bus

Today the bus I was riding took a corner too tight and ripped the bumper off a car. You always see them come *this close* especially when you're the one driving in the next lane. I guess this time really was too close. All the passengers had to get off and walk to the next bus stop to wait for another bus. Luckily mine came within 10 minutes. Alright, that was my excitement for the day.

I've got a busy three weekends. Tomorrow I'm helping some other PhD students with some field work/data collection at the StepItUp.org event, the following week I'll be out in the midwest presenting at a rinky dink little conference, and the week after that one of my grad seminars is running some teen workshops downtown. In May it's final project deadline time so I guess there's no resting until June.

weekend

Friday night was interesting. After surviving two hours of teaching I stunk up the entire hallway that joins the graduate student offices by microwaving my cod with black bean garlic sauce. I knew it would be stinky but (1) I need to eat (2) I had nothing else to eat (3) I didn't know it would be stinky enough to elicit comments like "who is cooking fish?" or "oh my God what is that smell?" Last time I did this was at my start up company where I reheated some Chinese dumplings with leek, cabbage and pork. Turns out those things are full of garlic and onion powder that stink when you cook 'em and also result in very nasty burps. Anyways, after surviving another 2 hour lecture that afternoon it was off to my friend's place to pick up some furnture she was giving away. Using all girl power we managed to move a couch (to another friend's place), a dresser and a nightstand. We then spent the evening at another classmate's apartment indulging in deep thoughts and pizza.

At 10:30 that night I get a phone call from one of my best friends in Vancouver.

J: Hey what are you doin'
V: Hanging out at a friend's place
J: Can we come down and visit?
V: Sure, when?
J: Um, now? Oh and there's 3 of us
V: uh.... bring sleeping bags. Call me when you get here

My friends are impulsive and crazy and that is why I love them. This is the same friend who on a couple hours notice drove from Vancouver to San Francisco (15 hours) without stopping to come visit. Apparently conversation that spurred the decision to make the 2.5 hour drive went like this:

JH: It's such a beautiful night. Let's go hang out in White Rock [which is by the border]. Actually, since we're driving all the way to White Rock let's go a bit further and hit the Tulalip Casino
JL: Well shit, since we're going to the casino we may as well go a bit further and drive to Seattle to visit V. Hmm let's call A and C and see if they wanna come.

Before you know it there is a 5-person caravan headed to Seattle in the middle of the night. They arrived at midnight. By the time I got back home to meet them they were all standing outside my apartment building with sleeping bags in one arm and an open beer in the other. We hung out, drank, watched half a movie, made fun of each other, gossipped, ate some pizza and went to bed. 5 people fit quite comfortably in my living room. The next morning we went to Kona Kitchen for brunch and then they headed back as one of them had some work to do on Saturday. Man I love my friends.

Today is Sunday. It was unusually sunny out so my roomate and I went and ran around Greenlake. Unfortunately I forgot my watch so I don't know my time, but I did manage to run the whole 3 miles (actually I hear it's more like 2.8) without stopping, walking, or throwing up. After that, I headed over to my roomate's friend's place down the street and gave my car its first wash since leaving California. With all this activity it's been hard to get my homework done so that is what I have to get back to doing now.

New free furniture, a girls night, a visit from my best friends, a car wash, a run. This is the most productive and interesting weekend I've had in a long time.

post

I read PostSecret from time to time. Not often because it makes me kinda sad that so many people out there are so troubled.

I have to say though, this recent one is among my favorites.

warm

So it was like 23 degrees C today (that's in the 70s in F) today. All the girls were in their flip flops and the shortest skirts they could find. I even got off my ass and went for a jog/walk which, with my hay fever, asthma, AND poor physical condition, was very difficult. Once upon a time, like last year, I was doing 3 - 4 mile runs back in good ol' Foster City, CA but when it rains every fucking day from Fall to Spring you just don't get the opportunity. Anyways, I'm a little annoyed by the newscasters celebrating the warm weather. One woman said, "it's 20 degrees above average in Medford, OR. Spring has really sprung!" No you fucking idiot. That is not Spring. That is global warming. Mr. Gore, thank you for bringing the issue to America's attention but it looks like people are too stupid to get it so you might need to go recruit those seal hunting assholes from Northern Canada and have them club idiots like that newscaster over the head.

fuck Duff

So I went to CNN to find a link about something that happened at school today but I got derailed when I noticed that one of CNN's "top stories" is http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/04/02/hilary.duff.ap/index.html

CNN has these "story highlights" (for people who find Internet news isn't convenient enough and need their news written in 3 bullet points) and for that story the highlights are as follows:

• Hilary Duff says she feels pressure to be thin
• 19-year-old says media can be "judgmental and mean"
• Duff has sold 13 million albums worldwide

Are you fucking kidding me? Sure it is the last item in the list of "top stories" on the CNN home page but who the hell gives a rat's ass that Hilary fucking Duff "feels the pressure to be thin?" Go whine to your Hollywood therapist you spoiled little brat. There are unreported cases of genocide taking place all over the world, the country is still at war, there are random hate crimes happening all the time, children are being sold into slavery, global warming is going to render us extinct soon, and the CNN home page has a story about Hilary Duff's emotional insecurities and her concerns that the media can be "judgmental and mean." Fuck that.

Anyways what I was going to write about is the fact that ever since I started going to the UW, there have been shootings like crazy, mostly in the U District by the frat houses on weekends. Today though at 9:30am an admin in the architecture building was shot by her ex who had been stalking her for months. He shot her, then turned the gun on himself. I find this out 20 minutes before it's time to go teach. Horrible way to start a week and it totally threw off my concentration. This woman had a restraining order (which is basicaly meaningless) on the guy and had even sent out emails with the man's photo to her co-workers because she suspected he might come and harrass her at work. But emailing photos is no good when dude arrives with a gun. People like this should skip the first step in their mission (shooting other people) and just start with step 2 (shooting themselves).

noise

So get this. Some asshole filed a noise complaint against my roomate and I. That is complete bullshit. They were complaining about bass (which the idiots in the management office spell base). I have a very tiny sub attached to my computer speakers and the only bass that might ever come out is whatever bass is in fucking meditation music because that is all the music I can handle these days. And I don't ever play it that loud because I am always reading when the music is on. So I gather one of two things happened. My next door neighbour heard the noise coming from downstairs and thought it was us. Or the asshole downstairs whom I've complained about 3 times is trying to get back at us by issuing fraudulent complaints. It might not help that when I hear them pumping up that punk rock music I tell them to knock it off by jumping up and down really hard.

so uh

that happened kinda fast. The blogger groups told me to:

1. be logged in and change the url name
2. create a new blog and give it the original url name and in that blog post a redirect to my new url

Guess what, after I renamed it, I couldn't create a blog with the original url because _ is no longer allowed.

So I'll have to contact you all individually. Sorry!

test

test post on new url

url change

So the original reason that my url for this blog is my own name is that I thought my mundane ramblings would, by some stroke of luck, get me some sort of fame or book deal. It's been a few years and I've given up on that fantasy so I intend to change the url soon to something slightly more anonymous so I can feel free to be more potty mouthed and offensive. I'm just trying to figure out how to do that and not lose any of my regular readers in the transition. stay tuned

I'm back

I'm a week into a new quarter and did two things today that I hate doing. I sent in my taxes to a tax preparer and got an oil change. This is a big deal for me because I tend to put these things off and to hit two in one day is huge. I got a coupon for a $19.99 oil change at Jiffy Lube down the street. I was greeted by a young lady with piercings the circumference of my pinky (does that hole ever shrink back?). The fellow who took my info tried to upsell me to synthetic oil and then asked if he could buy my car. Weird. When I got my car back I noticed there was no oil change sticker so I went back in and another young lady with insane tattoos all over her neck said they had run out. I don't know what's with this place. I thought I had walked into some juvenile detention center where there is no one over the age of 18 to supervise. I wonder if I even got my oil changed or if I just handed over my $23 for nothing.

Oahu

Went to Hawaii from March 15-20. Here's a quick recap:

Thurs: arrived 11:30, checked the luggage since it was too early to check in. Walked to Ala Moana Center (world's largest outdoor mall) for lunch and wander a bit. Then checked in, walked to Waikiki Beach and then had an expensive but mediocre seafood dinner at Chart House

Fri: 11:30 surfing lesson at Waikiki Beach. Stood up on the first try. Paddling out is hell when your only exercise the last 6 months has been typing and holding up heavy books. Got a sunburn, had a few wipeouts but all in all, very exciting. Went to Germaine's Luau that night. With 3 drinks, entertainment, and a free tote bag with playing cards, beach mat, and water bottle for booking online, it was sort of worth the $65 but probably won't go again. Here's a pic of the guys pulling the pig out of the ground where it had been cooking on hot rocks since 5am.

Sat: Honolulu Chinatown and Nuuanu Pali mountain where it's really windy and you can see an island called (grrrrrr) Chinaman's Hat. Got a massage at the hotel. Dinner at Odoriko Japanese Restaurant. Had a huge seafood hotpot we could barely finish. It was raining intermittently in sheets. Tropical rains are crazy.

Sun: Snorkeling at Hanauma Bay where it was kinda windy and rainy that day but the fish were beautiful and plentiful. Below is a picture of some chickens hanging out at Hanauma pecking and scratching at someone's belongings. That cracked me up. Took Simon out for a bday dinner at Tenaka of Tokyo East.

Mon: Pearl Harbor which was interesting. I almost lost it during the film when they said that fateful day was tragic but really "united America." Um, united white America maybe. There was absolutely no mention that they locked up all the Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor which forced them all to lose pretty much everything. In fact there was NO mention of Japanese internment at all. Anyways, went back to the beach that evening even though it was a bit chillier than it had been earlier that trip. Dinner at Aqua Cafe in Waikiki Shopping Plaza. Food sort of sucked.

Tues: hit the beach in the morning, got late check out, then visited Bishop Museum (below) and had dinner at Singha Thai. Flew out at 9pm

Good trip, wish it were longer and that it had rained less. I could've stayed there for a couple weeks easily.

Spring Break

I am so drained I can't keep track of what day it is or form coherent sentences. I handed in the last of my schoolwork yesterday. Last night I slept nine hours, went to a TA meeting this morning, came back and slept again for over an hour. I think my brain has shut down as a defense mechanism. I'm headed to SF then Oahu, then SF then back here over spring break. Hopefully that fixes whatever the hell is broken in my head.

obnoxious

What sorta noise do you find most obnoxious? I get all sorts here in Lake Shitty. Aside from the punk rock from downstairs, the loud talking college girls upstairs and children tearing down the hallway there are also the regular fire truck sirens, assholes playing loud bass from their cars as they drive into the parking garage, and the bigger assholes who peel out of the parking lot across the street such that their tires squeal. The tires squealing is really annoying but what bugs me more is that one day their car will skid out of control while they're trying to assert their masculinity by peeling out of the lot in their little shitboxes and they will hit a pedestrian. People who speed or mess around in parking lots really piss me off. It's just irresponsible. I wish there were an IQ test, maturity test, and I'm-not-an-asshole test that went along with the written and road test for drivers licenses.

flying hamster

I'm having a so-so day, which is why I was delighted to see that today's cuteoverload.com features a hamster. This is what happens when they run really fast and then suddenly stop. Since physics is a little beyond them, they get super confused when the still spinning wheel sends them flying right out onto the bedding. I'm impressed that anyone captured this in a photo because it happens really fast.

wikipedia

So citing wikpedia is generally not allowed in university and here's another reason why. I admit I love wikipedia to get an overview of theories and concepts I'm not familiar with when I'm reading, but if you're looking to cite something look at the list of references and search for those instead.

4

I don't know why I'm doing this since the theme is 4 things and 4 means death in Chinese, but another blogger whom I cannot name because her/his blog is anonymous did it and I thought it was funny.

Four jobs I've had:
1. TA
2. Product marketing manager
3. Marcom Manager
4. gymnastics coach/choreographer

Four movies I can watch over and over:
1. Harold and Kumar
2. Better Luck Tomorrow
3. South Park The Movie
4. Office Space

Four places I've lived:
1. Seattle
2. Foster City, CA
3. San Jose, CA (yuck)
4. Coquitlam, BC (also yuck)

Four places I've vacationed:
1. Puerto Vallarta
2. Orlando
3. NYC
4. Paris

Four of my favorite dishes:
1. black cod with black bean on tofu
2. anything from Guu on Robson in Vancouver
3. gawn chow ow haw (no I'm not translating it)
4. BBQ duck

Four sites I visit daily:
1. Cuteoverload.com
2. Gmail
3. MyYahoo
4. UW Libraries (um yeah)

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. getting a massage
2. at a rave in 1998
3. on a beach someplace tropical
4. in that hotspring pool in Banff

oh Ann

From Slate.com Ann C0ulter shocked nobody last week by calling presidential candidate John Edwards a "faggot" during her appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Everyone in their right mind knows that Coulter is actually satan in a blond fucking wig. But still, the fact that she goes so far off the deep end does not mean that her hate filled tirades don't have some effect on the American consciousness. I think the problem with her and her buddies Rush and Pat is that they make other Republicans seem liberal by comparison, which artificially shifts the whole fucking spectrum to the right. And that's all I have to say about that cuz I don't talk politics on this blog. I have to go back to worrying about my insomnia now. $#@!

sleep, deux

So tomorrow I have to be at school at 8:10 am. Like in the classroom at that time. It's for a mini conference and folks have been wise enough to notice I can't talk at that time in the morning so I don't present until the end, closer to 11am. Which is good. But having to be there a mere 20 minutes earlier than every other Wednesday I've arrived for class means that I started stressing out earlier than usual about how I won't be able to get to sleep tonite. It's kind of ridiculous to start worrying about this sort of thing at 4:30 this afternoon in the middle of a friend's emergency-post-thesis-defense pub run but I did and it made me all sorts of crazy doing all this worrying about not sleeping. I really should not leave the house or attempt to socialize in that condition. I cannot wait until tomorrow is over. It'll be the last time I have 7 consecutive hours of lecture (8:30-3:30) followed by a 2 hour break and then another 2 hours of lecture (5:30-7:30) packed all into one exciting day. I will never ever pack that many hours of lecture in a day, especially starting that early in the morning ever ever again.

hi

I really hate it when people title their email "hi." I think I hate it more than emails with no subject at all because I figure if you are going to go to the effort of inserting any title at all it should be a little bit more descriptive or creative than fuckin' "hi." Actually this was not meant to be the subject of this post but typing the word hi suddenly reminded me of this reaction that "hi" elicits when it populates the subject field of an email. What I actually meant to post was a "hi" to my students Dennis and Russ whom I recently learned are reading my blog. Yes a wake-up call to me and others that blogs are public and that is why I follow a few rules when I blog. Never blog about friends, coworkers, employers, or students (unless it's something nice). Be especially careful not to name them or put up photos of them without permission if you're blogging about something they said or did in a private forum. Don't blog anything that you would not talk about openly to a coworker, student, employer etc. Oh and don't blog anything that would give a crazy stalker with tendencies to injure people enough information to find you in real life. I think I generally do a good job of sticking to this though I curse a lot more in my blog than I do in normal conversation with say a coworker. But, fuck, whatever.

online PhD

When I am at home slaving away grading papers and trying write a paper that demonstrates my brilliance while also worrying about another 15 page paper, 2 presentations, teaching observation, and 2 versions of a teaching portfolio that I need to turn in, the last thing I want to see is a commercial about how easy it is to get an online Ph.D at Walden University. For example, they say "With a Ph.D. in Psychology, you’ll be better prepared as a researcher, educator and practitioner, helping individuals and groups with family, mental health, career and educational issues. " Come on...

I'm sorry, you're going to learn all this with nothing but an Internet connection from the comfort of your own home? Who are these faculty who "teach" online? Oh, I see, you have to call the 1 800 number or fill in their special form to "request information." That's not a whole lot different from that junk mail you used to get where you put the little sticker in the box with the "degree" you want and send it away for your free information pack on how to get your degree from home.

The thought of these bozos walking around with "Ph.Ds" earned "online" without taking GREs, spending months on applications, and enduring the physical relocation, heated academic debates, pain, politics, and sleepless nights that REAL PhDs go through infuriates me. They do not deserve that designation and having everyone walking around with a graduate degree dilutes the value of mine! If a school needs to advertise its graduate programs on TV, it's not a real school as far as I'm concerned.