Month: April 2004

This is the worst time of the year for me health-wise. The usual MO: two weeks of spring tree pollen and 20 degree fluctuations turns into itchy, stuffy, sneezing hay fever. The hay fever turns into a scratchy throat, then a full-blown cold. This year it hasn’t helped that I’ve spent the last 12 days in ultra-refrigerated server rooms, then emerging into either balmy 80 degree weather or rainy 40 degree weather. I’m in the final rounds of the cold now, so I’m going to sack out on Saturday. I’m still also in the last stage of healing of my elbow, which was sore through the San Diego trip due to too much mouse use.

I’ve been going to sleep at around 3-4 am each night this week because of the irritating allergy/cold tag team. I awoke to the beeping of my cell phone this morning at 8:30. I tried to answer the phone through my phlem filled throat; after listening to the constant beeping through the phone, I realized that the UPS had failed on one of the servers. I threw on some clothes and made a mad dash to the office. 2 hours later, it was resolved, wanting to go home to do my morning routine, which I actually didn’t get to until after 12.

I revisited the college cultural & fashion show that I ran as a student. Now 12 years later, I am in awe of how far they have gone, and yet, how many things are the same. Best of the cultural stuff were the VariAsians — a cappella and asian heritage — two good flavors blended into one. On the fashion end, I remember a lot of the moves the models made were very similar to what we had done 12 years ago. Some innovations we came up with are still practiced on the fashion show end: projecting the name of the next scene (we invented the technique 13 years ago); dancing by the models (before we did it, everyone did straight catwalks). Good DJ music choices, pretty good food for a fashion show bento box. P– won us dinner for 2 in the raffle. The auditorium was completely rebuilt, and it looks very much like the one that it replaces.. I’m proud of them. Photos will be added when I get a chance to download them.

Exciting day: time to crash and cough again tomorrow.

Oh, yeah — it was AJ’s birthday on Friday. Happy Birthday!

“Angel” on the other night – I taped it, to watch with pleasure. But, the ending freaked me out. Did Connor remember Angel was his biological dad? If so, what did his final words really mean – “I learned it from my father…”? He has had way too many father figures…

This Friday night, the Yankees crumbled against the Bosox. Oh well. It would actually feel worse if I were a Yankee fan, but I’m not a Bosox fan either, so it makes no difference in the balance. I just can’t get over seeing how hairy the Bosox player, Johnny Damon, is – long, flowing hair and a bushy beard. Man, that’s just way overboard…

Check out p. 19 of the April 30, 2004, issue of Entertainment Weekly (Summer movie preview issue): apparently, it’s the legal page. A sidebar article on those crazy kids of UC Berkely’s Boalt Hall Law School naming a fellowship to support a law student pursuing public interest/public service work in honor of the work of the alumnus Sandy Cohen. Funny thing is, Cohen isn’t real – he’s a public defender on the FOX show “The O.C.,” played by the actor Peter Gallagher (a.k.a. the guy with the eyebrows). Apparently, this fellowship was thanks to the student group, “The OC at Boalt” founded by John Kim, and they awarded it to a 1L who said that he wanted to be in criminal law and loved the show. Gallagher himself was inspired to make a $1000 donation. Wow. I see the light now: TV has an impact… – and there are law students who have time to watch tv? Yeah!

(by the way – “The O.C.” is an interesting show – it’s only a FOX show on the surface; the writing’s a lot more crisp than one would otherwise expect – well, putting aside the annoying storyline about Ryan getting dragged back to his ‘hood, because it was and always would be his roots).

And, then, the interesting tidbit scrolled on the bottom of p. 19 of Entertainment Weekly, as this quote states: “Survey finds more future law students inspired by A Few Good Men‘s Tom Cruise than To Kill a Mockingbird‘s Gregory Peck.” Uh. Okay. I was a law student who was not inspired by either, since I was someone who has yet to sit still to watch these two movies and I would like to think that law students are more than inspired by, well, movies and tv shows. But, then again, Entertainment Weekly didn’t define who responded to the survey, what the statistical accuracy, or define what was meant by “inspired.” Okay, okay, I’m being too much of a lawyer with the fussiness of the terms…

Slate.com’s Dana Stevens reviews the latest American edition of Iron Chef” on cable. I don’t have cable, but I just wonder – is it really that hard to Americanize imported tv? Why do we have to Americanize imported tv, if their very charm is being imported?

Slate.com also has an interesting article by Yi-Ling Chen-Josephson, wherein she grades the tabloids and celebrity oriented periodicals. National Inquirer gets the good ratings for sheer guilty pleasure. And, yet, I will continue standing resistant to that stuff while I wait on the shopping line at the supermarket. Must resist…

Enjoy the weekend.

Comic strip “Doonesbury” shocker – the character B.D., whom cartoonist Trudeau sent to Iraq as an army reservist, was gravely injured during the Iraq insurgency. Trudeau pulled off quite an imagery – not only has B.D. lost a leg, he’s gone helmet-less (this is a character who has never been without his helmet in the 30 years of the comic strip – it’s an integral part of him as much as his limb) – surely a first time ever, under such horrible conditions. Double whammy, the removal of the helmet surely symbolic of the more bodily loss. One may not always agree with Trudeau, but one has to hand it to him for the impact of his artistry.

Slate.com has an article wherein a panel taste-test gourmet potato chips. Very amusing. Grease makes a chip, but can cause a heart attack; “gourmet”-ness may not do much for either a chip or a heart attack.

As Slate.com points out, the current Supreme Court case about the detainees/enemy combatants/etc. at Guantanamo Bay raises a good question: “How’d We get Gitmo?”