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Finally watched it, so I thought I’d mention it. This week’s episode “Daedalus” – curiously interesting. It felt like the way good standalone episodes were done with “Star Trek: the Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine” – subtle, gripping, and thoughtful. References to previous character development (T’Pol’s dealing with the loss of her mother and becoming a better Vulcan; Trip’s loss of his sister; Capt. Archer’s loss of his father and hero worship of Zephraim Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive spaceships) weren’t beating you on the head. And, the Big Three carried off good acting in demonstrating their characters’ reactions – Trip’s pissed off that Archer would endanger the crew to help Dr. Emory Erickson, the inventor of the transporter; Archer pissed off with Emory for deceiving him; everybody but Emory feeling bad about the dead ensign of the week. Etc.

See, Emory’s the “Daedalus” – an ingenius engineer/inventor who lost his son to his invention’s accident. Emory believes that he could rescue his son/research assistant from subspace limbo, even if it means deceiving Archer, the son of Emory’s dear friend and a semi-godson.

Archer, who has his own issues with loss of family and making dubious decisions (even if for the right reasons), decides to be loyal to his close family friends, even if it means ignoring his close shipmates (Trip and T’Pol couldn’t get it through to him that putting the ship in harm’s way isn’t a good idea to save the life of one person, particularly when Ensign of the Week died really badly;then again, Archer is a stubborn twit, whose anger scenes which persuasive this week. I also liked his scenes of being the Good Friend to Emory’s daughter, Danica, who – like her brother – was a childhood playmate. Archer felt she belonged in a starship, not as her father’s caretaker; and she had strong moral objections to her father’s actions, even if his emotional pain was really sad stuff – Daedelus indeed). Oh, and Dr. Phlox did a nice job too with his little scenes (Star Trek chief medical officers are nice people to have as doctors, I’d think). Nice episode all around; thumbs up.

So, I saw “In Good Company” the other day. Pretty funny, and interesting characters, good angst (yeah, I’m a sucker for angst); good soundtrack; and yet, I felt sad. Good acting, and yet the ending made me feel unsettled and “huh?” I felt sad for Topher Grace’s character, Carter. He’s about my age, and he’s already feeling like it’s all going downhill and it’s time to find a life. Uh. Ok. I liked the review of the movie on Slate.com – pretty much on point. Maybe I ought to stop seeing sad movies.

NY Jets – big suckers. Losers. Etc.

Michelle Kwan is still the American woman ice skating champion. We’ll see if she can win the World Championship. I mean, I’ll tip my hat off to her for being the most accomplished American woman ice skater, but winning the big prize – that’s the question. Whether for the Jets (i.e., a Super Bowl or even just a big win) or for Kwan (a gold medal), the question hovers.

Really cool item – NY1 profiles Jadin Wong, Asian-American entertainer/dancer/agent. She notes:

“I’m unusual for an Asian girl. They’re very subservient. I’m very nice to people, but I’m not your average Chinese girl,” she says. “I kick tush.” [….]

Wong was married twice. She says she was too busy traveling around the world to have children. In a sense, the people she’s helped were all her children.

“I want them to learn what no one taught me,” she says. “When I came to New York City as a young Chinese girl, no one wanted to help me because there were very few calls for Asian.”

But has Wong seen any improvement for the Asian-American performer in her 30 years as an agent?

“It’s getting better for the Asian, but this is still America,” she says. “It’s like a Caucasian actor in Hong Kong saying, ‘Why don’t they make more pictures for Caucasians?’ Because you’re in Hong Kong, that’s why.” [….]

“I say that life is like a tapestry. You meet people, you don’t see them again,” she says. “Somehow you cross paths. I firmly believe in that, because it’s happened to me so many times. [….]

Fascinating stuff.

Oh, and take a moment to think about Martin Luther King and the dream that continues to be a dream.

Some stuff…

These first pictures from Saturn’s moon Titan are so cool!

Plus, a CNN retrospect on the 1st African-American woman astronaut, Dr. Mae Jemison. She notes:

Growing up in Chicago, Jemison looked at the “Star Trek” character Lt. Uhura and saw her future.

“What was really great about ‘Star Trek’ when I was growing up as a little girl is not only did they have Lt. Uhura played by Nichelle Nichols as a technical officer — she was African,” said Jemison, who was born in Decatur, Alabama.

“At the same time, they had this crew that was composed of people from all around the world and they were working together to learn more about the universe,” she said. “So that helped to fuel my whole idea that I could be involved in space exploration as well as in the sciences.”

And, you got to admire a scientist who got to make a little appearance in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” (like Stephen Hawking); I mean, Dr. Jemison does cool stuff since her NASA days, and:

She has considered a future in politics, has been awarded honors and decorations and holds multiple honorary doctorates. But she is still tickled about appearing in an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

“It was called ‘Second Chances,’” she said. “It was all about the fact that our fantasies lead our realities and our realities lead our fantasies and it comes full circle again.”

“‘Star Trek’ was one of our best fantasies,” she said, then added with a laugh, “And besides, I got to meet Worf (Michael Dorn, who plays the Klingon head of security.)”

Slate.com’s Chris Suellentrop says we ought to hope that George W. Bush is like Ronald Reagan – conservative in the first term; a lot looser in the second term. Wishful thinking, but that’s always a nice thing.

NY Times profiles Carol Bellamy, first (I think only) woman elected as President of NYC Council, and currently dealing with her role as director of UNICEF. I liked how her backstory gets told – that she balanced her Wall Street lawyer career, investment banking with public service. She’s been inspiring to watch and read about.

Happy Weekend…

Thank heavens Friday’s coming.

To the spammers named “Online Poker,” “Gambling,” “Poker,” and like folk – while your some of your comments appear complimentary (I mean, sure, thanks for calling this a “super duper site” and all that), you guys are damn annoying. Please go away. Well, I guess you guys don’t actually read the content or you’d know how you’re not appreciated. Still, please go away. End of rant.

This ad where Ex-Presidents Bush the Elder and Clinton are encouraging Americans to donate to reputable non-profits to help the South Asian tsunami victims … that is a strange ad. Feels awkward. Like watching the “X-Presidents” cartoon from “Saturday Night Live.” Like weird. Oh well.

This news story that Prince Harry of Britain wore a Nazi swastika at a costume party — nutty story. What is with Harry? He apologized for his poor judgment – but this is more than poor judgment; this is just utterly slow-witted. I’m not suprised that Harry’s dad, Prince Charles, is livid and is insisting that Harry visit Auschwitz to understand the gravity of WWII (umm, plus doesn’t Harry understand even his family’s role in WWII – how his grandfather Prince Philip served in the war; that even his grandmother Queen Elizabeth had to put on a uniform; and they had to deal with his misguided German relatives; how his great-grandfather, King George, had to deal with a bombed London, maintain British morale, and stiff-upper lip alongside Winston Churchill against the Nazis? Oh, and yeah, at least 6 million people were exterminated). No wonder a former British government official is debating that maybe Harry shouldn’t be attending Sandhurst, the elite military higher education institution. The older brother William apparently can’t avoid blame either, since he supposedly helped Harry pick this idiotic costume. Neither are children anymore; get some brain cells already.

Interesting article about the guy who invented Cheez Doodles, Morrie Yohai; Newsday’s Sylvia Carter notes:

[Yohai] the snackmeister speaks humbly of having merely “developed” Cheez Doodles. Even he will confess, however, to having thought to call them Doodles.

Yohai includes his business partners, scrupulously using the pronoun “we,” when he tells the Cheez Doodle saga.

Becoming as modesty is, in this case it may be unwarranted. There are perhaps millions of people in the world who consider Cheez Doodles the ideal snack food. People in search of healthful food do not generally gorge themselves on Doodles (well, perhaps in secret they do), but this is one snack that since its debut in the 1950s has always been baked, not fried. An argument could even be made that because the snacks are “puffed,” as the bag says, they consist in large part of air. Therefore, how bad could they be? [….]

Yohai told me that they were discovered, invented, developed or whatever word you choose to use, at the Old London Melba Toast factory in the Bronx, which also made the Cheese Waffie (now called Waffle), popcorn, caramel popcorn and other snacks. “We were looking for another snack item,” he said. “We were fooling around and found out that there was a machine that extruded cornmeal [in a long string] and it almost popped like popcorn.”

Yohai and his partners thought of chopping the stuff into pieces the size of a child’s finger and coating it with cheese. “We wanted to make it as healthy as possible, so it was baked, not fried.”

One day, as they sat around a table tasting different kinds of cheese on the snacks, the name Doodle occurred to him. “They looked more like a doodle,” he said, back when they were thin.

[….]

Wise, which is part of Borden, now manufactures Doodles. Yohai went on to become group vice president in charge of snacks for Borden, which also made Cracker Jack and Drake’s Cakes. His duties included sitting around a conference table with other high-ranking executives and choosing the toys for boxes of Cracker Jack.

After leaving the company, Yohai taught marketing at the New York Institute of Technology and became associate dean of the school of management. “The one thing that would get the students’ attention was Cheez Doodles,” he said.

Cool. Anyway, have a good Friday.

Check out this site: A Full Belly. Links to lots of new restaurants in the NY and SF areas, and I had found a link to how to properly wrap a burrito.

Star Jones is apparently no longer a lawyer, by noting in her tax forms that she is now a tv personality, instead of attorney. Hmm. Has she told her state bar/court administration of that? Is she on a non-practicing basis? Is she allowed to not worry about continuing legal education requirements like the rest of us lawyers? Hmm.

According to Slate.com’s Daniel Gross in “Who needs Harvard?”, having an Ivy League degree does not guarantee that one will become a CEO of a Fortune 500 company and these Fortune 500 companies are recruiting less Ivy Leaguers. Apparently, the Ivy Leaguers of wealthy backgrounds are off to be volunteers, artists, hikers of Asia, and consultants of consulting companies. They would be less likely to be working yuppie stiffs. Uh hmm. Sure.

Last night’s “Amazing Race” – the models were lucky that was not an elimination round. Oh, and the nutty psychologically abusive husband’s wife got bitchy on him. Hmm.

Mid-week…

Power is weary; one should seek it cautiously. Today I had the chance to take away days, declare war, or let someone fly. I decided that I didn’t want to judge today.

The other day, my brother and I watched “House of Flying Daggers.” The Zhang Yimou movie has stunning cinematography – just beautiful colors. The cast is beautiful. The story – a little topsy-turvy stuff, but I watch “Alias,” so it’s not like I couldn’t grasp the Flying Daggers plot. The movie’s ending though… well, I don’t think it was Zhang Yimou’s intention, but I kept giggling. As NY Times’ A.O. Scott noted:

[Ziyi] Zhang plays Mei, a blind courtesan who turns out to be a member of the Flying Daggers, a shadowy squad of assassins waging a guerrilla insurgency against the corrupt and decadent government. She is pursued by two government deputies, Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Takeshi Kaneshiro), whose loyalties come into question as the chase turns into a love triangle. Everyone is engaged in several layers of deceit, and some of the third-act revelations are more likely to provoke laughter than gasps of amazement.

[…]

The story inevitably gets lost in this sensory barrage, and it is hard to feel much for the three lovers as they sing their climactic arias of jealousy and betrayal. The final confrontation takes place in the midst of a sudden snowstorm, which envelopes the sun-dappled field that had, a few moments earlier, been a perfect spot for al fresco love-making. And “House of Flying Daggers” itself, for all its fire and beauty, may leave you a bit cold in the end.

Frankly, I totally agreed. I’m not even a big martial arts movie person by any means, but aren’t they supposed to leave you feeling a tad satisfied rather than “huh”? I’ll give Flying Daggers a grade of B.

Anyway, speaking of the NY Times, apparently they’re considering the idea of charging for reading its articles on-line. Aww. Say it ain’t so, NY Times!

I’m pretty caught up on watching the series “House” on FOX – the series wherein British actor Hugh Laurie plays a grouchy American medical doctor, Dr. House of NJ, who solves medical mysteries (the most recent episode – figuring out that the patient has African sleeping sickness, contracting it via sex. whoops; moral: adultery is bad). The medical stuff kind of makes you sick, and the stuff is over the top (like, can a doctor with as poor a bedside manner like House exist?) – but he’s the doctor you’d love to hate – because the way Laurie pulls it off, you can sense the actual sympathetic human being there, despite all that grouchiness and weird behavior. The supporting cast is pretty good too (liked how the background of the woman doctor unfolded slowly – her sad story of being a young widow). Of the new medical series of the season, this one is better than “Medical Investigation” on NBC.

This should be interesting this week – “Star Trek: Enterprise” has a new episode this week! (yep, can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m looking forward to a Star Trek episode again. Ah, the unrepetent Trekkie…)

Have a good week.

Hi,
This is my extremely belated New Year’s message (or a really early Lunar New Year’s greeting) that I’ve written every year since I’ve been using the Internet, which was some time last century. If you received an email from me directing you to this message, it is because you participated in my life in a unique way in the past year, and I’m grateful for that. I usually do a recap of what happened, pick a yearly topic of dicussion (which in past years focused on psychiatry as a common thread, unintentionally), and make a couple of resolutions.

As is customary at this point of the letter, I’m going to rattle off a few statistics for the past year:

Emails received: 488.9 megabytes
Miles flown: 45,720 miles
Miles driven in rental cars: 1,848 miles
Ruben sandwiches purchased for self or others: about 30 (For non-New Yorkers, it’s a thin sliced corned beef, sauerkraut and swiss cheese sandwich on rye bread seasoned with mustard or russian dressing, buttered on the outside and then fried on a deli grill until the cheese is melted and the bread is golden brown. Yum!)

This year’s travels included
– San Francisco to view the SF Asian International Film Festival, try to find real Hakka Chinese food and run into blogger Min Jung
– San Diego to visit the gravesite of my Grand Aunt Bea, Orange County to visit Bichvan and Mark, a run to Baja California to deliver a birthday present for my boss’s son and have fried Ensenada pacific lobsters
– Seattle to attend a conference for tech people who work at law schools (you’d never think that they would be that many people), see the grand opening of the Science Fiction Museum, then drive to Vancouver for Chinese food
– Seoul to have a sauna and visit a palace, Singapore for pepper crab, and Ipoh, Malaysia to attend YC’s wedding
– Philadelphia for cheese steak sandwiches and Manet
– Dallas to attend another conference for Asian American lawyers, judge a moot court competition, and buy some students cowboy boots (Lucchese’s are the best)
– Toronto to visit my uncle on his 70th birthday, attend a conference about Hakka and Carribean Chinese people, and ring in the new year with 300 Caribbean Chinese

As you can see, I enjoy traveling. I do it to discover the world, and to see for myself why things are the way they are. I remember being on a study abroad course in Hong Kong as a law student, and in a question and answer period, I was unable to counter the premise of a panelist, because I lacked worldly experience. I’m trying to make up for it now. The frequent flyer miles don’t hurt, either.

As for the job, I was promoted in the middle of the summer to director of administrative computing, which is the number two job in my department. This meant that I had to give up the kinds of things that I was accustomed to dealing with students, but also meant that I am able to grow in my career. I manage a cadre of computer staffers, with a wide range of personalities, which I enjoy and sometimes agonize about. Apparently, I am the youngest person to ever reach the rank of director, and I am younger than half my staff, which sometimes becomes a problem, but I try hard to earn their respect. It’s been a big change from being the webmaster so long ago as a student a decade ago.

As for the rest of my family, the most traumatic experience has been my father’s chronic diabetes. He spent a month at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital recovering from gangrene that required amputation; there were some points that were really touch-and-go, but he’s really tough. He’s got to stop doing this though, because he’s probably on the sixth of nine lives. He’s been recovering at home, undergoing physical training, being fitted for a prosthetic limb and just generally trying to put a good face on an otherwise lousy situation. I admire him a lot.

The one steady thing in my turbulent, transient life is my girlfriend, who is known on this blog as “P–“. We’ve been together for over a year now, and we really do complement each other in ways that I could not even imagine before. Yes, it can be sappy sometimes when we speak in stereo, but I think that’s endearing. She actually doesn’t think I’m crazy for racking up so many miles, although I’ve only recently convinced her of the value of an airline elite member card. I am so lucky and I treasure her so much.

The topic of discussion this year is “dissociative fugue”, which the New York Times describes as a psychiatric condition characterized by “sudden unexpected travel away from home or one’s customary place of daily activities” in order to escape a severely stressful situation. Maybe this is just escapism. There are a number of people that are close to me that are engaging in it or thinking about it. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think that I had it myself. As a Hakka Chinese, we’re supposed to be professionals at this.

The NYT article doesn’t mention the other half of the condition according to the Merck Manual: amnesia of either one’s past life or of the trip once they return. I think that for many of those people, leaving their stressful situation is probably the healthiest thing for them. But, please, please don’t forget. You should always know where you have been.

As for resolutions, last year’s was to try to keep in touch with people (mostly successful through trips and occasional emails for those who have signed up with Plaxo) and trying to clean up my apartment of clutter (somewhat successful in terms of putting things into file boxes, but my girlfriend will be helping me more this year). As for this year, I’m going to try to find ways to simplify my life and recapture the innocence of childhood. This will culumate in my “baby tour”, which will consist of visiting friends and relatives who are having babies this year. So far, the list includes Trinidad, Orange County, and Taiwan. Let me know when the christening or the “one month” party will be, and we’ll see what I can book.

Finally, I want to thank SSW, who has been a real trooper blogging and contributing here when I haven’t, and YC who chimes in from his extended honeymoon in Taiwan. I invite you to continue reading Triscribe, and if you are have the knack or inclination, to write. Sign up by following the “Register” link on the right side of the page. Once you are registered, I will work on giving you writing privileges. Pictures of my travels are at http://www.triscribe.com/gallery, if you would like to check them out, and you can order prints through the automatic Gallery system (I don’t make any money from your using that system). Thanks for being a part of my life this year.