a "best of" cross section of the current playlist. 
Dragonforce - Through the Fire and Flames - what a great song.  the guitar riffs make me want to rock out.  great workout music. 
Maksim Mvorica - Exodus - a really nice techno/classical song.  not too techno, not too classical.  i would say the best of both worlds. 
Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Follow You In The Dark - definitely have never heard of a song by this group before.  this is now my favorite mellow song. 
System of a Down - Lonely Day - luckily i don't listen to lyrics, but a pretty nice rock/alternative borderline yelling song. 




update.  i feel like it's been awhile since i've updated.  i have some pretty intense emo/tions swirling underneath the surface, but i suppose that is for another time. it's been a pretty bizarre quarter in the sense that i've definitely been trying to divorce that inner side of me and the outer side of me.  interviews and friends.  anyhow, more substantively:

--interviewing a lot recently. i've managed not to set foot in an airport, but that i think will change soon. 
--thanksgiving break!  which entails celebrating, bunnyworld, and work.  bunnyworld has more or less consumed me, but we're making hella progress, i think, so it's okay. 
--my sister snagged some tickets to the sytycd tour on friday.  too bad there is no ivan, but it should be exciting nonetheless.  going with jess. 
--really hitting off with this guy named andy.  new friendships.  definitely different. other relationships are getting weirder or less so. 
--watched step up and fracture.  got really into this game called "tower defense v1.5".  (look it up on kongregate)
--i will be seeing my cousin sunny on thursday and saturday.  evan from hs is coming sunday to tuesday. 
--jim's 22nd bday was this past saturday. we brought it in with all the fanfare and went cosmic bowling, my first time! 128, which is pretty good for me.

i think that's really all the relevant things you need to know re: the last week and this week.  i can't believe fall quarter is almost over.  damn.  pretty crazy. 


both of these pictures are from the same lj.... this guy literally puts up some of the most breathtaking landscape shots ever, period.  incredibly consistent. 

"I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night." - Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
courtesy susan. 

a metaphor for my day, sorta: TODAY in chinese class, i still don't have a chinese book (damn columbus day).  ofc today is the first day we use the book.  which is fine, right?  cuz i can just share with another person?  so there are exactly three people in the class who don't have the book, and i am one of them, and.... the two others are THE TWO PEOPLE SITTING NEXT TO ME.  seriously.  what.  the.  fuck. 

disclaimer.  sooooo i haven't been updating the blog as much.  sorry.  i think this is a slight trend in this blog, which is just a trend towards more protected entries.  thoughts:
--it is slightly in opposition with my "what are you afraid of!?" ideology, but the thing is, there are things that i simply can't write about publicly.  and it's just sort of a hassle separating out what can and can't be public. 
--blogging itself is not really doing it for me.  like the idea of this anonymous person befriending you is cool.  but i don't think that that necessarily happens.  like i am not necessarily receiving as much feedback as i would like.  which discourages me from writing as much.  that, and it turns out that i do not actually receiving criticism.  well, i do on an ideological level, but not really. 

national treasure 2 trailer. holy crap, this trailer is incredibly.  i am so excited. 

facebook group.  COME on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol.  and they were mentioned in a CNN article!  that is some pretty good publicity right there.  (name of the group: I Secretly Want To Punch Slow Walking People In The Back Of The Head. )


on that note of sheer aggression....
news recap.  various links.
they probably won't go back to the utah mines.  that's pretty poignant.

5 year old boy set on fire after doused by gasoline.  that... sucks. 
"He's become spiteful, I am not sure why," said his mother, Zainab. "He is jealous of everyone. If I say the slightest thing to him, he cries. He's sensitive."
that strikes me as being a really insensitive statement on behalf of the mom. 

virginia tech internal report decides that nobody was at fault.  agreed. 

intel hires a lobbying firm.  i never really thought about companies needing lobbying firms. 

self-declared 15 companies that will change the world.  no, redfin is not on there.  but there was a company that makes 3D PRINTERS!! how cool is that.  i have no idea how that would even work. 

veronica mars/kristin bell is joining HEROES!!.  okay.  fine.  this may encourage me to watch the show.  let's get a pic. 

hellllllllls yeah. 


the office.
article about kelly kapoor.  i didn't learn this until last night with anthony, but did you know that KELLY AND RYAN ARE BOTH WRITERS FOR THE SHOW?!?!?!??!?!? 

after learning this, i just became infinitely more infatuated/impressed with them.  that they can be so incredible and so young and be writing for the office?!?!?!? AND BE IN THE OFFICE?!?!?!?  arrghhhh.  as in, ryan actually wrote the episode where ryan sets the office on fire. 

While visiting her parents in her hometown of Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Office star Mindy Kaling spent most of her time doing one of the things she loves the most: shopping.

Kaling was supposed to be working on a script for The Office’s fourth season.  Instead, the 28-year-old writer and actress ended up going store-hopping along Newbury Street last week.

“I can’t believe that I put off this writing,” she told the Boston Herald.  “We had five weeks to write it and I’ve waited until the last week because I was too busy shopping and hanging with my boyfriend.  I can’t believe how incredibly irresponsible I’ve been.”

Known for her portrayal of ditzy customer service representative Kelly Kapoor on The Office, Mindy Kaling became interested in comedy writing after taking a satire class at Buckingham Browne & Nichols School during her junior year.

“It was a crash course in all things comedy and it was amazing,” she said.  “That course itself, in my mind, is worth the tuition for all four years at BB&N.”

“I think that Ryan is in for it,” Kaling explained.  “I don’t think Kelly would even know where the phrase ‘hell hath no fury’ is from or even know what that means, but we’re going to see that literally enacted upon Ryan, which I think is going to be funny to see.  My character is kind of such a sweet ditz, so to see her be scorned and turned into Medea will be really fun and a challenge as an actor.”

Kaling also revealed that a past character is set to make a comeback in the show’s fourth season. “We get to see a character who we think is no longer going to be on the show any more,” she said.  “Someone who we think is long gone.  They make an appearance so I was excited about the script.”

aggregated list of spoilers for season 4.  pretty much none of them are interesting.  but if you can't get your hands on enough office stuff.... the first four episodes are going to be hour-long episodes!!!

i sort of worry about the office season4.  hopefully it will stay strong. 

right now, the potential tv sched: desperate housewives, the office, definitely.  possibly heroes, survivor.  and... that's it?  lost doesn't premiere until spring.  i don't think i'll watch nip/tuck. 


i like the style.

on how college life has changed.  again, don't have the link, but it's from a NYT editorial, i think.  essentially about how college life used to be the shizz because it was all intellectual, and now it's just "feckless" students.  (learned that word today!!!!) excerpt:

But in contrast, today's colleges lack this cultural and intellectual vigor. One college student complains that "people here are so insanely uncreative, and they're proud of it." The main problem in his eyes was that his classmates "had to spend their entire high school experience studying for the SATs or something and didn't really get a chance to live life or experience things."

Why aren't people paying attention to the campuses? Because, as a discrete experience, "college" has begun to disappear. My radical, alienated friends brought up the University of Chicago's marketing materials: bucolic images of a mystic world apart, where 18-year-olds discover themselves for the first time in a heady atmosphere of cultural and intellectual tumult. But college no longer looks like that. They wondered how long the admissions office thought it could get away with it before students start complaining they'd been swindled. I posed the question to a brilliant graduating senior, someone I've been friends with for four years. "They're assuming that the marketing is for students," he explained. "It's not. It's for parents."

Who had, you know, gone to college back when it was college.

sorry, did find the link: essay contest

anthony.  had dinner with anthony last night.  something that really impresses me.  which is, he knows a lot about a lot of subjects.  such as:
--he knows a lot about the markets.  like i thought i could hold my ground in a talk about the stock market.  but ... i understand it.  i just don't have a lot of opinions. as opposed to anthony.  talked a bit about VOLATILITY, which was pretty exciting.  he also knew a lot about subprime and apple. 

--a discussion of alcoholism.  which sort of brought back memories of jules and his discussion re: what makes someone have an alcohol problem. interesting point of view, which is: problem drinking is just binge drinking and throwing up and going to the ER or something. alcoholism, on the other hand, can be determined by frequency, but not necessarily the intensity.  it is largely driven by motivation.  as in, if you drink every night to sleep because you're so depressed, that's a problem.  but if you drink every night socially, that's okay.  i think that's a pretty solid grasp of alcohol problems.

--a discussion of economics.  again, i sort of remember studying this, but he was essentially arguing that perfectly rational people should equate their leisure time with their effective hourly wage.  (jim, what are your thoughts on this?!?).  but i was arguing how this was not necessarily a solid rational deduction.  and then he lost me by using some pretty serious terminology, such as "granularize" and "linear" (which i do understand, just not in the context of this discussion.  "what function is linear?" "a 3 dimensional function over three different factors" "...")

--discussion of THE OFFICE.  he brought up the school of thought that KAREN is actually better than pam, which is absolutely unheard of.  it was actually a really interesting argument that sort of became slightly regarding destiny and true love.  and does karen deserve to be broken up with?  he also disagreed with my "tobey is the most awesome character, i am tobey" comment.   in fact, he thinks that tobey is slightly sketchy.  also talked about ryan and kelly.  jan as a character.  how they play up michael's feminimity in a variety of ways. 

--the research that he's doing.  which is actually some pretty exciting imaging stuff. 

the entire time, we went to this reallly nice pub/restaurant sort of place, where he talked about beers.  and cmon.  i know nothing about beers.  other than the fact that... they're an acquired taste, to put it lightly. 

wikipedia: list of paradoxes
# Horse paradox: All horses are the same color.
# Berry paradox: The phrase "the first number not nameable in under ten words" appears to name it in nine words.
# Curry's paradox: "If this sentence is true, the world will end in a week."



rotten tomatoes saw4 teaser article
Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda are dead.

Upon the news of Detective Kerry's murder, two seasoned FBI profilers, Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) and Agent Perez, arrive at the depleted police precinct and help veteran Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) sift through Jigsaw's latest grizzly game of victims and piece together the puzzle. However, when SWAT Commander Rigg, the last officer untouched by Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), is suddenly abducted and thrust into the madman's harrowing game, the officer has but ninety minutes to overcome a series of interconnected traps...or face the deadly consequences.

Rigg's citywide pursuit leaves a wake of dead bodies, and Detective Hoffman and the FBI uncover long hidden clues that lead them back to Jigsaw's ex-wife Jill (Betsy Russell). The genesis of Jigsaw's evil is unveiled, exposing the puppet master's true intentions and the sinister plan for his past, present and future victims.

here is what the twist is going to be at the end: jigsaw is still alive and is actually controlling the wife who is trying to control the FBI detectives. 

ended up watching the first few minutes of saw4 by myself in stm.  not a good idea.  totally freaked me out.  thoughts about the first couple minutes: totally gory (duh).  but the premise is fairly incredible, albeit executed not to its full potential. 

universal and itunes drm.  didn't keep the article, but:
Since announcing that they will not renew their contract with iTunes, Universal, one of the "big 4" record labels, announced this week that they will start selling DRM-free music online. Cory Doctorow, an advocate for the removal of all DRM "crippleware," says that this move is inevitable since Apple only allows the music they sell to be played on an iPod.

    "For record companies, there are only two choices: sell Apple-crippled music and increase Apple's control over the online music business, or sell uncrippled music. Uncrippled music -- MP3s and other open files -- are superior to the crippled versions. You can play them on more devices and do more with them. No customer seeks out music because it's crippled -- DRM doesn't sell music. None of the iTunes customers bought music because they wanted music that was locked to the iPod and wouldn't play on competing devices. People who don't want to pay for music just download it from P2P, where all the music is already available for free, without DRM. If you want to convince people to buy your music, you can't start by making it worse than the free stuff. "

and on that note, i've been exploring a genre of music that jules introduced me to known as "alternative rock", i think.  playlist is courtesy of a last.fm station known as jmfh.  some of the best:
spinto band - oh mandy - i lovee the resolution of the first couple chords
boy kill boy - civil sin - angsty
funeral for a friend - into oblivion - almost pop-ish
wheat - i had angels watching over me - i like the chord progression
kristofer astrom - just a little insane - easy listening.  borderline country. 

sytycd finale.  quick thoughts:
--how did danny show more personality in the finale episode than he did THE ENTIRE SEASON?!?!  i sort of wanted to die during the "she's totally lying" bit.
--happy for sabra.  for the record, totally called the final four and the winner of the show
--the re-dances were nice, although i think that the original dances were always better than the ones that they redid. 
--i really liked how all the choreographers got to request dances
--again, for the record, favorite dancers for season 3: anya, sara, and kameron.  final 12, 8, and 10, respectively. 



i really like the style in this picture as well.  perspective on the skater. 

espn.  alexis, one of the interns, graciously invited ESPN vp of advertising, sean, to come speak to us.  some really cool stuff that he talked about:

on the importance of branding: monday night football has always been on ABC.  originally it was on a portion called "ABC Sports", but then ESPN thought that it was stupid, and rebranded it as "ESPN on ABC".  this simple change in NAME (no changes in production value, hosts, etc) increased popularity of monday night football by 34% (i forget exactly what metric he used.)

on the necessity of watching football on HDTV.  "so you get a huge HDTV, and you watch praying mantises eat hummingbirds and think it's so cool, but then after two weeks, you realize that you don't actually like watching that, and go back to watching football." hahahahhahahhahahaha.... those nature videos are so cool though!!!

but yeah.  discussed how he sees espn on hdtv as being really important, segmentation of the population, difficulty in choosing programming for the espn channels. 

on hosts.  apparently the kind of hosts that you want are "love him or hate him" hosts.  apparently there was a host like that on sportscenter who was really great.  or.... MARY MICHAELS ON SYTYCD?!?!?!?

on the effects of youtube and ESPN.  they are trying to retool their ESPN 360 site to be as easy as youtube, but concedes that as a "legit" site, he cannot infringe on licenses like youtube does.  they are still working on making it competitive. 

sportscenter is also a very profitable program for them because it requires virtually no cost.  compared to sporting events which require manhours and manhours of production costs.  

totally off subject, but two things i want to do for my parents if i become rich:
1) buy them a huuuuuge flat screen and cable
2) take a vacation at the banff springs hotel

defining "culture".  because... i feel like a line should be drawn between culture vs. customs.  because i feel like customs are a fairly "petty" way of learning culture.  or are they one and the same. 

i would say that culture is described by values.  and i suppose you can't define culture without making some grosss generalizations, but here goes: (and i suppose i can say this because i'm asian)

asians i feel as a whole are fairly abrasive and vindictive.  they put a very high value on family, but with a very strong focus on respect and obligation.  (whereas i feel like there is a strong focus on family in american culture, but in a different way than asian cultures.  more so in a thanksgiving sort of way.  i don't know how many cultures have more than 2 generations living under one roof, but i feel like this is also done in other cultures as well.) americans i feel are more materialistic and spend a lot. 

julian robertson: "the united states and new zealand are the only two countries where people spend more than they earn."

okay.  i feel like i had more to say.  but i guess i don't. 

stephen: "asian people only care about themselves." 
i forgot how this came up in our conversation.  but it did. 

vocab lesson. 

CHINESE.  something that i've learned is that languages don't translate perfectly because there are always going to be very subtle implications of the words that we use.  here are some phrases that don't translate well from mandarin/taiwanese that also contain metaphors for life!!! 

nian - (literally) sticky.  (usage) inseparable.  except there has to be a very strong younger brother/older brother feeling.  or a needy feeling.  as in, you can use it for best friends too, but generally, you can only use it in one direction. 
as in: "james very nian his older cousin"

i feel like i very easily nian other people.  i just very easily look up to people and just invest all of my effort in getting to know them. 

sai nai - flirtatious in a whiny/sassy way. 
as in: "she is so sai nai"

asian girls have a difficult time being playful flirtatious.  and they often resort to slapping, excessive playful amounts of grief, and whining.  think my sassy girl. 

niao - it is sort of used in the same sense of "beg" that "oh, she begged me to go to the movie, so i went." except there isn't as much of a pathetic/desperate/power difference implied.  just a extremely friendly "CMONNNNN JAMMMESSSS"
as in: "at first, i didn't want to go, but after she niao me, i went reluctantly"

okay.  obviously my conscious persona will disagree with this, but on some level, i really enjoy being niao-ed.  like i feel like part of me just holds out on things just so people will do that. 

SALES AND TRADING.  i learned a couple of pretty cool phrases this summer.  including:

push back - playing devil's advocate, but in a casual situation. 
andrew: i called russ, and he gave me a lot of push back. 

i have noticed that i've started pushing back on a lot of people.  just having a normal conversation, and just disagreeing for the purpose of furthering the conversation. 

headline fatigue - as in "markets rallied in the afternoon due to headline fatigue of the subprime crisis." as in, if there are hundreds of articles about the subprime issue, we will start ignoring it. 

bleed (or contagion) -
as in: "people are worried that the subprime issue will bleed into the prime markets" or "they are worried about the subprime contagion"
pretty straightforward. 

it turns out that there are some really graphic terms.  such as "we're just waiting for hedge funds to start hurting from the subprime crisis and then start puking the bonds at really cheap prices."



an example of the subprime crisis.  damnnnnn that is a pretty awesome graph. 

realizations about myself:
--when i meet someone, i very often like to look at it in a very long-term perspective.  as in "where exactly is this going", and then act accordingly.  for example, interns from summer programs.  i think we have all been to enough summer camps to know that it is hard enough to keep in touch with close friends from summer stuff, much less acquaintances.  hence...
--i really like to make conversations serious.  this is bad.  unless you're with people who like to talk serious.  which is not very often. 
--in entourage, i would be E.  in the office, i would be tobey.  i love tobey.  probably because i am tobey. 
--if i really like someone (romantically?), i will sort of fast forward to "later stages" of relationships, unbeknownst to them, sometimes making the relationship sort of weird.
--being able to make faces is crucial to low status humor. if you do high status humor (eg dead-pan style like michael cera/erich), then you have to be really good at not making facial expressions. 

realizations made by anna and trevor. 
anna: i've noticed that when i'm in specific groups, i will be assigned a role, and that role will define the jokes that i can make and the idiosyncrasies i can have.  and by consequence, i end up exaggerating those qualities in myself, even if they don't represent me as a person. 

trevor: do you ever feel like going to college has made you stupider?...
my answer: depends on how you define stupider.  but i would ofc say no.  but perhaps under some specific interpretations of that word... but i did think about it for awhile. 

on the theory of medicine.  i learned this from pam when i visited her in nyc.  i forget what the technical words are, but one of the things that she was looking at during her public health rotation was working on this issue: even when really rich people pay a lot of money for really poor people to get access to drugs, the poor people very often don't take the drugs.  also a big issue for aids drug distribution in africa.  why?  good question. 

but i have even gotten some drugs for my nose and eyes, and i definitely can't remember to use them every day.  so i guess i have, to some extent, answered my own question. 

things i want to include in my next facebook profile.  i feel like these should all be categories to include:

List things that you are anti-consensus about: Apple/iPods/iTunes, Lord of the Rings, triscuits over wheat thins, desperate housewives

List things that 90% of the population knows where you are the 10%: cars, sports, american history, politics/the war

List things that are unique to you:
--i have semi-seriously consdiered writing games professionally
--i have practiced typing the alphabet to a point where i can type the alphabet in under 1.5s (pr)
--i am not the best about liquids and laptops; most recently, intentionally poured water on my computer



definitely did not expect that.  heating and cooling as 50%!?!??!?!  that is nuts.  definitely makes a high temperature tolerance much more desirable. 

inspirational words.  normally don't do email forwards, but i thought this was a pretty decent email forward.  if you enjoy this sort of stuff:
"I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow."
"I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights."
"I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life."
"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'."
"I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance."
"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back."
"I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision."
"I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one."
"I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone.
"People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back."
"I've learned that I still have a lot to learn."
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."



depressing.  but hey, wouldn't want my humor any other way. 

Administrators at Wikipedia had to limit editing of the entry, most recently late Tuesday, placing it in "semi-protection" mode. That meant users couldn't make changes anonymously or from accounts fewer than four days old — to discourage those drawn to the site specifically because of the broadcast.


from julian robertson: "the united states is special because it is one of two cultures where people spend more than they earn." (the other being new zealand)




got a haircut this weekend before my presentation.  and it's pretty weird because literally everyone in there has "side hair".  like the barbers, the people who were getting their hair cut, etc.  and me.  it was pretty weird. 

and last time i came, i surprisingly liked my haircut considering the barber was almost geriatric, but i was not pleased this time.  it definitely turned into more of a buzzcut. 

entourage. 
Ari: At Miller-Gold, we may be whores, but we aren't pimps.  

finished the first three seasons, going to wait a bit before i do the 4th season.  but re: the first three seasons, i do think the second season was very solid, and the end of the 3rd season was hilarious.  but i do think that it is betraying the central cause that made it such a unique show.  like there used to be no reoccuring female characters, the guys literally just trolled for sex every episode.  now, there's babs and sloane and amanda and johnny chase is practically a girl.  like the show used to be straight testosterone, and it's definitely straying. 

today, we heard the vp of espn advertising come to speak (!!!).  at one point, he did go "and.... that guy was there.  ari...." "gold?" it was great. 

mit open courseware - imagine if stanford published all of its old psets, tests, and lecture notes.  that's mit's open courseware.  creating waves everywhere. 

see, i don't understand why there isn't more discussion on what to do with all of the old lectures we have taped. 



reality tv show recap. 
caught some don't forget the lyrics.  1) the contestants hardcore make the show interesting.  they are very lucky that those people are so entertaining.  but it is a decently fun show.  

last comic standing.  was really obsessed with the first season.  caught some of this season.  solid. 

sytycd.  okay, i have to say that since sara's departure has made the show -much- less interesting, but also, the dancing was absolutely impeccable this episode.  notable:
--pasha's solo was awkward.  sorry.
--mia's routine was again overrated
--loved the hip hop, waltz, jazz.  paso doble and disco were okay.  aren't neil's hips supposed to stick forwards more?  i'm surprised they were so positive. 
--the passion of the waltz was very impressive.  i don't even know if it's because we associate those fairytale waltzes with that. 

Interesting news about the office workaholics
German workaholics may be suffering from a lack of sex, according to a university study published Friday.  A survey of 32,000 men and women by researchers at the University of Goettingen found over 35 percent of those reporting unsatisfying sex lives tended to use hard work as a diversion.
i... will not deny that.  hahaha




hahahahhaha...

office quotes. 
Dwight Schrute: Would I ever leave this company? Look, I'm all about loyalty. In fact, I feel like part of what I'm being paid for here is my loyalty. But if there were somewhere else that valued loyalty more highly, I'm going wherever they value loyalty the most.

Pam Beesley: There's nothing new.
Michael Scott: That's not what you said earlier.
Pam Beesley: Oh, do you want me to repeat the messages that I gave you before?

Michael Scott: [trying to motivate an employee for the basketball game] You'll be like the dwarf that follows the wizard to the end of the earth in... uh... Lord of the Rings!
Dwight Schrute: Gimli.
Michael Scott: ...NERD. THAT's why you're not on the team.

Michael Scott: Would I rather be feared or loved? Um... Easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.
(okay, that's going in the fb profile)

Pam Beesley: I suggested we flip a coin, but Angela said she doesn't like to gamble. Of course by saying that, she was gambling that I wouldn't smack her.

Michael Scott: [choosing team names for the company's beach day] Dwight, name your team.
Dwight Schrute: We will be GRYFFINDOR!
Michael Scott: Jim.
Jim Halpert: Fine. We'll be Slytherin.
Dwight Schrute: You can't be Slytherin, they're the bad guys.
Jim Halpert: Fine. We'll be Voldemort.
Dwight Schrute: NO!
Jim Halpert: [with his team, while Dwight screams no] Voldemort. Voldemort. Voldemort. Voldemort. Voldemort
Michael Scott: Stanley, name your team.
Stanley: I don't really care.
Michael Scott: Then I shall name your team. You will be the red team.
Stanley: The blue team.
Michael Scott: [sighs] Fine.

Jim Halpert: Sometimes I send Dwight faxes from himself in the future.
Dwight Schrute: [reading fax] Dear Dwight, Someone will poison the coffee this morining. Do not drink the coffee! More instructions will follow. From Future Dwight
[sees Stanley about to drink the coffee and jumps for the cup]
Dwight Schrute: NO STANLEY!

from work chat:
Erich: well i always just say im gonna be here until 7, but it never seems to work out that way

sytycd.
sara/danny - argentine tango - okay, honestly?  not close to as good as ivan and allison.  seriously.  the pretzel was pretty great.  the pirouettes were also incredible. 
lauren/dominic - krumping - ...... i thought this dance was really, really incredible.  and that lauren (face aside) totally outdanced dominic......... the lauren-walking-over-back was a great move.
lacey/neil - latin jazz - mmmmm.  the nakedness was shameful.  agreed on the awkwardness.  i have to say, the build up to "the crunch" was pretty great.  the neil sign was pretty horrendous. 
sabra/pasha - broadway - ummmm.... THE WILD PARTY!?!??! they kept building it up and i was like "... is it possible?  the wild party?..." AND IT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  otherwise, choreography totally unfair.  i feel like it's so much easier to do character stuff.  be happy.  etc. 
---
sara/danny - hip hop - weeeeeaaaakkkkkkk.  that was really weak.  really weak.  they really need a new hip hop choreographer.  and there were so many mistakes. 
lauren/dominic - ummm.... yeah. that was pretty good.  lauren was wearing maddd heels. 
lacey/neil - playing the "dead father" card was a little bit unfair, i feel.  "...because you just forgot about the technique..." okay. i think i should rewatch it. 
sabra/pasha - quickstep - i think that bristin understands HOW HARD THE PIVOTING IS.  that was so fast. 

why is it that wade is the only choreographer who can experiment with genres without getting smashed?  i'm talking about the rumba, the spanish viennese waltz, the country paso doble. 

oh.
favorite dancer: sara... but less so
people leaving tomorrow: sara/lauren, pasha/dom/danny. FINE, i'll pick. sara and danny.
favorite dances: the krumping. easy.

how tough would it be to make a "cool" anti-smoking/drinking/drugs ad campaign?  props to "above the influence" commercial. 

work.  started off on a low, but slowly improved through the day. 

markets rallied for the first time today in what's been an incredibly bad last 5 days. 

The best of these chains have brought products to people who previously felt they had little or no access and at prices that most could afford. Ikea has enabled college students, underpaid artists and regular working class folk to outfit their modest living spaces like sophisticated European aesthetes and socialites, while Home Depot has empowered millions of the rank and file to build additions onto their houses and install hot tubs in the backyard. Trader Joe's has somehow managed to dig up good, fairly healthy, borderline exotic or gourmet items and then miraculously sell them at nearly discount prices. And Starbucks brought a sanitized, decently replicated version of coffee house culture not only to street corners everywhere, but to some out-of-the-way neighborhoods where a few years ago a cappuccino would have been considered as exotic as a Faberge Egg or a Maserati.

With their spiffed-up, earthy décor; retail displays of recommended music and books; and receptacle full of lightly used New York Times and other newspapers ripe for perusing, I believe Starbucks has noticeably increased the percentage of Americans who read edifying material, listen to semi-hip music and schmooze aimlessly for hours with friends and even strangers while exchanging philosophical banter. There's an atmosphere unique to a coffee establishment, where thoughtful quiet time and diligent intellectual improvement can be pursued in a way that wouldn't seem as natural in a donut shop or a cheeseburger emporium. The citizenry in San Francisco, Cambridge Mass. or Paris, France have long taken the existence of these places for granted. The people of rural North Carolina or Bakersfield, CA have not.

It is, I admit, kind of a weird choice, but for my Best Chain Store title I am crowning Pinkberry, the red hot frozen yogurt upstart that's sweeping the nation from its West Coast beachhead with a fiercely addictive frozen desert product that's tart to the point of nearly sour and whose prices relatively rival those of the pricey Starbucks, whom comedians routinely take to task for their “eight dollar double frappuccinos.”

But Pinkberry offers not just a clean, refreshing, creamy product devoid of the sugar overdose found in, say, Cold Stone Creamery or Ben & Jerry's, but it also offers the thrill of waiting in line at least twenty minutes and participating in a notable cultural zeitgeist specific to the smart, urban, creative crowd of cities like Los Angeles.

A Pinkberry at the end of the night, while maybe not quite as satisfying as good sex, nonetheless offers a similarly sensuous and visceral feeling of physiological release, and all for only a few bucks. It also takes place in what resembles a spotless, bright pastel-colored, Hello Kitty-meets-Barbarella space capsule.

While not transforming lives as comprehensively as the previously mentioned chains, Pinkberry gets my vote at the current moment for inverting the flavor of an essentially silly, frivolous dessert product and for marketing it in a fresh and audacious way, making their stores as much a place to sit down with friends, people watch, or even flirt with strangers as any hip Hollywood nightclub.

http://www.thesimon.com/magazine/articles/bias/01432_chain_stores_chic_hip_pinkberry_trumps_all.html




i rate today's work a 2/10, given an 7 week average of 4/10 and  a 5 day average of 6/10.  does that make sense?  i hope so. 

QUICK ENTRY.

NO SPOILERS: hp7: haven't read it, but this is hilarious
Also, the fake spoilers, now that I am allowing myself to venture into places on the internet with avatars again, are funny. I'm still not wild about ones like the one I read that were totally plausable...but this "Jesus dies", "John Maclane throws Snape off a building", "Ron is Dumbledore" genre is quite amusing.
courtesy geekpunkgrrl.  don't ruin it.  thanks.  that genre sounds incredible...

weekend update:
fri night: vegged out hardcore, watched the sytycd results ep. 


so.... i was wrong about kam.  part of me wonders whether it's "sad" (in the pathetic sense) that this reality show possibly makes me feel more emotion (albeit a certain specific type of suspenseful, rooting-for type emotion.  as well as sheer excitement/sadness) than life.  but yeah.  i embrace that fact.  if reality tv can provide that outlet, perfect.  it's weekly!!

but yeah.  the kam retrospective was pretty sad.  i mean, i feel like you've got to feel like you've totally cheated your way onto the top 10 tour.   ie the first time when the audience got to choose instead of the judges, you're OUT.  lol. 

oh.  and images of people crying really just makes you want to cry.  it's really weird. 


i love sara.  i am going to vote for her on wed.  lauren will NOT leapfrog sara, period.  i've been rewatching some of the solos, and sara's honestly is incredible. 

stumbled on the new wei hwa puzzles: ssudoku [sic] puzzles.  you can try them at: http://solvepuzzles.googlepages.com/.  i think they're really solid and very interesting puzzles, albeit really frustrating. 

sat.  went to the movie theater.  and the gym.  came back and vegged out, did some cooking (chicken!).  what the hell did i even do last night... laundry.  slept in pretty late.  at night, talked to jess for a REALLY long time, talked to my sister for awhile too. 

tried to work out my 4-year plan with a cs minor.  realized that ... it would be tough.  specifically, that i would need to take 6 classes fall quarter including cs108.  which... can't happen, right?  especially during recruiting season?  granted, i won't be staffing, and can cut back on virtually all extracurrics, and i'll have thanksgiving break.... but yeah.  i don't think cs108 was meant to be taken with a 6-class workload. 

sun.  morning, finally started blogging.  gym, then went to WORK, was really unproductive, partly because i was so hungry and probably upset that i was there on the weekend.  got back, vegged out.  now. 

entourage.  started getting into entourage.  i think the first half of season 1 is pure crap.  but it is definitely getting better.  2nd season is fairly solid.  it's definitely different, which earns props. 



week preview.  this is both
1) the first week of a new rotation and
2) the week before i need to present my project and
3) the week where i have a really hard sales call person.
should make for an interesting week.  i'll definitely be working hard. 

movies.  i haven't done a movie recap in awhile.  i think the general theme is "i don't really like watching movies anymore because i have watched so many tv shows that my attention span is totally shot."  like i still watch some tv episodes strung together in 2-hr periods.  but the plotlines are so much more straightforward....

hairspray: decent.  i think i overhyped it.  and i was really tired when i watched it (12:30AM).  yeah. by the end of the movie, i was fighting to stay awake for "you can't stop the beat", which... just makes it tough for me to like a movie. 



hp5: random thoughts:
--umbridge, compared to voldemort, is so much better of a villain.  it's so much easier to hate her compared to voldemort. 
--effects were fairly incredible.  final scene in the hall is beautiful, as is when the door first appears to the secret room
--just in contrast, it is like one of the Ra's number 1 rules that they cannot argue against each other in public. 
--i really liked "the dark is rising" trailer.
--i still maintain that it is totally irrational for harry potter to be kept in the dark.  that really doesn't make any sense.   part of me really hates how every hp book is such a deux ex machina ending.  where there's this overflow of information that comes from seemingly nowhere.  again, the prophecy is really stupid. 
--i really liked angry harry.

simpsons:
personally, i thought that the classic simpsons-style sarcastic jokes were not as strong as they were in some simpsons episodes and their gross/crude humor jokes were not as strong as those of southpark, which i think are incredible.  the closing credits are really well done.  "heartwarming"..... i suppose.  more or less. 




the office (US) first season:
http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/2955004/Episode_1_Pilot.avi.html
http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/4283122/Episode_2_Diversity_Day.avi.html
http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/3633741/Episode_3_Health_Care.avi.html
http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/2933303/Episode_4_The_Alliance.avi.html
http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/2924136/Episode_5_Basketball.avi.html
http://s17.quicksharing.com/v/9575619/Episode_6_Hot_Girl.avi.html
get 'em while they're hot. 

the difference between "loneliness" and "alone".  my aunt once explained this to me.  her thoughts: in both situations you are an individual.  but when you're lonely, you're sad (eg emotions), but when you're alone, that's just describing your state of being. 

Mary Alice Voiceover: Now and then, we all need a little help, so we ask for small favors.  But it's always best to be wary of those who will come to our rescue.  Because even the smallest of favors carries a price tag.  Yes, everyone has an agenda, no matter what they may tell us.  And in those rare instances, where there is no ulterior motive, we're so taken aback that we may fail to recognize the truth, that a loving friend has just done us an enormous favor.

(case in point: lynette tells bree that bree has a drinking problem.)

drug use by race.  heard this news story today.  something about what percentage of students were using drugs, by race.  native americans: 19%, blacks, ..., asians 3%.  hahahahahah, yessss model minority.  sort of sad from some pov's, i suppose.  but yeah.  humorous nonetheless. 

sleep amounts.  what do you think is the "average" amount of sleep at stanford?  eric and sarah say they both get about 4 hrs/night.  and that it's standard at their colleges... yeah.  i'm glad stanford is so laid back. 

getting flustered.  going to close with a story from work:

we're waiting for the speaker to get into the room, and we're in this conference call with new york.  they don't really know what's going, and we've put them on mute.  sara, one of the interns, gets this bright idea that she should pretend to be someone from HR and announce that they weren't giving out offers until a month after the internship had ended.  so the entire room in stamford gets hushed, and sara picks up the call:

"hey, is new york on the line? ["hey stamford, renee's here"] oh, okay.  well hi renae.  well you probably haven't heard from me yet, but i'm from HR.  my name is...... jane..... evelyn...."

and at this point, the entire room in stamford can't hold back their laughter, and the room just erupts into laughter. 

if this were an improv class, we would ask "what made you laugh?  what do we like about this situation?" we enjoy watching people make mistakes and crack under the pressure.  that's entertaining.  like even more so than if she had pulled it off without laughing. 

SLEEP!  well maybe some emails before.....

okay. do you wonder whether or not the dancers fought for the words like we did for the google team!??! eg "i don't want meat, give it to george!!" haha... "dude, compassion sucks. i totally want hope. it's way cooler of a word!!"

PS, the nigel "this was not anti war" thing was flat out embarrassing. i can't believe he chose to address the issue. i mean, it was just so awkward. and the fact that it made him say "the first time i saw the choreography, i was bored by it!!" and you just don't insult wade robson, you just don't.

opening dance was weird and just... very mia.

guess i was wrong about kam......

my favorite dancer of the season: SARA. i will totally call for her next week. the female competition is honestly really, really fierce. sara, lauren, lacey, and sabra? esp when sabra and lacey are going to be the final 2 girls.... i can totally see lauren fans causing a jump over sara....
from last seasons: ivan (s2), nick (s1)

sorry, haven't had time to update.  this has definitely been a pretty crazy week with a ton of stuff to update on, but let's get to it:

sytycd: (yeah, this entry is only about sytycd, wed ep).  not going to update too much, but:

SOLOS. 
--what a clever idea.  true, it did get slightly old.  but a nice change, nonetheless. 
--i loved the critiques at the end. 
--that was a really, really tough piece, i thought.  both movement wise and especially emotionally.  the scream?  yeah.  not going to happen. 
--SARA stood out for me, period.  kam did not impress, pasha was really awkward, danny was fairly solid.  but i really do think sara was incredible.  i like the sharpness of movement. 
--choreo specific: it really bothered me when people did the clock hands and their arm didn't come all the way down to their side. like choreography aside. it was really nice though.
--is there not such a conflict of interest when everyone's doing the SAME choreography? as in: "dude, can you make sure i'm doing this movement correctly?" there must be such a weird dynamic there. lol, just get people from the opposite gender....

dances.
i mean, agreed with the judges for the most part.  hip hop was INCREDIBLE, goes in the top 3 hip hop routines of the show, ALL THIS SEASON.  however, i could just FEEL the awkwardness re: kam and the choreographer for dominic's spanish viennese waltz.  seriously, i would just want to kill myself to be grilled by these three judges.  and re: dominic, you've got to wonder how much the choreographer told him to play up the spanishness. 

FINE, sabra's awesome.  i don't need to keep hearing it.  lol....

for the record, we came up with the idea of spray painting shirts first.  sorry, wade. 


TEAM RAQUET, GOOGLE GAMES 2007 CHAMPIONS
stacey "tame" yuen (mvp, forever and ever)
susan "team" zhang (puzzle partner in crime)
jim "mate" lamb (jim, i really appreciated the reference.  ftr.)
george "meat" margulis (hahahaha.... nuff said...)
james "meta" chu (that word never, ever gets old)

props to jim for coming up with the idea of ANAGRAMS (another reason why we totally pwn (intentional usage) wade's shirts). who cares about things like "humility" and "hope" when you can have great words like "meat"and "meta"!?!??!  that's what i thought. 

yes, i love the google duffel bags.  they make my life. 

GO!  TEAM! RAQUET!  that was such an out of body experience.  ahhahahhaa... i'll get on the retrospective at some point. 

i hate pictures.  whatever. 

can't watch tomorrow due to a work function, posting wed's ep's info below:

( Read more... )

desperate housewives.  okay.  when i mentioned the "favorite seasons of all time", i really would have to put dh, season 3 in there as well.  so it's DH, seasons 1, 3, and office, season 2.  i'm watching some dh from season2 and it really isn't so bad either...

mary alice voice over:  The world is filled with unlikely friendships.  How do they begin?  With one person desperately in need, and the other willing to lend a helping hand.  When such kindness is offered, we're finally able to see the worth of those we had previously written off.  And before we know it, a bond is formed, regardless of whether others can understand it.  Yes, unlikely friendships start up every day.  Nobody understands this more than the lonely.  In fact, it's what they count on. 

interesting view on loneliness.  one sided relationships.  issues of power/control.  etc.  interesting how it sort of begs the question of "what is the central cause of their loneliness?"  i can dig that. 

on affection.  so i think in bristin's spectrum of "things james wants to be true for everyone but is just true for james" to "things that are actually true for everyone", this may fall into the first category rather than the second.  BUT.  hear me out:

so for lack of a better word, affection is the currency in relationships (platonic or otherwise).  as in, you can be as affectionate as you want to the other person in the relationship.  and the other person has

personally, i don't know if i just overanalyze things hardcore, but i do think that there are a lot of things from interpersonal interactions that do carry a lot more meaning than you might believe.  such as:

--invitations.  largely learned about this this past year, both from the mirlo get togethers from fall quarter and the nicole/jules/jamie invites.  the difference between "dude, when are you free this weekend to hang out" to "hey, we're having a shindig on saturday night.  drop by if you're bored."
--greetings.  "JAMES!!!!!!!!!!" versus "hey."
--making excuses.  "dude, i'm really, really sorry, but i can't go to your art show because i have to defend my thesis.  i feel really bad, i'll definitely come to your next art show." versus "yeah. sorry i missed it.   something came up."
--taking excuses.  "NO!!!! you can't leave!!! that is BS.  you can totally stay a little bit longer.  20 more minutes!!!" versus "oh.  you have to go?  i'll see you on monday.  see ya."
--looking out for you when they don't have to.  as in, grabbing you a handout or taking notes for you when you weren't in class. 
just a starting point.  but you get the jist of things. 

not to say that you should always trend towards the "affectionate" side of the spectrum.  because then people would never really know how you felt about them.  borders on fakeness.  (the f-word.) but on the flipside, damn, being treated that way (in a genuine manner) feels incredible. 

i think this possibly is what "you can't be the one who always gives in the relationship", although i think this more so applies to giving up ground in fights/making sacrifices rather than the above. 

on confrontation.  i think it's a slight copout when people are like "i'm bad at confrontation." on the flipside of things, i also think that it's a slight copout to be like "JUST TELL HIM/HER THAT YOU FEEL THIS WAY!!!!"

aspects of confrontation that i don't think are usually given enough thought/consideration: (example: erich on friday)
--sometimes it's just not a big deal for both people.  "dude, i feel like you really disrespected me on friday." "wtf are you talking about?  i didn't even notice anything was different." (i think this happens a lot with guy/girl stuff.  when guys don't really notice "subtle" hints.)

--sometimes it's just not worth it. i mean, even if you have a lot of tact, i really do believe that it is very hard to make the awkwardness not an issue.  like at some point, it's just not even worth me bringing it up.  especially if there's a chance that you are actually not good at confrontation and just end up messing things up.  especially when taking the "hell, i only have X more days to spend with you" time issue. 

like part of me wants to be open about my feelings with erich, but i just know these two things above are totally holding me back. 

on that note, this is one of those things that you just have to figure out on your own when you figure out your own style of confrontation/negotiation, but personally, various things that i picked up, largely based off of my interaction with jess and nicole
--make excuses for them, even if it weakens your own argument.  if you're just going on and they feel like you are misrepresenting them and they feel wronged, causing resentment
--from jules: people are not going to do what you suggest if they don't believe it.  don't try to get them to nod to appease you.  get them to ask you questions so that they are also convinced. 
--from 180: use facts. 
--personally, i enjoy playing the "i'm on your side/level" role rather than "i know everything.  position of the authority." (i think this is just personal preference.)
obvious?  possibly. 


a mildly tough ambigram to make out.  ("friday the thirteenth")

weekend update.  this weekend, i sam pam and stephen.  i had dinner with pam and celebrated my bday another day.  we have this pretty interesting relationship where all of our responses will be about a minute.  as in, we get into these really longwinded discussions.  and it's really cool because we can level with each other really well and have really interesting perspectives to offer the other person.  we talked a lot about future careers, our summers, and staffing.  yeah. and she was also a super host. 

stephen and alison e and i met up to go to this pretty ritzy brunch place ("nolita house").  we did all the standard HS catch-up sort of stuff. hadn't talked to stephen in about..... 3 years.  since the end of hs.  so that was interesting.  

a social theory that i really like.  courtesy RA training 06.  and that is "forming, storming, norming, performing."
forming. forming groups.  choosing who you want to invite to your party that weekend.  who you want to check psets with.  etc. 
storming.  the "audition process" of friends.  seeing whether they would be good fits.  some conflict may be involved.
norming.  when the people become more similar and sort of share their values.
performing.  when you start exploring synergies and really start surpassing expectations.
okay.  paraphrased, but you get the point. 

totally still in the storming stage with most of the other people here.  and while i'm fine with storming, it also sucks that i have nobody to "norm" or "perform" with.  you know?  but yeah.  moments make me feel like i'm norming with sarah or eric, but it definitely is never consistent. 






solved this yesterday.  ::pats myself on the back::

boeing dreamliner
#  First 787 Dreamliner to be revealed Sunday evening
# The 787 is Boeing's first all-new jet since airlines started flying the 777 in 1995
# 642 planes ordered by 45 airlines
# The 787 boasts larger windows and more comfortable cabin pressure
The 787, Boeing's first all-new jet since airlines started flying the 777 in 1995, will be the world's first large commercial airplane made mostly of carbon-fiber composites, which are lighter, more durable and less prone to corrosion than aluminum.

a hypothetical.  what happens if i didn't come to stanford? 
--would never have met brijigrestaja, etc,
--would never, ever have staffed in a million years

some of my values are just pretty weird.  not necessarily weird.  but i am definitely really touchy feely.  i do feel like i've matured a lot and developed a lot more self-awareness.  but hey, that's just me. 

survival rates.  i was watching a TED talk about life as a drug dealer.  apparently the non-survival rate (eg "chance you'll die") is about 7%.  the chance you'll die by going to iraq is .5%.  1/2%.  not bad not bad. 

jim halpert is in license to wed?!?!?!?!? - too bad it got terrible reviews. 

While it may not be a big deal to him, the sexualized nature of his maturity is a bit weird for other people to handle ... especially when they have an image of him as a young boy. I'm amazed that Daniel has been able to successfully operate as "Harry Potter, Boy Wizard" alongside "Daniel Radcliffe, Teenage Actor Who Has No Problem With Nudity"
.
the face is priceless. 

why would harry potter do those pictures.  i mean really.  so absurd. 

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has signed a $50 million deal to star in the last two films about the boy wizard.  The 18-year-old, who can already count himself as one of the youngest rich people in Britain, is set to become even wealthier when he starts filming on the sixth instalment Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince and the finale, The Deathly Hallows.
source

okay, that will definitely do for now.  otherwise, au revoir.  i know, light on the text.  i'll get back on track later.