the new infiniti commerical is such a rip off of the movie hero.
this is retarded. can't you marketing people think of anything new?
everything, down from the red ink, to the slow large scale calligraphy, to the falling silk curtains was soooo done before.
duh!
damn it! that mariah carey song is on in the cafe! i gotta find me a spoon, quick.
and what is up with it being december in a few days? that is messed up, seriously.
after a weekend of excessive overconsumption, let me just say this -- i never want to eat again. some people can just sit around and consume like there is no tomorrow and it never shows. as for me, i feel like i eat nothing but lettuce for the next week. if i turned green, i'd still feel better than i did at the end of last night's dinner.
but anyhoo, i had a marvelous weekend.
thank you. you are the best.
the slaving in the kitchen yesterday would have been painful without roomie's funny quips and enthusiastic use of the cooking thermometer. they said the turkey was moist, but what do i know? meat is meat. boy is getting leftover turkey soup. lucky fart.
thanks to everyone who showed. we had:
taiwanese sticky rice "luo mi fan"
turkey
gravy
cranberry sauce
creamed corn
cheese and scallion biscuits
napa cabbage casserole
mashed potatoes
steamed sea bass
chinese veggies
passion fruit picked cucumbers
salad
squash soup
10 million pies
apple cobbler
tiramisu
ice cream
i woke up today and found that my 3rd trimester food baby has not yet gone away. i need to start working out again. the 4-times a week i had going in september has given away to late hour scanning, deadlines, and business trips. no more.
so basically, i made an early new year's resolution. i'm not going to let work emotionally and physically rule me the way it has for the past few months. and if that means that i'm not going to be the super-est phd candidate in the world, so be it. i just don't have the internal inertia to be the raging workaholic that i was back at mit and that i have been for the past few months. i just want to have time to take pictures, sleep, eat, see friends, and read. i want life time.
so much for raw asian ambition. i have failed my ancestors with my incredible laziness.
oh well.
grumbling... i'm hongry.
i've decided to get off meat again. completely. that includes sea food for a while. strange that i decide this right before thanksgiving. never mind. i didn't eat it last year, despite having made a 15 pound turkey.
a few thoughts:
the new dumbledore sucks. he's not supposed to be that angry or that mean. where is the wizened, compassionate dumbledore? i liked the previous one...
cho chang was not that cute. i mean, she was cute, as in mignonne, but not hot. very disappointing. sort of made me think about marginalization and pigeonholing of asians in the media. i mean, really, where are my asian male brethren in movies? they're either playing ghetto asian mafia human traffickers, rabid kung fu stars (I LOVE YOU JET LI!!), or pansy pushovers. they're only heroes when they're wearing ancient chinese nartial arts garb. otherwise, you never see them. frustrating. why haven't they become a symbol of masculinity, power, and integrity yet? basically, why aren't asian males hot?
i've had many talks with asian male friends who feel that they get shafted in society and in dating. basically, white males are at the top of the totem pole. white females won't date asian males (i mean, this is just sweeping generalizations on trends, there are exceptions to every rule), and asian females won't date asian males because they remind them of their overbearing and temperamental fathers. so, my asian male friends feel like they lose everyone to white males because the white dudes are more socially desirable, while the "submissive and meek" asian dudes are left ignored and unwanted.
whether this is true, i don't know. i just know that asian males generally don't embody idealized "hotness" unless they are practicing some praying mantis stealth kung fu action.
emotions -- the nature of emotions are to be forever changing and dynamic. so why do you get involved if you know that even the love you feel for someone is going to change? perhaps for the worse? and how do you maintain that openness and freedom with another?
is there ever liberation in being committed to one thing?
is fear of regret ever a good motivation for doing something?
we only sat for 5 minutes this past weekend, but if you came, thanks for supporting me. i hope you enjoyed it and found it to be a worthwhile experience (and trip, for all those east coasters who came!). i'm sorry i was such a headless chicken the entire time. work really has been pushing me past my limit. in any case, after saturday, i decided to push back. i'm just not someone who is cut out to slave until exhaustion over work. and it's just not worth it if i'm not fully mentally intact when i'm around those who matter the most.
i once again realized that i don't have a high capacity for stress. my body doesn't like getting less than 8 hours of sleep, and i'm just not made of psychologically earthy disposition. base state, i'm so whack that i get flustered and agitated and my brain is all over the place. if you add in intensity in there, i'm even worse. so maybe i am a space cadette. in any case, i decided to compartamentalize better.
also:
- i snorted water in the shower this morning and my right nostril hurts.
- i shut the latch on the bathroom door and a saw a spark of static electricity. coooool...
- i stalled boy's car yesterday twice in 5 minutes. i'm never driving that thing again. truth is, i'm just not hot enough to handle a subaru :(. i'm only honda level.
- got a parking ticket on friday. DAMN YOU DMV!
- big bro just wrote me and said "i have the attention span of a garden toad." it wasn't that funny but i almost choked on my orange.
- speaking of which, i have 1/2 a mother box of oranges in my car, which equals about 25 oranges. what the frick am i going to do with all those oranges?
just cause i wanted you all to know that.
so, i'm curious. if you have a minute or two, please answer the questions below. you can do so anonymously, just tell me your ethnicity and sex. i realize that part of the reason i love psychology is because it's applicable in everything i do and everything i see. mosfets were pretty badass, but it was hard to contemplate the meaning of them in everyday scenarios. then again, psychology didn't make data work. mosfets did..
drool... data is *so* hot!!!
~ The Heinz Dilemma ~
Scenario 1
A woman was near death from a unique kind of cancer. There is a drug that might save her. The drug costs $4,000 per dosage. The sick woman's husband, Heinz, went to everyone he knew to borrow the money and tried every legal means, but he could only get together about $2,000. He asked the doctor scientist who discovered the drug for a discount or let him pay later. But the doctor scientist refused.
Should Heinz break into the laboratory to steal the drug for his wife? Why or why not?
Scenario 2
Heinz broke into the laboratory and stole the drug. The next day, the newspapers reported the break-in and theft. Brown, a police officer and a friend of Heinz remembered seeing Heinz last evening, behaving suspiciously near the laboratory. Later that night, he saw Heinz running away from the laboratory.
Should Brown report what he saw? Why or why not?
Scenario 3
Officer Brown reported what he saw. Heinz was arrested and brought to court. If convicted, he faces up to two years' jail. Heinz was found guilty.
Should the judge sentence Heinz to prison? Why or why not?
into the midwest has been very successful. i kind of like the small town sleepy thang, the foliage, how it gets slightly chilly at night, and of course, seeing vinny (it's amazing how some friendships never change, even over many years and distance). it's been hard work out here, and given what i have seen, i'm afraid we're going to have to rehaul a lot of our research paradigms, but, it was well worth its while and i've enjoyed the midwestern hospitality (they are sooooo nice out here! damn those new englanders!) nonetheless, i'm looking forward to coming home; important things are waiting for me and i'm ready to welcome them with open arms.
one thing i noticed: it's not just on the simpsons that they say "mizz-or-rah". missourans call their state that, too.
the midwest smells like farm land. some parts of columbia reminded me of the cowfields that i used to grow up next to.
money only brings one conveniences. it doesn't facilitate much happiness.
the human condition is really quite incredible. it never serves to fascinate me that even "old dogs" can experience new feelings. it just makes you ponder the depth and breadth of human emotion...
that the simpsons live in missouri? they once slipped the zip code and val looked it up -- sure enough, missouri. for some reason, i had always been under the impression that it was in massachuetts. anyhow, that's where i am headed tomorrow. joy!! - i get to see vinny.
ok. i need to go home and pack. still at work. with a break today to see stephen hawkings.
i asked boy this -- what sort of sick order is it in the world that makes someone that talented and that gifted stuck in a body that confines all that promise (hawkings has a degenerative neuromuscular disease called asl. he communicates through twitching on his cheek because he no longer has fast control of his hands or fingers)? (bad wording -- it's late!). and he responded something along the lines of, well perhaps he wouldn't have been that talented or that gifted had he not had the disease.
oh.
what a beautifully simple perspective.
to ponder:
my ears are really itchy and i don't know why.
what is the difference between morality and ethics? is it possible that we have an inherent sense of morality or ethics? or is it all empirically derived from society? for example, does a child who hasn't been taught right or wrong inherently know that it is wrong to kill another? would a feral child prevent himself from doing so if given the opportunity with no motivating factor?
i'm becoming a much improved parallel parker. i asked boy this -- is good driving a talent? just as if some people will never be artistic, or musical, or literary, is that the same case with driving skills?
if i eat anymore, my innards are going to explode upon the universe. or at least i'll grow a food belly so big that it'll put both meta and goonley to shame. boy needs to stop being such a good cook. it's bad for me. maybe i need to duct tape my mouth closed.
when is it fair to tell your friend a harsh opinion, even if it upsets him? or is it our role to steadfastly support our friends, regardless of our own insights into their behavior. i once remained silent on an issue, and afterwards my friend asked me, why didn't you tell me your honest opinion? truth was, i'm not sure he would have wanted it then. so when do you speak, and when do you remain silent?
i'm craving sushi right now. that's messed up.
no clever headings for today. just an amalgamation of some random thoughts:
to the people who keep playing xmas songs, will you please turn off your radio or speakers before i bring in a spoon and beat you severely into the ground? it's 7 or 8 weeks away! i'm already suffering under all the mariah carey talking about all she wants for christmas is bla bla bla..
seriously though, what happened to waiting until after thanksgiving? now this holiday business starts in september! i think it's kind of crazy.
my fortune cookie (the first fortune ever that makes a modicum of sense): "you are heading for a land of sunshine."
BONUS!
i fell asleep in lab today and now i think everyone thinks i'm a retard. well, they probably thought that beforehand but...
i like guacamole. a lot.
that's all for today.