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On a serious note: on Tuesday, I had attended the tail end of the NYS/NYC Bar Associations’ rally at 60 Centre Street in support of the Pakistani bar’s situation, the event of which I had noted in a previous blog post. I’m not exactly sure of the media’s coverage of City Bar’s approach (Sewell Chan of the NY Times did blog it and there’s this article by Winter Miller of the NY Times – she actually took down comments from me, but I didn’t think it’d have amounted to much and it didn’t wind up in the article, understandably); NY Law Journal’s has quite the article (well, its job is to cover the local bar). Newsday, but not Daily News or Post? Guess I have to check the real newspapers to be sure. I did check Google – 34 articles on-line? Not bad! Well, it was just great to see NYC lawyers taking time to rally in support of rule of law and for colleagues who are trying to keep it alive in their country.

Not as serious stuff:

My National Novel Writing Month novel is slogging along. Some 20,000 odd words, and I’m not really sure how to go from Plot Point A to Plot Point B. My descriptions and settings are sucky. Dialog’s kind of funny at least, but this isn’t a screenplay or script. Arrgh. This is going to be quite the first draft.

Matt Damon’s People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” for this year, making his quote to the powers of People Magazine Time’s quote of the day: “You gave an aging suburban dad the ego boost of a lifetime.” Congratulations, Mr. Damon!

Monday TV:

“How I Met Your Mother” was quite timely – being November, it was time for Marshall to go on-line and check his NYS bar results (good lord, who on the writing people behind HIMYM is the former lawyer to know these true-to-life lovely details? I hope they’re on strike to get the credit they richly deserve – the accuracy of Marshall going crazy over not knowing whether he passed was too real). Only, Marshall can’t find his password to log in and he doesn’t want to wait for the mailed results (or check NY Law Journal? Come on, Marshall!). And, Ted goes crazy once he finds out why his friends don’t like his new girlfriend (they point out The Flaw), which leads Ted to point out Lily’s Flaw… which ultimately leads to Marshall remembering his password and finding that he indeed passed the bar. Let’s give a warm welcome to the newest member of the (fictitious) bar!

Hmm. I wonder if they’ll do an episode where Marshall has to deal with the Character and Fitness committee. Come on – they got to show that! There’s a sitcom plot to mine from that scenario; you can have Barney (played by the scene-stealing Neil Patrick Harris, ex-Doogie Howser), or Lily to mess up Marshall.

Saw some of NBC’s “Chuck” – wherein Chuck and his fellow CIA colleagues have to capture and cure themselves of toxic truth serum. Toxic truth serum maker was played by Kevin Weissman, who previously played dear Marshall Flinkman, the tech guy of “Alias.” Aww, Marshall – you’re a bad guy? At least on “Alias,” Marshall didn’t realize that he was on the Side of Evil (’cause he was working for SD6 thinking it was part of the CIA, only it wasn’t, and then he joined the real CIA, but he was still scared of Sloane, ’cause Sloane was Evil)… Oh, well. Pretty interesting episode; not sure if I’d be a “Chuck” watcher, but it’s a decent show.

“Heroes” – major episode explaining what happened “four months ago” – that is, the events that occurred right after the last season finale and explaining this season’s premiere. Skip this if you don’t want spoilers….

— Considering the slow pace of this season, this gave good explanations. I’m still bored with the Latin American twins, but at least they showed how Maya has something of a nasty streak in her personality (which intrigues me, because I haven’t bought her “I’m the Poor Victim” personality at all and her befriending Sylar is creepy…). Her brother’s still a boring irritation. Peter has his memory back, but really… who is “Adam” supposed to be? Good/evil? Just amoral? The actor David Anders was “Sark” on “Alias,” so you never know… Plus, Kristen Bell, former Veronica Mars, played up her character’s psychotic mutant very well (this character is soo NOT tough-but-moral Veronica). I still don’t care for Nikki, but sad that her husband went the way he did.

… end of spoilers…

Take a moment to think about the veterans (hoped you did it yesterday, on actual Veterans’ Day, too).

This week: Downtown for Dinner 2007 – $25 to $35 prixe fixe at participating downtown restaurants.

Reading: Time Magazine, with an interesting article on green roofs. I had read about it in an ABA publication too – this sounds like a great trend – environmental and it sure could make some cities look nice.

Recently read a book of selected Emily Dickinson poems, with an intro from former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins whose own poetry, from what I can tell, is sort of reminiscent of Dickinson’s).

On TV tonight: “How I Met Your Mother” and what may be a key “Heroes” episode. Got to enjoy before we run out of new episodes due to the writers’ strike (and it is November sweeps anyway).

It’s starting to feel a lot like November…

Mark “The Minimalist” Bittman of the NY Times demonstrates the making of a pan-fried pizza. Pan-fried pizza! It looks sooo good…

Seems quite interesting that the New York City Bar is putting out its statement in support of the Pakistani bar. Plus a rally to support the legal system. Rule of law, not rule of man indeed; something the world is going to have to learn and adapt.

The tv writers’ strike continues. I’m trying to keep up with the coverage. I’m hoping for a not long strike, but things aren’t exactly looking optimistic. Then again, my tv viewing has been pretty limited since I found myself increasingly uninterested in stuff. “House” is actually more interesting once Dr. Foreman has been back; Drs. Chase and Cameron have this weird vibe with each other, since in real life, they broke up (or at least ended their engagement). Still waiting for actor Kal Penn to do something on the show other than act silly. I mean, come on – actor John Cho got to do some grizzly stuff when he did his episode of “House” (admittedly, that was Season 1, and if I recall at all, he was a patient and patients don’t do much more than get really sick).

I really do like the show “Life” on NBC. Yeah, actor Damian Lewis is acting all weird; but he’s quite watchable. I don’t care for this seemingly unsolveable conspiracy that his character’s trying to unravel. Otherwise, it’d be nice if more viewers can give it a chance. The writers’ strike might make things a little difficult though.

“Heroes” finally got really interesting – the characters are joining forces, which is way more exciting. And, of course, actor David Anders – once they brought him on “Heroes,” I’m all “hmm; this guy was Sark on ‘Alias’ – amoral and irritating in his charisma. Is he really going to be a good guy on ‘Heroes’?” Plus, for a guy who’s really American, the tv people like having him play British, which means he can’t quite be a good guy, huh? (well, we’ll see, in the middle of this possible strike-shortened tv season).

And, what’s with McDonalds? I thought the Angus burger ad was a little funny – chubby Asian guy debating on whether to get two ketchup packs; resisting because well, you just can’t go there; don’t go wild and crazy, as the narrator said. Seemed funny enough – and chalk it up to having an Asian on tv. Then, Thursday night, on Channel 11, before the sports on the news, there’s a McDonalds ad for breakfast food – and I swear it’s James Kyson Lee (“Ando” of “Heroes”)! He played this office worker who is suckered to do favors for another co-worker because she bribes people with McD’s food. Playing an apparent APA (not just an Asian)!

(although, do you really want to encourage more Asians to eat at McDonalds, when there’s enough incidence of diabetes and heart disease? Oh well; take your pros and cons; and I’m a bit of a hypocrite, since it’s not like I’ve quit eating McD’s – just trying to lay off on the fatty stuff).

And, last but not least, these Christmas ads on tv are already irritating me, and we’ve still more than 10 days before… Thanksgiving. It’s going to be a long Christmas ad season.