Traveling Orangecat

Hello, everybody! (in Simpson voice)

I got back from DC today. It was a light, lovely trip and exactly what I needed. Jess' new condo is super cute and it was fun to stay with her. I caught dinner with Laura, old Cal friend, which was good, too. She helped enlighten me on why she likes Obama and her reasons made sense and somewhat swayed me. Perhaps more on that later...

But to talk about my trip without writing too much bc I'm tired from the 10 hours of traveling today plus the jet lag, I will summarize my thoughts in 10 bullet points. One for every hour of travel today.

1) Cherry blossoms are really pretty even if you visit after they're gone and you only see trees that your good friend Jess kindly says, "They look like cherry blossoms" and you take pics together by them. Faking it is almost as good as the real thing.

2) Washington DC seems freakin' obsessed with super high escalators including the Rosslyn Metro stop one. Info from Wikipedia on it:

It features the third longest continuous escalator in the world, at 205 feet 8 inches; an escalator ride between the street level and the mezzanine level takes 159 seconds.[2]

OMG. Third largest in the world?!? Jess picked me up from the metro last night after my dinner with Laura and she told me to go to a diff station than the one she lives by, to the Rosslyn one. I had been telling her scary stories of the high escalators all over DC (including the one she uses twice a day in her daily commute) and she kept telling me "You should see the Rossly one." So getting off, I rode the escalator and couldn't look back after the first third. It was too high. My muscles started cramping as I tightened my stiff posture and leaned forward to decrease my fear of falling off or down the entire 205 ft. How many stories is that? 6 or 7? It's really really high people. See here for the pic but it doesn't do it justice. Think of being on an escalator for 3 MINUTES and how high that has to be. Anyways, I got out and accusingly told Jess, "You switched stations just to make me do that escalator, didn't you?" She laughed but really didn't answer me. Hmm... So there, Jess, now you know the true extent the escalators scared me and the impression they left as this is #2 in my list! Even when I was in the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, these high school kids pointed to their escalator and said, "Wow, that one is like super big." Which is was bigger than normal non-DC ones, but nothing compared to the Court House or Rosslyn monster. I scoffed under my breath at them.

3) The National Museum of the American Indian is really cool and not boring like I thought. And I actually like Native American culture so i have to think they're not highlighting the best part of their museum in the Smithsonian guide. The building itself is rounded and inside the exhibits are rounded and inclusive, no right angles. And how they approach presenting history from their view (which all museums present history from some view) including quoting ppl and sources in the "all-knowing" info placards in front of an exhibit, is just so different and refreshing and felt authentic. See this Wikipedia article for info and a pic of the building.

4) The postal museum is cool also though the whole time I was wondering if the stamp increase paid for the delightful interactive stations. And I could not stop laughing at the section describing the dangerous job of postmaster. They tried to make it look like the postmaster carries around a tommy gun and works everyday under the threat of extreme violence. Uh, go ask a Marine if your job is dangerous, Mr. POSTMASTER. Paper cuts, lately??

5) And on the military topic, I watched the PBS Show Carrier at Jess' place and am so addicted. I watched about four hours over three days and just watched more online. I dare you to tell me this isn't interesting! And full episodes here.

6) Ppl really like to run in DC. It felt like a city of determined type-A's and even in recreation, they were all marathon runners.

7) The National Portrait Gallery's exhibit on the Presidents in the American Art Museum was interesting, again more interesting than expected. I really like the excerps of radio recordings of FDR's Fireside Chats including three during WW2. He was an impressive speaker.

8) Sometimes it rains and storms in DC but it's ok. Sorry southern Virginia ppl who got their houses blown to bits by the storm :(

9) Reading Jess' paper every morning, I've been learning more and more about the food crisis in the world. It's really bad, not since WW2 bad, they say. I feel somber and have been thinking about the food I take for granted.

10) Pomegranate margaritas from Rasika just taste like lime margaritas. And they seat horribly, and yes, I yelped about it!

*Curtsies* Thanks for reading! It was fun and easy, with plenty of time with friends and alone for prayer and reflection with God speaking. With that and the learning/seeing new things, it was a perfect short trip before I start the new job. Thanks God :)

Stamp price increase

The freakin' stamps are going up in price, again! On May 12th, they're increasing to 42 cents for a first class standard envelope.

ONE YEAR AGO on May 13, 2007 they went up 2 cents from 39 to 41 cents.

Wikipedia has a history of price increases by the Post Office.

Grr, grumble, I have all these 41 cent stamps that will soon need a stupid 1 cent additional stamp.... grrr, stupid post office.

Stupid Forever Stamps, I don't want to INVEST my money further in the govt by buying your Forever stamps! Stupid govt.

Pineapple Express

I love this song in the trailer, well edited to fit with the action-y parts of the film.

Hope the movie's as good as the trailer!

Red band trailer (R-rated)

Forgetting Sarah Marshall = A

Ah yeah, this movie is hecka funny. I saw it last night with two good friends and we laughed our asses off. Could not stop laughing. Totally an A movie. Hey, I paid full price on a Friday night in the Bay Area which is a solid $10.25, people.

I like Judd Apatow but usually find movies he's involved in to be in need of a good editor. Plots go on tangents (Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd's acid trip in Vegas in Knocked Up?) that bore me and jokes could be better. I'm ok with some randy humor but Superbad was just too much and I won't watch it a second time even though my love for Michael Cera is somethin' serious. And I love Will Ferrell too but his movies really need to be tightened up in every which way. Don't you just watch them and think, "hmm, good but could be better?"

So with all that said, FSM seriously hits all the right notes. It's funny, has a plot that mimics mainstream "normal" plots in a good way, and really shows both sides of a breakup. There are real characters with even the British rocker being one of the more well-rounded. Segal could totally have written him as a one-joke guy but he doesn't and it's one of the reasons the movie hits it, no net.

There's some crude humor (and yes, Jason Segal full-frontal) but it seems more funny and not "ah jeez" like Superbad's FREAKIN' ENDLESS penis jokes.

I read some of the reviews that say Segal can't carry the movie and he seems pathetic and Kristen Bell doesn't act, and I think, "Did you just watch the same movie I did?"

Oh yeah, I already had a huge crush on Jason Segal (Freaks & Geeks, Undeclared, and How I Met Your Mother have all developed our deep relationship) but this tops me over the edge. Jason, will you marry me?

The official trailer, not red band

Movies I like

1. The Family Man
with Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni

Quick summary from IMDB:

A fast-lane investment broker, offered the opportunity to see how the other half lives, wakes up to find that his sports car and girlfriend have become a mini-van and wife.

I like this movie even though it didn't win awards or is on any top 100 movie list. I can't quite define why I like it. I like movies about real, normal lives and the complex emotions that come with it. I guess we all do :) I think both Cage and Leoni are really good in it, and one of those times the casting is spot-on. I could see another actor playing the depression and disgust with the family life as fake and unbelievable. But you really believe Nicolas Cage's character is ambitious and money-hungry, and seriously can't believe he's stuck in this suburban New Jersey life. And Tea Leoni really plays a life-can-suck-but-why-not-laugh-about-it? character Kate with her own ambitions and career choices. I like that her choice isn't just mom or professional. In either scenario, she has a career but one is nonprofit lawyer and one is high-paying lawyer.

I find it interesting that in the movie, Cage's character Jack is honest. He meets for the first time his best friend (played by Jeremy Piven who's married to one-liner Kate Walsh, weird!) and says true things but gets laughed at by Piven. Jack says, "Kate's my wife?" "This isn't my life," etc. Jack's daughter Annie perceptively realizes this new guy is not quite her dad and believes he's from aliens. Maybe from Jack's unfamiliarity with kids and need to be honest, he blurts to Annie, "I work on Wall Street. I don't live here. I don't know what I'm doing here." The only person that knows his secret is the young daughter who helps him figure out where he works and how to change a diaper. It's funny, bc Jack is trying to be honest. So a middle-aged suburban dad could say lines like that and we'd all just laugh and think he's having a grumpy day?

I guess the concept is so interesting to me. I wonder all the time what my life would have been like if I did this thing different, went to a diff college, chose that job instead of this one, moved back to SD instead of staying in the Bay Area, and such.

To spoil the ending if you haven't seen it, I like how it ends. I like how he has to go back to his "real" life and doesn't get to stay in the "glimpse" life like he wants. And I like how Kate is a top lawyer and he runs after her in the airport to convince her just to have coffee with him. He doesn't propose and there's no promise they'll end up together. But he's a changed man.

And Don Cheadle plays an angel-type character, hmm.

Update on racism post

I was talking with some friends last night about the Aristocat movie and the offensive Siamese/Asian cat, and asking about the buck teeth stereotype. Jill K, who's Japanese-American, said that the buck teeth image is attributed to the Japanese. That they have buck, large, or ugly teeth. She laughed and said the Japanese are known (teeth-wise) as the British of Asia. Oh, and the colonizing other ppl thing.

Hmm, I had never heard of that before. Sure, I've seen the buck teeth stereotype before (in Breakfast at Tiffany's and other media) but wondered where it emerged from.

Thanks Jill K for continuing to school me, my Japanese-Am sista!

Racism in Aristocats?

I picked up the Disney movie The Aristocats yesterday. I love love love the song "Ev'rybody wants to be a cat" (I mean, that's just an established fact like gravity and the revolution of the earth, right, that everyone wants to be a cat?) and the opening song "The Aristocats." I'm not sure if I've actually seen the movie before but having the grand Disney collection of best songs from all their movies and TV shows, I feel like I have.

The movie is set in 1910 France but made in 1970 America has interesting class issues. Here's the plot summary from IMDB:

The beloved, pampered housecat of a retired opera star in 1910 Paris finds herself stranded in the countryside with her three children, the victims of a plot by their owner's butler to cheat them out of a huge inheritance. They must find their way back to their home and owner, with the help of an independent-minded tomcat and other animal accomplices, while evading the butler and foiling his plan.

So we have a sweet rich female cat, voiced by Eva Gabor, and her three kittens (where else in a Disney movie could you have the star be a single mother, and consider romance also?) who are helped by a world alley cat, Thomas O'Malley. The song "Ev'rybody wants to be a cat" comes about almost in the end when Thomas, leading the cats back to Paris, brings them to his "pad" (he's hip, you see) and his scat cat friends are there playing jazz.

Ok, here's the racism. This motley band is actually all different races of cats. The leader is voiced by a black man who in person is a famous scat artist; there's an English-accented cat with a white mod wig, big purple sunglasses, and blue pearls (??); a Latino cat with bandanna and a strong accent; and then there's the Siamese cat.

Ah, the Siamese cat. Assumedly to sum up all stereotypes Asian, the cat has slanted eyes, breaks out into playing the piano with chopsticks while singing about Shanghai, Hong Kong, and fortune cookies, slams a triangular drum part on his head to look like a Chinese hat, and has a strong "Asian" accent. But also the Siamese cat has huge buck teeth. WTF? I know this isn't the first time I've seen this but where did this come from? Why did white people think Chinese or Asian ppl have buck teeth? Where did that stereotype even come from? I should ask my friend who's an AsianAm professor.

Oh, and the Siamese cat is voiced by a white guy, according to IMDB. Yeah [pause].... yeah.

Interestingly, on the CD Disney released in the early 1990's, the Siamese cat's offensive lines in the songs are cut. I've never heard his part before until I saw the movie. I guess I'm glad they kept it because the original version reveals the truth of the racism. I mean, I understand wanting to make it less offensive to modern audiences but if you start cutting all that out, ppl never see the daily racism that used to be in TV and movies and newspapers, and don't know why people of color get pissed off. And the daily racism that's still there, to be honest. Just ask Ambercrombie & Fitch.

Is this the most offensive thing I've ever seen? No. Does it kinda not make me like the song as much? Yes.

The Siamese cat's main part is from around 2:30 to 3:07 in the clip.

Yep, that was espresso I drank last night

I ended up staying up until 4 in the morning (4 in the morning, Snoop Dogg voice) doing who knows what. I was mystified by my late-night energy until I remembered that I had a white mocha at 9pm or so last night. Even with half the espresso, that sucker kept me up until waayy too late.

Espresso, I blame you. I'm still sick and this doesn't help!

Hmmm

Not sure exactly what to write about but let me try to write what I've thinking about without actually saying what I'm thinking about. My inner thoughts in vague concept, if you will.

1. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I don't.
2. Sometimes a planned high-five is what I want the most, and makes me very happy.
3. White mochas with half the espresso (one shot instead of two) are perfecto.
4. I wish I just knew, you know?
5. I'm not sure, could something like that last longer than a few months or so?
6. Sometimes I obsess, and I hate it.
7. I really like how this year is going.
8. At this moment, turning 30 this yr sounds all good.
9. I can't control people and sometimes, ok often, I wish I can.
10. Is having hope always a good thing? When is it better to not have hope?

Economy growth

I'm on a theme lately. Here's an article from the NY Times.

Emphasis mine:

The bigger problem is that the now-finished boom was, for most Americans, nothing of the sort. In 2000, at the end of the previous economic expansion, the median American family made about $61,000, according to the Census Bureau’s inflation-adjusted numbers. In 2007, in what looks to have been the final year of the most recent expansion, the median family, amazingly, seems to have made less — about $60,500.

This has never happened before, at least not for as long as the government has been keeping records. In every other expansion since World War II, the buying power of most American families grew while the economy did. You can think of this as the most basic test of an economy’s health: does it produce ever-rising living standards for its citizens?

In the second half of the 20th century, the United States passed the test in a way that arguably no other country ever has. It became, as the cliché goes, the richest country on earth. Now, though, most families aren’t getting any richer.

“We have had expansions before where the bottom end didn’t do well,” said Lawrence F. Katz, a Harvard economist who studies the job market. “But we’ve never had an expansion in which the middle of income distribution had no wage growth.”

I got a job!

Yey! I was offered and accepted a job today. I'm really happy and excited about the job, not just about the idea of not being underemployed anymore. It's in downtown Oakland at a well-respected large nonprofit. I really like the woman that's going to be my boss, and the specific development area I'll be working in.

Pray for me that I pass all my TB and necessary pre-job tests :)

The torch scavenger hunt

I went into SF yesterday to see the Olympic torch. It was crazzzy torch madness. I saw an old Cal friend on BART and ended up hanging out with him the whole afternoon as we decided to start chasing the torch through SF. We walked from Embarcadero to Chinatown to Broadway Tunnel to Columbus to Pier 39 to Van Ness/Bay and finally to Marina Green before Chrissy Field. About two and a half hours of walking. Kinda fun and exhilirating but also bum bc we wanted to see it! We were neutral observers just wanting to see the historical moment take place.

There were a lot of protesters but also a lot of neutral ppl who were out in everyday clothes to see the torch. I guess Newsom made the right move but the fact that it was so secretive made it really frustrating. What's the point of carrying the torch through the city if it's a secret and the whole thing feels you're hiding as you carry a dangerous thermal nuclear weapon through the streets of SF in a van? And the most reliable way to track it down was following the helicopters?

Lesson learned: next time I'm trying to find something important in SF that Newsom is hiding, I'll follow the helicopters. Good life lesson.

I'm not too mad at him just bummed. But walking/running through the city with other ppl was kinda fun. And def got my exercise for the day :)

Rich getting richer, poor getting poorer

This article definitely makes me want to invest some moola (when I get a job and get some) bc that is where the money is, literally.

And affirms my rant earlier this wk about bigger systems and things in place keep ppl poor. Yes, individual choices matter but what would happen if we only had to pay 15% of our income on tax if we earned under $100K but ppl earning $500K and above paid 35%? Don't get me started on minimum wage which is so completely ridiculous. Any presidential candidate who will raise minimum wage and limit the outrageous wages of CEO's has my vote. Obama, you hear me?

And what if, yes, health insurance was free for all Americans? That would have a staggering affect on the wealth of our poor and middle class.

What if public education was decent and ppl didn't feel the need to send their kids to private school to give them a chance?

What if our President wasn't wasting trillions of OUR money on this war, and that money could go to social services?

Get myself all riled up in time to head into SF to see/protest the Olympic torch.

Parts of the article, not all in succession (emphasis mine):

Economic data show that a huge swath of low- and middle-income families, both in California and across the nation, are barely scraping by. By many measures, their living standards are stagnating or declining as the prices of such necessities as food, fuel and medicine rise faster than wages.

Today, two liberal Washington research groups are set to issue reports on income trends in the 50 states showing that the gap between those at the bottom and middle of the income scale and those at the top is widening at an accelerating pace.
In California, the poorest 20 percent of families saw their incomes rise 1.4 percent in the 2004-06 period compared with 1998-2000, after adjusting for inflation, according to the study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute. The income of the middle 20 percent of families rose 3.8 percent. By contrast, the top 20 percent gained 13 percent after inflation, while the income of the top 5 percent jumped 20.8 percent.

"We are not seeing shared prosperity," said Jean Ross, director of the California Budget Project, a liberal research group in Sacramento that is helping distribute the report. "There's a pulling away at the top that's leaving the bottom 80 percent of families behind."

The trend reflects a range of factors, according to the report's authors, including stagnant wages at the bottom of the income scale, robust pay increases at the top, and a hollowing out of jobs in the middle as manufacturing employment drops. In addition, investment income has grown faster than wages, benefiting those with large stock and bond portfolios. Government tax, trade and labor policies also contribute, the report contends.

Ha ha

Breaking News: Plight Of Missing Hikers Will Make Great Movie

Funny videos

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Slate: "This one's a simple gag. Take the classic Jeff Goldblum Apple Christmas ad from 1999, slow down the audio track, and suddenly the Fly is slurring his words as if he'd just downed a pitcher of eggnog (1:01)."

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

Slate: "Puppet Master
To avoid violating an NCAA regulation that bans the airing of March Madness highlights until all the games are over, a North Carolina local-news sportscaster decided to use stuffed animals and dolls to demonstrate highlights from Duke�s razor-thin win over Belmont (1:40)."



Same news station but different game. I think I like this one better. LOL



Jewno


Youtube description: "From http://www.ImprovEverywhere.com, three agents entered a Starbucks one by one with their own giant desktop computer and CRT monitor rig. They bought coffee and worked at their computers as if they were laptops. One computer even had a Wi-Fi card installed, enabling our agent to surf the web."

Money

I'm reading and clicking through this really interesting series on CNN Money called "America's Money: In their own words" where ordinary Americans write brief descriptions of how they're doing with money. Hey, even I'm very underemployed but I feel bad for these ppl. At least I didn't buy a home in the last few years, need to move and sell that house, or have kids that are sick.

Here's a random sampling of one of the stories, there are 52 total.

There are some other interesting articles and videos on CNN Money about ppl looking for work for months, sending out 10 resumes a day with no response, etc. It makes me feel better bc yes, job searching sucks. It's frustrating, demoralizing, and depressing to do a lot of work and get no return. (Maybe I can even talk about it bc I have a third interview next wk that is looking good. But no promises).

Reading the stories, I feel two simultaneous responses. One, annoyance at the chirpy ppl who politely boast that they saved for a rainy day, and refinanced at the right time, and "live modestly," and just can't scratch their heads enough to understand how so many other ppl are struggling and losing their jobs and homes. Why didn't they smartly plan like us? is the implied naive question. "Those ppl are so foolishly spend-happy and not wise like us." FIRST of all, at least in the CNN Money series, all of these ppl are white. Did you stop to ask that maybe you're getting better loans bc you're white and seem as reliable borrowers? That maybe your parents helped you with a down payment, when not everyone has that advantage? Ok, besides race, did you think that maybe only luck and God has kept you together and you yourself are only one major illness or crisis away from foreclosure or bankruptcy? Are your children healthy? Is your job in a stable industry? One woman wrote that she planned for a job in an industry that could provide the lifestyle she wanted. Ok, that's great but some ppl want to follow their DREAMS and do something different than engineering or a lawyer or doctor. What about them? Are you a caretaker like others? Do you think some ppl are financially strapped bc they are selflessly taking care of their elderly parents, children, or grandchildren? Our lives don't always work out the way we think they will and sometimes we need other ppl to help us. Do you feel proud bc you live in a cheaper state like Minnesota? Well damn, I don't want to live in Minnesota. Do you look down at ppl who "choose" to live in the more expensive states like California and Hawaii? There are many other factors in life for why we live where we live more than is gas 80 cents cheaper. Gawd. I get very angry at ppl who attribute their good fortune to only their wise planning and intelligence and not the advantage of being white, darn luck, not needing to care for troubled family members, and God somehow blessing you and sparing you from a major health crisis or similar financial disaster.

The second smaller response I have is seemingly opposite. I think, ok, now, could you afford that bigger house? Do you need cable and a large cell phone plan if you're not doing well financially? I really think that the American idea of what is "standard living" has risen dramatically. We think large screen HD TV's are normal, buying Coach and Vittuin (?) is normal, buying $800 shoes, eating out and spending is normal. And we feel anti-normal when we spend less, buy clothes infrequently, shop at Target for a purse. One woman wrote that her and her husband were going to upgrade their modest house to a bigger house a few years ago. The payments would have been 2 maybe 3 times their former payments. Luckily the husband said no and now a few yrs later, the wife is unemployed and the only way they're surviving is bc they live in this modest house. She's so grateful for her husband's logical thinking. We should all live like that.

Don't be so foolish to base your good-fortune on your intelligence and wisdom. Bc when the shit falls, and it will fall on you someday, your viewpoint will be unable to see it as an accident or just life's shit. You will blame yourself as if you could have stopped it. But you are not the center of the universe. You cannot foresee the housing crisis, Bear Sterns sinking like a torpedo, your health emergency, or anything else. You can only do the best with what you have, try to save, and live below your means. And not f'ing judge other people bc you don't know their life.