Matt Damon, My Hero

Matt Damon on the Palin pick. What so many people are afraid to say.

Your Friday Afternoon Video #28: Take Me Home

Rediscovering classic Phil Collins.

Belated pics from our trip to Asia!

Dhaka, Bangladesh.


Rainy day at Lalbagh Fort. Dhaka.


The Taj.


Workers on the Red Fort in Delhi.


Mong Kok, Hong Kong


Man Moh Temple, HK.


Pork!

Ching Chong

I guess it's not just fifth graders who do this. The Spanish basketball team does it, too. See NYT article.

Complex Shit

Inflatable turd gets loose.

Young Swim Instructors, Part 2

My new instructor said, "I've been swimming competitively basically all my life. And I'm going to be 21 soon. That's a long time. So you should listen to me."

Young Swim Instructors

I started taking swimming lessons a few weeks ago. I do know how to swim (I feel compelled to tell you that), but I hardly ever swim except when I'm on vacation. So I signed up at Pasadena City College.

My swim instructors are college students, back home in Pasadena for the summer. I've been improving on all my strokes. I've even learned the butterfly, a real thrill. I love swimming. It's now my favorite part of the week.

Class will be over soon and I'm thinking about joining the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center to keep it up. I stopped by last weekend to check out the facilities. Two very clean, very nice Olympic size pools. I asked my teacher what she thought of the Rose Bowl. Here's our exchange:

Me: I took a look at the Rose Bowl and it looks really nice.

Her: Yea, it's great. I lifeguard there. They maintain it really well. It was built for like the '94 LA Summer Olympics.

Me: You mean '84.

I Feel the Earth Move...

Just another earthquake in Southern California. Yesterday's was the biggest I've felt since moving back here in 2005. I was at work. The building jolted, the windows creaked. People got up from their chairs, walked into the hallways, looked at each other and went "oooh, earthquake."

The big one will hit eventually. They've been talking about it for ages. I remember in 1986 everyone at school was talking about how Nostradamus predicted the big one would hit that year. I was so scared I slept on the floor of my parents' room and piled all our canned food next to me.

Good to Be Back Home, Except for the Work Part

Two weeks away. We got back on Sunday. There really is no place like home. Not that I didn't have a good time. I did. It was fun. It was hot. It was jam packed.

We were a week in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Four of those days (4 in a row) were for Mr. Octopus' brother's wedding. Bengali people loooove to party. You've never seen people have so much fun without alcohol. They just love being around each other. They may get tired every once in a while, they may be sleep-deprived, but that doesn't stop them for hanging out every day.

Then Mr. Octopus and I did a side trip to India for 3 days to relax and celebrate of 3rd wedding anniversary. We did 1 day in Delhi and 2 in Agra. The Taj Mahal was awesome. I highly recommend. Definitely see it with a guide because you will miss things if you do it yourself. We stayed at the Oberoi Amarvilas, which was excellent. Very pricy, but I think it's worth scrounging up your pennies to stay here. Every room has a view of the Taj.

Then we went to Hong Kong for 4 days. HK is a cross between Chinatown (a clean Chinatown, the cleanest one you can imagine), Wall Street and San Francisco. The food was good. We went into a few hole in the wall places and each was great. It was a welcome change after 11 straight days of Indian food. HK is also like one huge mall, which got annoying after a while. Name brand stores everywhere. People shop like crazy. I think that shopping is the most authentic HK experience you can have.

I should mention that it rained every day of our trip. The upside was that the rain cut down the heat, which was not nearly as oppressive as I was expecting. Still, I would've liked at least one clear day.

Anyways, I'm glad to be back home. I have a nasty case of jetlag. This morning I woke up at 4am. Yesterday at 5am. I hope to shake it off before the weekend is here.

On Vacation

We're on day 11 of our vacation to Bangladesh, India and Hong Kong. We're currently in Agra. Can't write much right now because the one hour I signed up for on this computer is ending soon. A few thoughts.

I thought I'd been to the third world (Vietnam) until I arrived in Dhaka. Hardly any women are out on the streets in Bangladesh. The only women you see on the streets are either the very poor or those accompanied by men. Everyone of any means is driven-- either by car, bus, baby taxi or rickshaw. No one drives themselves (that goes for men too).

In our first 5 hours in India we saw cows, goats, pigs, donkey and monkeys. Our hotel room in Agra has a view of the Taj Mahal. We've visited the Taj twice and it did not disappoint. We're off to Delhi this afternoon, then to HK tomorrow. I am craving non-Indian food.

Your Friday Afternoon Video #27: Christian the Lion

More about Christian here.

Your Friday Afternoon Video #26: Numbnut

This kid won the 2008 national spelling bee.

Can it really be June?

Dining room of the Gamble House.

I'm back. Is half the year almost over? It's early evening, Saturday. I love that it's still light out. It was a beautiful day in Eagle Rock. Clear and warm. Not too hot. We went on a tour of the Gamble House in Pasadena. It was awesome. I loved it. It's now on my list of things to recommend to out-of-towners. We toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House a while back, but I liked this better. Both the house and the tour. I highly recommend.


Seems most pictures of Nadal are of him looking like this.

I'm so psyched about the Federer - Nadal final tomorrow. I hope it goes 5 sets. I don't really care who wins, I just want a good and close match. And a lot of fist pumping. I'll feel sorta bad for Federer if he loses. He's had a tough year (for him) and I don't know how long he'll stay at the top of his game.



I was thinking today about the first presidential election that I remember. It was 1984 and I was in 4th grade. One of my assignments that year was to distinguish between advertisements and endorsements. I had to go through the newpaper and cut out examples of each. I got some Mondale - Ferraro campaign stickers that year. Two pages of round stickers. I was a sticker collector back then and I think I got them by trading some scratch and sniffs to a friend.

Your Friday Afternoon Video #25: Sleeping Baby Bear

5 Things I Did Today

1. Went to the Montrose Farmers' Market
2. Wished it would cool down so I could remove my invasive Jupiter's Beard
3. Swapped my flannel sheets for cotton ones; Spring is here
4. Watched a show on the Food Network that made me really, really hungry
5. Had a drink for the first time in a month

My Weekends

When I lived in NYC, my goal most weekends was to do nothing. Not make plans. Do as little as possible. I thought that the less I did, the slower time would pass.

Nowadays I want to jam pack my weekends with activity. Gardening, errands, friends, movies, touristy stuff. When I don't have plans I feel depressed. It's like a need a distraction from the constant spectre of work, Monday.

Darwin: Marry, Not Marry

More Darwin papers are up on the internets. Work stuff and personal stuff, including his pro-con list on getting married. Among the pros: "Constant companion, (& friend in old age) who will feel interested in one- object to be beloved & played with. — better than a dog anyhow." And the cons: "fatness & idleness — Anxiety & responsibility — less money for books".

The New Hillary?

I hit my saturation point on the Democratic race a few weeks ago. I couldn't take it anymore and tuned out. Until last night. I caught some of the debate and it was pretty lame, no surprise. The most interesting thing was Hillary's new face. Is it just me or has she gotten work done? Her eyes looked bigger, deeper set. Her forehead didn't wrinkle, even when she got worked up.

This bummed me out. Movie stars and news anchors, ok. Part of their job is to look good. But politicians? I suppose it's too risky for high profile female politicians to age naturally. I'm pretty sure Nancy Pelosi has had something done. Meanwhile, McCain and other old fogies can get ghostly pale and saggy and no one cares.

Spent

I haven't gone outside since coming in to work. I haven't eaten anything all day, other than a piece of garlic bread that someone in my department brought in. I prepared frantically for a meeting that ended up being rescheduled. I was told on the dl that my boss might have a "Come to Jesus" conversation with me. Today has been awesome.

Your Gayest Look

This happened last Wednesday on Jay Leno. Watch as Jay talks to Ryan Phillippe about how he played an openly gay character on One Life to Live, and then asks Ryan to give the camera his gayest look. Ryan didn't think it was funny, and neither do a lot of other people.