May 2006 Archives

I'm going to be up all night studying for my Essentials of Marketing. I fell behind after the trip to New York and with so much stuff going on, it's been hard to catch up. I still have 3 chapters to read tonight. Plus I need to go over all the other chapters from earlier in the course. I love the class, but some of the reading is just unbearably dull. i don't need to get an A on the final or anything. Honestly, I couldn't give a shit what grade I get. I just need to pass the class so I get reimbursed by the company. I got a B on the midterm. I talk in every class and participation is a large chunk on of the final grade. Our group project, a marketing plan for a company that makes edible toothpicks was late getting going but come on strong after I installed a wiki for our group so that we could collaborate remotely. And the final, well, the final will proabably be tough, and I could most likely pass it without doing any more studying tonight, but I'm going to power through these chapters and make a good showing. Maybe even learn something.

In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war. We have seen those costs in the war on terror we fight today. These grounds are the final resting place for more than 270 men and women who have given their lives in freedom's cause since the attacks of September the 11th, 2001.

-- George Bush, Honors Memorial Day at Arlington National Cemetery, 29 May 2006

Reluctantly? Does he seriously think that anyone believes him when he says that? Yes, we releuctanly went into war with Iraq. Reluctantly. That's the word I'd use. We reluctanly invaded the country only after we'd exhausted all diplomatic channels. We relunctantly invaded because Iraq had links to al Qaeda. And we reluctanly invaded because Saddam was going to nuke us. And we reluctanly invaded because people of the Middle East deserve freedom, the Almighty's gift to everybody who lives in the world (unless your country isn't sitting on a pile). Reluctant. Indeed. Reluctant.

The finals were yesterday. Still trying to get the pics online. I would have it done, except, well, for a minor accident last night.

Nadira from Seatle, who I thought should have won last year, took home the title. Everyone went home happy.

Here is how they finished:

Winner: Nadira
1st Runner up: Sandra
2nd Runner up: Ahava
3rd Runner up: Namira
4th Runner up: Cris!

UPDATE: All the pics are online now. And, well, there are even some good ones here and there

Michelle, who unfortunately did not place despite an excellent performance, has a few of my shots up on her website already, including on the banner on her home page.

Fucking cats! Long story short. Cutting a baguette. Fil jumps on the counter. Distracted, I slice right through the bread and into the meat of the middle finger of my left hand. Clamly, I stopped the bleeding (temporarily) and finished making my proscuitto and brie sandwich (the rabbi would be proud). When the flow wouldn't stop, I headed off to the emergency room. 3 1/2 hours later I was discharged with 4 stitches and a dull a ache in my index finger. Fucking cats.

Pictures from the cellphone are here.

Anyone else psyched about the World Cup? I am. I always am. Love the sport. Love the event even better. This time all my favorite teams are in. The USA, of course. Australia, natuallly (it's about time!). The Dutch, as expected, are in. It should be a great event.

I will be in Europe for most of the start of the competetion. I don't know if I will be able to make it over to Germany, but I will be in England for the Trinidad & Tobago match on the 15th of June. I will be in Switzerland for the June 13th match against France. I will be in Spain for the June 19th match against Tunisia. And I will be in Holland for the quarterfinals. Hopefully Clockwork Orange will still be playing.

If you want to keep up to date with the all the legal machinations of the Bush Administration and the twisted logic of his one-eyed defenders, there is no better place than Glenn Greenwald's Unclaimed Territory. Glenn's insightful commentary rooted in his remarkably deep understanding of constitutional law and keen eye for hypocrisy makes for some of the best reading on the web.

His entries are not short, so you'll need to devote some amount of time to keep up, but it will be time well spent, because a few years from now when our rights and the democracy that we are so proud of and zealously try to "export" are appreciably eroded, you'll wonder how it happened. But only if you do not read Glenn religiously, like so many people who are worried that our country is headed in a radically wrong direction.

If you like what you read there and want to support him, pick up a copy of his recently published book, How Would A Patriot Act?. I ordered from Amazon. It just came. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I will very shortly and let you know what I think.

There's nothing like a Pilates class to expose just how weak you are. Just when you think you're getting into a decent shape try working on your core and you'll be hurting. This Pilates class that I've been trying to take every Thusday morning just kills me. I can't beleive how little I actually move and how much I sweat just trying to keep my core stabilized. I know if I can keep it up it will be great for my body, but right now it is abusing me so hard.

I'm headed to Europe for work for almost the entire month of June. I'm leaving June 2nd. Spending the weekend in London. Working a few days in Oxford. Heading over to Paris to meet with some colleagues. Flying to Basel to talk to some IT folks. Back to London for a web design conference. Flying from there to Barcelona for a tech meeting. Then up to Madrid to meet with a customer with my former counterpart. It's an insane schedule, and I don't know how I'm going to pack for it, but it should be incredibly productive and, well, fun. Just for good measure, I'll take a week of vacation at the end. Somehow I need to get from Madrid to Amsterdam. I think I'll manage.

(The biggest mystery of the whole trip is just how many of the precious things that I leave behind in my place that my cats will piss on in my absence).

A lifetime of sodomy, a deserved reward for fucking over so many people. (I guess we have to wait for the sentencing, but this is a great start).

I don't know what it is about bagels in California (oh, wait, it's that they are all made by Koreans), but they just suck. Nothing. Nothing will put into sharper focus the difference between our locally Korean made bagels and actual bagels than a trip to a New York bagelry. Doesn't matter which one. Pick any of them. Upper West Side. East Village. Doesn't matter. I don't know if it's the water, the recipe, the dough, or what, but something about New York bagels is just damn right and for a jew whose tenuous connection to his culture consists merely of regular consumption of round pieces of half-boiled, half-baked dough sliced in half, toasted, topped with cream cheese and some kind of smoked fish, maybe a tomato slice, or a red onion or even capers, when available, it's crucial to have the real deal.

Why do I mention this? I brought half a dozen bagels back with me and I finished the last one this morning. So it's back to the fucking Korean-made bastard bagels for this jewboy.

My large green piece of luggage, which has served me so well and which, like an idiot, I didn't put away right after I returned from New York, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Filemu.

I don't know how else to say it. I really don't. The city is just so great. I love the buidlings, and the people and the energy and the musuems and the subway. There's so much to do. There's so much to see. It's so easy to get around. There's so many good restaurants. The bagels are awesome. Central Park is amazing. I honestly cannot get enough of the place.

So I spent two days there for work, meeting the PR firm that works with my new company. We were sorting out some branding issues and planning our Internet strategy. The guy who was running the show? His title was something like Senior Vice President, Corporate Reputation. Corporate Reputation? Every heard of that before? The really eye-opening thing about this trip was to find out jus thow much this New York PR firm does for my Swiss-based company. I'd love to know how the relationship evolved, but for now, I'm just happy to watch it from afar.

On the weekend my brother took the bus up from DC. We stayed at the W in midtown. We had a great time. Despite Brian's torn ACL (a story that I neglected to write about), we walked all over the place, from midtown across the Park to the Upper West Side. All through Central Park. Across the Brooklyn Bridge. We went to the Yankees/A's game on Saturday, saw Jeter and A-Rod hit home runs as the Yanks beat the A's in a squeaker, 4-3. We went to the Met, saw priceless works of art. We even saw some famous people. We saw Kelsey Grammar and his wife in a carriage along Central Park South. We saw Barbara Walters, Charlie Rose and Karl Bernstein coming out of the A.M. Rosenthal funeral at a massive synagogue on Lexington. We even sat in front of some loud mouth right-wing documentarian at the Yankee game who wouldn't shut up. (my brother recognized his voice).

We lucked out with the weather. It was supposed to rain all 4 days, but we only had a slightest hint. We had a gloriously sunny day on Saturday and more than tolerable variable cloudiness on the others. It was just great all around just far, far too short.

Pics from the trip are here.

This is part of an installation by Chinese artist on the rooftop of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Guess where the knives are from?

Trying to find a reasonably priced hotel in New York isn't easy. I lokoed around a few sites and finally decided to take the plunge and go with Hotwire. I've looked at Hotwire for years, but have bought anything from them because they won't tell what hotel you'll stay or what airline you'll fly (or when exactly you'll fly). For hotels, you tell them the rough location and the dates and they tell you the cost and the number of stars, but not the name of the property. So if you want to stay at a particualr place, Hotwire is not the site for you. But if you're will to take a gamble, you might be pleasantly surprised. I did and we ended getting a room at the W for the weekend for 200 bucks a night. Score.

I'm off to New York for work tomorrow. Going to stay the weekend. My brother is coming up from DC. Should be fun even if the forcasted rain shows up.

I haven't been in the city since 2003. I love the place. The energy. The restaurants. The museums. The people. There's so much to do. It's so easy to get around. If the cost of living wasn't so damn high, I'd move there in a second.

Does anyone out there use Wikipedia? I think it's one of the most useful sites on the web and one of the most incredible. Not only is all this information available to you free and online, but it has been collected and continues to be collected by anyone who cares enough to add information and edit the content. It's 100% collaborative so anyone can post anytime, anytime from anywhere. There must be thousands of people contributing to keep it up to date and relevant. Probalby a few on staff too

If you think about anything you could possibly want to know, you can find an insane amount of information. You can search on your surname or the country you live in or your passion and find an incredible wealth of knowledge including vast amounts of external links to even more information. And if you can't find what you are looking for there, you can simply find it somewhere else on the web and add your own entry on your own topics that other people will update, edit and maintain. It's truly remarkable.

The official team bus to be used by the United States during the World Cup will not bear a flag for security reasons.

The 32 official buses were presented Thursday in Frankfurt and the other 31 buses have large national flags of the their teams painted on rear sides.

German and U.S. security officials came to the conclusion to leave the flag off the U.S. team bus, an official of the German organizing committee said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the topic.

Get that? Of all 32 teams that made it to the World Cup Finals in Germany this year, only the United States has to move its players around in stealth and not proudly show off the American flag because of fear of a terrorist attack. This is what happens when you sqaunder the good will of world and everyone hates you. It's pathetic.

Most Americans couldn't give a shit about this. Only a tiny fraction even carry passports and have little or no interest on what goes on outside our borders. But as some ne who travels, who has traveled extensively in muslim countries around the world, I find this profoundly disturbing.

The whole stoy is below the fold.

Congress must keep the Internet free and open by voting for meaningful and enforceable Network Neutrality--the Internet's First Amendment.

If you interested in preserving Net Neutrality, sign the petition.

I've been saying this for a long time now offline, and it's finally time to say it online. This political season for the 2006 midterm elections is going to be ugliest we have ever seen in our lifetimes and possibly ever in this country. Why? There is just so much at stake. If either one of the two houses of Congress changes over from Republican to Democratic control we're going to see one investigation of the Bush Administration after another as the Dems wield their subpoena power to uncover all the crap that the White House has been trying to bury under a miasma of secrecy and privilege. With Bush's approval ratings at historical lows and sinking and the Republican Congress faring even worse in the eyes of the American public, all signs are pointing towards a shift in power that would spell disaster for BushCo. They are going to do everything they can to avoid what more and more is seeming like an inevitable conclusion. The Republicans are mired in scandal from Abramoff, to the NSA to Iraq, but the Democrats are not going to win simply by default as an alternative. They have to prepare themselves for millions upon millions of dollars spent on nothing but negative advertising. They have to be prepared to defend themselves against attack. They have to prepare to be swiftboated. And the American public has to prepare for all this too because, like I said, it's going to be ugly.

I've been lousy about updating the blog lately, and I'm sorry about that.

Last weekend I went to North Lake Tahoe with my buddy Kristen. We left early Saturday morning. Didn't have much of plan of where to ski, but we knew that we wanted to hit Squaw at least one of the days. Since her (share) house is right near Squaw, we decided to go directly there on Saturday morning. While we in line to buy lift tickets (the longest line we saw all weekend) we made the snap decisionto ski Squaw both days. At $113 for 2 consecutive days, it's still pricey, but $57.50 a day is easier to swallow than $68 for one day (or whatever it is). It was a great decision.

Squaw is an awesome place, even with onl half the lifts running. It's massive. The scenery is spectacular with soaring rocky peaks and views of distant Lake Tahoe. When it's 70 degrees, there isn't a cloud in the sky and the crowds are nowhere to be found, it's even better.

Has anyone else seen these billboards? What's the story? Is this some kind of viral/guerilla marketing or the work of some end times whackjob?

UPDATE: looks like it might be a promotion for a movie.