Month: May 2004

One stream of unconsciousness and life events:
It’s self evaluation time at work. I’m so beat from doing 3 shift-days followed by being with my parents or P- (or both) that I’d probably give myself a poor evaluation. P- had someone rear-end her while stopped at a light, but she and her sister’s car are both OK; the other driver, with a handicapped license, drove off before numbers could be exchanged. The end of Friends came, but I still have to watch the recording; like Seinfield, I never really got into it because I was going to law school at night and never was home for Must-See TV (The Official Soundtrack). My cousin’s graduating from law school, and I get to give her the diploma. June’s trip to Seattle seems like it will be unofficial. August/September’s trip to Malaysia is still being worked out. AJ’s grandmother passed away in the Phillipines. YC moved to Taiwan. My dad had another in his string of diabetic ulcer surgeries at Columbia/New York/Presbyterian/Cornell/ whatever-they-are-allied-with-nowadays Hospital. Joe, a friend from elementary school (who also went to my high school and college) hooked up with me to talk about real estate closings. He met up with some other people from there recently, including a girl that I had such the crush for in grade school. I wonder what she looks like now. My high school did their 35th annual musical, which was a production of Les Miserables (School Edition). I’ve seen the Broadway version 3 times, and I have to say my high school’s version was better than two of them — more earnest. It was standing room only for 6 performances.

Ones that defy explaination:

– RIAA suing downloaders for taking royalties from starving artists, then on the other hand holding on to royalties saying that they couldn’t find artists such as Dolly Parton, and David Bowie.
– NY Post editorial saying that people tortured by US contractors in Iraq are better off than those being tortured by Saddam.
– A news helicopter crash landing into one building, rolling over onto the roof of another building in Flatbush, and everyone walks away from it (thank God!)
– All of the Japanese Iron Chefs defeated by all of the American Iron Chefs on Iron Chef America (well, at least it was as rich and fast-paced as the original).
– All of the rain on the East Coast; non of the rain on the West Coast: fires there, floods here.

OK, that’s enough of the “One” liners. I guess I’ll have to watch Friends “The Last One” tonight.

Tonight is the night – the end of “Friends.”

Last night:

“Star Trek: Enterprise” – gosh, the last three episodes have been decent. Last night continues the trend – I dreaded the latest time paradox, and kind of knew what the end was (Capt. Archer and Crew had to change the future, and did so – their descendants won’t exist – and yet those descendants helped them…), but in execution, the episode was good. The writing felt tighter, the acting smoother, and even the direction had direction. I agreed with the review on the Trek Nation website – lot of emotional impact and parallels to past good Star Trek episodes and even this past season on “Enterprise.” Moral questions: “I have to do what I have to do, I have no choice…” and yet there is always a choice, Captains – even if it means wiping out your own existence (assuming that that’s what the character Lorian intended – who knows; his life was all messed up, if I accept the suggestion of the storyline) so that your ancestors have a shot at saving the future, or as Archer realizes every single time, trying to save the world is real hard.

“The O.C.” – now that’s a season finale for a 1st year show. Reflecting on what has happened during the past year, the characters’ growth (or maybe even lack of) and possibly even regression. The adults had their moments and the teens did their usual thing. Not a bad show, even with the crazy plot twist turns.

I watched “Angel” on tape delay (well, my taping of it anyway) – nicely funny episode. Angel and Spike vie for Buffy, but she’s not exactly around, as she’s busy roaming around Rome. So, Angel and Spike reminisce and scramble out of a weird situation to get a decapitated head back to Los Angeles. Okay. Very light-weight episode for something short of the series finale. Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, Wesley faces an emotional crisis when Illyria, the amoral demi-goddess, develops a shapeshifting/personality-shifting power – she becomes Fred, but so obviously isn’t Fred. It’s so strange and worrisome to know what can happen next to Team Angel.

Oh, and back to “Friends”… (they may be about to be gone, but at least the reruns are always going to be on Channel 11 in NYC in perpetuity…)

Could today please be less “ugh”? Raining on/off (or, rather, torrentially/drizzily) and windchill biting winds – uh, Mother Nature, you do know it’s May, right? She must really want something nice on Mother’s Day.

I thought that yesterday’s Asian Heritage festival at Union Sq. was nice yesterday. Decent weather, despite the nasty morning. Kept collecting stuff – when will I ever learn not to keep amassing stuff?

“Alias” yesterday – well, Secret Agent Sydney is trying to figure it out with her half-sister; her half-sister perhaps loves her own evil dad after all (geez, could you please just don’t go all unconditionally loving on the Evil Sloane?); and the love of Sydney’s life, Vaughn – well, he’s slowly but surely going to lose his mind (you would too if you toiled so hard to fight the bad evil; the love of your life returns from the dead two years later; and your wife is a backstabbing traitor; and your ex-girlfriend’s father is trying way too hard to be empathetic with you because he too has a backstabbing wife. Hmmm…). The season finale is in… THREE weeks? Oh well. Just have to contain myself.

“The Practice” – The Return of Bobby Donnell (Dylan McDermott) – he had five minutes. Umm. Okay. Plus some typical David E. Kelley moments (in the Ally McBealesque style – I’m not trying to be praising here either). William Shatner made me wince way too often. James Spader – hmm. Deep inside his wacko of a character is a… wacko trying to come out anyway, no matter how much every woman who crosses his path says she’ll reform him. Uh huh.

Slate.com’s “Explainer” explains whether Supreme Court justices get protection and to what extent (especially in light of what recently happened to Justice Souter while he was jogging).

Plus, there’s the Slate Guide to Gurus – a silly game to help one decide who’s the best guru for one – and a nice funny spin on how worth it they all are (Re: Dr. Phil – ” You can’t keep your eyes off: His mustache.” So true. So funny. tee-hee). Scary part: that I actually thought that the Slate descriptions made it seem pretty obvious that I’m the sort who’d go for Bill Moyers (he’s a guru? Oh well) and Oprah Winfrey (well, who’d resist that whole empowerment thing?). Well, the others were too easy for satirical targets, but the Moyers description is so dead on accurate for a piece of satire; my remarks in brackets:

“You’re an earnest lefty [I am?]
“Your guru is: Bill Moyers
“You trust him because of: His thoughtful chin-grabbing. [hehe, yeah, he does that]
“His style: Smug piety.
“What he says: Is ” ‘we the people’ a spiritual idea embedded in a political reality—one nation, indivisible—or merely a charade masquerading as piety and manipulated by the powerful and privileged to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others”? [yeah, he’d talk like that]
“What he means: Republicans are evil.
[while I have yet to hear the words “Republicans are evil” out of Moyers’ mouth (I’ve been skipping a bunch of “Now” anyway), the subtext is certainly there (I mean, come on, the man used to be in the LBJ administration).]
“You can’t keep your eyes off: His rimless glasses. [those are better looking frames than what he had for the filmed interviews that he did with Joseph Campbell, I can tell you that]
“Ideal devotee is: Watching PBS. [umm, yeah; where else would you catch Moyers?]
“If he wasn’t doing this he’d be: A celebrity psychotherapist.
“Your sneaking suspicion: He hates dogs. [hehehe…]
“Cost: Nothing. It’s public television, remember? [ooh, gut check; zing at PBS]
“You could get the same advice from: Salon, The Nation, Harper’s …” [yeah, but it’s not like I’d read those; too darn lazy and no forking the money for them anyway… (and no, I’m not that left)]

Just my thoughts on that latest Slate thing.

This week’s “Doonesbury” is apparently about the class reunion at Trudeau’s fictitious Walden University, where the class is divided among the George W. Bush supporters and the anti-Bush side. Funny idea. Personally, with my class reunion coming, I’m half-scared that that can happen to my reunion (on the other hand, coming from a left-leaning university means that the right wing types are the minority, so the whole class divided thing won’t be nearly so daunting, unless we’re talking about a pro-war/pro-Bush vocal minority – but that’s a thought for another day).

Have a good week…