new year's resolution I can keep

I'm posting in this blog again. Yay. No one cares. But yay!

yes, sir

nice knowin' ya, I guess I'll be sleeping early tonight

Oh, Sparks. It felt like our love affair had only just begun. Sometime in the past year, my officemate introduced me to you, and it was then that I realized that this was a great, nay, the best and only way to start a night. With energy and a buzz.

But it seems your time here on Earth is numbered. I'll always remember you, and hope you somehow return.

MillerCoors to stop selling alcopop

upgrade or downgrade?

Watch out. I can post from my phone now.

book panic

I was never an avid reader. I played video games when I was younger. A lot. I hid in my room all day and my parents thought I was studying or reading. They'd check up on me and the Game Boy/GBC/GBA/DS (though I never had a DS at home) was probably paused under my pillow.

But I love the concept of reading a book. Even though I don't love reading, there are days when all I want is to turn off the TV and set aside the laptop and curl up and read a book. I like this "curl up and read" feeling.

And I do read sometimes. Usually it'll have to be addictive enough (Harry Potter) or a short read so I actually manage to finish it and keep interest (Marley and Me, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time). Otherwise it will go the way of most books I manage to even pick up: admittedly very good and interesting but if I don't finish it within a week, I lose interest. I also often flat out don't read the last 30 pages of novels for whatever reason...as if I don't care how it ends (many times I don't).

But I think reading makes you a better person. So I'm trying now, as I have many times before. The problem is though...what do I read? There just seem to be so many things I've missed out on reading when growing up, books I hear about, books about topics I'm interested in...
It feels as if it's an insurmountable task, so why bother starting it?

I don't know why this is so much of a problem for me. It's almost a mental block, or a sort of loop. [I say I want to read, I should go to the library...but what do I get?...I don't know...I have some books I never finished on my bookshelf...okay I'll read those...but I think I'd do better with a fresh new book...from the library...but...] I'm not asking for recommendations (though they are welcome =P) because I think I have enough in mind given that amount of time it takes me to finish a book.

Oh well. But here goes attempt # who knows what, to read more. Tickle mah brain!

pizza and drugs, 30 minutes or less

Pharmacies were always a bit of a mystery for me.
For some reason I loved the grocery store so I'd always go with my mom, and to the attached pharmacy as well. I guess my mom always did things with time to spare, or was just a very "we're not waiting for this" person, so the medicine always got picked up a few days later on our next shopping trip.

So I always assumed the pharmacies had to order the medicine we asked them for.

Though I guess this might be the case for some cases, the few times I've either filled one for someone who was sick or for myself, it's within 15 minutes to an hour. How to pharmacies have all of this stuff in such a little space? What madness must go on in there? And I overheard them talking...they fill about 120-300 prescriptions a day? Sounds busy. With a lot of room for error.

merging mind and technology

Today, I offer two disjointed thoughts loosely having to do with the brain and technology.

On the way to the doctor's office today I was reading a Scientific American I had in my bag from my last trip to Boston. For some reason traveling means I can spend as much money as I want, including on newsstand price magazines.

Jacking into the Brain--Is the Brain the Ultimate Computer Interface?



The article is a survey of all of the amazing things done interfacing computers and the brain. The chimp brain controlling the robotic arm to get a banana...the best of cochlear implants turning sounds into impulses that create a sensation of sound in the brains of deaf people, etc...

AND TO THE RANDOM OTHER MUSING ABOUT PEOPLE AND TECHNOLOGY

So my doctor uses a tablet PC and her palm pilot for everything. Instead of charts, she has a file on her tablet pc and she types things up after. The topic of doctor handwriting or just handwriting in general came up and I mentioned a high school classmate of mine whose handwriting was so bad due to a lack of spatial reasoning that he had to take notes on a palm pilot with a keyboard attachment, and his in class essay exams were printed out. Special APs, everything.
And she said how one of her sons has good handwriting but the other's is terrible. And that she "doesn't know why printing is so important anyway. They make such a big deal when there's not really a time he can't get around it."

And then I almost said something to the effect of "but we must stay HUMAN!" But really, it does feel weird. What if someone couldn't write? I mean, yes, right now there are still uses of handwriting a note, but I can definitely forsee a time, in a classroom rich enough to have keyboards...where everyone has a Blackberry...when the art of writing in the calligraphy sense is completely gone. Not lost, but simply very easily gotten around. I mean, my classmate did everything on his palm pilot and that seemed weird...it wouldn't take much for it not to seem weird.

Man and Machine. Destined to be married.

Big fat uninteresting update: Obama won the American Cup of Soul Stirring

Firstly, like all unfocused blogs, this one too must fizzle out. I think it was because I read an article 3 weeks ago which basically said...If you're thinking of starting a blog, don't. If you already have one, consider not having one. Something about how blogs used to be an amazing thing...anyone could write their opinions and anyone could read them. The blogosphere, the blogosphere!!! But unfortunately, big sites and “real” news sites have started their own blogs...and who can compete with reputable institutions?
Anyway, I think that was the gist. I don't remember and I can't look it up, because I'm in Dulles airport with no wi-fi! And hence, the big fat uninteresting update.

(*got the article!)

Things that have happened recently: duh.
Obama.

DC, voting 93% blue for the presidential race, was a crazy place to be that night. Screaming, dancing, jumping, honking, hugging, drinking and more all in the streets. I'm glad I got to experience that. It was a strange feeling though.

I definitely did not feel the raw emotion that others were experiencing; I merely fed off of their exuberance. At first I thought there was something wrong with being a democrat and not weeping, but it really just had to do with the company you keep. Or maybe I am different.

Talking to Beck last night, I was reassured that someone (namely, close high school friends and their friends) felt exactly the same way I did: Okay, Obama was the better candidate. That's cool. Damn, it got called early. I guess I'll go now. I had no desire to change my away message, facebook status, or to drive in the streets cheering. The only other time I had experienced such madness was in Germany during the World Cup. (Or perhaps when Yale finally won The Game after a drought?) Which then led me into a critical downward spiral in which I was mad at everything, and felt the need to become a rabid irrational ranting devil's advocate. Good intentions, but I may have come off a bit strong. To those in my warpath, I'm sorry. I get like this every election, and since my friends seem to all be democrats, I come off as touting conservative propaganda. I still believe that the most important Obama has done is stir interest in our generation in the power of democracy and voting, and also for gathering supporters in a manner like religion.

But that was sooooo yesterday.

Today: the US Presidential Election as sport.

Since the election is called a contest, there is no challenge in drawing this comparison with a sporting event. But as long as I'm ranting, here's why I came to this thought. I'm jealous of how deeply people are moved by his election to power, and I don't... “get” it.

My coworkers were chatting and brought up how they don't “get” sports. This does not bother me at all. I also don't get sports in that I don't get being a die hard fan. I am a general fan, and I do like watching them when they're on TV if I remotely like a team. I like sports because all you have to do is learn the rules...and then all of a sudden, all events of that type are open to your enjoyment and engrossment.

The election, to some, must've been the greatest, most easiest to understand sporting event there was. No, the issues to be dealt with were not easy to understand...but rather (for the purposes of only the presidential election after the primaries) the rules. Once the Dem and Republican nominees are set. there are no divisions, leagues, and wild card positions to keep track of, no cross referencing of teams whose offense will do great against this team's defense, and win even if they are far lower ranked. The election is a gigantic, drawn out, final championship game. A single several month-long dance off between two main competitors (and Perot, perhaps) in which you are the judge. Omgiosh. Yes. You. You know how subjective figure skating judging is? Technical score, artistic score...you choose whatever you care about (Did they stumble? Was it fluid? Was it an engaging performance? Did they do the right moves at the right times?) and you vote. There are debates to showcase some skills, but overall, it's just a feeling. Those are the rules. Go with your gut.

Once I realized that much, I realized that maybe the election just wasn't the sport for me. I like baseball and football since they're reasonably slow to multitask to without missing too many plays, basketball and hockey are good with beer. Golf is good, well, never, and tennis is good when I'm in the mood.

The presidential election wasn't it for me. And it is for other people. I guess I'll just have to remember that even the slight happiness I get when I randomly watch the underdog of any given baseball game win (so basically the Washington Nationals) is infinitely higher than those who don't enjoy it at all. And that maybe next time, I'll just chill with a beer with a few friends. Just like how I spend my favorite sporting events.

link/video/everything dump

Long overdue posts. I have drafts of text-y posts, but those aren't fun, are they? :-) Maybe some other time.

Everything I've liked, seen and rememebered, heard...

• 7th graders tell it straight. You can vote however you like. (via my officemate) I sort of wanted this election to be over, but I also want more songs like this.
  
  
  
  
• Top 10 Embarassing Halloween Costumes. Is the YPMB going to Halloween Parade this year? Or ever again?
  
  
• Gimme my Guinea! A new tumblr I made dedicated to guinea pigs. :-)
  
  
  

Other than that, my blogging equilibrium has shifted back to tumblr. Hmm!
I suspect it shall shift again. Like the seasons! Okay in a weird mood and sort of stressed about my schedule and stuff. Being out of town so much does not help with my docket! Well, helps in some ways, but not in others...the PTO production system makes no sense.

a tale which is written in a way that is not yet overwrought

I don't find time to read often, but I finally got to when I was at my sister's! This is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon, published in 2003.

It's written from the point of view of an autistic teenager, as a very long and tangential tale unfolds from his point of view. This sort of pseudo-unreliable narrator style reminds me most of the movie Memento, and the multi-faceted use of footnotes to forcefully impose background information and the thought processes of the narrator reminds me most of House of Leaves. (Hey, I'm working with the little I have in my brain's library!) It's fairly pleasant though, as it's not overly done. I read it in about 2 hours so that says something. (Seeing as I usually give up on books when I have 20 pages left since I usually realize that I don't actually care what happens. And then I continue to "read" this book for a few more weeks.)

Read, please. And no, it's not all about dogs and that's not why I read it. Okay maybe that's why I initially read it.

checking in

Thought I'd say hi. Had a lot of ideas to spew words about, but I keep forgetting them! Sort of busy. Sort of decompressing. Mostly busy. :-)

Taking my second domestic trip via airplane ever! Other than a bit of jetsetting around Europe when I was in Germany, I've only taken 5 trips involving planes ever! This'll be a super short one though, compared to what I'm used to. (14 hours until touchdown in Asia? Where's my Game Boy?)

Delta as operated by Comair.



Though the article is 2 years old and is talking about the DC to NYC flights, the headline of the article this picture is from is "Comair flight late 100 percent of the time". Not encouraging. Here's to meeting more nice people at the bar.

boing boing pass

A-ha, "Take on Me"...but not A-ha, and the lyrics are based on what's happening in the video. Watch it. It's not quite on my "videos that make me giggle" list, but it's a job well done.



Boing boing boing think paaaaasssss...

skittles commercial

This gets added to the "videos that make me giggle list". Along with the most recent batch of cat videos (ninja cat, horror cat, and cat v printer).

I feel like a Chinese gymnast

I don't know if it's because I'm asian, because of my height, my voice, or the way I act, but I often get mistaken for a teenager, or at least questioned.

I'd get carded in college when I bought lotto tickets at train stations and was just about carded a few days after my 21st birthday for a free item giveaway (a Con Edison pen) at Yankee Stadium. Been carded for alcohol, but that's normal. Except for a few times in NYC and once at Whole Foods...that was strange. I've been respectfully asked by some TKD instructors and parents how old I am when I hint that I've been to college and they're shocked, and I've been not so respectfully told by kids that "you look like a child", "I thought you were 14", and "you look too little to be a college person".

But recently I feel like I've been getting younger. At the dentist's office, the way the hygienist asked how old I was when I was signing my forms was kind of funny. I guess I had taken the day off and I was in casual sneakers, jeans, and a colorful t shirt. My black belt exam was kind of funny with every other question from a stranger being "wait, how old are you?" and then them walking away. Today I was carded for buying a used video game rated M. (ages 17+) I think this guy was just playing by the rules...I already had my ID out when he asked this father in front of me if he was okay with the M rated game he was buying for his sons.

I think innocently buying a rated M video game and getting carded is a bit of the last straw. This is insane. Maybe I should start wearing makeup and generally maintaining myself. I should also stop shopping at Aeropostale (though in my defense? maybe? I only get sweaters and the plainest of shirts there...nothing with a logo or dumb print), Claire's (but they sell clip ons! I was also questioned if I knew they were clip ons...as if "you're too old for these"), and carrying a gross messenger bag.

But at this rate I'm going to leave my ID somewhere by accident, and not be let in for a PG-13 movie. Maybe I should make it a mission to get carded for the most ridiculous thing possible.

And just like childhood, I'll miss this stage of life when it's gone. :-)

hi old friend

I don't miss Joe Torre 'cuz the Yankees aren't perfect anymore. I miss his stoic mug.

oh, teehee, beeteedubs

I earned my first degree black belt last night. :-)
Even if my job doesn't work out (oof, shouldn't have reminded myself) at least I can say I achieved something in DC. (Even if it's just a silly milestone.)

in honor of forcing myself to watch the VP debates

Guess what's gonna happen now? Diana is gonna write tangentially about politics, sound stupid, but doesn't care. YAY!

So hey guys. I am not voting Republican. I agree that Palin is not as qualified of a VP. But as usual, I get sick really easily of constant nonconstructive bashing. I don't mean the Tina Fey business since they make fun of everyone. I mean the consistent barrage of snarky comments. I know I should phase it out, and that there are people who actually are deeply, truly angered as far as they know. But a lot of people aren't. They're just kicking someone when they're down.

This opinion piece that was sent to me gave me faith that someone feels the same way that I do. I don't quite buy the "McCain is sexist" sentiment, but I do feel that we have to give Palin credit for even attempting this hard road till November.

My point is that, Sarah Palin never struck me as stupid. When she talked about not backpacking across Europe and working her whole life, beneath the dumb anti-intellectual dig, I saw a gem of truth. I wish she had have mined it, instead of trying to score a cheap point. Rambling aside, she simply isn't ready. Maybe she would be eight years from now, but she isn't ready now, any campaign worth its salt would have known this.

It's true that she could have turned down the nomination, but somehow, I get the feeling that didn't seem like an option. If I were sitting as a newly elected governor in the non-contiguous United States, and someone asked me to be his running mate, I think I would be equally as unprepared. She's been learning over the past 5 weeks what's expected of her, how she's supposed to act, how she's not supposed to say "darn right" that much, and for on the job super-stressful training, I'd say she's doing alright.

Am I the only person who thinks she's closer to a normal person than the rest of the candidates? I don't mean "most like us" or "true American"...I just mean...abnormally normal. So she sounds dumb sometimes. Maybe has strong opinions that us liberals really really really whooooa there DO NOT agree with. But that's what normal people are like! You get nervous before interviews. You don't speak as much double talk (and speak more lines that are fed to you) and you speak about the little you know about. She's not your average lifelong politician. Thus far in her career, she's in the "hey, I make a good figurehead and I'm probably smart enough to lead the population of X" phase. X is not yet America as a whole. And my point is once again, that it's not her fault. So if somehow I could get everyone to agree, could we please not take cheap shots at her public speaking? And also at her family? Since when can parents control their kids. Honestly now. Go look outside.

extremely practical knowledge

I used to do so many of these for my xanga. I should take more quizzes! Yessss middle school blogs.

I could survive for 51 seconds chained to a bunk bed with a velociraptor

the latest in my laziness

Hey there. (a continuation of hi there)
So we all know I don't cook. Ha. There went that New Years Resolution of one recipe a week. (Though the thing that bothers me about recipes is you have to get all these random items and spices and I don't have enough cabinet space that I can readily reach...)

My latest in cutting edge laziness.

Normal ramen.

Not peanut butter noodles, but just normal ramen.

The twist? You knew there had to be one. :-) First it's made in the microwave. Just put water and the noodles (I like mine on the undone side, so I don't even necessarily immerse all of the noodles) in a bowl, and nuke for 3 minutes. But before you add the noodles...crack an egg and throw that in. There you have it. Poached egg and ramen. Take out the noodles, add a half a packet or less of the soup base, and you have yourself a delicious instant treat. Wasn't that sad??? But hey, I never get home before 8pm at the earliest, and sometimes a girl gets hungry.

Usually if made in a pot, like a normal person would do it, add the egg in towards the end...I like my eggs slightly runny. =P But I can't afford these luxuries when I'm making my nuke it and forget about it meals. Let cool in the microwave until you remember you made food.

homage to the good things

Example of a good thing:
The old King Arthur cartoon. And the kickin' theme song.


Been going through a lot lately and it won't stop! I'm letting people down, people are letting me down, it's a big mess. I also pulled my first all-nighter, but not even to get work done (if it happened, it happened) but I kind of wanted to know if I was capable of doing it a week or two from now.

Other good things. Hmm.
I've managed to label myself as a casual gamer. I hate that term, because I feel like I'm "better" than that (whatever that means) but I'll face it. I haven't been able to get into a game since...Gunbound. And I couldn't handle that 'cuz there were items you could only get with real money. Anyway, most of my fun on the computer happens at work during lunch (or not) so it has to be text or flash based, and most likely labeled as "casual".

So, if there are any other casual gamers out there ::gag:: Here are two sites you shouldn't live without:
Jay is Games - Self labeled as a casual gameplay site for reviews, walkthroughs, and discussion. The reviews are almost too thorough, for reviews that possibly take themselves too seriously. (Love them anyway.) Aaaaaand, most of the time you're not going to be reading the reviews. Say you're done wasting time the normal way - reading your news and blogs far too efficiently using Google Reader, checked sports standings, facebook, etc - and you just want a fresh new distraction! Updated about 1-3 times a day, there will be at least one link you'll want to check out. Even if it's just a 5 minute flash animation or click around no-replay value game. It'll be a good break!

Casual Collective - "built by two friends to provide a place to combine their two great loves: Social networking and Casual gaming." Yeah. Sigh. I only discovered this today, and only to play Flash Element TD2. But then I caught glimpse of multiplayer DTD. It's gotta be good.

hi there

If you somehow don't know already from my many many whinewhinewhine outlets, it's rough times here in my life. Not in terms of more than usual emotional turmoil, no. No time for that. It's a lot of work/tkd/lsat-if-retake-it crunch time.

Important in a busy life is this: having exactly what your tummy is craving so you can get over it and get back to work. It's not like I ever cooked in the first place, but here I offer...

Ridiculously easy snacks I could've made in the 3rd grade but are still good and not as expensive as delivery so THERE (part 1)

• peanut butter sandwiches - with a glass of milk...really one of the most satisfying snacks known to man (who are not allergic to peanuts)
  
• peanut butter ramen - you know the drill. or you don't. just ask.
  
• mashed potatoes from a box - so what if it's not that great...you put it in a bowl with water and nuke it...and then you mixmixmix and add some milk and butter if you want to. and cheese. whatever you want, really. pepper to perfection.
  
• hard boiled eggs - so these actually take a small amount of skill if you don't want undercooked/green yolks. but you can make a billion at a time and save them for later. take out the yolk and it's actually healthy?
  

Go forth and snack, people. I think the mashed potatoes and the peanut butter sandwiches are the ones I forget about the most.

can't stop giggling

obsessed. I want this cat. So badly.
with sound effects:


without:


---
also unrelated video with post-it notes by Eepybird (the Diet Coke and Mentos people)

EepyBird's Sticky Note experiment from Eepybird on Vimeo.

kitten travels

From Cute Overload...sure to brighten your day.

fun with your PC webcam

I think Macbooks (at least before the eee pc/tiny laptop craze!) have established themselves as the "it" notebook computer to have. It's not only trendy, it's actually just...really the best notebook in a lot of respects. I'm sure a lot of sales came from Macbook envy...or at least that's why I wanted one. :-) (I still don't have one though.) Seeing those clean running long battery life sleek user friendly mac notebooks in lecture...that was enough. But to boot, I think when people got their brand new macbook, shortly after there was a "fun with Photo Booth" album on facebook. I wanted Photo Booth (and a webcam) so badly...

I recently read a post in Lifehacker, Effortlessly Document Your Party with Simple Photo Projects. They're all great ideas. And I think I might invest in an Eye-fi card so I never have to hook up my camera to my laptop again (that would actually change EVERYTHING). You should read it. One of the ideas is to put in a photo booth at your party--what better way to get pictures of everyone than to make them do it themselves?

I decided to play around with Cameroid, a web based photobooth app, and make a mosaic from mosaic maker like I did in this old post. I had to upload them to flickr first though.

Enjoy this small sampling of options available. And actual pictures of me. And PC people, enjoy Cameroid! (I look green in the pics b/c of my webcam...I was sitting against a futon with a very red cover...and I was too lazy to do anything about it.)

simple pleasures

What a terrible/great picture.
Anyway, US Open is on. It's pouring outside, buckets. Though it's gonna stop in two hours or so, and I'm kind of sad about it. I kind of love the sound of drenching rain, knowing I am sheltered and am safe from it. And so I can work a tiny bit without thinking I should be outside. :-)

hi.la.ri.ous

from If You See Something

um, like, awkward

(via flickr photo search of "awkward turtle")

Things I am finding myself say more often, which coincidentally are things I hate hearing myself say

• like
  
• um, no
  
• that's not okay
  
• it was awkward
  

The first three are just annoying mannerisms I've lost, regained, and have come to rely on. Argh. This is what happens when a quiet person starts talking too much. Sigh. However, that last one is beginning to bother me on so many levels.

Do I put myself in awkward situations? Do I create awkward situations? Am I perceiving normal things as awkward? Am I overusing the term? Or, are a majority of things in life "awkward" and it's just a matter of being able to recognize it? (Yes, I realize this is pretty much the question of my perception.)

I'd like to believe that I'm awkward (as opposed to unnecessarily exaggerating everything) and that when I say a situation was awkward/really weird/so strange, it really was, and I am warranted for labeling it as such. But I worry about how almost every part of my life feels awkward. I'm guessing that's just how things are, but I think I'm going to need to redefine the term if I plan on not dwelling over every little thing for a long time after and just living life.

Absolutely Free

This weekend I did a small bit of grocery shopping and happened to see that these were on sale in the supermarket. (The featured item in the circular was a double fudge ice cream bar but I ended up getting the orange creme bar since it was all that was available.) I googled the product quickly before setting out on my excursion.

Absolutely Free ice cream - fat free, cholesterol free, lactose free...

Sounds delicious-free, right? Well, I expected the reviews or comments to have things mixed in like "Don't bother, just eat real ice cream" or "also free of TASTE" but they were all positive reviews. And yay for lactose free things. So I tried it.

And it was good.

It didn't taste exactly like ice cream, but how much can I ask for? It was a nice frozen treat, that very closely resembled ice cream and in Alex's words, "I've had worse things that do have lactose and fat in it."

80 calories a bar. I recommend it. I hate the term guilt free snack, but if you're the type to categorize your snacks, I guess this would be one of them.

wakin' up

Hello, blogger blog. Are you at all encouraged by the fact that I've been posting less? More work done perhaps? Maybe once I stop posting in the other blogs too. :-)

WEEKEND UPDATE of things posted here and here:

Hundred pushups - somehow, I made it to day 1 of week 2! Even if it took more than a week and some to get there. MEH. It's a small motivating factor that I might be held to do 50 pushups for my black belt exam in a few weeks. Also Warren has been keeping up with his pushups too!

Whitening mouthwash - Well, I haven't noticed any whitening, but I also haven't been using it everyday. Forgive me if the comments on the product page make it seem like if I overuse it or rinse for more than 30 seconds my mouth will disintegrate. But like I said the first time, bubbling action always feels good.

Journal keeping - the short bus rides I take that aren't good for reading like I want them to be are indeed perfect for journals! Even bought an overpriced 4-color pen over the weekend.

nooooooo

Google is making its own browser, Chrome.

Why aren't Mozilla and Google playing nice??? I don't want to feel like I have to CHOOSE between the two evils in disguise. (Okay, I haven't found anything evil in Mozilla yet and I <3 Firefox.)

Ubiquity

Ubiquity

It's the buzz of pretty much every tech site I've visited today. Mozilla has come out with a sort of uber extension for your browser...where you can bring everything you want in the web to you, instead of the other way around.

Trying it out right now. There's isn't much that I don't already have a quick search engine up in the corner for already, but it feels pretty cool to use. :-)

degrees of separation

Commercials featuring songs by bands with members who are good friends with friends of mine. One of them is Jamie's friend. :-)

Tally Hall - "The Whole World and You"
Crayola

Noah and the Whale - "5 Years Time"
Saturn

need more protein

My easy meals are uninspired, but always yummy since I put what I know I want in. Really, the key of cooking. :-) Sometimes I follow recipes that look yummy, and I pick up the spices they ask for, which I'm most likely unfamiliar with, and then it's all "interesting" and unexpected. Good for sometimes, but not good for quick meals after TKD.

Pasta with one of three options:

• pasta sauce and mozzarella (if lucky!)
  
• a can of white clam sauce (yum!)
  
• just olive oil, basil, salt, and pepper (ghetto pesto)
  
• peanut butter, soy sauce, and sriracha (hot sauce) (the alternative to the peanut butter ramen we all know and love if I've made it for you, but for when I don't feel like digging up a packet of soup base)
  

With the frequency that I cook, it keeps me well entertained enough. :-) I'm ready to eat on $2 a day...(why does that seem high? Is it because I eat a half a box at a time?)

And for a dash of protein, I'll hard boil an egg. Anything that lets me put a pot to boil and wander off for a few minutes = win.

yum, homebrew

In case you didn't know: You can now easily hack your Wii to play DVDs and also add a nice little Homebrew channel for other things, like DOOM. DOOM!!!

All you need is a copy of Twilight Princess, and a (probably dedicated) SD card. And a minimal amount of effort, for such a substantial hack.

It'll be my weekend project!

sibling rivalry

So maybe this is turning into a commercial blog. No matter. I love the Mannings. The Williams sisters are okay. The concept is beyond silly, and I only like the actual commercial (until 0:35). And I think I only like the commercial because the line "It's on like Donkey Kong" is used.

Pimp My Portfolio

This is a random commercial that I just saw on the TBS World's Funniest Commercials special. It has a special place in my heart because back when I was in Germany for a summer, all I had for a week in the empty basement of darkness and neighbors I never saw and the empty fridge was a TV that only displayed in green that had maybe 3 channels. One of them was MTV. OMG English. Yay. And Pimp My Ride was ALWAYS on. I don't know why. And that show was ridiculous. So is this commercial.

Also, YESSSS they're now playing that Jackie Chan commercial I love that's for Visa when he's trying to "get into the Olympic games"...

a break from excellence

Well, the Olympics are over. Time to see some..."different" gymnastics. Sent to me by my coworker, Megha, this is Paul Hunt performing one of his famous comedic gymnastics routines...this time on the balance beam. In case you're thinking "wtf, he seems to actually know his stuff" it's because he actually was a competitive gymnast, at least on the collegiate level. He went on to coach!

Okay, but seriously, man feet and man legs on that 4 inch balance beam? That's really impressive.

today's Rite Aid haul

So last week at TKD, one of the little girls gave me an orange. It's actually still in my bag. Goodness knows that fruit stays in my bag for at least 2 weeks before I eat it unless it starts to rot.

Anyway, today she comes up to me and she asked "Do you have something for me?"

"What do you mean, Sarah?"

"Well I gave you an orange last week; hello???"

"Oh, okay, I'm so sorry, I'll give you something on Wednesday, okay?"

So anyway, we talked about what she wanted. I was hoping she wanted like, a peach, but she wanted makeup. So I think she's 7 years old. And I know she has a pretty big collection of Lip Smackers. What else is appropriate for a 7 yr old? Oh well. I got some other brand of lip gloss. I hope she doesn't hate it. The wrath of a child is the harshest.

OH, but reason why M&Ms are the pic of the day. I went into Rite Aid to get Sarah her present. ("Maybe you can pick something up when you get on the bus!" Cute. I used to think airplanes were marketplaces in the sky.) I had a craving for Whoppers last week so I got a carton of those. While in the candy aisle, I saw that M&Ms were on sale. Got two 10+ oz bags of those. Yikes. And a box of microwave popcorn. Go me!!! I did "day 2" of my pushups again today. So far over the course of a week and a half I've done day 1, day 2 and...day 2. =P

food coma

Hello.

No matter how yummy the $6 large pizza is on Monday evenings, you should probably put it in the fridge after having about 3 slices. Because. Half a pizza is not good for work. Or TKD. But I have an hour and a half to digest until then so let's hope.

Now that the Olympics are over, I'm gonna spend some time at home streaming some things I missed. And then I'll be back to full non-productivity not having to do with the Olympics.

status report!

Well, since I clearly declared the 3 things I'm trying to spruce things up here, I should offer an update. Don't know if I'll have time this weekend!

Hundred pushups: Eh, I sort of started it, which was an accomplishment in itself. :-) But I guess I find pushups pretty boring in the end. You have to do 5 sets with a minute or two rest in between. I don't have the attention span for that. It's pretty sad. The rest in between sets is what gets me. I can waste time perfectly well, but purposefully waiting and wasting time, not so good. And not enough can get done in a minute! Maybe I'll stretch in between.

Moleskine journal: Been going pretty well! But I like to blab to myself, and the pages are small, so it's really easy to feel like I've accomplished something in writing a page or two. I need to remember to write in it while I'm at home too.

Listerine Pre-Brush Whitening Mouthwash: I bought this after my friend recommended it. Not for the whitening part, but just that it gets your teeth really clean. It's pretty fun. Bubbling action is always a big seller. It does NOT taste as bad as everyone keeps complaining about. However, I have to admit that the mouthwash hardly touches my tongue at all since I don't gargle--just get the stuff around my teeth. Maybe it is actually god-awful. But you should be able to rinse without having to immerse your tongue too much. Anyway, I've only ended up using it twice (opening a bottle is too much effort for me...). We'll see!

Well that's the recap of week 1. Look at the original post if you don't know what I'm talking about.

I rode my bike to work yesterday, which is carried over from my last set of life sprucing purchases!

I'm surprised at myself

I talk the talk sometimes, but let's face it, I'm not actually sentimental about most things. I'm not sure if I'm just grasping at anything to miss college for, but I am truly grateful for and miss the Yale TKD team. I still train here, but it's not the same.

Here's a random picture of a dude from Taiwan (Chinese Taipei, whatever) who won bronze in his weight class. =P



I have been staying up late streaming TKD on nbcolympics.com. It's partially because I've grown fond of the sport, yes, and also because I miss Olympic sparring over the Point sparring style I've been forced to do now, but at some point I realized as I was watching that all I wanted to do was e-mail my tkd team, talk to them about sparring, and psych them up. As if there were a tournament coming up. As if I were still on the team now, less am one year removed from a team that has upped the training about 10 fold since I left and probably know better than I do now. But I still sent an e-mail to a list I created (the chat list :-)) as if they still, or ever, looked to me for leadership.

In fact I want to send them an e-mail right now and tell them to watch a match I just saw, to see how the girl from Taiwan checked with the front leg a few times before most of her fast kicks, effectively used the axe kick and even some jumping back kicks...

But I won't. For now.

I've lost sleep and basically my life due to the Olympics. (On TV and streaming on my laptop at the same time.) And I'm all the more addicted to caffeine.

The Olympics really are the equivalent of a fake Hallmark holiday...but in sports! I also heard the Olympics being called the reality TV of sports. SIGH.

I'm posting because I feel like I owe the blog a hello. HELLO!!!

Life is a bit insane at the moment. Nothing big to talk about; most of it is happening in my head. :-)

JB visiting was really nice. I love visitors!

mosaic me

Somethin' somethin' that's been going around Tumblr.

Type your answer to the questions into flickr search
- using only the first page, pick an image
- copy and paste each of the urls of the mosaic maker

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favorite food?

3.What high school did you go to?

4.What is your favorite color?

5.Who is your celebrity crush?

6.What is your favorite drink?

7.What is your dream vacation?

8.What is your favorite dessert?

9.What do you want to do when you grow up?

10.Who/ what do you love most in life?

11.Choose one word that describes you?

12.What is your Flickr name?



Try not to judge me. :-) I honestly had no good answers to 5, 6, 9, or 11...at least...
Also be proud. It took a lot of willpower not to choose the random cat option for a lot of them. =P Even pizza had at least two cat picture hits.

1. Tempio di Diana (reloaded), 2. Pizza Porn, 3. Hunter perked up, 4. An Appointment with Indigo, 5. Jonathan Togo as Ryan Wolfe, 6. FUZE: We like WHITE TEA ©, 7. Welcome to Jamaica., 8. Peanut Butter Cup Brownie Bottom Cheesecake, 9. Asian Kung-fu Generation, 10. Brother & Sister Cuddle, 11. apathetic, 12. Muroo Dam

I lied

I think I said before that I don't care about track and field. Apparently it's more that I forgot that I liked track. :-) Hated cross country though. Okay, even that's a lie. Ugh, fine. I think I only like track because they gave out medals for the top 6 places in indoor track and the top 15 or so in cross country, and I got my first non-math team (shut up) awards from it.

Also I love Jamaicans. They remind me of Cool Runnings. WHICH STILL MAKES ME SHED A TEAR AT THE END.

sweet happy love love

I'm so glad the Olympics in China means that this commercial gets more airtime. I just think it's really cute. Time for me to go to a market to find myself a cute and endearingly clumsy market boy.

get your laptop on (the plane)

TSA approved laptop bags that will lower your risk of having to take it out of the bag...

Considering the way I pack, I'd have to have the laptop within another carryon anyway, so I guess I'd still have to take it out. Backpacks rule. They hold all of the essentials...laptop, underwear, chargers, yeah.

reasons I want a roommate

Have I ever mentioned how much I love this Target commercial? Also, let's face it, you're more likely to be in a situation of decorating such a large room after leaving college than when you're in it. Two rugs??? I think we had a bath rug in ours...that barely fit.

changing the pace

I'm sure you've all heard it before, but I find when I'm in a rut, I grab for anything new to help make life more interesting, and have it carry over to my general happiness.

Once upon a time, it was starting this blog. :-) (Also my spinbrush toothbrush, the bicycle, watercolor painting...)

This new round of new things:

Starting a new paper journal! My last one was getting ratty, but also not very used. It was really cool when it lasted though and I love reading it. I took it to Taiwan and Europe and it outlined my main phases of boys...:-)


A workout plan to do a 100 pushups at the end. Hopefully doing it with Warren and maybe my officemate. Though, if I get past week 2 I'll be really surprised. I think my favorite pushup related workout is actually the 50 pushup warmup...where you do 50 pushups, broken up into as many sets as you want...as long as you're doing crunches when you're not doing pushups. Damn. That kicked my ass the one time I had to do it. Anyway, I technically have to do 50 pushups for my black belt exam...


Listerine Pre-Brush Whitening Mouthwash - Guys, this totally counts. Goes with my new spinbrush. So...I find my dental hygiene is lacking and a whiter smile will raise my self esteem, right? Meh. We'll see how that one goes.

gettin' tainted

On a happier note, I received my novice black belt (almost black) today. I think it's pretty. :-) From what I remember reading once, the belt system works the way it does (starting at white and ending at black) in order to symbolize purity or innocence, slowly becoming more, um, drawn to the dark side?

Here's a really cheesy interpretation of the belts...

reminds me of my angry days

Here's a story involving me and a cab last night. On a somewhat reflective note, this encounter reminds me of how I'm changed since intermediate school...I used to be really angry, full of "Diana Rage (TM)" and now I'm overly nice. I thrown my fair share of punches and given a good number of shoves. But I think I've gotten wayyy too soft. Should've reached through the bullet proof window and slapped this mofo.

Okay. It was good times at my officemate's bday party.

I considered taking the bus to the metro from the place but there were a few cabs outside when I emerged. I hail one.

I tell him where I’m going. He hears me and starts on his merry way.

A split second later he looks across the street and…

cabbie: “Aw man, I missed picking up 4 people. Do you mind?”

me: “Uh, you want me to get out?”

cabbie: “Yeah, I’m sorry, you look so sweet…”

I get out, in complete shock, that I, a girl, regardless of hotness or not, not only get passed up for 4 dudes across the street, but I get told to get out of the cab I’m already in so he can serve the 4 guys. That’s not even racial profiling or anything. Somehow this is worse. That’s just absurdly mean and ridiculous. If I hadn’t been in such a good mood coming out of the party, I would have not been in such shock and maybe remembered to get his name and cab number or just give him some attitude. Because that’s very illegal.

W. T. F.

I was in NE DC (pretty ghetto), alone, and all of 5’3”. You are the worst man I have ever met, cabbie. You left me for what seemed like 4 frat guys, just for the extra charges for extra passengers.

I took the bus like a good frugal (and I guess slightly fearless?) girl to the metro and went back to my crashpad for the night. With the really nice kitty. She makes it better.

don't let me get you

I'm not sure if this made a splash when it came out a long while ago, but I only recently heard the song "Dear Mr. President" by P!nk (featuring Indigo Girls?)



Let me start with this statement. I hate this song. You guys know I ain't no Bush supporter. But all it does it blame Bush for all of the problems in the world, as if he's some cruel God that could instantly fix things if he wanted to, which he isn't, and thus this song isn't constructive at all. It's really accusatory on his character, and not critiquing his administration. (And given the US President's celebrity-like status, who's to say we even know what his character and personality is like? Everything is overinflated in the media.)

I just generally don't like it when things are done just to make a stir or an overdramatic statement, when it will clearly not achieve anything (but a lot of far-left Bush haters to buy her CD).

I find that the only times I ever really speak out on an issue is when people come down to the level of flashy strong comments. After Bush won the election in 2004, I saw panlists erupt in Democratic despair, where people would post comments in the vein of "lets go to canada" and "sh** why is America so retarded?" and many references to bumblef*** America. I'm sure the Republicans on those panlists weren't offended at all.

Anyway, it might just be because I'm more centrist/moderate than the average liberal, but this goes in my cheap-shot/tasteless category. Used to like you more, P!nk.

PS - speaking of tasteless, did anyone find the post women's gymnastics team final interview with Alicia Sacramone to be tasteless, cruel, and unnecessary? You know what I'm talking about if you do...

Forgive me as I reblog some of my tumblr posts right now. I've been more chatty on tumblr lately, as I didn't originally intend to do. I'll have them diverge more soon! (Sorry to the, I don't know, 3 or so people that read both.) Namely I hope to fix this now, as I am finally off of catsitting duties and the Olympic coverage focuses on things that I care less about. Maybe it's because I used to run track that I...hate it? Wait, it should be the opposite, right? Hmm. I'm just a bitter person. Most of you knew that. =P

casual diversions #2

My next post is another tower defense game...Protector: Reclaiming the Throne.

Originally found from this casual gaming site, Jay is Games, it's a whole lot of lost productivity. :-) At first it was under control, but I'm still not sure if there's a pause button. Instead of attack towers like in Desktop Tower Defense (from the first casual game post) you have mages and warriors, and you level them up with gold via certain tracks. A "Skill Tree" determines available tracks and your skill trees grow with skill points, which you earn with each map you clear.

Anyway, I almost gave up on this game after not being able to beat any maps for a while. But after some peeking at a walkthrough for strategies I'm back and more engrossed than ever. (Not super engrossed.)

I like DTD better, but I'm over that game for a while, after resparking interest in it a whole 3 times.

link roundup?

Catsitting and end of the biweek leads to no posting! But here are some links of note from the past few days. :-) (Mined from my tumblrz)

Muxtape: NEStape
If you are unfamiliar with muxtape, it's a site where you can create your own mix tape, and share it with the world! Did anyone ever make a mixtape? I've definitely recorded radio onto a cassette tape to listen to on my walkman way way wayyyyy back when. And then there were mix CDs. And now playlists. Or worse yet, people just putting their whole mp3 device on shuffle!!! (I do it too.) Anyway, this muxtape is just some NES sound files (midi sounding style!) and I had a good morning with it yesterday. =P

NYTimes: Records Say Chinese Gymnasts May Be Under Age (OLD)
This is an article from July, outlining the more specific allegations and evidence against the Chinese girls. Until I found this article, I thought it was all speculation and people ratting on asians that don't look their age (ahem) but this seems a lot sketchier than I thought. Either the records are wrong now, or they were before, and neither is something to be proud of.

Can You Guess the Movie from Just One Letter?
I failed miserably. I think I got 10 or 11, but after looking at some of the more distinctive ones, I feel like I should've known them. Or at least seen the movie. :-) I need to take 2 months off and get a netflix trial...

link roundup

Today was slow day at work + pub quiz night + the Olympics are clearly still on so...I have not much to say.

Here's today's link dump! WOOOOO.

Engadget: Another flexible circuit project emerges, carbon nanotubes to blame
I have to admit. Pretty much ONLY because I've had to examine a patent app or two that I think carbon nanotubes are pretty cool. I guess all nano stuff is cool in general, but I used to etch these tips in lab that used to grow them and I still didn't care.
Anyway the moral of the lesson of the article: small things (like people!) can be surprisingly useful.

Webware: Your gas: it's social
This is just STRANGE. Isolated, it's a pretty good idea. You put in how much you spend for gas, when you did it...it tracks your mileage and fuel economy, which might be a good thing. Maybe you're trying a new longer route to work with less stop and go, and you want to know if it saves you gas over the course of a week? But to make it a social site? Get a group a friends and maybe it'll be fun -- but I'll be damned if I go "fuelly" stalk someone to judge and see how thrifty they are. Though it might be good to compare and see if you suck at dealing with getting the most drive for your dollar. :-)

Gizmodo: The World's First Webmail Service Using Live Snails
This is just funny. Just go and read it.
(Thanks for sending this to me, Hao!)

Bonus video today!
This is Sungha Jung playing "Kiss From a Rose" on a guitar. If you've never heard of him, or "jwcfree" on Youtube, you should definitely check him out. He looks tiny but he's almost 12 (Chinese Women's gymnastics controversy anyone?) and is a bit of a "Finger Style Guitar Playing Prodigy". (Yeah, not my words.)
Anyway, this isn't his best, but I think it's one of the songs I knew well in the first place so I can enjoy it better. Subscribe to him. It's like having a mix CD with all of the random stuff he plays. And he comes out with a new recording every week or usually less!



*edit
Okay, I may or may not love this video more. Because he's curled up against a wall with the light hitting in a strange way, and he's gonna break some hearts one day I imagine. "With or Without You"!

casual diversions #1

I don't have much to say these days. By these days, I mean during the course of the Olympics.

Let's begin in what I hope to be a series of posts that are in reserve in my brain.

Writing lesson #1 (or maybe it's #5, but it's something basic): Write about what you know about.

Unfortunately for productivity, I am a connoisseur of addictive (but not too involved!) online distractions. Mostly in the form of flash games. :-)

These have to be a special kind of game. There has to be very comfortable natural breaks in the game (e.g. between levels) or the pause function has to be non-detrimental.

Let's just get to the good stuff. Desktop Tower Defense

Featured in the best of Web 2.0 2007 on Webware, and featured on NPR, this was bound to be a winner. As you can tell from the title, it's a tower defense game. :-) I think those I've introduced the game to will refute my claim that it is not TOO addictive. It is. But only if you let it take over your life. I find it really easy to get to a point in the game where you can pause and not have to retain any groove in your mind, and just pop back in, especially if you choose to play a casual game and don't rush the waves too much.

The tower defense premise is just that you lay down attack units in a set place, upgrade them in a variety of ways, and usually are able to sell them for a fraction of their invested value. Waves of enemies, or "creeps" come in at intervals. In this particular game, you have the option of sending waves early.

Desktop Tower Defense is very easy to learn, and very hard to master. You can create group scoreboards with no effort, and you can look at other people's final maps for inspiration. Just youtube "Desktop Tower Defense" and you'll find a lot of people who want to show off their skillz.

Here's a video that is neither too too long nor too too insane? Reminds me almost exactly of what I've done in the past though...hmmmm...
Anyway, it's sped up and the music's added. No worries.

I did nothing else this weekend

Here are my first impressions of the Olympics. I'll try not to be too boring. :-)

• The Opening Ceremony - a combined effort
  I missed a good chunk of the artistic part of the opening ceremonies because of my false sense of security with DVRs. No matter. Am obtaining a copy as we speak. :-) Also saw most of the Parade of Nations...which I might comment on later. What I did see, visually speaking, was a marvel. It reminded me immediately of the Mass Games, now only practiced in North Korea. The premise is basically...communism. A lot of people, a sum of the parts, achieving a greater, larger effect. A documentary of two normal schoolgirls training for the Mass Games was made by the BBC, "A State of Mind". For some reason this was the only trailer I could find on Youtube. You see that image in the background changing at about 1:33? That's not a big screen TV; that's a lot of people with colored squares, changing the color on cue. I never got the chance to watch the documentary...you should also look up some of the mass games themselves. It's sheer madness.
  
  
  
  
• Michael who?
  In theory, before actually seeing Michael Phelps on TV yesterday I knew who he was. Swimmer. Awesome. Somewhat cocky. But for some reason, when I saw him, I was disappointed to see he did not have slightly long dark hair. Somehow, in my mind, even though I knew who the person was, the image I had in my head had merged with Michael Weiss, the figure skater. How this hair image merge happened, I don't know.
  
  
  
  
• Beach volleyball - one of these things is not like the other...
  Beach volleyball is an awesome sport. I don't have an opinion on whether or not it belongs in the Olympics. All I have to say, is that I think I should be at all of their games. Playing in a marching band. Given the music selection that seems to play at every timeout, I think there should be an Olympic side event of pep band-ing. I think I watched Women's fencing and Women's beach volleyball back to back and it was mindboggling that they were at the same games.
  I swear I heard Bon Jovi.
  
  
• Badminton - Shuttlecock. Ridiculous.
  I have no doubt that I would be completely and utterly trounced by a world class badminton player. I just have no understanding of the sport and what makes a good shot. But I watched a whole match because China was playing someone from Taiwa -- I mean Chinese Taipei, and I was pretty sure I'd never get to see Taipei represented on NBC coverage again. It just seems like the most fruitless sport there is. 90% of your energy expended goes into the frictional forces of the air against through feather on that...shuttlecock.
  
  
  
  

That's all for now! I'm catsitting and there's a cat asleep in the sunshine in a cat bed right now. 100% pure zen.

dream log

I had a pretty weird dream last night.

I went to sleep with the Olympics on, and I think I left it on until about 5am when I finally shut it off. I didn't sleep well, but I'm not tired, so who knows!

Anyway, I dreamt some sort of sequel to Beauty and the Beast.

Yeah, wtf.

For some reason, Beast and Belle weren't together anymore. Either he's immortal and she died, or she left him 'cuz she had an affair--I can't decide. But because she's gone, he turns back into the Beast. Oh noes. He's part of some war, probably having to do with him and how misunderstood he is (I'm guessing some time has passed since he's turned back into the Beast). He's supposed to go deal with some hostages his side of the war captured. But instead a girl falls in love with him, he turns human again, big musical number about "If I had only known..." the Beast was a totally handsome dude, I wouldn't have blahblahblah. Seemingly in my dream I thought the movie was over and resolved. But then the musical number cuts out and it's just Beast dancing in a room with the hostages and he's like "and that's how it'll end! Muahaha. awesome." And then he's like, well, now that you know that, you should also know I killed your families and I'm gonna burn you all alive in this cottage. They're all outraged, Beast lights the fire and is about to escape, but then for whatever reason a big wave of water hits, and extinguishes the flame. The hostages looked pretty angry and were no longer tied up. I woke up about now, but I'm pretty sure some Beast pounding was about to happen.

what I'm doing right now

Wired: Watch the Olympics Online

A wiki article on how to stream the Olympics online or download things. Astoundingly long list of sites...and given the time difference and how work goes, I might just try some out...

Fav looking one so far:

ItsGameTime.tv. Streamed live using flash so no downloading any programs. Although illegal, there are no ads except a donation button for the Olympics.

I don't like the flat out admittance that it's illegal. I'll hold off on that one...

this is what evil looks like

TechCrunch: Elaborate Facebook Worm Virus Spreading

So I've been hearing about the Facebook Worm Malware blah business for a while, but this actually seems really tricky. If I hadn't seen these screenshots, I probably would be virused if I came across this message! Sigh.

The fact that they use a real friend's user picture in the fake site is a great (and scary tactic). Anyway, watch out! (And thanks, Jason, for sharing. =P)

link roundup

Here we go! This seems to be the best format yet. :-) Least input as possible.

Telegraph: Viruses can catch colds, says study that redefines life itself
This BLOWS MY MIND. Is that too dorky? But as Slashdot put it, viruses can catch viruses. And they're alive I guess? Or rather, they should be given a new class of demi-organism. Kind of reminds me of Archaea Extremophiles.

NYTimes: A 10 Isn’t Necessarily Perfect in New Scoring System for Gymnastics
Whoa. Why do I think this is bigger news than it really is? Shouldn't this have been publicized? The new system is sort of like the one for diving, where you perform a dive with a pre-set difficulty and then the judges score on execution and the two are multiplied together. I first learned this from the Winter Games on the Commodore 64. I should probably be ashamed.

The 100 Most Common English Words
Not a post or an article. Just a sort of game. Try and guess as many as you can in 5 minutes. I scored 50, which I think is respectable enough. I got a phone call in the middle and I didn't see a pause button!

Today's bonus video:
Speaking of gymnastics, and since my coworker was wasting time watching her videos recently, here's Mary Lou Retton's uneven bars routine from her Gold Medal all-around win in 1984. She performs her own move: The Retton Flip. :-) You should watch her other videos. I like to believe that girls didn't abuse themselves as much back then. That's probably not true due to old timey taboo body image issues. I just don't know about the 80s though. Maybe it was a good time! That's what the parties make it seem like.

whatchu lookin' at?

One of my favorite phrases (as-is, nothing to do with what it means, wordplay, if I use it a lot) is "Bitches be givin' me eyes".
I don't really know what it is in reference to. I think I've only heard the phrase twice. I suspect it has to do with a girl lookin' at another girl "cuz they think I'm a ho" or "cuz they just wanna be me". But whatever, I like it.

I understand that it's not nice to stare in general. I don't particularly like it when people do it most of the time, and I'm sure we've all had "I found myself staring at the guy and then quickly turned away hoping he didn't notice" moments. But it's an unavoidable part of life, and I'm not even sure why it's rude to stare. Also is there a such thing as it being rude to not-stare?

When you encounter someone of say, physical oddities, I feel like they begin to be aware of children staring because they don't know better, and adults purposefully not staring and ignoring that there is anything abnormal about it. It's a serious lose-lose.

I don't think I'm the only person who feels the need to innocently look at, say, little people (as in those who suffer from dwarfism), just because you don't see them much. I'm not sure if it's DC or not, but I've seen more little people here than ever. I just like to see how it affects their body in a way, if the muscles seems like they grew regardless of body frame, or the deepness of their voice...just minor fascination. I know it'd be less rude to say, look it up online or read about it. But instead I choose to look at little people passing by.

But WAIT, that's rude. I don't want them to seem on display. So instead I will purposefully look to the side or at the ground or worse yet, over them.

NO, I need to look casual and gracefully stare at absolutely nothing, as if they don't exist.

But it's not like they're PARIAHS okay what do I do.

Usually by now they're on the metro or something. So whew.

My solution is that we need to get rid of this staring is bad business. As long as it's not a guy looking at someone and licking his lips, I really think it's okay. And those afflicted by being stared at -- white people in China, women with exceptionally large breasts, men with exceptionally beautiful hair, people with acne, girl with really cool shoes I probably looked at for too long the other day just to catch glimpses of them from under her pant legs when she walked, etc -- will just have to take it upon themselves to become more confident people, and know that everyone gets stared at for something.

christmelicious

Tonight at pub quiz night:

Question: What are the names of 4 people who have federal holidays?

Our answer: Martin Luther King, Jr., Columbus, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln (well, they got clumped into President's Day...)

Correct answer: Martin Luther King, Jr., Columbus, George Washington, and Jesus Christ

H'okay lady (the quizmaster tonight was a woman). We considered Jesus Christ as a joke, because unlike Jesus (please don't let me start any fights) Abraham Lincoln was a real dude. And even though we no longer celebrate Abe's birthday, one can consider President's Day to be Washington's AND Lincoln's day among other things. Christmas has a rather contraversial origin. In fact, we considered Santa Claus over Jesus Christ.

Here's the thing (wikipedia entry as reference...)
Christmas Tree --> Pagan origins
Christmas occuring in December --> to appease Romans who loved their winter solstice festivals
Ye olden Gregorian calendar dates --> translated to arbitrary Julian calendar dates (unlike Hanukkah, which has the guts to just be whenever it should traditionally be)

Anyway, I'm not arguing that Christmas is a celebration of Christ in some way, whether or not the holiday or date itself is relevant. I'm just typing this out so I can go to bed happy from the Jackie Chan Visa commercial. 'Nite. :-)

olympic psych up #2

Since my obsession of the week is apparently Jackie Chan, here is a Visa commercial that will let me sleep happy.



Your bonus Jackie video of the evening (hopefully the last...) is actually of Pablo Francisco. Some of the jokes aren't funny, but his two main impressions (movie trailer/Soul Calibur game narrator man and Jackie Chan) are pretty good. He's got a GTA: San Francisco (spoof of San Andreas) sketch out there...you find it yourself. =P

go nerds go

Engadget: Move over, OLPC -- the $12 Apple II-based PC is coming


(*edit - just released; the $12 is actually based off of an NES knockoff. even better. Slashdot post here.)

Alright, so it won't be a laptop, adorable, or have a cheeky Linux-based OS that's eventually replaced by Windows, but unlike the OLPC or the too-good-to-be-true $10 laptop, the $12 PC currently being developed at MIT will probably hit its price target.

I'm sure it'll be shaped like a box. It's not like I don't believe in Apple products because I still think the best notebook out there is the MacBook (overall, considering a lot of intangibles) but I would totally buy this.

Well, that or the original "$100 laptop" (by said mentioned OLPC in the article headline), the XO laptop. It's waterproof...how is that not a standard feature by now?

my ride is so fly

What in the name of fugly cute is that? It's the Terrafugia Transition!

Engadget: Terrafugia Transition flying car shows up at air show, doesn't fly

So it doesn't fly yet, but I have hopes. Flying cars is definitely one of those milestones that means we're advancing as a people as defined by science fiction. True nuff though, if this thing needs a runway, what makes it better than an airplane? Well, airplanes traditionally have no control over their wheels and their power is generated by the turbines or propellers, which sends air over the wings and creates thrust and lift. So the wheels just spin as they're told to by friction. I asked myself that question not thinking I'd come up with anything. Go me and not asking my brain before I type.

So flying car has power steering on the ground. Yay!