eat pray snooze

- Apparently there is some game now where teenagers try to strangle each other until they almost pass out. My coworker in Denver told me that her daughters are friends with girls who were playing this game, and one of them collapsed in the school bathroom, hit her head on the sink and cracked her skull. Everyone involved obviously got into deep shit. Ah to think, when I was a wee teen, all I did after school was to go home and watch Batman reruns and eat instant noodles. I was totally deprived.

- The Pope says condoms are acceptable in certain circumstances. When? Like when priests molest little boys? I'd say.

- Oh Emma Watson...you are just about the most awesome young actress there is. I am so excited for what you'll do with your career post-Harry Potter (after you finish your History studies at Brown). Please always stay who you are and not success, adulthood, or Hollywood ruin you.

- But Harry Potter movie is actually quite boring, especially since I haven't read any but the first book and don't follow the plot at all. I cannot for the life of me remember what happened in the previous movies, even though I've seen them all.

- 29 trapped New Zealand miners die in second coal mine explosion.

- But New Zealand teens, presumed dead after being lost at sea for 50 days, have just been rescued. God takes, and God gives.

- Amazon Video On Demand offered $.99 rentals this weekend on some movies, and I have a $8 credit on my account, so I decided to watch Letters To Juliet, Eat Pray Love, and Date Night. I quite enjoyed Letters To Juliet. Italy is of course beautiful, and Amanda Seyfried is sort of the go-to girl now for this type of movie. Although I am one of the minority who doesn't find either Tina Fey or Steve Carrell to be particularly funny, Date Night was somewhat mildly amusing and serviceable. But Eat Pray Love was a total bore and actually total crockery. How did that book become a bestseller? It's basically about a bored middle-aged white American who has to go to some other continent to find herself when there was barely anything wrong with her life to begin with. I don't like stories about spoiled people with pretend problems. Now, if the balance of Middle Earth is at stake, that's a story!

- So tomorrow I am off to Baltimore for work for a week. I actually have to give two presentations. Yeah it's gonna suck. Not to mention the ordeal at the airport tomorrow and Friday. I wonder whether I should choose to be groped or to have naked photo taken of me. It's like Sophie's choice, except minus the Holocaust and Meryl Streep's Polish accent. As tempting as the physical groping is (yo, more action that I've gotten in a long, long time), I think I might opt for the more efficient naked scanning. I just hope they can keep the laughter to themselves and under control.

leave you shakin'

I am loving this song Shake by Jesse McCartney:



As much as I liked his Leavin':

last christmases

Well it's almost xmas time. Right after tomorrow (Thanksgiving), Christmas kicks in for reals. Last Christmas has got to be like in my top three xmas songs ever. So here it is, in various incarnations:

Travis:


Coldplay:


Savage Garden:


And of course Wham:

traffic cameras

Monday morning I was driving down Oak crossing Octavia when I noticed a bright flash. I immediately thought, Shit, did I run a red light? I quickly looked and saw that the light was still green, and there was a car behind me and a car next to me. That didn't stop me from worrying though.

Tuesday morning I confirmed that there were in fact traffic cameras installed at the intersections.

Now I am all freaking out. I am anxiously waiting for a moving violation ticket in the mail and then a fight ahead of me. I hear the fine is about $500 plus cost of traffic school to get this off your record. Damn, that's an iPad right there. I also hear that these traffic camera violations are impossible to fight since the court relies completely in the accuracy of the cameras, unlike tickets issued by traffic cops, in which case you have a chance that the cop won't show up in court to testify and the citation would be thrown out.

Yeah, things like this just piss me off. I guess I'll be worrying about this for the next few weeks, and a ticket will either come or not come. I am in fact the worrying kind.

like a surgeon

So I stand completely corrected on the awesome-ness of surgical mask fashion. I was wrong. Now I secretly wish we have a (fake) bird flu scare so I can rock the surgical mask look. I have so many choices to go with:

highway robbery

Today's thoughts floating around in my head:

- Dang it. Noticed first scratches on new car, near right bottom of bumper. I don't even know when it happened - must have hit some curb or something while parking. Ugh! As they say, first scratch is the deepest. Okay - they actually say cut, but same idea. I just need to adopt some zen attitude and convince myself it's not a big deal. It's gotta happen eventually, I suppose.

- Seems as if my mom's cataract surgeries have gone well and her eyes are healing properly. Thank goodness she's found a good doctor.

- They are asking me to take a lead role in a work project and offering a temporary promotion for it. I have really mixed feeling about it. I honestly just want to be left alone and do my own little thing. Why do they keep coming at me with these things? But then this is only temporary and they promised there will be no additional travel - so would it really hurt to have a few extra bucks in my pocket for four months? I guess I will probably do it. I keep saying to myself that I have to say yes more often. I really wasn't thinking about work but rather in my personal life. But I suppose it can apply. Or not.

- I went and redeemed my other coupon for That Takes The Cake cupcakes. I got lemon drops, snowballs (coconut), bunny bites (carrot cake), and strawberry blonde. I am not a huge fan of cupcakes but it's nice to have been able to try these out with the coupons.

- Sarah Palin says she can beat Obama in the next Presidential election. Unfortunately I think she can too. I mean, just look at how well her teenage-mother-daughter Bristol is doing on Dancing With The Stars despite being a sucky dancer (Mark Ballas might as well be dancing with a log). I think the fact that Bristol is in the DWTS finals is all about the Obama/Democrat backlash. American voters are as crazy as Palin and her Tea Party friends are. Eeks!!!

- I was researching Japanese restaurants to try for Winston's birthday this Saturday, and I came upon this place called Volcano Curry on Geary Blvd. Since I was off work today, I decided to give it a try myself. It was delicious. Love Japanese curry over rice. Question remains, where should we take Winston for his birthday? I think this place, albeit delicious, is a little too much on cheap-eats side for a birthday dinner.

- San Francisco is thinking about charging a $3 toll for crossing the border between San Francisco and San Mateo County. So that's $6 every time I go to Target or Costco. That's highway robbery (literally). Why doesn't the city charge its residents for breathing its air?

- Uh oh. First case of bird flu in years found in Hong Kong. Here we go again. The return of the surgical masks. It's really not my favorite of looks.

youtube saturday

The infinitely sad video to the infinitely sad song Somebody To Love Me. It's a fake Boy George in fake 1982. I smell a comeback:


Further evidence that Robyn can mop the floor with Gaga:


My favorite British rapping bloke is back, with Computers and Blues:


Chromeo is a Hot Mess:


Broken Bells' The Ghost Inside by Hall & Oates???


KevJumba recaps his swan song on Amazing Race:

so f*cking bad

A guy shuts down the Bay Bridge this morning, threatening to blow up the bridge and then commit suicide because his wife cheated on him. He was actually driving on the bridge with his 15-year-old daughter when all this went down. Man, talk about embarrassing parents! I don't know how this girl will be able to live this down at school. Mom's a skank, and dad's a looney...Marie Osmond was on Oprah today talking about the suicide of her eighteen year old son. I cannot imagine what would be harder to deal with in this life than the death of your child. Oprah also asked her about her allegedly abusive marriage, which ended after twenty bad years. She gave a wonderful answer - "you marry to the level of your self-esteem." I think that is quite profound, and accurate...I am totally gay for Darren Criss' performance of Teenage Dream on Glee this week. I know the storyline is tired and non-sensical most of the times, but every once in a while, they hit one out of the ballpark - and Darren Criss' Teenage Dream might be the most delightful performance on the show since Don't Stop Believing in the pilot...I just saw this guy Grant Achatz featured on Martha Stewart. He is at the forefront of molecular gastronomy and is the owner of this restaurant in Chicago called Alinea. The way he approaches food is just equal parts art and science and all parts genius. I just have mad respect for people who push their craft forward and expand the possibilities of what can be...Should we talk about the euphoria of our city in the last few weeks as the Giants won the World Series against all odds? I am a declared football fan and have never watched a full baseball game my entire life. But there was no denying how much joy and excitement this victory run brought to my home town. Thank you, Giants! I fear and bow to the beard!...I don't know what's happening, but things in my remodeled kitchen are breaking down. My microwave oven is dying on me, the ceiling light went out (not just the bulbs but the light is kaput period), and the faucet spray won't function properly. They really don't make things like they used to. My old microwave oven lasted me at least five years. In fact, when I remodeled the kitchen, it was still working and it was just sitting in my garage until a couple of months ago when I decided to purge and donated it away. I regret getting rid of it, cuz I have to now spend money on a new one. I honestly think I should just buy cheap stuff from now on. What is the point of spending good money when everything breaks down so fast anyway?...My friend Jasen got married this past weekend. I am happy for him and wish him a long, happy life with his wife Laura. She is Korean, and he doesn't do spicy food. But they are both Christians, so I guess God trumps kim chee...And yes, I am continuing my downward spiral. I don't want to despair, because despair helps no one. Faith is what you need to get through life, so faith I shall have. I keep reminding myself of the line from John Irving - "keep walking past open windows." Yup, one foot in front of the other. I am going to break through one day...And finally should I talk of the tragedy of this past Sunday? I almost don't want to talk about it, but I guess I must - Team Jumba got eliminated from The Amazing Race. It was basically KevJumba misreading the clues that ended up doing him and his dad in. I don't think I ever believed they would make it all the way, but it really, really sucked to see them go. Well, it was good while it lasted (Chi Young even started watching Amazing Race again because of Team Jumba). There are actually a number of likable teams on this season, so I'll find someone to root for, like the father/daughter team (that daughter Mallory is nuts and lovable) and the home shopping network hosts (anybody who got served by a watermelon deserved a place in the finals). Oh next season's Amazing Race is filmed in HD! I love seeing the world in HD!...I am listening now to Billionaire. I want to be a billionaire so fucking bad, so I can buy meself an iPad...

teenage acapella dream

I kinda stopped liking Glee and definitely cannot stand Kurt (so freaking whiney), but dang this is good.

blue sky, orange sky

A couple of photos to bookend the day.