I came up with was a can of Spaghettios. Okay, so it wasn't actually even Spaghettios. That would be too classy. It was more like Target generic brand cheesey tomato O-shaped pasta and the price was still on the can. Yup it was a little something I must've picked up from the bargain shelf to store for emergencies (like not having any food in the house) and the label read $0.47. I had a forty-seven cent dinner. Beat that!

I think Simon found that kind of pathetic so he came home tonight with pork tenderloin, salad, sharp cheddar, fresh sourdough, and wine. He's cookin' as I type this. Now the wine he got isn't any old wine. It's Manischewitz Wine. He didn't know what the hell it was but apparently it's Passover and there's all this Jewish stuff on sale at Safeway so he picked up a bottle. We got the one with Concord grapes and it is TASTY. Not only is it tastier than some fruity wine cooler, it has twice as much alcohol (11%). Hell yeah. Grape juice that gets you ripped for $3.50! I gotta stock up!

May 9th

That's the day I need to defend my thesis. I learned that defence is spelled defense in America. I'm having a really hard time writing today. I've eaten half a Cadbury Bar and had two cups of instant coffee (those International Coffees from a tin...my coffee maker is stored away somewhere due to lack of use but I am longing for it now). There are a few things that would make this next month a lot easier for me:

1. personal assistant to do laundry, cook, and clean
2. not requiring a minimum of 9 hours sleep (any less and I can't navigate my apartment without walking into walls)
3. not having to work (tutoring is really draining, especially with students under age 12)
4. having lots and lots of Ritalin readily available over the counter and free (for me, not my students... okay maybe for them too)

I read an article that more and more kids are diagnosed as ADHD simply because kids don't get enough exercise so they're all pent up and can't concentrate. The article said that some kids are getting off their meds by incorporating more exercise into their lives which helps them focus. Seems to make sense. I did really well in school as a child probably because I spent all my off hours scaling large trees, jumping off my sundeck (and almost breaking my arm), and generally running all over the damn neighbourhood until I was a big sweaty mess. Since I don't have a ready supply of Ritalin to help me get this fucking thesis written any faster, I decided to submit to the torture that is cardio kickboxing led by an instructor who is really genuinely fit (and not just fit to stand there and call out instructions.) Now my ass hurts, my abs hurt, and my arms hurt, and I STILL can't concentrate. What the hell is going on here.

Commonwealth Games

So Canadians living in the US will have no idea that the Commonwealth Games even took place because pigs will fly before American networks will think to broadcast the event. So it turns out we came in third in the medal standings after Australia and England. If you wanna see the details, or are just curious as to which countries make up the commonwealth, click here.

dotted line

I signed on it today. I've officially accepted my offer at a particular university, and just finished sending emails to York (Toronto), UC Irvine, and UI Urbana Champaign to decline their offers. I was on wait list for NYU but I'm not going to wait to see if I get on as a second round pick because the offer won't likely come with funding if I'm not a first round pick. School starts in late September so for now I need to focus on...graduating %$@ and will likely spend my summer working at Simon's company helping out with some marketing and what not. Since my assistantship is only 9 months per year and I won't likely get a teaching gig over the summer of my first year, I hope to come back here to do independent study, which means probably vacating whatever apartment I'll be inhabiting for my first 9 months in Seattle. I decided I'm going to have all inflatable and/or disposable furniture to make my move easier. I think that'd be kinda funny don't you?

OK, gotta get back to work. My acceptance is, of course, conditional upon my graduation with a MA which requires not spending all my time blogging.

Vancouver

So now that I'm out of that hotel and any weirdos reading this cannot come to stalk me, I'll reveal that the place I stayed at the last few days was the Travelodge. What a DUMP. I will never stay at at a Travelodge again if I can afford not to. My minimum requirement is no dark nasty stains on stuff like lampshades and chairs. Thank goodness for the nice leather seats, fireplace, flat screen TV, and free Wifi at the QFC grocery store in the U-District or I would've had to spend my evening hours at that Travelodge trying not to touch anything. Ugh.

Anyways, yesterday Jane and Joe came all the way down from Vancouver to pick me up. I took them on a campus tour and then we headed downtown to do some shopping. I took them out for seafood at Elliots Oyster House at Pike Place Market and then we made the long haul back to Vancouver stopping only for a flat of beer at the Duty Free. Apparently a $17 flat at Duty Free costs about $40 in Canada because of our liquor taxes. I've almost forgotten about that since we get our liquor ghetto style from the bargain bin at Albertsons.

I'm home now catching up on email and hoping to get some work done and will head back out in a couple hours to meet my friends new baby nephew, go for dinner in Yaletown and drinks at a lounge down there somewhere. And dammit I brought the rain back to Vancouver (again).

UW

I'm writing this from the little Seattle's Best Coffee place inside a QFC (grocery store) in UW's university district. I just finished the second day of my two day campus visit and I am wiped the hell out. I have not been able to dig up dirt from the current grad students except that it might be hard to pay rent with a 9 month assistantship if I have to pay 12 months rent. Solution: find summer work or, as I had planned, get a 9 month lease and spend at least the first summer back in SF doing independent study credits. Not so bad. The rain has stayed away since I arrived and for that I'm grateful. In fact, it's been really warm out in the day and there was almost blue sky. So I'm staying in this dump ass motel (brand name but still not so good). But it was cheap ($64 a night) and walking distance to campus. What the map doesn't tell you is that the walk is up a hill called Pend O'Reille that is sure to build me some serious buns of steel. Hiking up it with a backpack full of pamphlets, water, and a camcorder is even harder. The campus here is gorgeous. Comparing it to SFSU is like comparing the Hollywood hills to government project homes. California really needs to work on funding education man. The 10-week quarter system will be a bitch but it'll make shitty classes go by faster.

Anyways, more on this dump ass motel. There are goddamn stains on the inside of the lampshade that look like coffee, I think, I hope. There's no soap dish or shelf in the shower, there's no lotion or conditioner, the heater is deafening as is the street traffic, and the seats of both chairs are badly stained. Ew. I have put towels on both chairs because they are frightening me. Last night I listened as my neighbour on one side watched TV. After they were done, my neighbour on the other side watched TV until late in the night. That same neighbour woke up at 6am and I could hear their water running through the pipes. I think my few years of business travel spoiled me. I can't handle a two star inn and there's no way in hell I can handle a hostel I can tell you that now. Another prospective student stayed at the College Inn where the bathrooms are shared. She said the dent in the middle of the mattress was so deep she had to sleep on the bed sideways. I thought that was pretty funny.

Alright, time to think about finding some food to eat. Can't wait to get back to Vancouver and eating something other than catered sandwiches (not that I'm complaining about free food).

procrastination routine

I realized that my style of procrastination is rather formulaic and predictable and, for the most part, it involves doing various online stuff. Before I begin any major paper or work of any sort that I find difficult or boring or both, I do the following (not always in this order):

- check my email
- approve or reject comments made on my blog
- read MyYahoo page and click to read the interesting news items
- check my Google Adsense account
- look at my sitemeter stats
- look for stuff on Craigslist (e.g. free stuff or I help friends if they're looking for something)
- read other people's blogs and occasionally leave comments
- post a blog entry

If that's not enough to get me awake and warmed up, I also do a load of laundry and tidy up the apartment. This is an incredibly lengthy process that takes time away from my work but I just can't help it. So tell me, what is your procrastination routine?

printer review

So my trusty Canon S600 finally printed its last page. I got it online back in 2000 and it printed out page after page in brilliant colour. Once in a while it would feed two sheets instead of one, but for the most part it did its job well. Aftermarket cartridges were $6-7 (cheaper, I just found out, if you get 'em on eBay). Five and a half years of service. I'd say that's pretty good. The other day I decided to buy an older S450 off Craigslist so I could use up the remainder of my ink cartridges. The thing was $15 so I figured it couldn't hurt to try. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I emailed the seller and he was honest enough to PayPal my $15 back. Honesty is certainly what makes that site work.

So I thought I would share some research gathered the last few days by scouring Amazon and Epinions. Generally, HP printers are really high quality, really fast, but when you need to change the ink, with most models, you need to also replace the print head. Sooooo that means it's damn expensive to have an HP. There are no aftermarket cartridges for many models too. The Epsons are cheaper and also print really sharp images. There are cheap aftermarket cartridges for most of them but the complaint for many of the Epsons is that they don't use ink efficiently and the ink clogs up the head and you have to buy a new one or spend money fixing it. Apparently they don't last more than about a year. From my own experience and from reading hundreds of reviews, the Canons are generally the best bang for the buck. Super cheap cartridges ($2-3 on eBay, aftermarket), good quality printing, maybe not as fast as HP but good enough. Oh and they work for years. So I got this Canon IP4000 it's going for about $200 used on Amazon but......I found it on Craigslist from a fellow who lives five minutes down the road for only $35. His wife wanted to stick to HP (extreme brand loyalty). It had been sitting in his garage so I couldn't do a test print so the guy let me take it home without paying for it. I've tested it and it's AWESOME. Fast, sharp, and quiet. I'm going to meet up with him Saturday to hand over the cash and pick up some more cartridges he's throwing in free. I love it when people sell stuff and don't care if they're losing money on it.

BC ferry

Holy cow, one of those big huge BC Ferries sunk. Despite being a decent swimmer, I hate open waters. I don't like to be too far from shore, even with a life jacket and a jet ski. However, I did always feel safe on BC Ferries. They are huge. You drive your car onboard and there are over a hundred cars on the bottom floor and all the folks get out of their cars and hang out upstairs where there's a cafeteria and arcade and lots of seating. We used to take them over to Victoria or Cowichan or wherever we were going. I loved taking the ferry because the clam chowder is tasty and it was beautiful to look out at the water in the day time. But I'm not so sure I feel comfortable getting on one of those ferries again.

In other news, there was an earthquake here yesterday. I was at school in the basement of the creative arts building with my laptop when a friend IM'd me asking "did you feel that?" That reminded me of the time I was working in SFin 2001 and that Seattle earthquake hit. My geographically challenged father emailed me to ask if I felt that because it easily shook homes in Vancouver. Anyways, the one here yesterday was in the eastbay and though I was closer to it, I didn't feel it. Two friends working from San Mateo felt a good shake though. I like little shakes, they make me feel like the earth is just stretching so that it doesn't have to pitch a big fit all at once.

Simon's 30th

Simon celebrated his 30th this weekend. I booked a dinner at Schnitzel Haus just because it was something different and it was really well rated on Citysearch. It was a big hit (just like Mochica was last year). You can order beer in a gigantic boot that you're supposed to pass around the table. It got a little nasty with all that grease and lip gloss collecting on the rim but ah well. After dinner we went to Eight Club for a party called Ghetto Disco that didn't really get off the ground. We left and went to the trusty Voda Lounge and discovered upon arrival that they no longer allow drinking outside in Belden Lane where they used to put out benches and tables for the patrons. Darn it. They did, however, have a new pole for customers to try out their pole dancing skills. But we quickly got restless and walked a couple blocks to EZ-5, a little lounge on the edge of Chinatown. I'll spare you the details but let's just say that the garbage bag Simon was carrying in his pocket in case of emergency went to good use. In fact, he also used the bag that Denny (the other passenger in my car) was carrying in case of emergency. The owners at EZ-5 were so impressed with our preparation that they thanked us and loaded us up with bottles of water, napkins, and more garbage bags before we left. With that, we bid farewell.

Beer from a boot

The most delicious schnitzel ever

In America, a gift that comes in a Safeway bag is bound to be liquor. In this case, a 12-year-old Glenlivet

You've seen Zoolander right?

I will spare you the puking photos but let it be known that these two were the pukers. Man it must suck to work at a restaurant at 2am 'cause you have to serve people like us.

shared housing

While I'm nowhere near ready to be moving away just yet, I can't help but browse Craigslist Seattle to see what the housing is like up there. Since I plan only to stick around for the school year and spend my summers in the Bay Area, I figured it would be worthwhile to check out shared housing. Now I did that when I first moved down here and it wasn't the best experience in the world. My housemate, we'll call her Viv, was a nice girl. She was, however, a complete nympho. Every weekend morning I'd wake up and see a different man walking around the house despite the fact that she supposedly had a steady boyfriend. Viv shared a room (don't ask me how that worked) with another girl we'll call Martha. Martha was a tempermental self-absorbed arrogant yet emotionally unstable bitch. Martha, age 24, was also madly in love with a heavily bearded middle age man with a wife and kids. She was planning to move away to Texas to stalk him. Viv and I helped her get a headstart on that fantasy by kicking her ass out because we couldn't stand her. That was a glorious day.

After Martha, came a 21-year-old we'll call Rena. Rena seemed sane and pleasant enough. That is, until she came home wearing Viv's clothes, a brand new sweater no less. After a stern talking to, Viv continued to use our lotions and nail polish and one day Viv, who arranged her closet by clothing type, sleeve length and colour, discovered her clothes randomly jammed in her closet. Rena the chronic clothes borrower was at it again. Luckily, she didn't fit into my stuff. What pissed me off about her was that she managed to get food on the damn wall when she was cooking and left it for us to clean up. I could take it no more. I moved into a 1 bedroom by myself in the slums of South San Francisco. I preferred that to shared housing. But, still, I have friends with roomates and it seems to work for them, so I've been looking... you know just out of curiosity. Here are some snippets from shared housing posts I've seen recently (my comments in italics):

We are a CHRISTians who go to a AWSOME church and like to go on missions and crusades and street evangelism and are looking for a couple of CHRISTians who actually WALK the WALK and just don't talk the talk! (Oh my CHRIST, you have no idea how quickly I would turn and run from this place. What is with Christians wanting to live with other Christians? Do you ever see a post like that coming from a Buddhist? Jesus.)

I'm a guy living with a chickfriend. We are both from Eastern WA and figured, "Hey, let's pool our resources in the big city." So we moved in together last July. Soon after that she found a boyfriend and practically moved out. Which was cool for a while but now she is engaged and pregnant. Soooo, I said I would look for a new roommate so she no longer has to pay for an apartment she doesn't live in. Babies are so expensive. They are getting married this April Fools Day (no kidding). (OK, that was just a funny post. Poor guy)

Apartment has Comcast cable internet with wireless router so that I can support my World of Warcraft addiction. (Uh, do you bathe when you're feeding this addiction?)

All the bottled water you can drink from the 3rd deepest aquifer in the U.S. (WTF are you talking about?)

Current residents are 3 men and 2 women, ages 35-75. (I'm sorry, did you say 75? Aren't most people over, I dunno 50, sick of the whole shared housing thing? Do household chores include taking care of the 75-year-old?)

Bill and GNA (pronouced Gina) are looking for a female over 25 to live in domestic bliss (i.e. good communication and conflict resolution skills)with us. (I cannot live with people who speak of themselves in third-person and capitalize all the letters in their name, letters that make no phonetic sense. And "domestic bliss"? Is that a code word for swinger? Yikes.)

Must like cats (I have 3) (Three cats. That's three too many)

A must is that you are a very clean person and actually like to clean. If you know you aren't or are hoping to adjust, then this will not be a good fit for you. (Actually this is something that I would write)

RIP Lucky hamster

Today Simon got a call from a coworker who went into his cube to feed Lucky, his office hamster. He said Lucky had either passed away or had fallen into an extremely deep sleep. Rest in peace dear friend. Lucky was born in May 2004 and was given a second chance at life. A coworker's cat had come home to show off a prize. She walked into the house and spat out a tiny rodent. It was a baby and its eyes had probably just opened that week. Ruslan scooped up the baby and realized that it was a hamster and not a mouse (no tail). Not sure how a hamster ends up in reach of an outdoor cat but it did. Simon adopted the baby as his office pet and named her Lucky for obvious reasons. Despite traumatic beginnings she was very tame. Here are some photos taken of her the week we got her. Her eyes aren't really that red (only when we used flash).

So the big question is, who in the office is going to take care of burying the body? He's not back in the office until Monday and these things sorta can't wait.

alone

It feels weird when Simon's out of town. Kinda like a preview of what's to come of my life when I move away for school (lookin' like 90% chance I'll be going UW in Seattle, more about that below). I don't talk to anyone all day except my hamsters. I dropped a brazil nut on my hamster's head today by accident. Good thing those little critters are agile 'cause brazil nuts are huge. Talking to my students when I tutor is not the same because they're not adults. The 17-year-old comes close but, still, most of the dialog is instructional.

I had a break between sessions today so I decided to grab some dinner instead of waiting until 9pm to eat like usual. I headed to Tapioca Express to get a bento and milk tea and sat alone with a Chinese magazine that I couldn't read. I like to look at the pictures to see what hair styles look good on Asian hair and giggle at their occasional attempts to insert English copy. Eating out alone feels like I'm on business travel. I feel sort of mysterious because most people looking at me probably think I look too young to be on business travel and wonder then why I might be eating alone. My favourite place to dine by my lonesome is at sushi bars where I can watch the sushi chefs work and eavesdrop on random conversations.

Anyways, I'm on a wait list for NYU and have only to hear from York in Toronto. The other two schools I visited are not high on my list for various reasons. But UW is just looking like a real good offer and the emails I've exchanged with faculty and students have so far emitted a rather positive vibe. I'll also be getting better health care than I currently have and also dental and vision (and boy do I need to get my eyes and teeth checked...I'm loooong overdue). Flights back to SF are often on sale for $129 and it only takes 2 hours to fly here or 2 hours to drive to Vancouver. But still, this change is going to be hard.

procrastinating

I have a major project to do. My master's thesis which has been in the works for a couple semesters now mostly because I had too much going on, partly because I'm easily distracted with other personal projects. Today I decided to waste time by learning about all the neighbourhoods in Seattle and mapping their distance to the UW campus. After that, I started doing calculations of whether it's better to rent or own, given that there is some cheap real estate there (though I realize I have a very distorted idea of what a good deal is after living in the Bay Area in a rented 2/1 35-year-old shack that costs over a half million bucks). Anyways, I'm not done with that and I'm sure I'll waste more time on it now that I've discovered zillow.com. My final time waster of the day was this web page I just wrote and added Google ads to. Yes it's my not-so-quick-and-dirty guide to applying to grad school. I had to put that new found knowledge somewhere. Please enjoy (and give those ads some lovin')

kinda chilly

After traveling to Chicago where -2 C feels like -10 with the windchill, I'm handling the unseasonably cold weather here quite well. There was actually a dusting of snow in Sausalito over the weekend that caused two deaths as 28 cars piled atop each other on the 101 heading south toward the Golden Gate Bridge. Apparently it was raining one second and snowey and slick the next. That's pretty crazy.

What sucks for me is that there is no damn heat in our place right now. All sorts of shit fell apart over the Christmas holidays, e.g. our furnace breaking down and then our screen door ripping right off its hinges in a wind/rainstorm. Our landlord birthed twins around this time and we haven't really bugged her to get this stuff fixed because a screen door serves little purpose and we don't usually need heat in Foster City. But, damn, it's getting a little chilly in the mornings which makes it even tougher to crawl out of bed. I think it's time for a friendly reminder before my hamsters' heartrates slow and they slip into hibernation/coma. Meanwhile in Toronto it's really warm. I tell you it's the coming of the apocalypse.

OK gotta make dinner for one (Simon's in TO) and watch 24 on Tivo. BTW, did you know you can stream music from Tivo now? Pretty awesome.

back from Irvine

Three campus visits in a month is going to kill me. If not because of the time spent sitting on a plane, then because I make extremely poor food choices when I travel (especially if it's not on my tab). Ugh, my one work out this week didn't fix those. My visit to UC Irvine was great. The professors there are really nice and the vibe was so very positive. But being a public school, any of the UCs is not going to give me the funding I'm going to need to make ends meet as an international student (they can't waive non-resident tuition for more than the first year of study). But I also decided that despite my interests in people (first) and media (second), anthro is too far removed from communication theory, something I've spent way too many years studying to just abandon. So I spent the trip just being a good listener and letting the other prospective students ask all their questions. Irvine was strangely like Foster City but perhaps even more dull, I mean suburban. Everything is sooo spread out with alternating apartment complexes, office buildings, and strip malls. Here's a photo I took on campus.

pretty reflection captured on the window of a building at UC Irvine

I had nothing to do on Saturday afternoon so I went to Fashion Island to go shopping for a couple bday gifts. The outdoor shopping center was in Newport Beach. People here are stinking rich and all have small dogs who wear clothing that quite likely costs more than anything in my wardrobe. They also look strangely alike. Many many white women with really ridiculously dark tans, overly bleached blond hair, big boobs, and lots of make up and lip gloss... and there's something else. The skin on their faces is pulled unnaturally taut. Being there was really kinda spooky and surreal. I was pretty happy to get out of there and over to Orange County Airport to continue my people watching where the ladies didn't all look like clones.

view of the ocean from the entrance to Fashion Island shopping center in Newport Beach, CA

another view of Chi

So upon returning to Chicago, Dean, my presentation buddy from my school, and I parted ways and he had quite an adventure with a bunch of people he met through friends of friends. The JA connection is quite something, I tell ya. You gotta read about his weekend. Oh and there's pics of me presenting at the conference too.

Man my day was dramatic. I had one crying student in my writing lab and soon after that, the crazy union bitch who yelled at me last year came back. She didn't remember who I was and tried to get me to sign up for the union again. I politely said "no thanks" while she sat down and made herself comfortable. She replies, "Well, why not?" I'm thinking 'cause you already take a chunk out of my paycheck, I haven't benefitted in any way yet from this unionization thing, I'm out of here in a few months, and I'm too selfish to care, pay for, or fight for someone else's battle. But I replied, "I just don't want to and don't want to discuss it." She comes back with, "I don't understand why you wouldn't. Is there a reason why you're not signing up? There's no reason why you shouldn't." This time she refrained from yelling at me and left with a "fine." Good thing I got her out of the room in record time before I reached out and wrung her neck.

Anyways, it's time for me to pack up again. Going to Irvine tomorrow for a campus visit. The grad students there are taking us out for breakfast at Newport beach. Woohoo. I'm loving this VIP treatment from prospective schools. Somewhere in between I really need to be writing my damn thesis. Blog friends, sorry I haven't been commenting. I confess I've barely been reading but I'm dying to catch up once things settle down!

Chicago visit

Here, finally, are photos from our trip last week. I went to the APAGSO conference to present a paper while Simon made a visit to a datacenter. We managed to do some sightseeing and eating before and after I made the 3 hour trek down to Urbana-Champaign for the conference and campus visit. It was great to be able to walk to all the major sites in the city but it was hovering around -1 C plus windchill. You don't actually feel a lot of wind but trust me, something was making it feel a hell of a lot colder than -1. I had leggings on under my jeans and five layers of shirts on top. We had to buy touques (what the hell do you call those in American, wooly hats?) and mits and ear muffs. I think I'm definitely more of a west coast kinda gal.

Dinner our first night in Chicago at a Brazilian Churrascaria, i.e. all you can eat meat

Next morning I headed down to UI Urbana Champaign for the APAGSO Conference where it was "Unofficial St. Paddy's Day" AKA day that students go to classes drunk at 9am

After day 1 of the conference we went out for drinks in Urbana. Here's me with Dean, my panel respondent and fellow SF State grad student (Ethnic Studies) and Ryan on my left, University of Chicago (History)

The night I got back the first thing we did was grab some deep dish pizza at Lou Malnati's

The crust is buttery and flaky like pie crust

This is Wells Street at night. We did a self guided midnight walking tour of the city in freezing temperatures. Good thing we found the South Loop Bar at the end of it for a drink.

Sunday was all about sight seeing. Here we are at Millennium Park checking out the kidney shaped reflective structures

Here I am at Millennium Park in front of the huge fountain that displays the faces of folks from Chicago. It's kinda creepy.

This is Michigan Avenue, the main drag. Architecture here is crazy!


And the only souvenir we brought back. It's a doormat in case you can't tell.

ORD

I'm writing this from Chicago O'Hare where my plane home is delayed 2 hours because it snowed today. It wasn't sticking but there was a good layer of slush on the ground and probably enough to mess up the flight schedules. The guy sitting across from me is reading Voltaire's Candide and is holding up the book to make sure everyone can see what he's reading. I dunno but if that doesn't scream of "I'm trying so hard to pick up chicks it hurts" then I'm not sure what does. Another guy sitting next to him saw the Canada patch on my backpack looked up and told us that he and his wife used to put Canada patches on all their luggage for international travel and it got them through airports a lot faster. I thought that was kinda funny.

I can't write too much more because I'm hogging the laptop but it was a good trip both through Chicago and Urbana-Champaign and I'll write more and post photos when I get home.

customer service etc

So I'm simulataneously grading student work, reheating food, watching the rain pour down outside, and sitting here listening to Blue Cross's awful fucking hold music borrowed from an elevator somewhere back in the 1970s. My estimated wait time to speak with a representative is 30 minutes. How is that acceptable? How can you even call that service? And the other thing that pisses me off is that when I dial the number, I have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get put into the queue. Push 1 for member services, enter my date of birth, my policy number, push zero to talk to a breathing human being. After half the day passes and someone finally answers the phone, s/he asks me for the same damn information. Shouldn't all that crap just pop onto her screen or something? What was the point of my entering a gerjillion digits into my phone to begin with? Argh, anyways, that call is done now. I've confirmed that they canceled one of my insurance plans (even though they sent me all this mail about how my premium would go up by $40 as a reward for turning 30, asses).

Anyways, I was chatting with Egan the other day on IM. He got on my list after sending a sympathetic IM in response to my post about all the hate mail I was getting for trying to get Spencer Gifts to pull their shirts with the racist Asian caricature. I got to asking him who on his blogroll he actually knows in real life (IRL). I don't converse in real time, online or off, with any other bloggers I don't know IRL. More than 3/4 of my blogroll are strangers IRL but we read each others blogs regularly. So I'm curious, have you ever met up with someone IRL, after knowing him/her only from reading his/her blogs? If so, how many times have you done this? Was s/he what you expected based on reading his/her blogs? Was it weird?

** addition to this post **

Would YOUR blog accurately reflect you IRL? For me, I use this as a space to unload all my bitching and complaining. You know, stuff that people don't like to listen to but, for some reason, is funny when read rather than heard. So IRL, I'm really not this negative and hostile. Okay, well I am a little. Most of you get it, but from reading some comments ("oh the world's not so bad Vanessa bla bla bla") from a couple people who don't know me well, I've learned that not all of you realize I'm being sarcastic/facetious. I think a blog that looks at the world through rose coloured glasses is boring and, for me, induces a violent fit of projectile vomiting.

media and food weekend

With Simon just back from business in Vegas (which typically demands late nights of drinking and gambling after the conferences in the day), we decided to stay in all weekend. Friday, after I picked him up from Oakland International (the airport from hell that requires a drive on the 880, the highway from hell), we grabbed some Thai food and went home to watch Primer which was awesome. It was a Sundance winner and was made on a $7K budget but had a great plot, decent acting and was generally fun to watch. It required a lot of thinking and later we read online that most people watched it a couple times with notebook in hand to keep track of what was going on. It was about time travel and I won't say anything more or I'll spoil it.

Saturday was carwash and gym/steamroom/jacuzzi day. It was also the day our beloved Tivo got upgraded from 40 hours to 224 hours of recording time. Hell yeah! That night we had a friend over for raw oysters, duck, and homemade chicken soup and then watched another movie while the friend took off for the Marina for drinks. I had to be coerced to watch Jarhead because I hadn't heard of it (not a big movie goer normally) and Simon tends to love watching stuff that is usually black & white and has any or all of the following: tanks, machine guns, grenades, helicopters, fighter planes, people in military uniforms shooting each other, bloodshed and suffering. When I heard war, I went and made myself a couple drinks to help pass the time but it turned out to be a great movie. Funny (the last thing I expected), irreverent, and well-paced.

Tonight I used the Macaroni Grill gift certificates I got from facilitating a workshop for Girls for a Change last month (great organization and super alternative to Girl Scouts, that's for damn sure). Starters were okay, caesar salad was not cold enough, lobster ravioli was not hot enough, penne was good. Overall not that memorable. Gonna try and squeeze in another indie film I borrowed from the library now so much for getting to bed early.

Yay gold

Belated congrats to the Canadian women for hockey gold. Too bad we were too excited about the men's game to pay attention (it seems) and all for nothing. *sniff sniff*

But another big one today was gold in curling. Kids in Newfoundland even had the day off school to watch! How cool is that. I watched the game but I had no idea what was going on except there was a lot of shouting and you're supposed to get your rock in the middle of those circles. I think. I have no clue how you figure out the points.

annoying office people

I haven't worked an office job in a few years so it's funny to hear about weirdos at work from my friend. I have to share this IM conversation I just had with her:

friend: that stupid ghetto chick that sits behind me is annoying me
friend: this is her phone conversation "yo, she's got the hookup for the hookup, so just call her and tell her i sez to call her because she can hook you up"
me: OMG this person has an office job?
friend: YES, accountant. cannot wait til she leaves
friend: "you better get on your girls over here, ya know"
friend: i have NO clue what she's saying sometimes
me: oh i know what you mean
friend: "i sez to her to get on her girls..you my doggy"
friend: wtf? and did i tell you she sings the Mickey Mouse song to herself?

Sometimes you can't even make this stuff up.

I have to admit when I first moved here, I wasn't accustomed to this nasal lazy-sounding San Jose drawl that some of the teenagers here speak with. And, no, it was not an accent. It came from kids of different races who seemed to speak English as their master language. I'd go up to a fast food counter and have no idea whatsoever what the person was saying and they'd get all pissed off when I had to ask them to repeat themselves.

Irvine

Thanks to all my blog friends out there for the birthday well wishes! After a week of being 03, nothing has fallen apart yet. I've got some more pictures up on my Flickr, which I just started using because everyone else seems to love it. Pics of Simon trying to take apart the wireless mouse packaging are in there and so is a photo of us liquor shopping ghetto style. I figure I will put up my publicly viewable photos there and keep the ones of my friends passed out, throwing up, and engaging in borderline illegal activites in my Kodak Gallery. You also have to check out Cute Overload. Oh my, if you love any sort of animal you will love that site.

So I got word that I've been accepted to UC Irvine's Phd program in social cultural anthropology which means free trip to Irvine in a couple weeks. Yahoo, more free shit!! I'm pretty excited about this one because a couple of the profs there were really responsive and just seemed darned interesting and supportive. Good vibes count you know. It's going to be a nerve wracking couple of months as I wait to hear back from all the other schools. I still have between May and I guess September to work as I'll have my post completion practical training visa which lets me work up to a year after graduating. College teaching gigs would be ideal but seem really hard to come by. If anyone hears of anything in Asian American studies, mass communication, or cultural studies, please let me know.

raw food

So I decided to test out a raw food diet at least for dinner tonight. People into the raw food diet thing claim all sorts of things, it clears the skin, reduces cholestrerol, makes you live longer etc etc. OK the real reason I tried it tonight is because Simon is away and I'm too lazy to cook and I need to lose the pounds I gained between Valentines and my birthday. After eating this huge stalk of broccoli which I dipped into a yogurt dip I made (fat free yogurt, honey, mustard, dijon mustard), I started working on some nuts for protein. Verdict: I cannot do this on any sort of regular basis. My entire skull hurts from chewing. Raw food is just damn crunchy. How the hell do they do it?

good day sunshine

Sun and warm weather always makes a day better. Strange how it hovers above freezing at night and then warms up to t-shirt weather in the day. I got word that UI Urbana-Champaign is going to reimburse me up to $100 in travel expenses for the conference I'm going to next week (I'm scheduled for 10am or something on Saturday). Woohoo, free money is always good money. I can't wait to give my first conference presentation and see Chicago for the first time. I have only Sunday to see the sites so what should I be shortlisting? The only things I have on my list so far are to eat deep dish pizza and check out the architecture so I need some must-see suggestions here.

I finally got the hang of Tivo'ing the Olympics. Man it's a pain. It records 7 hours of competition which I have to fast forward through to get to the good stuff (hockey). 3 Canucks are on the Swedish team so I watched that. Unfortunately, our guy Ohlund hurt his shoulder and ribs. Now I'm watching Canada v. Russia. I don't have a good feeling about this one. Our goalie had a stiff leg and we haven't scored in two games. Oh yeah, and I hate it when the camera person focuses on someone in the crowd. If it's not someone with a huge sign or making an ass of him/herself, it's ALWAYS some young blond chick. And I always secretly hope that the woman doesn't know she's on TV and picks her nose. That would be sweet.

fixing stuff

So after the mystery of the server error on my blog comments, followed by the disappearing birthday blog post, something finally got fixed for once. Well, not fixed but worked around. My trusty Canon S600 which I've had since I moved here 5 years ago stopped printing in black ink last week. Printing anything in color no problem, print test page, no problem, printing a simple Word Doc....problem. Being a firm believer in fixing stuff myself I Googled and found http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/inkjet/16844 and there was almost too much advice there to follow. I replaced the cartridge, held the power button down for ages, deep cleaned a million times, cleaned the printer head, uninstalled and reinstalled the driver, shut down and restarted the computer... still nothing. I was able to print if I set the black to 80% instead of full black (another suggestion on that forum) but then you get dark grey and not black. Finally at the bottom of that forum, someone suggested changing the paper to photo paper pro instead of plain paper. All of a sudden angels began to sing and a light shone down from heaven as a full page of black text magically pumped out of my little inkjet printer. What would we do without the Internet? Now my shoebox full of about $50 in ink cartridges will not go to waste.

the abyss

Somehow the post from my birthday on Friday disappeared into the abyss. That's probably why the commenting feature wasn't working for that post. Now the whole post is gone and I didn't delete it. Told ya bad/weird shit like that happens on my birthday. Oh well, it was all just bitching and complaining anyways. Why don't I post up a few photos from that evening instead. We had dinner at Turtle Bay near my house to celebrate my turning 03. The seabass and fresh oysters were awesome and the live jazz was nice too. The owner came over to the table to say hello and by the end of dinner the restaurant regulars and staff were dancing, some on top of the bar. All of them were older than us by at least 20 years. It was an impressive sight to see.

After dinner, Simon and Shannph headed to Safeway to get some warm up drinks to do what they call car bar. Yes drinking in a parked car is totally ghetto and something you do when you're 19 but now we're 30-something and not rich like we expected to be when we all moved to Silicon Valley so screw it. Car bar ended up taking place back at our place a couple blocks away because we decided to break out the Absinthe that Simon brought back from Toronto. The stuff is 70% alcohol and originally was made with wormwood which is some sort of hallucinogen that made Hemingway and Van Gogh a little wonky. You are supposed to light a sugar cube over it and then add water to lessen the bitterness but it doesn't work. It tastes like crap and burns your throat. After some Absinthe, more drinks, and an hour or so of watching the Olympics we finally headed back out to a swanky neighbourhood bar called Stinger Lounge. It was a little embarrassing to go there and not rack up a huge tab like we usually do (John the owner loves us because we're thirsty people) but we had arrived pretty warmed up from
drinks at home. Anyways, we stayed a while and then headed over to IHOP for eats. It was the most fun we've had hanging out within 4 miles of my own home.

Oh yeah, so one of my gifts was a wireless mouse for my laptop. What is up with the packaging of electronics lately? It took a swiss army knife, a pair of scissors, and a lot of brute strength to get all the pieces out of that package. It protects the product well but there's no way that we need that much plastic going into landfills. And half the time when I'm trying take it apart I manage to cut my hands.

Anyways, last night we did celebration round 2 by going to see Paul Van Dyk at 1015. I'm not sure why these things always happen when I'm around, but some guy got shot in the basement while most people, including us, were upstairs or in the main room watching PVD. We didn't even know it happened until my friends tried to leave and the bouncers ordered no ins and outs while they investigated. I guess the panick was relegated to the downstairs. At the end of the night it took forever to get our coats because downstairs where coat check is located was roped off as a crime scene and they had to bring our jackets up one by one as we waited in a huge line. Weird tragic night. But the party was otherwise great. We spent the afternoon today wandering the mall to stretch our legs and get a free massage from the massaging recliner at Sharper Image before heading home to do some work and watch TV. I'm so glad it's Presidents Day tomorrow. I need a day to catch up on my work and lament the passing my 20s.

MSNBC

I hate the fact that most of the Olympics coverage is on MSNBC because that means it's reported by that annoying pest Tucker Carlson. Hmm, let me share a Tucker Carlson quote:

"Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he's nice but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada."

I'm also sick of the American commentators in general. They talk about the American team even when they're reporting on a game/race where no American athletes are involved. Get with the program and talk about what's going on onscreen. Jeez. I miss CBC.

I was so sad to hear about Michelle Kwan withdrawing. Sarah Hughes's little sister was the alternate. In an interview today Sarah said something about how Elvis Stojko skated with a groin injury but Michelle made a personal choice not to, but it's been done before. I found it a little rude of her to infer that Michelle was wimping out. Her sister's interview made no mention of Michelle. All she did was babble about how exciting it was for her and how hard it was for her to keep it a secret during her dinner. Bleh. Little sister Hughes needs to get some media training from the folks who work with NHL teams. Hockey players are big, sweaty, rough, and toothless but get them in front of a camera and rarely will you see them speak without first praising their opponents and then keeping their comments about their own team rather humble (for the most part).

winter sports

So I was watching the Olympics and realized I never watch any of these sports except when the Olympics roll around every 4 years. Watching the games also brought up a bunch of questions for me. Like, why in the world do people do skeleton when they can do luge? I mean careening down an icey track feet first is dangerous enough, but doing it head first? Wouldn't your first injury pretty much be your last? Can a helmet really prevent a broken neck? I don't get it. And how in the world do these athletes get into sports like luge, bobsled, and skeleton in the first place? Just think of how we get into sports. You're say 5 years old and taking some recreational lessons in say skating. Maybe you learn faster than the other kids and the coach bumps you up a level. Maybe then your parents try you out in figure skating where, again, you excel quickly and begin taking up the sport competitively. Kind of all happens naturally right? But how many of you even know where the nearest bobsled track is in your town? What in the world would compel you to (1) find such a track (2) let your kid try the sport? It's just not an activity that you stumble into or discover a hidden talent in because the opportunities aren't there (and it's dangerous as hell). Someone fill me in here.

screwed

It appears I'm getting screwed by every corporation I deal with today. I can't login to my online banking. When I do, I get a big blank screen. That's always reassuring.

Those DMV bastards sent me my registration payment form and I paid it back in December before I went away. Now I have a letter that says NOTICE OF INCOMPLETE RENEWAL because I need to get a smog check (that's the same as AirCare for you Vancouverites). Well it wouldn't be incomplete if they had sent me this stupid smog check thing with my registration renewal papers in December. They JUST sent it to me and it says that it might take 30 days for my registration sticker to come after I pass smog check. Sooooo doesn't that mean I'll have a gap wherein my car won't be registered. I HATE YOU DMV!

And finally, Amazon. I ordered a bunch of books at Christmas time. December 6th was when I put in the order. One of those books was for a newly engaged friend. Not only did it fail arrive when she came to visit in December.... It still hasn't come. I ordered this over 3 months ago, what the hell??? I think I need to cancel this. They're going to be married by the time they fucking ship this.

Items Ordered	Approve
The Unofficial Guide to Planning Your Wedding, Eileen Livers Updated Shipping Estimate: March 10, 2006 - March 24, 2006 Updated Delivery Estimate: March 14, 2006 - March 28, 2006 Your approval required by: February 17, 2006

Mutiny at the cafe

What do you do when you have a mediocre hourly pay job, love your coworkers but collectively hate your boss?

http://www.beyondrobson.com/city/2006/02/mutiny_at_the_cafe/

I had a rather shitty day today but this made it a teeny bit better.

I can think of a job I had where we all hated my boss, but the only one with guts enough to up and leave was me. Not exactly collective action but I sure gave HR an earful at my exit interview. No one makes me attend THEIR meetings and takes credit for MY work without ME getting some revenge. I heard that after I left she no longer had any direct reports except some co-op student who was an even bigger pain in the ass for the company than she was a waste of money.

Vancouver in film

So the last few days Simon's been glued to the computer watching the entire Battlestar Galactica TV series starring Grace Park. I'm hardly a fan of sci-fi/fantasy (fell sleep through Lord of the Rings, don't understand Star Trek, saw Star Wars for the first time only 2 months ago) but Battlestar from what I've seen of it isn't too hard to watch. The fact that it stars an Asian Canadian woman and is shot in many recognizable places in Vancouver makes it even more bearable.

I get all giddy when I see my hometown in movies even though it happens pretty frequently. I used to work a block from the Vancouver Public Library and we often got notices saying that shots would be fired for a movie and, well, not to call 911. X-Files was filmed both outside my office and at my school (Simon Fraser University served as FBI headquarters) and who could forget Rumble in the Bronx (ah yes, New York with mountains). Unfortunately the only stars I saw in person in Vancouver were David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson when they were shooting in a lane down by West Pender (and all my damn coworkers were out there watching too) and the cast of 21 Jump Street when I was on a school field trip to the acquarium. With all the action, it's no wonder my childhood friend, her dad, my gymnastics coach, and half the people who were in my acrogym class are stunt performers by trade. If you're ever in Vancouver look for small white rectangular signs on utility posts with neon arrows and a series/movie title written on them. Follow the arrow and you'll find the set where they're shooting. (But do not disturb)

Here are some more lists of movies featuring Vancouver:

Darren Barefoot
Wikipedia
IMDB

Palmolive

I think writing to companies to praise or criticize them is genetic. My dad does this all the time. I, too, cannot help myself especially when it's so darn easy online. My latest:

Dear Palmolive,

I love your Spring Sensations detergent. I do have some feedback though. Once the bottle is half empty and not easily weighted down, the bottle tips over really easily and it drives me nuts. I'd recommend designing the bottle so that it is shorter and wider and thus more stable and less likely to tip over and fall into my sink. Short and stout in a stylish container (like the Target Method line of products) with a pump would be even better.

Sincerely, Vanessa Au

BTW, whatcha think of my new layout? My old one was hurting my eyes and I needed a late night diversion from working on the thesis.

food weekend

3 short workouts a week is not enough to burn off all the damn food I eat. Friday night I ended up making dinner and had Shannph over too. Boiled spinach + ground turkey + seasoning salt and garlic power + mushroom alfredo sauce made for a great pasta sauce. It actually tasted more like sausage than turkey. I used the water from boiling the spinach + shitake and enoki mushrooms + lentils to make a nice healthy soup. Salad included more spinach, mandarin slices, almond, cheese, and balsamic vinagarette. My butt was glued to a bar stool at Alpha Bar that night so I burned 0 calories, plus we went to Denny's Japan Town for loco mocos after (they have special stuff like Hawaiian food and kimchee)--- two eggs over easy atop a hamburger pattie on rice with a couple scoops of gravy on the whole thing. Yuuuuummy!

Saturday was work out and steam room day but we stayed in and munched on armloads of chips and chocolate and watched Kickin and Screaming (Will Farrell movie) that night. Not easy on the total calorie count. I blame the UK Cadbury's that Simon brought back (way better than any American chocolate).

Sunday was Superbowl day of course. I don't watch football but we went to a friend's house and I brought my laptop and feasted on barbequed beef, prawns, home made sushi, home made salsa, toffee (my friend will be launching J&S Toffee soon, watch for it), chicken wings, and shots made of sake, raw quail egg, uni (sea urchin), and salmon eggs. Decadent and all washed down with beer. I had to have a nap after the half time show. Man the commercials were lame and...sparse this year, no? So many network commercials. I guess most companies are too poor this year. My favorite was the horses helping the baby horse (a calf right?) push a Budweiser cart. Not funny but sooo darn cute. Not so sure it connected with their target demographic but I sure liked it.

100x100

I'm going to help my friend Will milk his fame a little more by pointing my readers to his post about he and his friends polishing off the In-and-Out 100x100 burger. Will has gotten so famous, he's gonna be on the damn radio! There's absolutely nothing wrong with gaining that 15 seconds (or days in this case) of fame for eating lots and lots of cow, grease, and sweaty cheese. Go Willy go!

Hmm I have nothing else to talk about today. Apparently I accidentally pissed off a person or two and the person I'm pissed off at happens to be in town. Oh and my new Blue Cross plan doesn't include coverage for vision care and I can't see too well right now and I'm running low on contact lenses. And also when I (or Simon) uses this nifty wireless optical mouse, I can't fucking type on my wireless keyboard because signals get crossed. Oh, and my brown hamster pissed all over my white hamster again so she's yellow now and I'm scared to clean her because she bites. My life is clearly a well-balanced combination of unexciting and shitty. Hmmm.

Blue Cross idiots

I just got off a long call with Blue Cross customer service that accomplished nothing. I'm trying to cancel my individual plan and go only with the coverage that I'm getting from Simon's work which is also from Blue Cross. The woman, Mary, says she can't cancel my individual plan and has to put me through to another number. This is after 10 minutes of mucking around in the account and, well, doing nothing. She goes to "put me through" to another customer service rep. The phone rings twice and a guy says "hello?"

Me: Hi, I was transferred to your line to get my individual PPO Share 5000 cancelled please
Guy: Uh, what?
Me: I was transferred to your line to get my individual PPO Share 5000 cancelled please
Guy: Uhhhhh, I called Blue Cross this morning too but hehe I'm a patient too. She said she put you through to another line at Blue Cross?
Me: Oh my God. Yeah. You're a customer?? She connected me to a customer?!
Guy: Yup, and she put you through to my cell phone no less [laughs]
Me: Oh my God, be careful next time you call Blue Cross. Obviously their reps screw up big time!!
Guy: [Laughs] Yeah! Alright you take care
Me: You too

Hello privacy issues??? How does a mistake like that happen?