Category Archives: Uncategorized

Don McLean’s “American Pie” was one of the first songs I learned the chords to when I first started playing guitar. 5 years later, however, I still have not *learned* the song. I cannot play it on demand if requested at a show (which….sadly, I have not done in a few months…and probably will not until I have some new material…damnit).

I had wanted to try and complete learning it before I moved to the East Coast…but here I am, and still Pie-less. Perhaps I could have taken the massive amounts of free time I have in New Jersey to learn it…but my cousin lent me all three seasons of Battlestar Galactica, which I am frantically trying to finish before I move to NYC.

Bye bye, Miss American Pie indeed.

Article about SCUP (our pet name for the World Scholar’s Cup) from Korea – the article was originally written in Korean…..this is the Google translation:

Korean students study hard enough to surprise. In particular, very good at math. English listening and speaking it well. However, the U.S. universities that emphasize timwokeuna leadership, essay writing always seems to look weak. “

Seukalraseukeop academic world junior championship tournament,’2008 ‘(YBM Education sponsored) group, organized by the American Skiing live ¼ Buddy demidek Daniel Corp. (33 photos) representative. Bachelor’s from Stanford University in the United States, he received a master’s degree from Harvard students who had studied together for a year like this. He Seoul English Village from May 31, feeding the camp to attend the two-day event was held.
Ski school and live in a society, Mr. Buddy ¼ Koreans generally met ‘impersonations’ leadership has neunghana timwokeuna the weak. Good at studies, which together made something that was familiar with. I ate with students and colleagues, exercise, and dormitory life that ‘studies outside the classroom’ LA importance of wealth in the U.S. college gogyona was inappropriate.

He Korean students studying in the U.S. and dreaming of experience in the world look to sahoena advice. If conditions are allowed in or out of the World Congress, is also good for vacation, said the ability to travel abroad. In addition, a considerable amount of time to read and write in English, encourage investments. Essay University in the United States for seamless communication, especially because it emphasizes the areas.

We’ve been in Korea for the last couple of weeks for the World Scholar’s Cup Finals, and the day after the awards, we were informed (accidentally) that we were on the agenda for a teachers of selected schools of Australia conference on Thursday. (Basically, the Australian coach was like “So, we’ll see you Thursday at the conference!” And we’re like, “What conference?!”)

We spent the next day or so discussing who should represent the World Scholar’s Cup at the conference (we determined we need to have a presence there to get Australia excited about the competition next year…among other reasons), and somehow in the middle of it, it came up that I was the best person to go. Brent and Diana were really pushing for it. Brent had to get back home to teach his classes (pfftt – classes, schmasses), and Ross and Monica were going to stay in Korea for a few more days.

We didn’t really buy me the ticket till the night before. Daniel had reserved a ticket for himself, but that night, he was feeling really crappy (like, getting sick crappy), so we decided I would go. And hey, I’ve never been to Australia!

The next day, I flew from Seoul to Tokyo. When I got to Narita Airport, I went to check in for my Australia flight on Japan Airlines. When I presented my passport, the agent asked, “Do you have a visa?”

“…… what visa?!” I responded.

Turns out, you need something called an Electronic Travel Authority to enter Australia. Fortunately, you can apply for it online, and in 90% of the cases, it’s issued automatically. Unfortunately, I fell into the 10% whose application had to be submitted to the Australian Immigration Powers That Be for further review. Was I, unbeknownst to me, wanted for a crime in Australia?

In any case, the website asked me to check back in 12 hours. 12 hours?! My flight leaves in 5! With my blood pressure and cortisone levels rising at a rapid rate, I approach the JAL agent and let her know my situation. She seemed perplexed, as most passengers get their visas right away. I showed her the message on my computer, and told her I would just go ahead and check every few minutes or so to see if it had gone through.

Dejected, I sat back down, convinced I would never make it. A few minutes later, the JAL agent came up to me asked for my passport and request number (the one the Australian website sends so you can check your visa status). Then she disappears for a couple of minutes, and comes back to tell me her system shows that I’ve been issued a visa. I refresh the website, and it indeed says I had been cleared. YAY!

The flight to Australia was quite uneventful. It left at around 8:30pm, so we got dinner shortly after leaving. The plane was empty – I think everyone got their own row. I had 4 seats all to myself, and the armrests came up. Who needs business class?

I picked up the rental car, and drove to the hotel.

Driving was interesting. I think the day would have been a lot less stressful if I didn’t have to drive. The driver’s seat is on the right side of the car, and people drive on the left side of the road. It was really hard getting used to.

After getting to the hotel and taking a shower, I called the conference location, which turns out to be a manor in the middle of nowhere (seriously, the directions were like, “Turn left at the clock tower.” When I asked if there was a street name, the answer was no. When I asked for an address, they couldn’t give me one.)

*sigh* Time to hop in my car and brave the strange topsy-turvy streets (Monique, if you’re reading this, don’t laugh – you’ll see what I mean when you’re in Milan). The manor was FAR – two and a half hours, and every one of those required lots of brainpower to not drift too far to the left, or over-correct and head into oncoming traffic – both of which happened a couple of times going there and coming back. Matters were not helped by the fact that it was pouring rain.

When I got to the conference, I met the coordinators, who were just so nice and lovely – they thanked me for coming, fed me, and let me talk to their administrators for half an hour. And gave me a bottle of wine as a thank-you for coming, which is proving interesting to transport home.

It got dark on my way home, but thankfully not before I got back on a main highway. I probably would have killed a cow or something. But I got back relatively safe and sound, but starving (I was talking too much during lunch to really each much). I found a nice Chinese restaurant close to the hotel (it was raining again), and had some beef noodle soup – perfect Chinese comfort food – and some fried yin2 si1 juan3.

Passed out.

Next day, I had a very frustrating encounter with the JAL agent in Australia (she was Australian, and according to Monique, you sort of have to be really rude back in Australia to get anything done, which is opposite of America, where you just butter them up and be really nice – but I guess in Australia if you do that, they see you as a pushover….but then again, I’m finding that things are really…opposite…in Australia) who wouldn’t let me take my one carry-on and my one personal item onto the plane. So poor Daniel got an earful of me ranting to him on IM (ok, maybe it was an “eyeful”, but the innuendo just isn’t the same).

On the plane, I saw the Spiderwick Chronicles, which I really enjoyed, watched the Notebook again, and read “Dear John” (also by Nicholas Sparks – he’s one of the most formulaic writers I’ve ever read).

Ok I should run to catch my flight. Hope I get on!

Sitting here in YBM’s office in Seoul with Monica listening to Daniel Powter and trying to stay cool. Daniel and Ross are with Alaina doing an interview with the press. I think. It’s very peaceful. We’re kinda stuck here because we’re not sure how to get back to our hotel. It’s ok, I have power, I have wireless (I think I’m stealing it from a nearby Starbucks), I have over half of Season 6 of 24, and I have some weird honey drink. I’m good to go.

This is my first time actually crossing the Korean border – last time, we only had a layover an Incheon Airport, where we had some really good bibimbap on our way to China. I have to say, as a city, it doesn’t really impress, but I keep thinking, this is the place where FINKL and SES and HOT and all those Kpop bands I used to love are based! Though…. I don’t think those bands are really popular anymore.

I am very tired though. Still jet-lagged. And our bed is really hard, and the towels have a weird odor to it. Come to think of it, so do the pillows…. maybe it’s the detergent they use?

I finally did it. I finally made the decision to go from the 89 grade gas to the 87 (regular…..cheapest) grade gas. My car might be bumpy for a while, but honestly, a Camry doesn’t justify more expensive gas.

I’m also making the resolution to keep my speedometer under 70 mph. My speedometer reads 5 mph faster than actual speed, so I’m trying to keep my max speed to under 65 mph. Mostly to see whether or not I see higher mileage over the next few weeks.

Driving slower is really more a psychological test of restraint than anything, because I’m used to driving with the flow of traffic, which is … well, a lot faster than 65 mph. So today on the way home, I had all these cars speeding by me, no doubt peeking in to see just how old of an old lady I am. It takes all my self-restraint to not speed up and overtake them all! I’m thinking of putting a sign on my back window that says something like “Slow Down, Save Gas!” I mean, I have my pride to think about!

In any case, I won’t have to worry about getting speeding tickets.

We saw Zumanity tonight – the Cirque du Soleil show at New York New York in Las Vegas. While I would say a good portion of it is gratuitous sexuality and trashy humor, it was overall a well-put-together show with many metaphorical aspects of the circuses of old. (We watched Mystere last time, and whereas Mystere had more acrobatics, Zumanity felt like a better show overall.)

The whole concept behind Cirque du Soleil is to create a circus that doesn’t use animals. As a side note, a great book about how they treat circus animals in the heyday of circuses is Water for Elephants. Instead, the focus is on humans, and acrobatics and such. What struck me about Zumanity was how many aspects of a traditional circus they incorporated into the show. Examples are as follows.

In Zumanity, they had the concept of a ringmaster (who is a transvestite in this case, which also takes care of the Bearded Lady staple of circuses), a main ring (the main act that everyone watches), side rings (the background dancers and minor acts off to the side during the main act), the clowns (in Zumanity’s case, two “merchants” of sex goods – complete with dildos and scotch baggies), the “animal” (a guy called the “Beast” who didn’t speak – only growled), the lions in a cage (two men who “fought” in a rubber cage, lots of sexual tension that culminated in a kiss – to both cheers and boos), freaks (the Rubber Band Man – crazily double-jointed dude who did seemingly painful things with his body), and of course, the acrobats.

The show really doesn’t NEED to have nudity in it. It’s completely gratuitous. And, I feel, distracts from the show itself. The nudity is a spectacle, and probably a huge reason why people see it. Because of it, the technicalities of the show are lacking. It’s much less exciting in terms of the acrobatics than some of the other shows.

But, as I said before, a show that is very well done and put together. I enjoyed it immensely.

“Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?”

“My bag’s on it.”

I looked around. Every other chair in sight had a tush in it.

This was the exchange I had with an obviously petty, cankerous (and rather overweight and unhealthy-looking) fellow while waiting for dinner (before watching a truly amazing production of Fortinbras – Dagney Kerr, the actress who played Kathy, Buffy’s annoying college roommate in the beginning of Season 4, was starring as the ghost of Ophelia). Juliana had reserved us tickets as industry, meaning we didn’t have to pay for the $20 show. So we caught dinner at this place called Pitfire Pizza right down the street from the theatre, and it must have been popular because there were no tables left.

We positioned ourselves on a knee-high ledge bordering the perimeter of the restaurant, and secured one of the cheap red plastic chairs – the only piece of furniture we had – all tables were taken. The plan was to use the ledge as a table, and to find one more chair. That’s when I approached the fellow sitting next to us, who had only one dining companion, but three chairs (and a table to boot!).

Needless to say, we failed in finding another chair, but made do with the ledge, and had a wonderful dinner while staring daggers into the back of Petty Bag Chair Man.

What happened to the good ol’ days (or just places other than LA – ie: 1952 Alabama) when people gave up their own seats for others? Now we’re in competition with bags.

And it wasn’t even a nice bag. It was like an oversized man-purse.

I didn’t write this, but someone did in response to Obama’s losing speech in Pennsylvania (from Andrew Sullivan’s The Daily Dish):

>>>>>>>>>
This morning I saw an excerpt from Obama’s concession speech in Indiana where he said the following:

“Or this time, we can build on the movement we’ve started in this campaign – a movement that’s united Democrats, Independents, and Republicans; a movement of young and old, rich and poor; white, black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American, gay and straight.”

I have two comments about this:

First, I cannot recall a politician ever speaking after a loss, proclaiming that he wants to bring together gays and straights. That is amazing. Can you imagine Hillary ever saying anything like that to a national audience, especially after a defeat?

Second, the “gay and straight” portion is not included in the text of the speech on Obama’s website. This means either 1) the campaign removed those words from the edited transcript or 2) (more likely) Obama’s inclusion of “gay and straight” was impromptu. It wasn’t included by the speech writers, but he included it at the spur of the moment. If this is true, how amazing it is that there is a politician who is willing to stand up for us gay Americans who have been ignored for so long. I hope Obama knows how much those three small words that he included in his speech mean to us.
>>>>>>>>

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I really didn’t mean to post two abortion-related posts one right after the other, but this one popped up as an interesting news item recently.

A senior at Yale is inseminating herself, then aborting the fetus with abortion drugs multiple times over the course of 9 months.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/24513

She says she “hopes it inspires some sort of discourse”, and also says that she’s not using the concept for “shock value”. She claims that she has some “message”.

Really. What’s the message? Hey, let’s make ourselves really sick and show complete disregard for the women who go through the emotional turmoil of choosing to abort a fetus! This’ll be fun! (I would even go as far to say a “disregard for life”, but want to be clear that I do not equate abortion with murder)

It’s no wonder people on both sides of the abortion fence are disgusted by this.

On the pro-lifer’s side, this woman is committing mass murder over and over.

And pro-choice folks are not pro-abortion. As a matter of fact, most of my friends are pro-choice, but given the choice to abort or not, most would choose to not abort. This woman exemplifies what pro-choice is NOT about.

Both sides of the fence value life. Deliberately aborting a fetus for “art’s sake” completely trivializes the immensely difficult and life-changing choice that some women are forced to make. It’s appalling. It’s like making a snuff film – films where people are killed or murdered on film (not because I think abortion in and of itself is like murder, but that the choice in making it needs to be given some weight). That’s not art. That’s disrespect for the issue, and should be condemned.

And seriously…what is the message?