The type of scamming that seems pointless

I've been in the process of subletting my apartment for the summer, since I will be in Paris for a study abroad program, then in Hong Kong, then back to LA until school starts in the fall. Like everyone else in the city, I've been relying heavily on Craigslist to get the word out (while also lowering the rent a bit every week).

One person, named Rachel Watson, emailed back with this message:

Hello There
I came across your AD posted on www.Craigslist.org that you have a
sublet space available...I am Rachel Watson,25,female,from USA but
lived and work in Spain,I am a graduate of Buffalo University,NY where
i studied Economics,I worked as a sales Representative in a fast
growing Industry,Goliath Industry,Spain.so i will be coming to USA
later this month to advertise some of our products.I will want you to
confirm the availability of the space,what price does it goes for?and
how long you are willing to rent it out? N.B..pls endeavor to reply
back my mails via talk2me2244@yahoo.com.i will be waiting to read from
you asap......
Regards...
Rachel

Ok, pretty standard, but I was a bit annoyed at the fact that this person obviously didn't read the ad, because she asked about the price, and how long the apartment was available for...and I think my annoyance shone through in my response email:

Hi Rachel,

As the ad states, the price per month is $1950, utilities and internet included, and is available for three months from May 30th till August 30th.

Please let me know if you are still interested. Thanks.

Cynthia

The next day, I get this email with the subject, "WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU" (just like that, all in caps):

Thanks for your prompt responses and am okay with the price and explanations,...I am very happy for your reply that shows the kind of person i am thinking of renting from and how kind you are..For the payment that is not a problem at all...Because my boss will be highly responsible for all the expenses of the payment all i have to do is to confirm the amount of the space including the utilities and then get it sent to him including the information's in which the payment will be issued to..,So all i require of you is for you to send me your..
FULL NAME
FULL ADDRESS
PHONE
So that i can forward it to my boss because my boss will be paying you in advance because of my flight ,So you get back to my travel agent who is in United state with the rest of the money via western union...in order to get my ticket booked so that i can be in state asap... waiting to hear from you....
THANKS..

BAD grammer. I was getting a bit suspicious at this point, and really not sure I wanted to rent my apartment to someone who wrote emails like this (even though I've left COPE, I still subscribe to the Allen Miller School of Professional Conduct) so I wrote back:

Rachel,

I’ve lowered the rent down to $1950/month, but do want to know a little more about you, as you may potentially be spending three months in my home. What is it that you do (as a job), and what will you be in the city for? What is the name of your company, and what does that company do? What is your boss’s name? Could you also please provide me with a couple personal references? I’d appreciate it. Where are you currently located?

As for your inquiries, my full name is Cynthia Wang. The address of the apartment is (blah blah blah), and my phone number is (blah blah).

Please let me know if you have any additional questions. Thanks.

Cynthia

Didn't give out any information that I wouldn't give out any potential subletter, right? Next day, I get this, with the subject, "THE PAYMENT WILL BE SEND TO YOU SOON" (oooh boy, I can't wait for the payment to be SEND to me!):

Hello,
I got the information and will forward it to my Boss so as to make the payment as soon as possible....so as soon as you have it,just get back to me so i can send you my travel agent's info.where to send the excess money for my flight....thanks a lot and have a nice day...
Best Regards....

WTF?! So here's my response:

Rachel,

You have not answered my questions nor provided personal references, and your emails reflect an aura of unprofessionalism, and a whole lot of ambiguity and opacity. I’m looking for someone I can trust to rent this apartment. I’m sorry, but I don’t feel comfortable with this transaction – I’m going to have to pass. Good luck with your apartment hunt.

Cynthia

Lots of suspicion at this point. Definitely thinking something fishy's going on. So yesterday, I get this email, with the subject as "GET BACK TO ME ASAP":


Hello there

How was your day,the payment has already be sent to you, and am very interested in having the room that was why my boss made the payment out to you , so whats next now and i will be waiting to get the from you......Thanks alot for all and pls dont forget to have the $100 deducted for yourself ok..take care and have a wonderful weekend

Regards

My response (I should mention that Al was here watching Buffy and jamming with me at this point - this was yesterday - when I got this email):

Hey Rachel,

I found someone else to sublet my apartment, so the apartment is no longer available. Thanks for your interest, and good luck in your search. If I receive any money in the mail, I will forward it back to your company.

Cynthia

And, just for good measure, and because Al suggested it would probably be a good idea, I sent a second email:

Just so we’re clear, I will NOT in any way be accepting any of your money (I don’t know what this $100 deducted is about – you’re not making any sense) and I will NOT be subletting my apartment to you. It is unavailable. Sorry, and good luck with finding another apartment.

Cynthia

In hindsight, I'm being incredibly gullible (would have probably found it in the dictionary had you told me to look), but maybe not thinking it's exactly a scam just yet because I was not asked to offer anything to her (ie: to wire money somewhere - I was the seller, not the buyer). Late last night, I received this response with the subject, "PAYMENT COMING IN TODAY....HERE IS THE TRACKING NUMBER":

Hello,
Hope all is pretty cool with you over there? am very happy to informed you that the payment for my rent is coming in today unfailingly.Here is the tracking number (j223958 6195) go to ups.com and have it track so that you can know the exact time it will deliver to you today.As soon as you receive the check you should have it cash, deduct the rent and any deposit needed for my move in...After that You will deduct extra $100 for yourself which will serve as compensation cus i guess am taking you thru stress for helping me...Then you will have the balance forwarded to my travel agent via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER who will work on my paper and get my ticket booked so that i can be in the state as soon as possible.
So as soon as you have the cash and have deducted all neccessary charges ....You will go to western union outlet with CASH balance and my travel agent information then you will transfer the money to the travel agent using the information bellow

NAME........Johannes Gilo,
Street......611 Mallory Drive,
City........Panama
State......FL
Zip-code...32405

As soon as you have the money sent to him you will need to get back to me with the western union details such as..
1...MTCN (money transfer control number) Its always on the receipt that
will be given to you at western union..
2...Total amount sent after deducting western union charges
3...Senders name and address as it is written on the receipt given to you at western union..
Thanks alot for your understand and i will be waiting to hear from you again as soon as you read this message...Take care and have a blessed working day.........
BEST REGARDS

After doing some research online, I realized that both buyers AND sellers can be scammed. My response:

This is a scam and I am reporting you to proper authorities.

...and copied abuse@craigslist.org on it. On the Craigslist scam site, I found a situation that fits my experience perfectly (it was #2 on their list of Examples of Scams):

2. distant person offers a genuine-looking (but fake) cashier's check

• you receive an email (examples below) offering to buy your item, or rent your apartment, sight unseen.
• cashier's check is offered for your sale item, as a deposit for an apartment, or for just about anything else of value.
• value of cashier's check often far exceeds your item - scammer offers to "trust" you, and asks you to wire the balance via money transfer service
• banks will often cash these fake checks AND THEN HOLD YOU RESPONSIBLE WHEN THE CHECK FAILS TO CLEAR, including criminal prosecution in some cases!
• scam often involves a 3rd party (shipping agent, business associate owing buyer money, etc)

And here's an article that talks about it. If only I had read these earlier. My question is, what does the scammer get out of something like this? I mean, the worst thing I can do is deposit the check (if it comes - I'm sort of hoping it does so I can check it out) and be held responsible for it. The scammer seems to get nothing.

Thoughts, anyone?

Kiterunner

At Richardś, watching Kiterunner (which is, so far, a really good movie) - we took a break to call Xiaoli, whoś in China.

Hmm... ok, so today I went to Jenś concert at Alice Tully Hall (the new thing at Lincoln Center/Juilliard). The concert was GREAT, but let me just rant a bit about what happened prior to the start of the concert.

I was going with Richard, who was running a bit late, so I decided to go in first, to make sure I didn't miss Jen's group (they were first - a string quartet). As I walked in, I had my phone in hand because I was going to text Richard where I was seated. The usher at the door, a grouchy old lady, was like, "Ma'am, you have to turn off your phone in the theatre." "Ok," I responded. Duh. I know concert etiquette. I sit down, and proceeded to text Richard exactly where I was. The woman comes back and tells me that I have to use my phone out in the lobby. Uhhh, I'm just texting my friend. You just have to use your phone out in the lobby, ma'am. Ok fine. Quick text. Took about 20 seconds. Sat back down. Kinda irritated.

The concert starts, and then, between groups, I hear someone's cell phone go off. And go off. And then the people behind us start talking DURING THE NEXT GROUP!

Irony. If you're going to prohibit me from TEXTING my friend BEFORE the concert starts, you'd better make sure that people aren't using their PHONES DURING the concert or TALKING. Geeezus, lady. I was thoroughly irritated.

Tensions...

Tensions between different power forces. Right now, the two warring factions are sleep and food. I think food's winning out.

The ironic thing is...my paper isn't even due tomorrow. It's due on Thursday. My circadian cycle is just so screwed up that I'm thinking maybe if I go to bed progressively later each night/morning, it'll cycle back to a normal-person schedule.

Right now, I should be living in Asia.

In the subway...

I saw a guy who had two Chinese characters tattooed on his wrist. One was an actual Chinese character. The other was not.

Why I love A Mighty Wind

1) It's an AWESOME film with a crazily talented cast of people who do all their own singing, acting, and talking.

2) They also do their own instrument playing.

3) It was the film I watched all through senior year of college, especially during the shooting of The Ship Game. Every night after a day of shooting, I'd sit in my room and watch the last scene. It was my scotch on the rocks.

4) The cast.

5) The music.

6) The cast and the music.

7) Eugene Levy's eyebrows.

8) Materialized color operating on the 49th dimension.

9) The catheter song.

10) There's a transgender at the end. How could you not love that?

There are about 78 other reasons, but I really should finish this paper...

Daniel Powter makes me think of...

You know how certain songs or albums or songs of certain artists will make you think of certain things? I just downloaded a few of my favorite Daniel Powter songs (Bad Day, Free Loop, Love You Lately, Song 6, Next Plane Home), and listening to them is all nostalgia. All from LA, and living in LA - the good stuff, not the trafficky stuff. Sometimes the trafficky stuff. Driving down PCH to 3rd Ave to walk around and people-watch. Going to the Grove for a free Jewel concert. Walking around at night listening to all the street musicians. All the good ones (cuz you have to get permits and audition if you want to play at the Promenade). Concerts at the Hollywood Bowl. Getting Wetzel's Pretzel dog and trying to figure out how to get ketchup and mustard on it without making a mess on yourself.

It's taken me way to long to write this blog, and now I can't remember why I wrote it. Oh well, here it is anyway.

About Elly

I went to see the Best Narrative Feature winner at the Tribeca Film Festival today - About Elly. It's an Iranian(!) film about, well, about a family dealing with a situation in which they find themselves. Completely in Farsi (I think), with a fairly large cast of characters that makes it confusing in the beginning a bit. We stood outside in the rain for the better part of a hour for rush tickets. SO WORTH IT. Don't want to spoil it, but I can definitely say it's one of the best films I've seen in a while. Good films make you feel, make you relate to the characters, make you put yourself in their shoes. The movie itself was pretty long - a little over two hours, I think. It didn't feel that way at all.

Hope it gets distributed widely in the US (though that will probably not happen, for reasons I won't put here, since my bed is calling my name - perhaps it will end up on What Good Is My Brain?) so I can get the DVD. :) Ok, you KNOW it's a good film if I'm looking forward to the DVD even before the film is released in theatres.

As if I had free time...

...I'm now contributing to a blog called What Good Is My Brain...something Al and I came up with this afternoon when we were rather deliriously high on elitism/anti-elitism/irony and academia.

There's nothing substantial on it yet, but hopefully will have substance soon.

In other news, I just got the A Mighty Wind album. Joy and happiness! Did you know they discontinued it? I had to get it used!

Loco Man...

Very Random Thoughts on a Tuesday

How many episodes of 24 are left? It's getting so ridiculous that I actually want it to end.

Why do all these shows (24, Lost, BSG) take themselves so seriously? We need more shows like Firefly.

Why are my friends so good to me? (ok that one was sappy, but I'm just about to dig into this awesome banana bread/chocolate cupcake/cookie sandwich dessert thingy that Tanya made and brought me last night, when we went to see the opening night of "Desire Under the Elms" because Ray gave us comp tickets)

I need someone to sublet my apartment. My nice, very CLEAN apartment.

If NYU had a metal shop like Dartmouth does, I'd be in trouble. I'd be in there every weekend working on something. Maybe I should take up something where I work with my hands building and making stuff. I seem to really enjoy that. Not just building words (or, in most cases, making them up).

I have a one-way ticket to Paris in June and none other in my airline tickets queue.

I'm hungry. Grace, where ARE you?

Food is good

I think Juliana's inspired me to make a post about food. She just started a blog about finding fine dining during the recession. Check it out here.

My blog will be very different. I'm going to write about food that has been particularly memorable, that I've had only once, and that I don't think you can get anywhere else. Plus, I'm not quite as eloquent as many of my foodie friends about food... I mean, seriously, I think they have a love affair with it. And I'm sure many of them wouldn't disagree with that statement.

I think I'm going backward in time here...

The first on the list is the BBQ Pulled Soy Chicken Sandwich at the Spotted Dog in Carrboro, NC. The sandwich comes on toasted buns, with a side of crinkled chips. The toasted buns are just right, and the BBQ inside is soft and warm and brings happiness to your palate. At least, it did to mine. But here's the thing - I loved that meal so much that after I got back from NC, I dreamt I had gone back, and ordered the BBQ Sandwich...and was just about to take a huge bite of it when I WOKE UP. If anything, I will go back to NC soon just for that.

Napa Valley has one huge, well-known restaurant called Farm. Attached is a little cafe, managed by the same company (I think) called Boonfly Cafe. I was at Boonfly cafe a couple years ago on my way down from Sacramento en route to San Francisco when I met up with Lauren there, took some pictures, walked around (I think that was the first time I talked to Alexei too - albeit, it was on thep hone), and had a really nice breakfast. This year, I was there again, but Sanmei had taken up a managerial position at Farm, so she joined us at Boonfly for breakfast again. I can't remember what I got for the actual meal, but per her urging, we ordered mini donuts. These mini donuts are AMAZING. They're basically small pieces of heavily dense dough, FRIED, and sprinkled with powdered sugar. So so amazing. And I think we dipped them in chocolate or something. That part I can't remember well. I could eat those for a meal. Really really.

The third food item I will talk about is the Mahi Mahi sandwich at Duke's in Malibu. I was there a couple years ago with Liz - we sat in the back, on the barefoot patio. Because it's right next to the water, during high tide, the patio gets wet. I can't remember the sandwich itself at all, other than it was really good. But, as we ate, Anne Hathaway walked in with her entourage and sat at the table next to us. She's beautiful in person. Lucky Adam. Yes, OUR Adam Shulman (from Twixter) is the Adam Shulman currenty dating Anne Hathaway. I didn't believe it and thought it was another Adam Shulman until I saw his picture with Anne Hathaway in some trashy tabloid magazine...

The last food experience I'll talk about tonight happened in Guangxi in 2001. We were at a banquet (the nth one of a medical mission trip I went on). By that time, we were pretty afraid of banquets and were begging for them to just give us rice and veggies. I think this meal was pretty tame compared to some of the other ones we had. There are two things I remember most about it. One was the sweet potato cakes - patties made out of dough and sweet potato, and lightly fried. The second was the rice wine. Sweet rice wine - you could drink a gallon of it and not feel a thing. And then it hit you like a truck about 20 minutes later. But it was delicious. I wanted to take some of the sweet potato cakes to go, but was warned that that there were monkeys where we were going, and they would find and steal my sweet potato cakes.

Ok, time to do some actual serious writing...

Philly and Phood

I've been adopted by Tanya's parents for Easter weekend. Had a spectacular 6-hour dinner tonight with lots of delicious Arabic food, and smoked hookah for the first time. I'm still not sure of the purpose of smoking hookah...other than a social thing, and exchanging saliva, but it was fun, and tasted good. And the desserts....

Then, a 24 mini-marathon. Mini because we only got through two episodes, and I was only able to make it through the second one because I fell asleep during the first one (I had already seen it before). So exhausted. I need more sleep. And, I was so distracted and tired during the second episode that apparently something rather pivotal happened at the end of it, but I had to ask Ryan about it. Now we're watching something about breeding rabbits. And why they breed so fast... Oh, and apparently they increase in the Fibonacci sequence. What?

There's this barn/ranch near Tanya's house, where they make homemade ice cream. We stopped by after picking Trina up from the dog groomers. Mmmm maple walnut ice cream... It's been an ice-cream-ish couple days. Ray took me to Central Park yesterday, bought me strawberry shortcake ice cream, showed me the Enchanted fountain (where they shot the huge dance sequence), and got me back to the subway in time for me to run to class.

I'm so going to pass out. There's a geocache half a mile away...I think we're going to find it tomorrow. And...I'm starting to get a little hungry again.

Random happenings in NYC

I'm not 100% sure WHY I'm blogging this, but I suppose it feels weird to have to go to bed this early, and I wanted to write SOMETHING. These are tiny, random observations that happened a couple days ago.

The day in question is Tuesday. The first setting of the first odd/notable-enough-to-blog-about event was at the Richard Stallman talk in the early evening. Stallman is the founder of the Free Software Foundation (to protect YOUR freedom!) and the GNU OS. He also wrote the GPL (General Public License) to go along with the GNU - a bit of copyleft, or a "fuck you" to the idea of copyright. Basically a copyright license saying that you can't distribute GNU without also providing the source code for people to modify, copy, and distribute as they please, or else you're in copyright violation.

Because Stallman is such a legend, the event was packed. I arrived early enough to get a seat, and listened with rapt attention as Stallman basically gave an apt summary to, conveniently, the book we were assigned this week - Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture". About how copyright extension is bad and puts restrictions and barriers to creativity, etc. I won't go into it - there's plenty of literature out there about the idea of free software, democracy, free culture, and copyright laws. Halfway through the talk, however, I noticed this guy two seats away from me - rather large, with facial hair, glasses, your stereotypical computer geek (thank you, mass media). Anyway, he had his right index finger up his nose...and was picking it, and picking it, and picking it.... and then, to my morbid fascination, horror, and inappropriate amusement, removed the finger from his nose, and transferred it to his mouth! And then proceeded to do it repeatedly for the next 10 minutes or so. *sigh* I suppose when you gotta clear your nose, you gotta clear your nose, and there's no better way to get rid of it than ingesting what came from inside you anyway when there's nothing else to wipe it on...?

Stallman auctioned off a stuffed gnu at the end of his talk for $100. Then I had to run.

Incident the Second happened after a very entertaining discussion at Radio City Music Hall moderated by Anderson Cooper, featuring Ariana Huffington, Mike Huckabee, and DL Hughley (I got free tickets - and went with Elsa - saw Grace and Doug there). The discussion itself was basically evaluating how Obama is doing 70 days into his presidency with various issues (just check the link). Lively, and very funny. Mike Huckabee actually has some very good points. In any case, after the show, as we were all pouring out, Grace, Elsa, Doug, Doug's friends, and I were standing on the sidewalk deciding where to go when I suddenly lost my balance and almost fell. Turns out, this very large woman with a cane (what's with this day and large people?!) apparently thought we were taking too much space (space that she apparently needed) and literally bowled us down. I almost got knocked off my feet. Come on, now, I don't take up THAT much space, do I?! So rude. Welcome to New York. I wanted to follow her and give her the evil eye, but didn't think it would be worth it.

The third incident left me smiling. Late at night, I was sitting in my apartment reading or watching Angel or whatever, when I hear the doorbell ring. No one rings my doorbell. So, being the naive new New Yorker I am, I remove the bolt from my door and open it to a young man and his father (thank god they weren't serial ax murderers or psychotic weirdos or anything). They explained their situation - they had forgotten their keys, and were knocking on all the "G" apartments in the building. They needed to get to their apartment (on the 4th floor - I'm on the 2nd) via the fire escape! I invited him (his name is Ryan) in, showed him my new painting, accepted his compliment on my "cute apartment", and opened the window while he climbed out (his dad took the stairs) onto the very rusty and very dubious fire escape. Such a random incident though.

4 people

Don't know why this old story popped into my head today in the shower...

This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized Everybody wouldn't do it. So Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Thoughts on songwriting

In my grad program, the huge themes we deal with are structures of power and epistemology (ie: how we get information, and how we internalize that information subconsciously). Ok, at least, that's what I'M interested in. One of the books we read was Howard Becker's Art Worlds, which discusses conventions that we use, usually without thinking about it, to create art. For instance, when I write a song, I use a 12-tone scale, 4/4 or 3/4 time usually (or some derivative of), and a guitar. All of which follow certain conventions that have been set through the years - the guitar is of a certain proportion and audio range, made up of certain types of woods and shapes, with standards for the length and width of the string, the neck, the body, etc etc. And, the guitar plays a 12-tone scale. Not a 4-tone or a 33-tone - both of which would probably require the invention of new instruments.

It just makes me wonder, the songs I write, the songs I like, the songs that inspire me - am I just a copycat? Is there anything truly original in what I do, or am I just a faded carbon copy of the thoughts, feelings, words, and sounds of those who came before me? Could I even break these conventions if I wanted? The short answer is yes. The slightly longer answer is, I would get little to no distribution, because people are familiar with conventions, and that is what they want. The longest answer would be to look at how we are encoded (in the Stuart Hall-ian sense) with certain signals that make us feel certain ways, that evoke the feeling of like or dislike (think of those HSBC ads that are all incredibly post-modern), and why these conventions are in place, and what art means, and who has the power in the art world, and then how these power structures play a huge role in how we view society and how we internalize certain codes we receive from visual arts, TV, movies, journalism, the Internet, etc.

Why do I write the songs I do in the way I do? Because it's what I like, it's what speaks to me. Why do I like it, and why does it speak to me? Because it's all been DONE BEFORE. Because I play into these conventions that have been embedded into our art worlds and internalized in our subconscious as the "right" way to do things, the "likeable" way to write music. Not all of us can be Harry Partch.

My brain sometimes feels like it's about to explode. I'm gonna go quell it with some music.

SVU

At Emily's watching an SVU marathon. But I think the marathon is over. We both want to watch more. What the heck is this NCIS thing?!

I'm hungry.

Serious media overload...and games

Ever since I got home to LA for spring break, I've been suffering from serious media overload. Let's list them, shall we?

- First of all, there's the pile of readings for next week.
- Then there's fun-reading novels I've been accumulating for the last year or so.
- I should also mention that I have a G5 tower with a huge flatscreen in my room that I usually use for film and media editing, but when I'm not doing that, because it's not connected to the Internet, I watch DVDs on it. Much more reliable than my TV and DVD player hook up in my room.
- There's a beautiful HD flatscreen TV downstairs in the living room begging for me to take advantage of it (and ravish it and make love to it...ohh, this ended up in a very different place than where it started...)
- And finally, the computer (MacBook) on which I'm writing this blog, which IS connected to the Internet.

Hence, I have been juggling:

- Legitimate readings for class (The Conquest of Cool, Hacker Culture, and some Foucault - I do love me some Foucault over break, and I'm only being a little sarcastic)
- Trashy readings like Greg Iles' Third Degree, and Raymond Khoury's The Sanctuary, not to mention my wanting to read The Neverending Story again since it came up over brunch yesterday. The Neverending Story is nowhere near trashy. Just so we're clear.
- Two papers - one Response Paper on the Oscars, which really shouldn't take me more than a couple hours to pound out, if only I would stop getting distracted... and a one-page *treatment* type thing to give to one of my profs on what I want to do my final paper on. Something about the iPhone, the computer, code, digital technology, the Internet, and structures of power. I realize it's still kinda hazy. I really want to work anonymity in it too.
- Forrest Gump and Farewell My Concubine have taken over the beautiful, luscious HD flatscreen in the living room. And I watched 24 on it today too. And Food Network. FINALLY, television! After being deprived all semester...
- Fingersmith and Charmed is playing on my G5.
- And because I need the Internet for the latest episodes, BSG has been playing on this MacBook.

And, on top of all this media-related stuff, I still have a letter of recommendation to do, a college essay to edit, study abroad forms to fill out, taxes to do, Disneyland to go to, Sabi to spend time with, songs to write, food to eat (especially the pasta from lunch today and lots of leftover sushi from tonight - Mama, Daddy, and I totally over-ordered - and at Trader Joe's tonight, Mama actually asked if I needed any more food), people to see...

Other than the near-burning of Juliana and Palak's apartment during game night, it's been wonderful being back home. And even the near-burning of the apartment was... amusing (and quite a relief that nothing worse happened). Juliana attempted to make s'mores in her oven. Realized baking them for a minute was too long - the marshmallows caught on fire WAY before that. Mario taught me how to mix my first drink (Bacardi and cranberry juice...except the cranberry juice mysteriously disappeared, or got consumed, halfway through the evening, so my second drink was Bacardi and coke). Michael V told me to brace myself for Friday (I think I'll just let myself be dragged around Disneyland like a rag doll...). Angeline and Sam let in some random dog when they arrived that somehow got loose from its owner across the way. Hiromi was still glowing from her wedding (I still want to see more pictures!). Jen (among others, but I think my respect for her as a Werewolf expert is just really high given the last time she fooled us ALL when she WAS the Werewolf) led the Citizens to a rousing victory against the Werewolves, despite the fact that everyone kept getting the finger pointed at by Claire. I FINALLY met Liz Pan. And all of us were happy we were not Giada de Laurentis. Is that even how you spell her name?! There were s'mores, Mary Ellen's homemade rice krispy treats, cheese, hummus, veggies, Claire's green grandma cupcakes, mini cheeseburgers (I could so use one right now), guac & chips, and more cupcakes. I shouldn't have eaten beforehand...

Speaking of eating, Crave is ... good...but not worth the wait. That was the longest wait for food in the history of...histories. I've been to better crepe places, but I think everyone would agree I was grumpier than usual yesterday.

And speaking of food, I'm hungry again.

Who's kidding who?

So, I attempted to try and maintain two blog "series" on this blog - one for movies, and one for geocaching. Two months after starting, they both amount to an EPIC FAIL. *sigh*

I did, however, get to see Revolutionary Road and Coraline before I came back to LA. Coraline was awesome. I need to see that again, maybe write a paper on it, do something nerdy like that. Revolutionary Road was rather predictable - I mean, you KNOW what's going to happen at the end at around minute 20. Can't wait to see Sunshine Cleaning when it comes out. I love Amy Adams. And, waiting for the Happy-Go-Lucky DVD, though Melissa walked out in the middle of it! Melissa, she's SUPPOSED to be annoying! I think you may have just given Sally Hawkins a huge compliment!

As for geocaching, that's officially on hold until it warms up a bit in NYC. Maybe I'll find some caches here in LA this week.

Irritable

I've been irritable lately and I don't know why
Everything that happens just makes me want to sigh
I know that there is really no one I can blame
But everything around me makes me feel really lame.

It might be papers calling, or unfinished work,
It might be Facebook distraction through which procrastination lurks,
It might just be the hustle bustle of going home for break
When I just want to fly away and hang out by the lake.

So while I finish packing for my flight tomorrow,
There might be a few unattended to things that my cousin coming can borrow
Ok, I know this rhyme just really sort of sucks,
But when I don't have time to think, I guess you, dear reader, are out of luck!

MTA is my hero

Ok, I know that the MTA could suck a lot of the time, but something just happened that makes me really love the MTA right now.

About a month ago, my 30-day unlimited ride cards kept getting deactivated (demagnetized), and I went through two of them before I realized what was doing the demagnetizing (I had just gotten a new bag with a magnetic clasp on it - a very strong magnetic clasp).

Per the advice of the MTA people, I mailed both my cards to their office in hopes of a refund or some sort of compensation, and proceeded to not hear from them for almost a month. Part of me was starting to think mailing in the cards via snail mail was a bad idea and that I should have just reported them lost.

Today, though, I checked my mail, and there were two letters from the MTA, both about my funked up cards. One letter, which corresponded to the older card, compensated me for 18 days, giving me a 14-day unlimited ride card plus a check for the remaining 4 days. The other letter for a card I used once, and got demagnetized on the same day, included an entire 30-day unlimited ride card.

My faith in the public transportation system of NYC is renewed. :)

Self-flagellation?

One of my classes this semester requires me to post a blog every week responding to the readings we have. Tonight was the night to respond to readings, and so, I turned on Buffy, and sat with my computer, with YouTube and BSG on in the background, my guitar sitting at the ready, and naturally, nothing got done. Finally, at around 1am, I told myself that I would not shower or pee before I posted my blog. I just posted it. And I really have to pee.

I suppose I just need an extra push to get things done? Now if you will excuse me, I need to go visit the loo before my bladder explodes.

I love my friends...

Grace and I, walking down Columbus...

Grace: Ooh, look! Those are cute shoes!
Cynthia: (looks across the street) Ooh! Bagels!
Grace: Is that all you ever think about?!


Justine's coming to stay next week...

11:03 AM justine: hey lady-- i think i'm giong to crash at your place

so-- two questions 1) keys

2) address specific

3) internet?

1:41 PM me: that's three

which two would you like me to answer? ;)

5 minutes

1:46 PM justine: ass munch

Movie List #3

I'm slackin', I know. I want to skip to F's for this week though:

A Few Good Men:
Men in uniforms. 'Nuff said.

Farewell My Concubine:
Gay Chinese opera? Works for me. Besides, Gong Li's rowr in it.

Finding Neverland:
Charmingly innocent story...I don't remember much of it actually - I've only seen it once, but I remember REALLY REALLY liking it.

1/16th of an inch...

...makes the difference between being able to play more complicated things and not.

My Martins' necks are all 1 and 11/16th inches wide at the nut, while Stu2 (the Taylor - I finally named him after Stu)'s neck is 1 and 3/4 inches. It means Stu2's strings are minisculely further apart than, say, Cricket's. But that seems to make all the difference in the world.

Time to practice.

I have a song I wrote years ago - Summer 2004, actually, that I would like to make a nice recording of in time for homecoming this year.

Movie List #2

My friend, Helen, was in town, and did all the touristy things that New York offers, so I'm a bit behind with this blog. I think we're on N movies:

The Neverending Story:
A childhood favorite of mine. Any movie that includes a flying dog-dragon is fine by me. But I didn't like the part where the horse dies. Traumatizing, especially when you're 6 and love horses.

Newsies:
Singing and dancing news boys? Christian Bale? Hell yea.

That's all for now. My clothes smell like Korean food. Umma's in town, so Ray, Robbi, and I took her to Koreatown (she was impressed that I've been across the North Korean border) to Kangsuh and had some awesome food.

Geocache Finds 2 and 3

Need I make a disclaimer about my post containing geocaching spoilers?

I think the two I found today were placed by the same person, but one was in Simi, one was in Thousand Oaks. The Thousand Oaks one took me two tries...and I was getting seriously frustrated. My GPS told me we were right on top of the cache, but we couldn't find it. Went bushwacking for a bit, till two muggles asked what we were doing - they had just come out of Topper's Pizza and were probably watching us for a good while. Then they helped us look. And concluded that the gardeners for the area must have raked it up.

I went back again after failing to find another cache - this one a big one, but in the middle of nowhere, and the location was full of animal holes - snakes with venomous teeth or small burrowing mammal, I'm not sure. When I got back to Geocache Find #2 location, I sat down in the exact spot my GPS said the cache was at. Pretty frustrated at this point. The description says I was looking for a magnetic key box thingy. The only thing that was magnetic in the vicinity was the railing near Toppers, a rain gutter, and a street lamp. I had tried the railing and the rain gutter, so I started examining a street lamp. Another geocacher had said the grab was really easy (imagine how dumb I was feeling by this point), and had grabbed it without getting out of his car. Ok.

Turns out the bottom part of the street lamp lifts, and the box was stuck to the inside!

Later this evening, after dinner, I found a geocache nearby in Simi, which led us directly to a streetlamp next to a Burger King. I knew what to do from there. Maybe it's a learning curve, as I learn how geocachers hide stuff.

Whee!

Movie List #1

I must have way too much time on my hands this break - reading Twilight, watching American Idol, and now starting a blog series listing my favorite movies alphabetically.

So here's the idea. I'll come up with a list of movies that all start with the same letter that I like at the time, and why I like (incredibly briefly), once a week. This will take me about half a year. So in 6 months, we'll do this again, but backwards, and probably with other movies. And because this is all very in the moment, I'll probably miss a lot of movies I really like, but aren't foremost in my poor overwrought brain (overwrought by the effort of trying to get through Twilight, not by reading Twilight itself - I'm doing this for YOU, Emily!). A vague disclaimer is no one's friend (place that quote!).

Because I spent most of finals week(s) watching Mary Poppins and A Mighty Wind, I'm going to start with M:

Mary Poppins:
Probably one of the only Disney movies I don't find hegemonic. It's fun, it has Julie Andrews and songs in it...what more can you ask for? Have you wondered though...why does Julie Andrews always play either nannies or royalty?

A Mighty Wind:
A mighty mocumentary. It was what I popped into the DVD player every night after shooting "The Ship Game" (my senior thesis film). Plus, John Michael Higgins plays a tenor guitar in the film.

The Matrix:
I feel like I took the red pill by going to grad school.

Geocache Find #1 - Pill box outside Valley Pres

I had lunch with Jenn today at Valley Pres, wished Neil happy birthday and said hi to Gandhi and Cindy, and got a tour from Ali (new sim lab guy) of the newly constructed, but not-yet open sim lab! It was very rewarding, seeing that when I was at COPE, the sim lab was something that we were discussing and working toward making happen.

Afterward, I found that there was a geocache hidden on the outer perimeter of Valley Pres. Went looking for it, and found it! My first geocache find ever! So in case you haven't heard of it yet, geocaching is something that was introduced to me by JW when we were doing a murder mystery at the Getty this weekend. It's basically this global treasure hunt - over 700,000 geocaches are hidden around the world - they're everywhere. There are like, 10 within a mile of my house. Anyway, the geocaches can be any size, and they all have a log, where you put your name and date on it, and some may have little goodies. The one I found today is an old pillbox and had some sort of tooth and a small pendant in it. You can take something from the cache, as long as you replace it with something of equal or greater value. Then, after you find it, you go and log it as a find on geocache.com. This is my log:

>>>>>>>
I used to work at Valley Pres, but this was out of the way from where I worked. I guess it shows I'm an amateur since it took me a good 20 minutes or so trying to find it. I got some funny looks from the ambulance drivers. I also encountered a woman who lost her way and needed to know where the hospital was. As if I looked like I knew where I was, looking around aimlessly and staring blankly at the place my GPS said the cache would be... she seemed satisfied with my directions though.

Took nothing, but left a Kune in there (Croatian coin). Thanks!

>>>>>>>>>>

This can get a bit addicting, I think. Friends in NYC, beware! I will be dragging you with me for geocaching fun!

Unbelievable!

I just filled my near-empty tank for less than $25. Gas prices are
nearing that which we paid in high school.

*******************
Cynthia Wang's iPhone
cynthiawang@nyu.edu

The heart and soul of the Scoobies

As most of you know, I'm a huge fan of Buffy. I wrote Buffy into I think 4 or 5 papers this semester. Anyway, I've been doing something I haven't done in about 4 years - I'm watching all of Buffy again, but I'm doing it in reverse, starting with Season 7. It's amazing that even after so many years, Buffy still speaks to me, and, if possible, I feel even more profoundly about the characters and their situations today than I did back in college.

I just finished Into the Woods, the episode where Riley leaves, and Xander just has some beautiful lines at the end of it. This is from show transcript.

XANDER: (angrily) If you don't wanna hear what I have to say, I'll shut up right now.
BUFFY: Good, 'cause I don't.

XANDER: I lied. See, what I think, you got burned with Angel, then Riley shows up.
BUFFY: I know the story, Xander.
XANDER: But you miss the point. You shut down, Buffy. And you've been treating Riley like the rebound guy. When he's the one that comes along once in a lifetime. (Buffy looks dismayed) He's never held back with you. He's risked everything. And you're about to let him fly because you don't like ultimatums? If he's not the guy, if what he needs from you just isn't there, (shakes head) let him go. Break his heart, and make it a clean break. But if you really think you can love this guy ... I'm talking scary, messy, no-emotions-barred need ... if you're ready for that ... then think about what you're about to lose.

Then, the second to last scene (after Riley flies away) - Xander and Anya...

XANDER: I've gotta say something...'Cause ... I don't think I've made it clear. I'm in love with you. Powerfully, painfully in love. The things you do ... the way you think ... the way you move ... I get excited every time I'm about to see you. You make me feel like I've never felt before in my life. Like a man. (Pause. He shrugs uneasily) I just thought you might wanna know.


And the scene after Dawn realizes that she's not a Potential in Season 7...

DAWN
What's up?

XANDER
Aw, I'm just thinking about the girls. It's a harsh gig, being a potential. Just being picked out of a crowd, danger, destiny, plus if you act now, death.

DAWN
They can handle it.

XANDER
Yeah. They're special, no doubt. The amazing thing is, not one of them will ever know, not even Buffy.

DAWN
Know what?

XANDER
How much harder it is for the rest of us.

DAWN
No way. They've got—

XANDER
Seven years, Dawn. Working with the slayer. Seeing my friends get more and more powerful. A witch. A demon. Hell, I could fit Oz in my shaving kit, but come a full moon, he had a wolfy mojo not to be messed with. Powerful. All of them. And I'm the guy who fixes the windows.

DAWN
Well, you had that sexy army training for a while, and—and the windows really did need fixing.

XANDER
I saw what you did last night.

DAWN
Yeah, I— I guess I kinda lost my head when I thought I was the slayer.

XANDER
You thought you were all special. Miss Sunnydale 2003. And the minute you found out you weren't, you handed the crown to Amanda without a moment's pause. You gave her your power.

DAWN
The power wasn't mine.

XANDER
They'll never know how tough it is, Dawnie, to be the one who isn't chosen. To live so near to the spotlight and never step in it. But I know. I see more than anybody realizes because nobody's watching me. I saw you last night. I see you working here today. You're not special. You're extraordinary.

At least NU shoveled the snow for us...

It's so nasty here today that weather.com doesn't even have a proper name for it. They're calling it "wintry mix", which sounds less like weather and more like a snack food. Like Chex Mix.

My boots are leaking. I need new boots. I haven't gotten a pair of new boots since I bought those two freshman year at NU. And from the looks of it, I'll need a pretty hefty pair here. Northwestern would shovel the snow for us. They don't do that here, so much of the time you're slushing through half-melted snow which turns into Lake New York at each intersection.

It is beautiful though.

Response to last post

I received a comment from someone named "Tammy" on my last blog, and would like to respond, and appreciate her (I'm assuming Tammy is a her) for righteously kicking my seemingly discompassionate and arrogant arse.

Here's her response:

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I was looking through blogs about street musicians and came upon yours.

After reading it, I developed the same reactions as you claimed to have experienced after hearing the man ply his trade. Yes, ply his trade, because I have run into street musicians like him before, and instead of rushing by I have actually conversed with them. None of them would have been there if they did not have to. The winter wind gives them chronic joint troubles that eventually develop into arthritis, the passersby can spit and curse at them, and yet they keep up. That is not because the petty humiliations inflicted upon them by people like you, who rush by with annoyance and contempt writ clear across your face, are too sophisticated for lowly, untalented beings like them to appreciate. No. It's because they need the money. Between impoverishment and begging, and doing something so that their dignity is a little better off, this is the choice they made.

And for all the time it took you to write an entry that offers up the misery of these people as amusement to your friends and acquaintances, I suggest you give this person $5 and ask him to take a rest indoors. That way, you would get rid of an offense to your ears while unintentionally bestow a token of kindness on a cold night.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I'd have to say first, thank you for writing a very scathing response to my blog, which caused a very humbling emotion within me - I'm not going to defend what I said, because I wrote it at the spur of the moment, and probably should not have been published at all. I guess I just assume no one actually reads anything I post - hence, the illusion of privacy online, which is sorely misplaced. I will, however, try to explain my thoughts on this, and hopefully give whoever actually DOES read my blog faith that I'm not a horrible person at the core.

I admit, I do feel uncomfortable around those who are drastically less fortunate than I, and being in New York City after spending most of my life in nice white picket fence suburbs and college campuses, I probably don't have the street smarts to interact comfortably and easily with them. This does not mean I lack compassion for them, however, nor do I feel contempt for them, as Tammy suggests, though I can see how my blog may have been read in that way.

A little bit in my defense, I think Tammy makes a couple huge unfair and incorrect assumptions about me in her response. I did not, physically or otherwise, inflict any humiliations upon him or anyone else I have encountered - that's just wrong. I simply walked past. I can see, though, that Tammy may see ignoring them, then blogging about it, as inflicting humiliation. I'll expand more on my thoughts on that in my next paragraph. I give money regularly to street musicians in subways and around the city, knowing that even if I can't necessarily afford to do it TOO often, they need it more. I, too, have conversed with many a street musician. There was one that was always at the street corner where I lived, and giving him a couple dollars walking home became routine. My blog post was supposed to be my private inner thoughts I felt I could freely share, just on how I was feeling at that particular moment. I realize, though, that my blog is not a private journal, and I should screen what gets published. I see what Tammy is saying, however, in that even thinking these thoughts, or feeling these feelings of elitism is a social problem - that people like me think this way about those less fortunate than us. I get it.

I think, really, there are two different issues at play here. One is my snobbery for music, which I admit, is elite, and probably drilled into me from a very early age. I can't help what I feel, and my blog was how I felt - merely about the music itself. I suppose I treated the blog the same way I would critique and share my thoughts about a bad play or film I saw, or a bad concert I went to, separate from the socio-economic implications of the situation. The other is questioning my compassion for those less fortunate than I, and the means by which they subsist. I blogged about the first issue. Tammy attacked me for the second. Perhaps my mistake here is not making a clear separation between the two. Perhaps Tammy does not think they are mutually exclusive, and perhaps my mistake was feeling that they could be. For that, I apologize.

I feel my inadequacies to enter into conversation with those who have lives drastically different than mine most acutely at work - I tutor at an inner city high school. I remember the first day I went to class, and left completely disheartened that these kids will ever care about bettering their lives through education. I went home and wrestled with the question of whether I wanted to continue working there. I could find a financial aid job anywhere else, and one that does not put me in positions of potential physical harm or sexual harassment (both have happened), or just plain constant discomfort. I decided to stick with it - on one hand, in an admittingly self-serving way to learn from this experience and develop myself personally; but on the other, to hopefully gain an understanding of those who have lives completely different than mine so I can enter into a dialogue with them. Ultimately, I stay because it would break my heart to walk away.

I don't want these kids to end up like the man in the subway station. Undoubtedly, and very unfortunately, several of them will. What I feel for them is never contempt, but heartbreak. And I'm very sorry that my blog post may have misrepresented that.

Ode to Bananas

Bananas and I have an interesting relationship. I don't really like them. It might be more accurate to say that I really don't like them. But I eat them a LOT. Especially when I worked for COPE. It was so easy to grab a banana, hop in a car, and sit in meetings for hours and hours. That banana packed a lot of punch and gave me enough energy to last almost the entire day. The perfect snack food until you put it in your bag and put a very heavy book on top of it.

The combination of eating bananas in a car led to some very interesting, albeit somewhat disgusting, experiments. For instance, if you take a banana fiber and leave it on your dashboard for, oh, a few weeks, its appearance doesn't change much, but it becomes as crispy as really thin bacon left too long in a skillet.

And, if you leave a banana peel in your car (on the dash - that's where I usually kept my bananas), well, after a day, it turns black. Completely black. And you get a little high off the fumes as you drive back home in the hot hot southern California sun. They weren't kidding about smoking banana peels...

Bananas are great though. They're full of potassium and other wonderful vitamins that're supposed to do a body good. Like milk. My mom likes to make banana milkshakes too. That should be a secret ingredient for strong, healthy bodies. Anyway. I wonder if you can overdose on too much banana goodness. Cris and I were on our way to Idaho a couple years back, and my mom, being the banana enthusiast she is, packed 4 bananas for me. 4 really big bananas. And Dana and Kim were on the plane with us! But alas, no one would take these 4 bananas off my hands, and I certainly wasn't about to let food go to waste! Especially when it represented my mommy's love for me...and my friends (who refused to take them). So I ate all four of them in about an hour. I swore I wouldn't ever eat bananas again.

But I still eat them from time to time. Even though I don't like them.

Don't mean to be mean but...

..there's this Chinese guy who plays er-hu at the 42nd St station who is just AWFUL. And I think in the spirit of the holidays, he plays Jingle Bells. Very badly. And only the chorus. Dude. 5 notes. He swoops on the 4th note of the chorus ("mi"), undoubtedly to make it sound more "ethnic" (vomit - Jingle Bells isn't SUPPOSED to be ethnic), and plays the "fa" an ENTIRE HALF STEP SHARP. Actually, it's worse. It's not QUITE that half step. Dude. And the WORST part about it is how long this horribleness stays in my head. I deliberately try to walk away far enough so I don't hear him anymore.

He's been there every time I've been to that station.

Cringe cringe cringe...

I don't know why this creates such a strong reaction in me...so much so that I feel like mild violence or silent screaming into a pillow whenever I hear it.

Songs from a Window interview/performance

I was fiddling with my old iPod today, and found an hour-long podcast interview/performance I did about a year ago for a radio show called Songs from a Window.

Here's how you can get it:

1. Download iTunes
2. Install iTunes
3. Open iTunes
4. Go to "ADVANCED" on top menu
5. Go to "SUBSRCIBE TO PODCAST"
6. Type in this address: www.songsfromawindow.com/lamecast.xml
7. Click on the "Get" button next to "Cynthia Wang"
8. Enjoy!

Jawbone

Hmm. I left my jawbone in my car, which would have been fine as my dad
could use it, except I have the charger. Oops.

*******************
Cynthia Wang's iPhone
cynthiawang@nyu.edu

Subway

I hate riding the subway when there are so many people that you don't
even have a pole to hold. Becomes an exercise on balancing.... Guess
where I am.... Work those calf muscles!!

*******************
Cynthia Wang
cynthiawang@nyu.edu

Cynthia is writing to you from her iPhone. Please excuse weird typos
and conciseness.

Tummy

I picked up people magazine at the airport where I discovered that
jennifer aniston has a baby bulge. Why can't it just be because she
might be bloated or just had a large meal?

*******************
Cynthia Wang
cynthiawang@nyu.edu

Cynthia is writing to you from her iPhone. Please excuse weird typos
and conciseness.

For the love of dogs

Before Sabi, there was Scout. And Charlie.

Between Scout's overprotectiveness, and Charlie thinking he's a lapdog and just draping himself over me, or just having two furry, warm pillows around, I might cry when I see them, I miss them so much.

Is this silly?

Back to NC

One of the best vacations I've ever had was visiting Cris in North Carolina last year. And, it's been just about a week or two over a year since I've been there. I'll be there for the last few days of the election (Sunday thru Wednesday), getting out the vote for Obama. And enjoying Mom's cooking and playing with the dogs, I'm sure.

I figure, the other Cynthia (though she calls ME the "other" Cynthia), who can't even vote in this election, is going to her nearest swing state (NV or CO...?) to get out the vote, what's my excuse, when I'm a grad student with a relatively lax and flexible schedule? I just need to look up 12 articles on Facebook while I'm there...

Besides, NC just feels very recuperative. I think I could use that after being burned out by all the midterm-y type of things the last few weeks.

Forensics question

If my fingers are wrinkled and pruned from being in the shower too long, will I leave fingerprints?

Creepy Facebook...

I just posted on my Facebook status that I "smell like coffee" (because I was just at Think Coffee with Sara earlier today). Suddenly, on my news feed, out pops Tania's status, who is "having a coffee kind of day" (4 hours before my post), and Mikella, who "wishes she had coffee" (two minutes after mine). Note, while Mikella's status may have been a response to mine (though possibly unlikely), I certainly didn't see Tania's status before posting mine. And it certaintly wasn't on my news feed.

Coincidence? Or am I being stalked by the Facebook gods? I guess an easier explanation is that Facebook will push whatever It (yes, I believe It should be capitalized) finds up to visibility on your news feed, so you can find...friends...doing...similar things as you?

Facebook smart? Or Facebook creepy?

Unexpected Joy

It's been a hard transition to New York. I'm home in LA this weekend for what I'd hoped, and what is turning out, to be a recuperative weekend (NYU thinks we should sit at home on Columbus Day and repent about Western colonization and the horrible things done in the 15th century).

Juliana and I made caramel apples yesterday for Game Night tonight at Casa de Patel. The caramel didn't turn out perfect. We burned it slightly, and when we dipped the apples in, the caramel was still hot, so it blistered on the apple. Not the prettiest caramel apples, but they sure were good, though after trying it out, realized they were probably the worst party food ever. One bite glued your teeth together. We might have overdone it on the caramel bit.

People seemed to enjoy them tonight though. And we played Celebrity and Werewolf, then sat around and watched Chris Rock talk about the only time it's appropriate for a white person to use the word "nigger". My voice is almost completely gone, which might be why I kept getting killed off in Werewolf --- because I was "quiet".

More people than expected showed up - many familiar faces - people I've gotten to know through these game nights, people to whom I may not be very close (and actually some I've only met once or twice), but who are just fun and relaxing to be around. And an unexpected feeling of camraderie in trying to figure out who to kill off next. Or trying to figure out what modern day writer looks like a zombie.

I also met a fellow NU alum tonight. This is rather amazing. She took part in the hunger strike in 95 so that I was able to minor in Asian American Studies in 2000. How small a world.

And tonight was the first time since moving to NYC that I laughed so hard it hurt. And couldn't stop. That felt wonderful.

I've never been a huge fan of LA, as everyone who knows me probably knows. But I've realized, in the 48 hours since I've been home, that it's not the city that makes memories and induces nostalgia - it's the people. Seems like such a duh thing to say at 3 in the morning (plus I'm sure I'm not being too eloquent), but I really didn't expect to enjoy being back in LA as much as I am.

And, for those of us who were on the floor laughing about this....

JUST NECK!

Tuning

I made a fascinating discovery today in the shower.

While brushing my teeth with my sonic toothbrush and humming "Wish I Could Stay" from the Once More, With Feeling soundtrack (for those of you who are not in the know, it's the Buffy Musical), I hit a note that resonated beautifully with the whir of the dental device in my mouth.

That's right, ladies and gents, my sonic toothbrush vibrates in the key of E.

Of course, not having perfect pitch and all, I had to find that note on my guitar. I'm not like Yvonne - she can hear a car honk and tell you that the horn is blaring an F#.

makes ya think...

• If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
• Grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, a quintessential American story.

• If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
• Name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

• Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.
• Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

• If you spend 3 years as a community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
• If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

• If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising two daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
• If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

• If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
• If , while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

• If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
• If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

Brandi Carlile and Taylors

I love how Brandi Carlile's like the poster child for Taylor Guitars, but uses more Martins. I believe The Story (the album) was recorded on a 1932 Martin that T-Bone Burnett gave her. How awesome is that.

Just a random thought as I'm watching her cover Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" on YouTube. You know, I never thought anyone could cover Johnny Cash, but man, she blows the roof off the theatre.

I never thought anyone could do a fitting cover of Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" either...

I'm American, damnit.

"Where are you from?" asked the guard at the Getty Center.

Juliana, Newton, and I were at the Getty Center doing a scavenger hunt, and I was searching for a clock that was one of the clues.

"Um... Los Angeles," I responded. I could see where this conversation was going and did not like it at all.

"Well, what nationality or ethnicity are you?"

"My nationality is American."

He was getting to see that this was probably a bad idea.

"I mean, what ethnicity?"

I finally fessed up. "Chinese."

"Ni hao!"

Seriously? "Hello...." I said back.

He then told me that he knew how to say hello in 60 languages so he could greet visitors in their native language. Maybe I was being unfair, but I said, "That's great, but you can greet me in English because, you know, American!"

Hadn't encountered something like that in a while, but situations like that tend to bring up the nasty Asian American activist side of me. Boils up to the surface. Maybe I should have responded in Swahili (the guard was of obvious African decent, so it's completely reasonable to assume he speaks Swahili, right?).

When you learn how to COPE

You know, when something is such a staple part of your life, for better or worse, it's always going to hurt at least just a little bit when it's gone.

Tomorrow's my last day at COPE. When I started working for COPE almost 4 years ago, it was a completely temporary thing. I was on the set of "Religiously Incorrect", a film I ADed (Assistant Directed) in 2004, when I received a call from a temp agency asking if I was available to meet with a Manager at COPE Partners (COPE's former name) on so and so date. I was actually offered another paid position ADing for a feature film about a bunch of wanna-be celebrities who end up dressed as Superman or other such movie characters on Hollywood Blvd in front of the Chinese Theatre. But I ended up driving around to different post-secondary educational institutions in Ventura County and the surrounding areas, recruiting students to participate in our hospital-based internship at St. John's Regional Medical Center.

Since, I've made lots of friends at COPE, and a few enemies. I've overseen programs in hospitals spanning 90 miles, which sometimes required me to leave home at the crack of dawn to make it to my farthest hospital on time for an 8am meeting. I've laughed, cried, been sleep deprived, fed myself possibly the unhealthiest things known to humans. I've sat in traffic for 4 hours straight, with my bladder about to explode, and that's a typical day. I've had my decisions praised, questioned, ignored, and told to be downright wrong. I've had periods of time where I've worked 16-hr days for an entire month straight (then was berated by my boss for not taking care of myself and told to take a 3-day vacation). I've sat in 3-hour meetings in the morning, then 3-hour meetings the same day in the evening. I've sat in meetings where I didn't know what the point of the meeting was. I've learned a lot...usually from making huge mistakes.

I'm gonna miss it. I'm gonna miss the students I've worked with, the hospital executives and my COPE family who have been nothing but supportive to myself, and to the programs. Sure, I'm going to miss the paycheck too (after all, being a grad student doesn't spell "affluence"), but that's not really the point here is it?

I'm going to have to cut this short for now, because, in true COPE style, I have an 8am meeting tomorrow morning, which means I need to be up in about...oh...5 hours.

Detour?

My mom's an accountant for her company, and it's month-end closing time, so the department has been doing a lot of expense audits. There was one that my mom ran across that just had to win the inefficiency award of the decade. (Note, you may need Google maps, or just know Southern CA geography to understand the absurdity of this)

An employee of the company, who lives in Ventura County, had a meeting in Orange County. Rather than simply driving there (which is all of, oh, 90 miles), he booked a flight from LAX to John Wayne...... with a layover in San Francisco. Think about what he had to do, though. He had to drive to LAX from Ventura County, check in, go through security, wait for his flight, hop on a plane, taxi around, take off, fly to San Fran-freakin'-cisco, wait around for the next flight, hop on the next flight, taxi, take off, etc etc, fly BACK down to John Wayne, and rent a car for the duration of his flight.

His journey back is even better. His flight back to LAX mirrored his flight to John Wayne (with the oh-so-convenient layover in San Francisco). However, his flight out of John Wayne got CANCELED.

So. He returned his rental car, rented ANOTHER car, drove it to LAX, returned that car, picked up HIS car, and drove all the way back to Ventura County.

I don't know about you, but I'm impressed.

Elitist much?

This was an ad I found on facebook:

Join Ozmosis - the exclusive physician only network that allows you to share knowledge with the people you trust - your peers.

Because the rest of us are just schmucks. And physicians are ALWAYS right, and no other health care professional knows what the hell they're doing. This elitist attitude certainly doesn't drive a rift in a patient health care team.

Danger

The iPhone is really dangerous. It's the perfect form of distraction so I don't get any work done... and I just spent the last two hours pimping it out so it's now chock full of games, Facebook, Twitter, and other things that just suck up time. Yeesh.

In other news, this dog could be Sabi's brother:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoNDp03udhg

But even this fact, and the Machu Pichu cameo at the beginning, and Piper Perabo, can't even begin to redeem how bad the movie looks.

Testing from phone

Testing to see if blog will post from here!

*******************
Cynthia Wang
cynthiawang@nyu.edu

Graphite is NOT wood (or, late-night ramblings on guitars)

I stopped by Guitar Center today after work (mostly to see if the new issue of The Sounding Board - a Martin guitar newsletter - was out yet. It is, but GC didn't have a copy), and naturally ended up in the acoustic corral playing guitars. My happiest discovery today was the Taylor GC8 - a sweet little easy-to-play guitar by Taylor. One of the most distinctive features, other than the concert-sized body, was the slotted headstock. I hadn't played a Taylor with a slotted headstock before. I must have spent a good 10-15 minutes or so playing the GC8.

Then, not wanting to neglect the myriad of other guitars in the corral, I picked up a long-time favorite of mine, the Martin OMC Aura.

There is such a distinct difference between Taylors and Martins. Martins are warm and resonant. Taylors are bold. Andrew and I have a long-standing debate on which are better guitars. Though I would be the first to say that Taylors have concentrated on making their electronics top-notch (which they are - and cosmetic too! There's none of this huge black box on the side deal that you see in most Martins), Martins are truly acoustic-centric and concentrate on the sound. But when you get down to it, it's a different sound, and everyone has different preferences. I, for the life of me, will never understand why anyone would get a Gibson. They just sound tinny to me. Tinny and loud. And these are the ones in the $3,000 range.

The OMC Aura I picked up has an intimacy that lacks in the Taylor. Even my 312CE which I love. I recently started playing Cricket again (he's a Martin 00-16DBM - solid mahogany, smaller, but deep body) after shelving him for the last few months to concentrate on breaking in the Taylor 312CE. It felt a lot like coming home - and made me wonder why I ever stopped playing Cricket. However, I picked up an 000-18 today at GC too. Warm, warm, warm, but no sustain or resonance. I was actually very disappointed (it's not the first time I've played the 000-18, and never really fell in love with it...thank god. The pricetag is $3,000+), since the 000-18 is one of Martin's classic models. Likewise, I have never been overly impressed with the D28 (and HD28) or the D18, which everyone swears by. Maybe I just don't like dreadnoughts.

Ultimately, it's the individual guitar that speaks to a person, and fits a person. Though I love my Taylor, I think I will always prefer playing Cricket.

Near the end of my GC excursion, one of the GC fellows came in and told me to check out the Rainsong graphite guitar. I was rather non-plussed. It's a guitar made all of graphite, so it's lighter, and doesn't warp in extreme weather. Handy for people who live in the desert or very humid places. The price-tag on it was $2,300. The sound was not bad, but all I could think of was, for the same price, a Martin or a Taylor would give you 10 times the sound. Graphite will never be wood.

I'm done rambling. I should sleep.

Google-strong!

Have you looked at your gmail spam box lately? I'm impressed by how well it filters out emails telling me how to enlarge my penis (among other things). I counted about 20 spam emails each day. Thank god for the spam-filter - those things drive me crazy. Another reason to love Google. :)

A Vow of Silence

Just because you CAN talk with a sore throat doesn't mean you SHOULD.

I'm learning this the hard way. I spent 2 hours on the phone with AT&T trying to logic with them yesterday why I should get a discounted iPhone (a word of advice for people already with AT&T - check your eligibility before you purchase the iPhone - chances are, you're not "eligible" for an upgrade. Yes that's right. Apple, with all its prior integrity, has very misleading advertising this year. It's a bit depressing...and AT&T don't seem to value loyal customers since they treat their new customers better than their old - when I argued this point, my mom points out that the world is unfair, and that she'll get me an iPhone anyway - did I mention I have the greatest mom in the world?) - and then was given further false information by one of their customer representatives (his name is Cory Z - if you ever get him on the phone......ask for his supervisor and lodge a complaint against him on my behalf. I'll bake you a cookie.)

AT&T did redeem itself today, when I spent about half an hour on the phone with a very nice representative named Kelly, who helped me fix my phone because for some reason, it wasn't calling out or receiving calls.

That being said, I should mention that I've been running a fever the last two days, and think I might be developing laryngitis. My throat is less sore in the mornings, but starts killing me in the evenings - very probably from overuse during the day. Therefore, I've vowed to speak as little as possible over the next couple days to see if the soreness goes away.

Speaking of fever, isn't it interesting what your brain comes up with when altered either by heat or chemicals? I've found that there are two things in life that guarantee weird dreams at night. One is fever (and the delirium that comes with it), and the other is pizza. I think it's something about the mix of cheese and marinara sauce that infuses the brain and brings out really odd dreams. Am I the only one this happens to?

I might still be a bit delirious.

Reclaiming that which had been lost

Remember how I lost my wallet in Germany a few months ago?

I received a letter from the American Citizen Services in Frankfurt, saying that "[my wallet] had been forwarded to [their] office by the German Authorities."

Miracles do happen.

In other news, a couple months ago, I couldn't find the charger to my Nokia phone. Now that I have the charger, I can't find the phone.

Elusive Pie

Don McLean's "American Pie" was one of the first songs I learned the chords to when I first started playing guitar. 5 years later, however, I still have not *learned* the song. I cannot play it on demand if requested at a show (which....sadly, I have not done in a few months...and probably will not until I have some new material...damnit).

I had wanted to try and complete learning it before I moved to the East Coast...but here I am, and still Pie-less. Perhaps I could have taken the massive amounts of free time I have in New Jersey to learn it...but my cousin lent me all three seasons of Battlestar Galactica, which I am frantically trying to finish before I move to NYC.

Bye bye, Miss American Pie indeed.

Google Korean?

Article about SCUP (our pet name for the World Scholar's Cup) from Korea - the article was originally written in Korean.....this is the Google translation:

Korean students study hard enough to surprise. In particular, very good at math. English listening and speaking it well. However, the U.S. universities that emphasize timwokeuna leadership, essay writing always seems to look weak. "

Seukalraseukeop academic world junior championship tournament,'2008 '(YBM Education sponsored) group, organized by the American Skiing live ¼ Buddy demidek Daniel Corp. (33 photos) representative. Bachelor's from Stanford University in the United States, he received a master's degree from Harvard students who had studied together for a year like this. He Seoul English Village from May 31, feeding the camp to attend the two-day event was held.
Ski school and live in a society, Mr. Buddy ¼ Koreans generally met 'impersonations' leadership has neunghana timwokeuna the weak. Good at studies, which together made something that was familiar with. I ate with students and colleagues, exercise, and dormitory life that 'studies outside the classroom' LA importance of wealth in the U.S. college gogyona was inappropriate.

He Korean students studying in the U.S. and dreaming of experience in the world look to sahoena advice. If conditions are allowed in or out of the World Congress, is also good for vacation, said the ability to travel abroad. In addition, a considerable amount of time to read and write in English, encourage investments. Essay University in the United States for seamless communication, especially because it emphasizes the areas.

Detour to Australia

We've been in Korea for the last couple of weeks for the World Scholar's Cup Finals, and the day after the awards, we were informed (accidentally) that we were on the agenda for a teachers of selected schools of Australia conference on Thursday. (Basically, the Australian coach was like "So, we'll see you Thursday at the conference!" And we're like, "What conference?!")

We spent the next day or so discussing who should represent the World Scholar's Cup at the conference (we determined we need to have a presence there to get Australia excited about the competition next year...among other reasons), and somehow in the middle of it, it came up that I was the best person to go. Brent and Diana were really pushing for it. Brent had to get back home to teach his classes (pfftt - classes, schmasses), and Ross and Monica were going to stay in Korea for a few more days.

We didn't really buy me the ticket till the night before. Daniel had reserved a ticket for himself, but that night, he was feeling really crappy (like, getting sick crappy), so we decided I would go. And hey, I've never been to Australia!

The next day, I flew from Seoul to Tokyo. When I got to Narita Airport, I went to check in for my Australia flight on Japan Airlines. When I presented my passport, the agent asked, "Do you have a visa?"

"...... what visa?!" I responded.

Turns out, you need something called an Electronic Travel Authority to enter Australia. Fortunately, you can apply for it online, and in 90% of the cases, it's issued automatically. Unfortunately, I fell into the 10% whose application had to be submitted to the Australian Immigration Powers That Be for further review. Was I, unbeknownst to me, wanted for a crime in Australia?

In any case, the website asked me to check back in 12 hours. 12 hours?! My flight leaves in 5! With my blood pressure and cortisone levels rising at a rapid rate, I approach the JAL agent and let her know my situation. She seemed perplexed, as most passengers get their visas right away. I showed her the message on my computer, and told her I would just go ahead and check every few minutes or so to see if it had gone through.

Dejected, I sat back down, convinced I would never make it. A few minutes later, the JAL agent came up to me asked for my passport and request number (the one the Australian website sends so you can check your visa status). Then she disappears for a couple of minutes, and comes back to tell me her system shows that I've been issued a visa. I refresh the website, and it indeed says I had been cleared. YAY!

The flight to Australia was quite uneventful. It left at around 8:30pm, so we got dinner shortly after leaving. The plane was empty - I think everyone got their own row. I had 4 seats all to myself, and the armrests came up. Who needs business class?

I picked up the rental car, and drove to the hotel.

Driving was interesting. I think the day would have been a lot less stressful if I didn't have to drive. The driver's seat is on the right side of the car, and people drive on the left side of the road. It was really hard getting used to.

After getting to the hotel and taking a shower, I called the conference location, which turns out to be a manor in the middle of nowhere (seriously, the directions were like, "Turn left at the clock tower." When I asked if there was a street name, the answer was no. When I asked for an address, they couldn't give me one.)

*sigh* Time to hop in my car and brave the strange topsy-turvy streets (Monique, if you're reading this, don't laugh - you'll see what I mean when you're in Milan). The manor was FAR - two and a half hours, and every one of those required lots of brainpower to not drift too far to the left, or over-correct and head into oncoming traffic - both of which happened a couple of times going there and coming back. Matters were not helped by the fact that it was pouring rain.

When I got to the conference, I met the coordinators, who were just so nice and lovely - they thanked me for coming, fed me, and let me talk to their administrators for half an hour. And gave me a bottle of wine as a thank-you for coming, which is proving interesting to transport home.

It got dark on my way home, but thankfully not before I got back on a main highway. I probably would have killed a cow or something. But I got back relatively safe and sound, but starving (I was talking too much during lunch to really each much). I found a nice Chinese restaurant close to the hotel (it was raining again), and had some beef noodle soup - perfect Chinese comfort food - and some fried yin2 si1 juan3.

Passed out.

Next day, I had a very frustrating encounter with the JAL agent in Australia (she was Australian, and according to Monique, you sort of have to be really rude back in Australia to get anything done, which is opposite of America, where you just butter them up and be really nice - but I guess in Australia if you do that, they see you as a pushover....but then again, I'm finding that things are really...opposite...in Australia) who wouldn't let me take my one carry-on and my one personal item onto the plane. So poor Daniel got an earful of me ranting to him on IM (ok, maybe it was an "eyeful", but the innuendo just isn't the same).

On the plane, I saw the Spiderwick Chronicles, which I really enjoyed, watched the Notebook again, and read "Dear John" (also by Nicholas Sparks - he's one of the most formulaic writers I've ever read).

Ok I should run to catch my flight. Hope I get on!

Another Asian City

Sitting here in YBM's office in Seoul with Monica listening to Daniel Powter and trying to stay cool. Daniel and Ross are with Alaina doing an interview with the press. I think. It's very peaceful. We're kinda stuck here because we're not sure how to get back to our hotel. It's ok, I have power, I have wireless (I think I'm stealing it from a nearby Starbucks), I have over half of Season 6 of 24, and I have some weird honey drink. I'm good to go.

This is my first time actually crossing the Korean border - last time, we only had a layover an Incheon Airport, where we had some really good bibimbap on our way to China. I have to say, as a city, it doesn't really impress, but I keep thinking, this is the place where FINKL and SES and HOT and all those Kpop bands I used to love are based! Though.... I don't think those bands are really popular anymore.

I am very tired though. Still jet-lagged. And our bed is really hard, and the towels have a weird odor to it. Come to think of it, so do the pillows.... maybe it's the detergent they use?

Gassing down to a stop

I finally did it. I finally made the decision to go from the 89 grade gas to the 87 (regular.....cheapest) grade gas. My car might be bumpy for a while, but honestly, a Camry doesn't justify more expensive gas.

I'm also making the resolution to keep my speedometer under 70 mph. My speedometer reads 5 mph faster than actual speed, so I'm trying to keep my max speed to under 65 mph. Mostly to see whether or not I see higher mileage over the next few weeks.

Driving slower is really more a psychological test of restraint than anything, because I'm used to driving with the flow of traffic, which is ... well, a lot faster than 65 mph. So today on the way home, I had all these cars speeding by me, no doubt peeking in to see just how old of an old lady I am. It takes all my self-restraint to not speed up and overtake them all! I'm thinking of putting a sign on my back window that says something like "Slow Down, Save Gas!" I mean, I have my pride to think about!

In any case, I won't have to worry about getting speeding tickets.

Modern Human Circus

We saw Zumanity tonight - the Cirque du Soleil show at New York New York in Las Vegas. While I would say a good portion of it is gratuitous sexuality and trashy humor, it was overall a well-put-together show with many metaphorical aspects of the circuses of old. (We watched Mystere last time, and whereas Mystere had more acrobatics, Zumanity felt like a better show overall.)

The whole concept behind Cirque du Soleil is to create a circus that doesn't use animals. As a side note, a great book about how they treat circus animals in the heyday of circuses is Water for Elephants. Instead, the focus is on humans, and acrobatics and such. What struck me about Zumanity was how many aspects of a traditional circus they incorporated into the show. Examples are as follows.

In Zumanity, they had the concept of a ringmaster (who is a transvestite in this case, which also takes care of the Bearded Lady staple of circuses), a main ring (the main act that everyone watches), side rings (the background dancers and minor acts off to the side during the main act), the clowns (in Zumanity's case, two "merchants" of sex goods - complete with dildos and scotch baggies), the "animal" (a guy called the "Beast" who didn't speak - only growled), the lions in a cage (two men who "fought" in a rubber cage, lots of sexual tension that culminated in a kiss - to both cheers and boos), freaks (the Rubber Band Man - crazily double-jointed dude who did seemingly painful things with his body), and of course, the acrobats.

The show really doesn't NEED to have nudity in it. It's completely gratuitous. And, I feel, distracts from the show itself. The nudity is a spectacle, and probably a huge reason why people see it. Because of it, the technicalities of the show are lacking. It's much less exciting in terms of the acrobatics than some of the other shows.

But, as I said before, a show that is very well done and put together. I enjoyed it immensely.

Bag Chair Man - or, an Outrageous Episode

“Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?”

“My bag’s on it.”

I looked around. Every other chair in sight had a tush in it.

This was the exchange I had with an obviously petty, cankerous (and rather overweight and unhealthy-looking) fellow while waiting for dinner (before watching a truly amazing production of Fortinbras – Dagney Kerr, the actress who played Kathy, Buffy’s annoying college roommate in the beginning of Season 4, was starring as the ghost of Ophelia). Juliana had reserved us tickets as industry, meaning we didn’t have to pay for the $20 show. So we caught dinner at this place called Pitfire Pizza right down the street from the theatre, and it must have been popular because there were no tables left.

We positioned ourselves on a knee-high ledge bordering the perimeter of the restaurant, and secured one of the cheap red plastic chairs – the only piece of furniture we had – all tables were taken. The plan was to use the ledge as a table, and to find one more chair. That’s when I approached the fellow sitting next to us, who had only one dining companion, but three chairs (and a table to boot!).

Needless to say, we failed in finding another chair, but made do with the ledge, and had a wonderful dinner while staring daggers into the back of Petty Bag Chair Man.

What happened to the good ol’ days (or just places other than LA – ie: 1952 Alabama) when people gave up their own seats for others? Now we’re in competition with bags.

And it wasn’t even a nice bag. It was like an oversized man-purse.

Gay and Straight

I didn't write this, but someone did in response to Obama's losing speech in Pennsylvania (from Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish):

>>>>>>>>>
This morning I saw an excerpt from Obama's concession speech in Indiana where he said the following:

"Or this time, we can build on the movement we've started in this campaign – a movement that's united Democrats, Independents, and Republicans; a movement of young and old, rich and poor; white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American, gay and straight."

I have two comments about this:

First, I cannot recall a politician ever speaking after a loss, proclaiming that he wants to bring together gays and straights. That is amazing. Can you imagine Hillary ever saying anything like that to a national audience, especially after a defeat?

Second, the "gay and straight" portion is not included in the text of the speech on Obama's website. This means either 1) the campaign removed those words from the edited transcript or 2) (more likely) Obama's inclusion of "gay and straight" was impromptu. It wasn't included by the speech writers, but he included it at the spur of the moment. If this is true, how amazing it is that there is a politician who is willing to stand up for us gay Americans who have been ignored for so long. I hope Obama knows how much those three small words that he included in his speech mean to us.
>>>>>>>>

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Abortion as art is not.

I really didn't mean to post two abortion-related posts one right after the other, but this one popped up as an interesting news item recently.

A senior at Yale is inseminating herself, then aborting the fetus with abortion drugs multiple times over the course of 9 months.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24513

She says she "hopes it inspires some sort of discourse", and also says that she's not using the concept for "shock value". She claims that she has some "message".

Really. What's the message? Hey, let's make ourselves really sick and show complete disregard for the women who go through the emotional turmoil of choosing to abort a fetus! This'll be fun! (I would even go as far to say a "disregard for life", but want to be clear that I do not equate abortion with murder)

It's no wonder people on both sides of the abortion fence are disgusted by this.

On the pro-lifer's side, this woman is committing mass murder over and over.

And pro-choice folks are not pro-abortion. As a matter of fact, most of my friends are pro-choice, but given the choice to abort or not, most would choose to not abort. This woman exemplifies what pro-choice is NOT about.

Both sides of the fence value life. Deliberately aborting a fetus for "art's sake" completely trivializes the immensely difficult and life-changing choice that some women are forced to make. It's appalling. It's like making a snuff film - films where people are killed or murdered on film (not because I think abortion in and of itself is like murder, but that the choice in making it needs to be given some weight). That's not art. That's disrespect for the issue, and should be condemned.

And seriously...what is the message?

Pro-thinking?

I saw this bumper sticker driving home yesterday:

"I think, therefore, I'm Pro-Life."

I don't mean to offend all the pro-lifers out there (just the ones who agree word for word with this statement), but look at it in literal terms. Being pro-life means you have a principle telling you what to do. You're not thinking, you're just doing. Talk about ironic.

I'm not making a political statement, I'm just analyzing the phrase as an objective third party.

That being said, I like thinking (actual thinking). And choosing. But hopefully will never be at a point where I am forced to.

Disappearance of a Mint

I'm still alive. Just not on this blog (or online much).

Just got back from Europe.