i love auntie anne's.** but i think this is too much.

A PretzelPerfectProposal
Love-Struck Man Proposes at Pretzel Perfect Location.
Maybe his name, Sven Stix, had something to do with his love of Auntie Anne's pretzels - and maybe that's why he found true love with Jala Peño.
Yesterday afternoon, Sven finally mustered up the courage to ask his long time love to spend the rest of her life with him. "I've known that I wanted to propose for a while now," he says. "But I just had a tough time finding exactly where and when to pop the question."It came to Sven while enjoying an Original Pretzel and Old Fashioned Lemonade™ at the mall food court. He decided to propose at the place where they met: Auntie Anne's! "I got down on one knee, and I told her that finding the love of your life is hard, but Auntie Anne's hand-rolled pretzels are soft - and so is the spot in my heart that I have for her. I told her we belong together like pretzels and lemonade."When asked about her response, Jala exclaimed, "I immediately said yes, of course! It was pretzel perfect, even the crew at Auntie Anne's thought so, they applauded for us."The happy couple said it's too early to know when they'll schedule the nuptials, but they know who they'll call first about catering their happy day. "Auntie Anne's, of course," Jala explains "that's where it all began."

**i love the original with no salt & strawberry lemonade.

why does the heat always make the things around it look blurry? i have a portable heater on my office window and it's making the window look like a wormhole. if i jumped in it, would i go to...

a) heaven
b) not heaven
c) candy store (after halloween, prolly empty)
d) none of the above?

"Should I Be Ambitious?" was the question of the bible study this morning based on Luke 14:1-11.

at first, the scripture doesn't look at all about worldly ambitions. but through discussion and studying, one realizes that:

1. The parable's first focus may be about humbleness but
2. The 2nd point is really about - and i guess this applies to ALL scripture - trusting your God. V. 14 says it all:"And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

So it's not just about being humble, being lowly (literally from the parable) - like trying to bypass a promotion, because you are "humble" - but it's about not seeking glory for yourself (ambition), for your own wordly gain (i mean with that specific goal in mind), but that with your trust in God, that God will exalt you when the time comes - at his own divine time. And that "Godly" ambition (which comes through trusting in God) is all about serving, like Paul gloryfing God and that through serving, you learn patience, forgiveness and inner peace.

Which all equals to pretty hard to apply in this real world - but i think it's about real attitude change - which will only happen through prayer, holy spirit's intervention and as usual, God's perfect timing.

With that lesson, I have to really become more serving at work - I do "serve" a lot, not for my glory but because in my nature, I'd like to help out. But at the end, my get annoyed with little things, impatient and certainly not with a "godly attitude."

So yes, we SHOULD be ambitious - for God's Glory and our change of attitude in servitude.

Okay, so that was a lot of jumble mumble what I'm basically saying is: FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT!

busy day today:

First, after church a yummy place, where I appropriately acknowledged that:

then off to some errands, and then walking on 42nd street, stopped by the freight fest @ grand central:

and then to walk by the bryant park skating rink:

then leisurely walking to the concert at the nokia theatre, and to my shock, this is what saw:

but it was fine to get in to see Senses Fail:

and New Found Glory:

a busy day (and sure, i can hardly hear outta my right ear, but oh well!)!

pretty michigan.

more than ever, i think i need to bunker down and start praying for my future. one clear goal in mind is to become a full time piano teacher. i just cannot do it here in nyc.

i've always been lazy about my prayers about my future: mate, direction, work. but it's time that i really get realistic and do H(ASK).

i'm figuring that in a couple of years, my greencard will come through, and by that time, all my credit & school debts will be gone. that'll be timely for me to perhaps move to another metropolitan city where it has a huge 'burb (thereby needing music teachers), perhaps pick up a high-paying assistant job somewhere to start saving, get to know the area, and slowly get adjusted to commuting by car/getting to know a good area for kids, etc. etc.

granted this is all talking outta my fat arse - because i know that i can continue to struggle and wanting this and that...but because of God's Perfect Timing & Planning, this may just be (another) waste of a post/thought/wish.

or perhaps i'm starting to get a grip on the word FOCUS at this old age!!!

suddenly i'm sad to thinking about leaving NYC after 20 years (by that time)...leaving my church and my friends. but alas, 4th chapter of my life, whether in NYC or elsewhere, will start, perhaps sooner than later.

God will provide. Faith.

it's 3:18 AM in the morning and i'm hungry. guess i haven't really had any food since 12:30 PM yesterday.

my stupid wisdom tooth is out. am i going to be wise now?

in korean culture, the wisdom teeth are called "love teeth." i once asked my mommy who told they're called that as "when you have the pains and take them out, you're ready for love." in my naivete, i looked forward to that day.

yesterday i was horrifield and nervous. perhaps two go in hand in hand.

Ten thousand men sleep down with Davy Jones, with stolen treasure they die. The open water chills me to my bones, but it's the only place that I feel alive.

The ocean fog begins to disappear, I sense that terrible depth. The open water is my only fear, but I'll sail as long as I still have breath.

I'm starting to believe the ocean's much like you - cause it gives and it takes away.
Between the devil and the deep blue sea - I stare into the abyss.

The open water is an awful thing, but I'm anxious 'till the anchor rests.

I'm starting to believe the ocean's much like you - cause it gives and it takes away.

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Literate Good Citizen You read to inform or entertain yourself, but you're not nerdy about it. You've read most major classics (in school) and you have a favorite genre or two.
Dedicated Reader
Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm
Book Snob
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

i am truly blessed. I'm not this boy!

The boy who is allergic to (almost) every food
Tylor Savage, 12, beginning to expand his diet now thanks to treatments
By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
Updated: 10:10 a.m. ET Oct 11, 2007
Twelve-year-old Tylor Savage doesn’t have to ask what’s for dinner. It’s chicken or tuna with carrots and potatoes and maybe some grapes or an apple — the only foods to which he is not allergic.
“I’m a little bored with the same food,” Tylor told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer during a visit to New York on Thursday with his father and sister.
But the British boy is not complaining. When Lauer asked him if he wishes he could eat all the wonderful things he sees other kids wolfing down, he said, “Not really, because I know it will make me ill.”
“Ill” is a mild descriptive for what Tylor went through for most of his life. He was 4 years old the first time he got violently sick after eating. By the time he was 6, the diarrhea and vomiting were getting worse, but his doctors could find nothing wrong with him, putting his digestive problems down to stomach viruses.
“It was horrible,” his 15-year-old sister, Elycia, said.
“It broke my heart,” added his father, David Savage, who made the trip to New York with Tylor and Elycia. Tylor’s mother, Lynne, remained at home in England with the family’s third child.
By the time he was 10, Tylor’s situation was desperate. He was passing out, going into convulsions and passing blood from both ends of his digestive tract. His weight was down to less than 50 pounds, his growth stunted, his body little more than skin and bones.
His mystified doctors took out his appendix, thinking that might be the problem, but he showed no improvement.
Last September, specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where he’d been undergoing tests since April 2006, realized that what Tylor had wasn’t a stomach virus but an extremely rare condition called eosinophilic enteropathy.
The disorder causes his intestines to produce too many white blood cells that act as an immune system and attack food passing through the gut.
Doctors found that he was allergic to nearly everything he ate, including wheat, gluten, dairy products, eggs and soy products.
On the mendThey took him off all food, feeding him a liquid formula through a gastric tube inserted through his nose. They then introduced him to one food at a time, making sure he could tolerate it before adding another. Recently, tuna joined chicken as a protein source.
Although Tylor could eat again, he still needs to be fed vitamins and minerals in liquid form. The tube through his nose was causing painful sores where it rubbed against his nose, so in May it was replaced by a port in his stomach. Every night, Tylor plugs a tube connected to a bag of formula into his stomach.
Since getting the stomach tube and finding solid foods he can eat without getting sick, Tylor is thriving. Last year, he was so sick, he attended just 10 days of school. This year, he’s missed only one day.
“I’ve got more energy now,” he told Lauer. He plays soccer and bowls and can roughhouse with other kids. “It’s not like I used to be.”
His sister, meanwhile, has been organizing events — she bungee-jumped earlier this year — to raise funds to help others with Tylor’s condition.
He said that his diet will expand. “There’s a lot of things I am allowed but haven’t been introduced to yet,” he said.
The plane flight to New York, he said, was too long, but he said he’s enjoying the city. Lauer asked if there was anything in particular he wanted to do.
“I want to go to a Nintendo event,” he said. “I’ve got some games I need to play.”
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

Using the Joy of Cooking's Recipe for the Lightning Cake, Here is the recipe for the Pocari Sweat Cake - the World's First!!!!

1. Have all ingredients at room tempearture
   
2. Preheat oven to 350F


3. Grease and flour one 8" (2" deep) aluminum pan (the best)


4. Whisk together thoroughly:
   1 cup all-purpose flour
   1 teaspoon baking powder
   1/4 teaspoon salt


5. In a large bowl, beat until creamy, about 30 seconds:
   8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter


6. Gradually add and beat on high speed until lightened in color and texture, 3 to 5 minutes:
   1 cup of POCARI SWEAT (this in lieu of 1 cup of sugar)


7. Beat in 1 at a time:
   3 large eggs


8. Beat in:
   1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (COMPLETELY OPTIONAL)
   2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice


9. Stir in the flour mixture just until smooth. Scrape the batter into the pan and spread evenly.


10. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.
    

Let cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes.I'd recommend some kind of not-too-sugary frosting to decorate the top as it's a bit ugly to just have it as is. Filled with electrolytes, this is GOOD STUFF!!

um...i don't think so!!!!!!!

peanuts

made a REALL YUMMY meatloaf with friends. Here's the recipe (thanks Martha!), BUT!!!!

instead of putting in extra ketchup, dry mustard & brown sugar for dressing, i accidentally put it in the meat mix - but you know what, it was damn good! (i omitted the extra ketchup & dry mustard, but i did put in brown sugar into the meat - which made me question Martha's sanity at the time of mixing but oh well...it was actually MY sanity that i had to question, but...)

good luck!

next recipe coming...a real secret!!!! will post it on Sunday, October 14th.

7:17 AM on Wednesday on 6th avenue. FOGGY.

it's the "new year" for me as of today. do i feel any different? not really. is there anything different going on? not really. yes, i'm the same old boring seapea.

however, i must add that in the recent weeks, days, i've been feeling so so blessed. i feel myself growing again in christ, expanding (physically, i'm trying not to), being stretched. i am thankful. i am happy. i am joyous.

emotionally, i'm up and down, but not as destructively as before, but with new awareness of where i am in god's plan, being the apple of HIS eyes.

i've been exceptionally blessed this year with those who have befriended me: who's been constantly guiding me, challenging me, feeding me (figuratively & cerebrally).

so yes, in that way, this is indeed a whole new year.

The Facebook Commandments
How to deal with unwanted friend requests, the ethics of de-friending, and other social networking etiquette predicaments.

By Reihan SalamPosted Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007, at 11:06 AM ET

Last week, I launched the Great Facebook Purge of 2007. In one fell swoop, I whittled down a list of 274 "friends" to a more manageable … um, 258. Even weeding out this tiny amount of people was difficult and unpleasant. Almost every subtraction made me wince. While my intention had been to de-friend every hanger-on and casual acquaintance, I just couldn't do it. All I could stomach is eliminating everyone I've literally never met in my life. I still have three "friends" I know only via e-mail, though given that we're firmly in the Digital Age, I figure this is acceptable.
Chances are you've faced a similar dilemma. At around 40 million members, from high schoolers to middle managers to old folks, Facebook is now one of the most popular Web tools. Facebook makes it easier to keep in touch with old friends, track your acquaintances' every minuscule movement, and learn that all of your "cool" pals love Grandma's Boy more than life itself. There is a downside to the site's sudden rise to ubiquity. If you've been on Facebook for more than a week, you've probably gotten a friend request from someone you don't know, someone you hate, or someone you don't want snooping around your profile. Before promiscuous friending turns into a full-blown crisis, it's about time we came up with some basic guidelines for social networking etiquette.
What should you do when someone you don't like or don't know sends you a friend request?
Most of you will hold your nose and accept the request. But why? This is like allowing a corsair-wielding pirate to board your vessel without a fight. Once you've accepted too many faux friends, Facebook becomes a real slog. One of the site's great strengths is that it allows you to manage privacy settings: Do you want everyone you went to college with to see your photos, or only actual friends? That ability to customize is great, but once you've accepted someone as a friend, policing these subtle gradations can be a drag.
There's also an information overload problem. When your friends update their profiles, the new info filters out to you via the News Feed, a constantly updated digest of seemingly mundane facts that can, over time, give you a neat, evolving portrait of your friends' outer lives. (And, of course, your updates also filter out, so anyone who cares will eventually discover, say, your affinity for Grandma's Boy.) The further your online social graph veers from your real social life, the less useful your News Feed becomes. Soon you'll find that most of the headlines are about people you barely know. And who wants that?
So, back to that unwanted friend request. Assuming there will be no social fallout, just ignore it. They probably won't notice, particularly if we're dealing with a promiscuous friender. (You know, the kind of person who thinks, "I need to break 700 friends so I can rid myself of my crippling sense of shame." Trust me, it won't work.) And if you fear a backlash, just say,
Um, hey, this is really awkward, but I actually only accept friend requests from other Muslims. Allah commands it. Sorry, man.
I find this works pretty well. If you are very fetching, it's possible that your would-be friend is—let's be frank—cyber-stalking you. This behavior is so pervasive as to be almost unremarkable, but that doesn't make it right. Ignore the request or, if you must, apply a privacy setting that will keep prying eyes at bay.
What about work colleagues whom you don't want in your personal business?
There is no easy answer to this. Basically, you're screwed. If you work for a huge company and the person is totally random, you're fine: Ignore. If it's your boss, well, how gutsy are you? Any boss with a sense of decency will not friend you. If you accept the request, slap a limited information block on her. Keep in mind that any boss clueless enough to friend you will be clueless enough not to understand that you've applied these restrictions.
Is it OK to de-friend someone?
Say you've been too generous with your friending policy, and a gaggle of strangers is now hogging your News Feed. You too can launch a Great Facebook Purge. The beauty of this is that no headline or notification pops up in your ex-friend's inbox announcing, "You've suffered a humiliating rejection at the hands of _________." It's all very stealthy, thus making it the perfect way to deal with promiscuous frienders.
But what if your so-called friend scans through their friend list and notices that you've gone missing? First off, anyone who is policing their Facebook account this rigorously is morbidly obsessed and thus best kept at arm's length. If she confronts you about it, the best strategy is to plead ignorance: Perhaps the site's massive growth has led to some unexpected technical difficulties? Re-friend, then wait at least six months before trying another de-friending.
How do you decide whether it's OK to friend someone?
After all, it's always better to be the rejecter rather than the rejectee. I will now contradict myself: Friending strangers is permissible. If you are going to approach a stranger, don't do it out of the blue. Never, ever send a random friend request without undergoing some preliminaries, such as trading a few wry observations. The beauty of this "Facebook foreplay," to use an unfortunate analogy, is that you can always refuse to respond.
Had I not sent just such a random missive many moons ago, I never would have met Reyhan Harmanci. This was way back in 2003, when Friendster was all the rage. I noticed that she was friends with about a dozen of my friends and that she was my homonym. For those of us with obscure, highly foreign, or otherwise odd names, this is no joke. I also sensed that we occupied similar spaces in the social pecking order: small, ethnic, and extremely lovable, not unlike pandas. Despite never having met in person, I felt compelled to drop her a line. After a few back-and-forth messages, we quickly formed the "Re_han Club" and became bosom friends. While I was writing the piece, Reyhan—no longer a stranger—sent me a Facebook friend request, which I enthusiastically accepted.
How long should you wait to send a friend request to someone you've just met?
Say you chat someone up at a dinner party. You have a brief but intense conversation about the mostly unseen Kevin Costner thriller Mr. Brooks that leads you to believe she'd be a good person to have in your cyber-circle. Perhaps you trade business cards or e-mail addresses. While you never quite make it to comparing tattoos, bobbing for apples, or other intimacies limited to close friendships, you sense that friendship could indeed blossom at some future date. Why not send a very meek and humble friend request?
Hey, this is _________. We met briefly at __________. This is a little presumptuous, but your awe-inspiring Sudoku skills compel me to ask: Do you think we can be cyber-friends?
This is a little like asking someone out on a first date, but way less threatening. The same logic applies: Send the message soon (within a day or two) after your initial meeting, so the object of your friend-crush has some idea who the heck you are. Keep in mind that your would-be friend has every right to ignore you. You were bending her ear about Mr. Brooks, after all.
What's the right number of Facebook friends?
It all depends on context. Noted anthropologist Robin Dunbar found that the mean clique—a group of primary social partners—consists of around 12 people. Average maximum network size—a group of real friends plus friends of friends—is around 150. I don't know about you, but most of my primary clique isn't on Facebook. My social graph and my social life overlap, but not nearly as much as they would if all of my close friends were on Facebook.
That's why college students find Facebook so addictive. An undergrad who doesn't have a Facebook profile is regarded as a Luddite, the social equivalent of leading a survivalist lifestyle complete with flintlock rifle and bandana. In this case, Facebook works as it should. Even if you have 700 friends, the site susses out your real bosom buddies—they post on your wall, they trade messages with you, and they pop up on your News Feed way more often.
While college kids can get away with huge numbers of friends, the geezers among us should be a little more selective. And by "geezers," I mean everyone born before Ronald Reagan's first inauguration. A group of 150 Facebook friends, right around Dunbar's maximum network size, will let you feel comfortable about broadcasting your status, whether it's "Reihan Salam is triumphantly pumping his fists" or "Reihan Salam is slowly dying of dengue fever."
Of course, even after the Great Facebook Purge of 2007 I still have 258 friends. In theory, a huge number of friends means you're really, really popular. In reality, the omnidirectionally friendly typically strike us as untrustworthy and maybe even a little lame. What can I say—I am a very friendly fellow. Adjust your privacy settings accordingly.

Reihan Salam is a writer in Washington.
Article URL: http://www.slate.com/id/2174439/

I was waiting for a cross-town train in thelondon underground when it struck methat I've been waiting since birth to find alove that would look and sound like a movieso I changed my plans I rented a camera anda van and then I called you"I need you to pretend that we are in loveagain." and you agreed tooI want so badly to believe that "there is truth,that love is real"and I want life in every word to the extentthat it's absurdI greased the lens and framed the shot usinga friend as my stand-inthe script it called for rain but it was clearthat day so we faked itthe marker snapped and I yelled "quiet onthe set" and then called "action!"and I kissed you in a style clark gable wouldhave admired (i thought it classic)I want so badly to believe that "there is truth,that love is real"and I want life in every word to the extentthat it's absurdi know you're wise beyond your years, butdo you ever get the Feelthat your perfect verse is just a lie you tell yourself to help you get by

how cool is this???

MSNBC.com

‘Aquanauts’ live in a scientific fishbowl
Webcams watch underwater researchers as they study coral reefs
By Adrian Sainz
The Associated Press
Updated: 1:17 p.m. ET Sept 18, 2007

KEY LARGO, Fla. - A nine-day mission that began Monday in the world's only permanent working undersea laboratory is like living in a fishbowl in more ways than one: Anyone with an Internet connection can watch the researchers work and hang out 60 feet (18 meters) below the surface.
Six "aquanauts" studying changes along a coral reef will work, sleep and eat at Aquarius Reef Base, on the Atlantic Ocean floor about nine miles southeast of Key Largo in Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It's the first time students and others will get such an extensive real-time view of the underwater life surrounding the 21-year-old lab.
The team, hoping to raise interest in science and the oceans, is bringing its research to students with undersea classroom sessions and to the public through live Internet video. Feeds are coming from inside and outside Aquarius, and from divers wearing helmets mounted with cameras and audio equipment.
"It would be ideal if all the students we are going to reach on this mission could actually be here, but the truth is most of them will never get that opportunity," said Ellen Prager, chief scientist for Aquarius. "So the best we can do is have them connect and be virtually there."
Researchers will study sponge biology and coral reefs — fertile marine habitats that are threatened around the world by disease, rising ocean temperatures and human factors such as pollution and overfishing.
Bus-sized habitatAquarius is a yellow, 43-foot-long (13-meter-long), 9-foot-diameter (2.75-meter-diameter) tube, roughly the size of a school bus. It lets researchers dive for nine hours a day and return to the habitat without standard scuba diving requirements of surfacing and decompressing.
This is the first time that live classes will be conducted from Aquarius Reef Base. A school in Florida and another in Michigan are getting direct interactive feeds, as are the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and UNC's Institute of Marine Science in Morehead City.
Other classes can follow the team online at Oceanslive.org, which has round-the-clock live video of the mission.
Using a system of cables that stretch out from Aquarius, divers will visit sites they have studied in the past to determine if any long-term change has taken place.
Studying more than coralOn most reefs around the world, the abundance of hard coral has declined, and the cover of soft algae has increased, said Steve Gittings, science coordinator with NOAA's National Marine Sanctuary Program. Algae is a natural part of the ocean ecosystem, but it can respond to human influences such as pollution to create large or unnatural concentrations that can displace corals.
Researchers also want to learn more about two other reef dwellers, sponges and soft corals, because it's not clear whether their abundance has significantly changed, Gittings said. Also of interest are the suspected causes of change in reef ecosystems, which may include a mass die-off of a long-spined sea urchin that ate algae, Gittings said.
"We're seeing dramatic changes literally on reefs around the world with regard to the relationship between all those different components that live on the bottom," Gittings said.
One of those components is sponges, which pump water through their bodies to filter food particles and produce dissolved nitrogen, a fertilizer.
The Aquarius team will investigate any links between changes of reef compositions and organic matter processed by sponges, seeking to discover whether sponges are fertilizing grasses that compete with corals, said researcher Chris Martens of UNC-Chapel Hill.
"Corals have gone through huge changes in terms of being totally dominant in oceans to being lesser," said Martens. "We're asking the question, 'Do sponges help or hurt in that process?'"
20-year-old underwater homeAquarius, owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, operated by the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and used by the Navy and NASA, was built in 1986. It began operating in the U.S. Virgin Islands before being redeployed off Key Largo in 1993.
The facility has bunk beds and showers; a microwave, refrigerator and sink; and the computer and diving equipment needed to research reefs and collect, assemble and relay data.
"It's not claustrophobic, really," said Prager, the chief scientist.
Food, computers and other equipment are sent down using pots that can handle two and a half times normal atmospheric pressure below the ocean's surface.
After the expedition, the aquanauts must decompress for 17 hours or they will get the crippling "bends."
"We don't want to fizz," Martens said.
A surface buoy provides air, power and communications to Aquarius through hoses, cords and cables. On land, a crew monitors the living conditions in the facility.
The aquanauts eat microwaved or reconstituted meals. Food must be sent down via the special pots or it will not stand the pressure.
"A Pringles can can turn into a pretzel," Martens said.
Eating is one of the things about living underwater that takes some adjustment, Prager said.
"Things tend to taste very bland," she said. "There's a lot of hot sauces down there."
© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

we are like the streets on
monday mornings
dirty, uncared for, abused

we are like the subway stations during
weekend nights
filthy, smelly, unruly

without hope, we are doomed
without love, we are fallen

(my) room with a view - today's sunrise.

it's september. it's time for a summer-gone-by reflection.

this summer was a challenging one. many words stick out: boundaries, faith, trust, temptations, confusion, prayer.

starting with a family feud during the memorial weekend to resolving that particular one this past weekend, it was a HECK of a summer, 15 weeks of sheer tortures filled with...so many internal conflicts.

i don't think i've been stretched this thinly in some time. yet i am thankful. through the personal challenges, i've been desperate for god. i've been desperate for his guidance. i've been seeking.

and i know that now i'm truly blessed. not all things are resolved: but i do not lose hope, because he is with me.

Psalm 46 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)

Psalm 46
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A song.

1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
Selah
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah
8 Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.
10 "Be still, and know that I am God;I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Selah

Financial Times FT.com

Virtue and virtual reality
By Christopher Caldwell
Published: September 1 2007 03:00

The basic question about virtual reality is whether it is an exciting new world that cool people are "migrating" to or a cheesy mock-up of the world we already know. For the nearly 1,000 members of the "Second Life community" who held their third annual convention in Chicago last weekend, it is getting less virtual every day. There are a lot of three-dimensional graphic interfaces, but Second Life, created by Linden Labs in California, has been the most popular and the most studied. It has 9m members, who create "avatars", or alternative online selves. Avatars interact, form relationships and spend money. They can be equipped with a sex, age, occupation and identity of members' own choosing - although genitalia cost extra. A hard core of enthusiasts use virtual reality to explore a world without geographic (or other) borders.
But there is another way to look at virtual reality: as a vaguely onanistic hobby that serves as a retreat for those who can find no purchase in real life. In an article that appeared in the Jesuit magazine Civiltà Cattolica this summer, Antonio Spadaro urged Catholics to learn about virtual reality and concluded that "the digital world might even be considered, in its way, 'mission territory'". The church's interest in Second Life is not surprising. Since Nicodemus visited Jesus (John 3:1-7), second lives have been the church's stock in trade. What is surprising is how much Fr Spadaro's assessment of the online landscape resembles that of businessmen. Our culture is coming to a consensus on the question of whether virtual reality is something new or a jazzed-up version of something old. It is the latter.
The great service Fr Spadaro's essay performs is to get us to think about the distinction between identities and roles, a distinction that gets blurred in much propaganda about virtual reality. Online avatars are not autonomous. They are not related to their creators the way Mr Hyde is related to Dr Jekyll. They are related to their creators the way Mr Hyde and Dr Jekyll are related to Robert Louis Stevenson.
This is how businessmen understand virtual reality. If avatars were really the free spirits that internet boosters claim they are, then trademarks would lose their value in "alternative" worlds - and they don't. The enterprises that have set up shop in Second Life are varied: IBM, Reuters, Toyota, the pop band Duran Duran, Adidas, Sweden (which has a virtual embassy) and cultural representatives of the Italian foreign ministry. This month, the Liverpool Philharmonic will broadcast (if that is the word) its opening night to 100 Second Lifers. Such innovations, true, could change our physical world. Restaurants will not disappear from your neighbourhood, but bookstores might, if Amazon.com or Waterstone's can figure out how to replicate online the experience of walking through them. But this is familiar territory. Corporate marketers consider avatars mostly as "eyes" that can be drawn in a non-shopping but fantasy-susceptible situation - as in a football stadium, or in front of a TV screen. Virtual reality is a new form of advertising. It is not a new world.
Businesses, of course, may pretend it is a new world and invest in that pretence. Companies generally play along with the culture in which they are advertising. There is no inherent relationship between baseball and Chevrolet trucks, but you will forget that if you watch enough baseball games. Clothiers and car dealers will do something similar if they want to appeal to the "herd of independent minds" (in the critic Harold Rosenberg's phrase) who roam the internet. They will not just invest in snazzy avatars and catchy jingles; they will also mouth all the hoo-hah about the power of imagination to create virtual worlds, and so on.
That hardly exhausts the corporate applications of virtual worlds. Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft have used them as sites for training programmes. Rather than have a number of highly paid trainers on staff it is easier to make a presentation that can be accessed by a hundred branch offices. (One can see the appeal of such efficiencies to the priest-strapped Catholic church.) But this is not a new way of interacting. It is a more efficient system for producing and distributing videos.
Virtual reality may be overrated as an economic phenomenon, but it is an important spiritual one. While not offering anything particularly new, it may still manage to devalue the old, posing dangers to a person's inmost character - his "real" character or, if you prefer, his soul. It does this mostly through what Fr Spadaro calls "the temptation towards the cancellation of experience". More and more of life can be "rewound", undone and treated as an "experiment" that has no moral meaning.
One result is that the gap between a person's (simulated, reversible) imagination and the (serious, irreversible) world widens dangerously. Technology always tends to cause this widening and Fr Spadaro uses Marx's word for it: alienation. But when the object supposedly being manufactured is not pig iron or shoes but identity, the moral dangers are bigger. There are reportedly few children in the world of Second Life avatars and few members of the working class. The virtual world makes it clear that there are identities nobody wants. "Simulation beats reality on the grounds of its broader potential and its lower level of risk," Fr Spadaro writes. "Today people are afraid of naked reality." And because we grow addicted to this illusory control, Fr Spadaro shows, pauses taken from life exhaust more and more of life.
Virtual reality can be an exciting place, but certain real realities of the human condition are inescapable. That remains true no matter who your avatar is or how much you paid for its genitalia.

The writer is a senior editor at The Weekly Standard

i went to an allergist today. i had to get tested for allergies, because the other day i had a funny episode with eating pineapples.

i'm very sad to report that i can no longer eat RAW: apple, peach, nectarine, pear, cherry, pineapple because as i eat them, my body - i'm allergic to tree pollen - thinks i'm eating tree-pollen products (because those are tree-grown). i'm also allergic to tomato (allergic to grass), melons, zucchini, cucumber, kiwi & banana (allergic to ragweed). my stupid body isn't able to distinguish what's NATURE and what's FRUIT (unless cooked).

i hate vegetables - so i only (basically) ate fruit to supplement my hatred for veggies. now, i have to stick with oranges, watermelon, some other random fruits.

i hate my body. i'm lactose intolerant. i'm now fruit intolerant. why do i even live?!?!!?!?

Missing body parts of famous people
from CNN.COM
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
(Mental Floss) -- Remember that goofy uncle of yours who always tried to impress you by "stealing your nose" or pulling the ol' separating-his-thumb-from-his-hand move? Well, those parlor tricks are nothing compared to the appendage stunts pulled by these 10 famous people.

John Wilkes Booth's neck bones
John Wilkes Booth might have been a successful assassin, but he was a largely ineffectual escape artist.
Just 12 days after murdering President Abraham Lincoln, Booth was shot in the back of the neck and killed. His body was (eventually) buried in an unmarked grave at Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery.
His third, fourth, and fifth vertebrae, however, were removed during the autopsy so investigators could access the bullet. For a peek at those bits of Booth's spinal column, just check out the display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.

Einstein's brain
Before he died, über-genius Albert Einstein considered donating his body to science. Unfortunately, he never put his wishes in writing.
When he passed away in 1955, Einstein's family and friends made plans to cremate him, but the pathologist who performed the autopsy, Dr. Thomas Harvey, had a different idea. Instead, he opted to remove the math man's brain and then tell the family about it.
For 30-some years, Harvey had Al's gray matter tucked away in his Wichita home in two Mason jars. Naturally, Einstein's loved ones weren't thrilled when they found out, but they eventually allowed the misappropriated mind to be sliced into 240 sections and disbursed to researchers for examination.
Today, many of the cerebral sections remain in scientific institutions, with the bulk held at Princeton Hospital. As for Einstein's body, that was cremated and scattered in a secret location.

"Stonewall" Jackson's arm
Confederate General Thomas Jackson got his nickname by sitting astride his horse "like a stone wall" while bullets whizzed around him during the Civil War.
But that kind of bravery (or foolhardiness) didn't serve him well. During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Jackson was accidentally shot in the arm by one of his own men.
Said arm had to be amputated, and afterward, it was buried in the nearby Virginia town of Ellwood. Only eight days later, Stonewall was stone-cold dead of pneumonia.
The rest of his body is resting in peace in Lexington, Virginia.

Saint Francis Xavier's hand
Francis Xavier was a saint with a few too many fans.
In the early 16th century, the Spanish missionary was sent to Asia by the king of Portugal to convert as many souls to Christianity as possible. Turns out, he was pretty good at the job.
Francis Xavier became wildly popular, and after his death in 1552, so did his relics. In fact, demand out-fueled supply. Throughout several years and multiple exhumations, his body was whittled away.
Today, half his left hand is in Cochin, India, while the other half is in Malacca, Malaysia. One of his arms resides in Rome, and various other cities lay claim to his internal organs. The leftovers? They went to Goa, India.

Napoleon's bits and pieces
Exiled emperor Napoleon Bonaparte died on May 5, 1821. The following day, doctors conducted an autopsy, which was reportedly witnessed by many people, including a priest named Ange Vignali.
Though the body was said to be largely intact at the time of the undertaking, it seems the priest took home a souvenir. In 1916, Vignali's heirs sold a collection of Napoleonic artifacts, including what they claim to be the emperor's penis.
While no one knows for sure if it really is Napoleon's, uh, manhood, people have paid good money for the penis. Currently, it's in the possession of an American urologist.

Oliver Cromwell's head
Oliver Cromwell, the straight-laced Puritan who usurped the English throne, wasn't exactly a wild man. His head, however, was sometimes the life of the party.
Cromwell died in 1658, but two years later, the reinstated English monarchy exhumed, tried, and hanged his body, then dumped it in an unmarked grave. In addition, as a warning to would-be killers, his head was placed on a pike in Westminster Hall, where it remained for 20 years.
After a subsequent stint in a small museum, it was sold in 1814 to a man named Josiah Henry Wilkinson (perhaps looking to parade it around as an exceptionally gruesome ice-breaker at parties). Such was the ironic afterlife of the Puritan until 1960, when his head was finally laid to rest in a chapel in Cambridge.

before...and after

just got back from 3 glorious days of the hamptons: sag harbor, amagansett, east hampton, southampton, hampton bay, shinnecock bay. it's just so amazing there: nature abundance, stunningly loud nature, so many animals sightings (deers and bunnies - yes, not from the disney animal kingdom either) and unfortunately, that all comes with insects too: moquitos (3 bites), spiders/ants/bugs of every shape & size.

menu for this past weekend:

• Friday lunch: @ Estia's Little Kitchen in Sag Habor: crab cakes
• Friday dinner: 2 lb lobster (from gosmans') and corn, all home-cooked with an excellent french chardonnay :)
• Saturday b'fast: homemade chocolate scone & homemade donut @ the Amagansett Farmer's Market
• Saturday lunch: homemade turkey meatball sandwich :)
• Saturday pre-dinner: a glass of pinot grigio (wasn't good) & complimentary peach martini @ East Hampton Point (SO YUMMY)
• Saturday dinner: homemade sirloin ground beef pattie (charcoal bbq'ed to medium rare) with the works (heeeeaaaaaps of red onion, fresh tomatoes & romaine lettuce), more corn, some fresh strawberries as desserts
• Sunday b'fast: my boss cooked up some organic omelette with egg whites with a bit of salsa & roasted bell peppers (yellow & red only), yummy toasted english muffins with homemade rhubarb marmalade and tea
• Sunday lunch: gorgeous & huge salad of arugula, organic greens, grapes, olives, goat cheese, tomatoes @ Silver's in Southampton.

I AM FAT!

just for the record, i did not just EAT and sleep & other personal cares: i actually went to the beaches in Springs, visited a museum, and of course, window shopped. i love the nature life in this very far point of long island: it truly brings peacefulness to isolation and through that, unending appreciation for God's creations (yes, even bugs - as i stepped on them). You can't beat walking in the water for 200-300 yards off of the shore and still be able to see your toes and it only comes up to your thighs and you wave to the ocean & unseen birds & marine life all around you - it doesn't get any better!

this morning's subway ride to work was very eventful. normally i notice nothing because i'm trying to read my new york times, fumble with the damn newspaper's size, etc. etc. but today, i felt serene and centered and didn't need any worldly news to interrupt my "zone."

well, because i wasn't reading anything, i was looking at people. those who know me will find this strange: "seapea actually looked at people??!?!?!?!?!" yes, i did. and this is what i saw in the 10 min subway ride:

• a couple looking at each other, holding hands, obviously very much in love, completely oblivious to crying babies and iPod rocking heads;
• a couple sitting side-by-side completely ignoring others as they had a huge and very loud silent rage that surrounded them, just vibrating with anger
• an old couple holding hands (like grandpa & grandmas).

a true representative of all walks of relationship. i've been in stages 1 & 2, but obviously not in 3 yet. ha ha ha!!! not that this is news to anyone, but i realized that the subway is like a living museum of human behaviors. new york's great!

MSNBC.com
Blacklisted: 4 travel companies people avoid
Spurned and fed up, many travelers start their own ‘no-fly’ lists
By Christopher Elliott
Travel columnist
Updated: 9:37 a.m. ET Aug 20, 2007

You’ve probably heard of the controversial “no-fly” list kept by the government. Maybe you know some who’s on it. Maybe you’re on it.
But that list, which has snared everyone from a Marine serving in Iraq to a four-year-old is a topic for another time.
Today I’m talking about a different kind of “no-fly” list: yours.
’Fess up, you’ve got your own blacklist of airlines, hotels, car rental companies and cruise lines you’d do anything to avoid. I know you do because I run the travel industry’s unofficial complaints department, and I get thousands of e-mails each week from angry passengers. Many of these missives end with, “I’ll never do business with your company again!”
So who’s on the list?

US Airways. Most of the complaints I get are about airline service. Delayed and canceled flights, missing baggage, rude flight attendants … the list goes on. Is there one standout? At the moment, it would have to be US Airways. Check out the Transportation Department’s latest numbers. The Tempe, Ariz., airline, underperforms in virtually every category and is the most complained-about carrier.
But hang on. Just a few months ago, US Airways announced a series of what it called “customer service” initiatives designed to “improve reliability and meet customers’ needs.” That included adding airport staff, hiring new customer service agents and being more flexible with some of its policies, particularly for its best customers.
Will it work? Maybe. There’s also this to consider: The airline industry as a whole isn’t scoring well with its customers, with one or two notable exceptions. Major “legacy” carriers such as Northwest Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines are unlikely to allow US Airways to keep the top spot on the blacklist for very long.

Days Inn. People love to complain about budget hotels, including brands like Days Inn, Econo Lodge and Super 8 Motel. Whenever I get an e-mail about their stay, my first thought is that I’m reading a lost script from the classic TV show “Fawlty Towers.” Then I realize they’re not kidding. It’s difficult to quantify the actual number of complaints about hotels. The federal government doesn’t issue a monthly report card. All I have to go on are my files (which, I admit, is an inexact measure) and what the states — which regulate hotels — have to say.
And Days Inn has kept state governments pretty busy. After 9/11, a Days Inn in New York was penalized for raising room rates by as much as 185 percent in the days following the terrorist attack. And after Hurricane Charlie churned through Florida in 2004, another Days Inn was accused of gouging homeless storm victims. The hotel reportedly paid $70,000 to settle the complaint.
You don’t have to spend a lot of time on sites like Tripadvisor or My3Cents to get an idea of what guests think of many Days Inn hotels. But if you look around, you also see that the hotel chain is hardly alone when it comes to generating complaints. Rich Roberts, a spokesman for Days Inn, says he is unaware of any recent increases in guest gripes, and points out that with 1,862 properties and 150,984 rooms worldwide, his is one of the largest hotel chains in the world, which may account for the volume of letters and calls. “We understand the importance of delivering a positive experience to every guest,” he told me. “Are we perfect? No. But we do our best to avoid repeating mistakes.”

Thrifty. As with the hotel category, there is no monthly report card for rental cars. I can review my own files, which have more than their fair share of Thrifty complaints. I could look at the latest J.D. Power and Associates ratings which give Thrifty a below-average grade, overall.
But it’s the surcharges that put Thrifty over the top, according to the customers I talk with. And we’re not necessarily talking about the little fees here, either. We’re talking big extras and possibly illegal ones, too. Last year, the former owner of a Thrifty location in Billings, Mont., was convicted in a federal court for conspiring with an auto glass business to overcharge for windshield replacements.
I’ve seen this kind of thing before. A few years ago, I was flooded with complaints about Enterprise. Seems the company was aggressively — and some customers said, fraudulently — pursuing damage claims. Eventually, Enterprise backed down, to the relief of its customers. In other words, the lead car in this race changes often. Yesterday it was Enterprise. Today it might be Thrifty. Tomorrow, who knows?

Princess. Picking a cruise line for this list was the biggest challenge. There’s no way to independently verify the number of complaints about cruises. The Federal Maritime Commission doesn’t issue a regular report on the number of grievances it gets in the same way the Transportation Department publishes an airline report card. And even if it did, I’ve found that cruise complaints tend to be among the most frivolous — long laundry lists of nitpicky items that don’t always rise to the level of legitimacy.
It isn’t even that Princess generates more grievances than the others. (I asked Princess spokeswoman Julie Benson, and she said the cruise line hadn’t experienced any recent surge in complaints.) It’s that when passengers do complain, the company’s attitude often seems to be dismissive. And that doesn’t exactly encourage customers to book another sailing on The Love Boat. My colleague Anita Potter documents the company’s apparent indifference in a recent column in which a passenger is wrongfully denied boarding and then ignored when she asks for a refund of her expenses. Princess is remarkably consistent. Even my requests for assistance on behalf of other travelers are usually met with a “we’ll look into it” followed by a long silence. One reader recently referred to its passenger relations department as a fortress. That’s a good way to put it.

Should you avoid these companies, too? In a perfect world, travelers would be able to boycott companies that gave them bad services. In reality, they can’t. You don’t always have a choice in airline, hotel, car rental agency or even cruise line. But that shouldn’t stop you from keeping score.
I’ll be taking a close look at what makes the travel business tick in this column that appears here every Monday.

LIFE IS SO SHORT.
SO, THINK WHAT IS GOOD,
SPEAK WHAT IS KIND,
AND TRY TO LIVE YOUR BEST,
THEN THIS WORLD WILL BE BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL TO YOU

WHEN MONEY IS LOST NOTHING IS LOST.
WHEN HEALTH IS LOST SOMETHING IS LOST.
WHEN CHARACTER IS LOST EVERYTHING IS LOST

LIVE LIKE A CANDLE,
WHICH BURNS ITSELF,
BUT GIVES LIGHT TO OTHERS.

IMPOSE YOUR OWN TERMS UPON LIFE.
IF YOU DON'T YOU WILL HAVE TO ACCEPT THE TERMS OF OTHERS.

LOOK BACKWARDS WITH GRATITUDE,
UPWARDS WITH CONFIDENCE
AND FORWARD WITH HOPE.

WHEN YOU TRULY CARE FOR SOMEONE,
YOU DON'T LOOK FOR FAULTS,
YOU DON'T LOOK FOR ANSWERS,
YOU DON'T LOOK FOR MISTAKES,
INSTEAD YOU FIGHT THE MISTAKES,
YOU ACCEPT THE FAULTS,
AND YOU OVERLOOK THE EXCUSES.

Chinese couple tried to name baby "@"

A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@", claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, an official trying to whip the national language into line said on Thursday.

The unusual name stands out especially in Chinese, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.

"The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming.

While the "@" simple is familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out -- which with a drawn out "T" sounds something like "ai ta", or "love him", to Mandarin speakers.

Li told a news conference on the state of the language that the name was an extreme example of people's increasingly adventurous approach to Chinese, as commercialisation and the Internet break down conventions.

Another couple tried to give their child a name that rendered into English sounds like "King Osrina."

Li did not say if officials accepted the "@" name. But earlier this year the government announced a ban on names using Arabic numerals, foreign languages and symbols that do not belong to Chinese minority languages.

Sixty million Chinese faced the problem that their names use ancient characters so obscure that computers cannot recognise them and even fluent speakers were left scratching their heads, said Li, according to a transcript of the briefing on the government Web site (www.gov.cn).

One of them was the former Premier Zhu Rongji, whose name had a rare "rong" character that gave newspaper editors headaches.

finished an unbelievable book. i seem to be saying THAT A LOT, but it's true. this was truly amazing. it made me feel...awakened. her narrative is so alive and real: it gave me real dreamy palpitations. what a writer. what a book! i actually read it very carefully. i truly felt transported. this is why i love books: they transport you to a scenario you've never imagined.

it's just amazing how many people have the time to do this. okay, i'm just as guilty: i've built my own apt, went to church, even sat in on a law course @ the harvard second life law school, made second life friends but it seems like it was only good for the 1st 6 months: now i still have money in the second life bank and it's just sitting there.

how do they have the time to do this?!?!?!?

okay okay i know how: it's very addictive...just like law & order: SVU...

this weekend was very very packed with action. friday was pretty easy-going actually, didn't do much, just watched lots of law & order: SVU and becoming jane. saturday, i watched the simpsons movie, which was a riot! then on sunday after church, i watched 10 hrs of law & order: SVU on the USA channel. yes, i'm obsessed. am i tired? nah.

i think my roommie might be a genius. or weird.

i gave her one of the long island corns which my boss brought back for me. i told her about it as she was coming out of her room "do you want corn? yeah? okay i'll leave you one."

she has this dreamy look and i don't mean the look one has when one's fallen in love. it's a look that says "it's hazy...and i'm dreaming about some things...and am i really here?"

i don't think she does drugs. i think she's just plain weird.

or...she's a genius.

puerto rico/san juan was very relaxing. i think a 4-day trip is perfect: fly-in, beach, beach, eat, eat, beach some more, eat of course more, and fly-out. how fun. hot as hell but that's the whole point, isn't it?

read an unbelievable book on the beach: W. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge. INCREDIBLE. i couldn't put it down. now i really want to go back to paris and travel. wow...this guy can really develop characters! it's not really a beachy-book, but once you get into it, i think you'd just get burned (like i did) and just carrying on reading the book. i give my 2 thumbs up for this! then i started my 2nd non-beachy beach book, James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. i read through about 1/4 of it (it's not a long one) and i had to put it down. i was getting headaches just reading it, trying to follow it. it was like reading via your 2nd language (well, 3rd in my case). ugh....i have no clue how to read this book. i could follow the plot alright, but i wasn't getting anything out of it. it was like studying for an exam, and who wants to do that at my age, especially at a beach!?!?!? i do NOT recommend this book as a beach book.

on another note, today was exciting because i just picked up my harry potter book from the library. VERY excited. so i won't be posting in the next few days as i work, teach, eat dinner with friends, facebooking, squeezing in book reading, no blogging. have a good week!

i've been getting addicted (okay, not geteting, but just am) to law & order: SVU. so much so that i feel like there's a narrative going on in my head everytime i'm walking, doing things or just even thinking. this was my thought-trail on my way to work this morning:

scene: walking out of the 59th Street-Lexington subway station

olivia benson: "our vic was walking to work, without any care in the world"
Elliot Stabler: shakes his head
benson: look, she obviously stopped at 58th & lex, looking at the fruit cart. you can see her foot print in the rain/mud here
stabler: she obviously loves fruit...or was it the person who was selling it that drew her to the stand?
benson: she certainly didn't linger long
stabler: it was raining pretty hard
benson: look over there elliott. this is her new york times. she had the newsprint ink on her fingers
stabler: looks like she only read the arts section and threw out the other ones
benson: well, we know that our vic was in the arts

etc.

i'm going crazy!

L: OMG
did you hear this?
in australia
a couple was trying to name their kid
4Real
C: HAHAAHAH
L: and the country won't allow it
but the thing is
the parents and the kid are ADORABLE
so now he will be registered as REAL
C: HAHAAHAHAH
hey real
L: HEY YOU
C: "is this for real?"
"what is?"
"this package"
"...yes it's a real package"
L: you are out of control
C: "no, this is for real?"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
that can go on and on
HAHAHAAHHA

this week, i was off from work, as the office is undergoing some serious renovation: repainting and recarpeting. it's as if we're moving to another location. it was a good time to throw out many things and of course, to plan new locations for items, etc. fun...

i meant to stop by a beach this week, but somehow the week flew. today finally, i got to go to the robert moses state park beach, which is my favorite in fire island.

it was a relaxing 4 hours, sleeping, listening to music, and of course, - AS USUAL - being burnt alive. it was truly a great SoCal weather!!! water really makes me happy...

am back to NYC for 40 hours (well, by now, 22 hrs). bumped into my roommate in the subway yesterday going home from teaching.

we actually had a normal convo! i found out that she's an only child of an elderly couple (her mom was 21 when she married her hubby of 44 years old - but didn't have my roommate until the mom was in her 40's and now my roommie's dad is in his 80's!!!), no siblings, all the cousins are way way older, so i said, wow, you must be pretty spoiled. and she said actually, that's very true. i am the youngest in my extended family.

she also told me that she hates her birthstate of GA (sorry Boy & Girl's Mommy!), hates driving, so she loves NYC. she loves the apt & the easy commute it provides. she was a part-timer last semester but from fall, she said she'll be doing a full-time, a combined BA/MA track. she even waited with me as i got sushi from the local japinese (that's no misspelling: it's for those combo japanese & chinese restaurants) and chatted. she's definitely a quiet one, but now, i think we're reaching some sort of roommate-ship!!!

greetings from toronto. it's such a beautiful and POLITE and SMILEY city. boy, i have forgotten how nice everyone here is. what's wrong with them!?!?! hahahaha i've been in nyc too long :)

anyway, it's pretty crazy, being with such international cast of crew here, the journalists from abroad always bring me to the latest european way of thinking and other newsy bits. the hotel is nice and everything not TOO coordinated (i mean, it IS the 1st year of the festival) but still, very enjoyable and i believe the guests are enjoying as well.

back to nyc on wed night and then back up here again on friday.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) <--- that's Canadian for "Have a nice rest of the week!"

yesterday was my 10th year anniversary @ the company where i work at. it was literally the 10th anniversay DAY, as i graduated from my masters on friday before the memorial day in 1997, started work on tuesday right after memorial day.

so my boss & his wife took me out to Daniel and what a treat it was!

throughout the 3 hr dinner, i was floating in champagne, red & white wines, 3 courses that were absolutely delightful and pre- and post-dinner goodies from the resaturant. i really want to get married there now (i know, i know, i should first get a live human male first and then decide what to do, right?).

it was a wonderful night!

saw shrek the 3rd on monday. it was very enjoyable, especially puss :) and so many others, too numerous to mention.

been reading these books by elizabeth aston. very enjoyable!

i hate people who say "i'm trying my best." <--- i know, that's random.

yesterday, i made my 14 y.o. student cry at the piano lesson. it's been awhile since i made a student cry. honestly, it wasn't my fault. he's just very emotional. i've been teaching this kid since he was 5. needless to say, we've developed a special bond and due to that, sometimes he thinks just anything would fly: nuh-uh. whether we're close or not, i'm still his teacher and i made a point of that. a case in point:

boy: "why do i have to repeat it? i already did it"
me: "because that's practicing - AS YOU KNOW. do it again from that line"
boy: "why?"
me: boy, do it again
boy: "i don't wanna do it again. i've already done it"
me: do it again
boy: "WHATEVER"
me: okay, boy, i guess you don't need my guidance. i'm leaving
boy: "what?!?! why??" *starts to cry*
me: why are you crying? obviously, you don't need my teaching. you think i'm putting you through torture for no reason but to spite you. so you don't need my abuse
boy: "no...i'm sorry..."
etc.

so i didn't leave. he said he'd feel worse if i left. after the lesson, it was as if nothing happened. sunny disposition again. all that teenage hormones gone away.

sigh - i can't wait to be a parent..
NOT!!!!!!!!

what the heck....

From today's CNN.COM:

Dad dumps preschooler in box for unwanted newborns

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A Japanese drop box for unwanted babies triggered a wave of nationwide soul searching Wednesday, a day after it was discovered a preschooler -- and not an infant -- had been dumped there by his father on its first day of operation.

Nationally circulated newspapers warned that the anonymous drop-off, known as "Stork's Cradle," is open for abuse and could traumatize youngsters. They also condemned the father, saying his action could spur copycats.

The drop-off was opened last Thursday by the Catholic-run Jikei Hospital in the southern city of Kumamoto to discourage abortions and the abandonment of children in unsafe public places. The same day, a boy believed to be 3 was found inside.

The boy, who was in good health, reportedly said he was dropped off by his father, who was seen holding the youngster's hand as they approached the hospital. They apparently rode Japan's bullet train to Kumamoto, but it was unclear where they lived.

"I came with Daddy," the boy was quoted as saying by the Mainichi newspaper.

The find triggered a wave of outrage among political leaders on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe saying "Anonymously throwing out a child is unacceptable." He urged parents to consult social workers for help if raising children gets too tough.

Local media reported that the boy was able to identify himself by name. But it was unclear whether the father had been identified.

The hospital has refused to comment on the case, citing privacy concerns, but said there were age limits on its drop-off service.

Police have decided no crime was committed in the current case because the child was left in a situation in which it was not exposed to immediate harm, Kyodo News reported Wednesday.

"We must rethink the meaning of the baby drop-off," the conservative Sankei newspaper said in an editorial. "Unlike a baby, a toddler may suffer from trauma."

"This little boy must be experiencing great loneliness. We urge his mother or father to come forward," the newspaper said, calling his abandonment "unforgivable."

The Yomiuri newspaper said it was too early to judge the baby-drop, but said that it must be used for its original purpose of receiving newborns, not young children. Parents should also be encouraged to seek outside help before dumping their offspring.

The Mainichi said the misuse of the box could inspire copycats.

A small hatch on the side of the hospital has been set up to allow people to drop off babies into an incubator 24 hours a day.

The drop box was created after a series of high-profile cases in which newborn babies were left behind in parks and supermarkets, triggering a public outcry and government warnings against abandoning babies.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/05/16/baby.drop.ap/index.html

as if i don't have enough to pay things off, this morning i went to the post office get a money order of $165 payable to the Town of Sullivan Court, NY. yes, that's for a speeding ticket. how can the fine be $110 and then "surcharge" of $55??? ridiculous...i guess *I* was ridiculous in speeding...WAH!!!!

it's good to be back home. 3 days in costa rica was very relaxing, contrary to my pre-trip jitters. thank you all for your prayers. it was fun being with the in-laws of my sis-in-law and my own family to celebrate my nephew liam's 1st birthday. what a big deal! it felt like the entire city of san jose celebrated his b-day.

and guess what: there was a KOREAN RESTAURANT in san jose. isn't that unbelievable? koreans are asian jews - we just went everywhere, i guess!

last night, i saw a great sony classics film that'll be coming out at the end of june called VITUS at the tribeca film festival. wow...check it out.

that nor'easter was a BIG BAD NEWS FOR ME. no, it's not that i don't have good raingear: it's because of this:

i went off by amtrak to rochester on that saturday to attend my friend's baby shower. saturday in rochester, while nothing going on, was a blissfully peaceful day. i tinkered with their new steinway grand and it was good. sunday was the baby shower AND the storm hit (NYC, that is, not rochester). my jetblue flight was (OF COURSE) cancelled and i ended up renting an SUV to drive down. my coworker was out on vacation on monday and that meant only my boss would be alone in the office on monday.

so i started to drive in rochester, which was fine...then within 1 hour of driving on I-90, i got pulled over.

have you ever been pulled over? it's like COPS show LIVE - you feel like a criminal and there are sirens and lights & tapping on the windows with their flashlights saying "ma'am, license & registration please."

that's what happened. i had no idea why i was pulled over, so i was very (already) prickly and not at all nice. i was very impatient to get this LONG DRIVE out of the way. this was our convo with the state police:

"do you know why i pulled you over?"
"no. why?"
"you were going 90 on a 65 mph road"
"WHAT? no way."
"didn't you see the speedometer?"
"it's so dark out here, i can't see anything."
"you couldn't see anything? where are you going?"
"there was a storm in NYC so my flight got cancelled so i've rented a car and going down"
"do you have the license & registration?"
"i have a license but no registration. i have a car rental agreement"
"i'll be right back"

10 minutes goes by and i'm getting more antsy & prickly. like...I WANNA GET OUTTA HERE AND START DRIVING AND GO HOME!!!

"okay ma'am, here's the summon."
"...what do you mean, a summon?"
"it's a speeding summon and you have two choices: either plead guilty and pay the fine or plead not guilty & show up at the court listed below."
"how much is the fine?"
"it depends on the judge who reads your summon."
"...."
"have a nice day, ma'am"

that was it. and i got a print-out of a 2 pager that said i was speeding at 80 mph. at least he reduced it!

then later i found out that speeding is REALLY BAD, not because i get a ticket but because it affects your insurance - which i don't really have to worry about, since I don't own a car.

that was the beginning of my bad luck: it started to snow, like there was no tomorrow. not just snow, but SIDEWAYS and it was sticking. I barely made to Albany in 4 hours (should've been 3 hours from Rochester), checked into a Marriott there, which of course, they charged me an arm & a leg, and slept fitfully for 4 hours. Got up at 4 AM, started off again, but it was STILL snowing in Albany, and then started to hailing & sleeting. It was as if the Mother Nature was telling me "DO NOT GO TO NYC!"

on NY state Thruway, i drove from Albany to NYC in 7 hours. YES SEVEN HOURS. It should've been a 3 hour drive on a normal day, so i thought maybe 5 hours. No 7, because twice, I was crawling like with other cars, because this stupid TOLL WAY was FLOODED!!! good thing i had an SUV. and yes, it was STILL POURING.

by the time i got to my apartment, i was majorly fatigued & hungry AND it was already 11 AM on Monday morning. Needless to say, I've already communicated with my boss who told me to take it easy and come in when possible.

i was in the office at 12:30 PM, after showering & lunching.

that was the end.

OR SO I THOUGHT.

this past friday, i got a call from my storage: in the entire building, 4 storage units have been affected by the nor'easter and 1 of them is mine. please come & check if anything's ruined.

i go in and 75% stuff are WET. my keyboard is there, all wrapped in bubble wrap and miraculously, it's not wet. but all my spring & summer jackets & blazers are COMPLETELY wet. i am told to go home & get camera, take pictures and file a phone claim. i go home & get camera. i do the claim. then it's time to move everything to a new unit. which i do. then all the boxes are wet. so i have to come back, as the storage is closing soon. this weekend, the weather was gorgeous on saturday. i did not see much of it. i was inside, moving things around, throwing out things, etc. i ended up taking all my jackets, about 20 of them, to the cleaners, threw out 3 due to the rust water marks on the white jackets. it was pathetic.

the good news is that i have insurance. the other 3 ruined units DID NOT.

so. there's some sun on my nor'eastered life, after all.

i can't believe what the world is coming to. this VT shooting. kids who can just go & buy guns. it's insane.

then i read this.

it's nuts. i'm korean and to hear this kind of a reaction is just crazy. i don't particularly think koreans are "targeted" right now, but then i'm not a guy. men usually get more crap from others.

if the dude indeed wrote an islamic extremist thingy on his body/suicide note (that read ismail ax or somethin'), then i guess asians will now also be targeted at airport screenings and will take longer for trips.

oh well.

yesterday, i was talking to my mom and it was a very good in-depth talk, kind of like mother-to-daughter thing over marriages, relationships, etc. kind of talks i always wish i had during college years but instead we only fought over nothings.

during college, i had really bad manic depression and i was seeing a shrink who wouldn't given into my plea of giving me prozac. he was really a wonderful person, who listened to my crazyness (i guess that's what they're suppose to do) and saw me over the 6 years i was in school. i think i really grew to listen to my own self, etc. with him. he was really a special human being.

yesterday, while talking to my mom, i saw his face for a sec - i think because i used to vent to him about what a horrible mother she was, etc. HA HA! anyway, so i called his # - and sure enough, same #! so i said HELLO BLAH BLAH BLAH!

just now, he called me back! i too have the same number since 10 years ago (yes, i'm one of those consistent people) and he was SOOO HAPPY TO HEAR MY VOICE!!!! and he sounded exactly the same. of course, he can't tell me ANYTHING about himself as usual, except that his office moved to another location and he asked me all kinds of things - he remembered! it was so touching. he really was a good person. because i saw him for free @ school, when summers came, i couldn't afford to see him (as school was officially over, therefore didn't cover his fees), he asked me how much i can pay him to see him. at that time, i thought he was being very mean, when he knew that i had NOTHING to spend money on anything but school dorms etc. and he then gently asked "because i need to see you during summer, may i suggest something? please tell me if this is too much. how does $5 for the hour session sound?" i cried, needless to say, because of his generosity. and yes, i did work everything out. i was basically crazy because of my music, my family having gone bankrupt, etc. (plus i'm sure the hormones didn't help either.)

this made me very happy today! (i know, it's pretty random)

Your Score Summary

Overall, you scored as follows:

62% scored higher (more nerdy),
2% scored the same, and
36% scored lower (less nerdy).

What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:

Not nerdy, but definitely not hip.

worse movie (DVD) of the year 2007 goes to: Copying Beethoven. yikes, it wasn't even worth the DVD time. everything was fictionalized, terribly made. i'm usually a sucker for music-themed movies (NOT musicals, mind you) but this was just too...FUNNY!

also, read a book by Barbara Taylor Bradford. i don't understand how she's a bestseller. she's the worst writer i've ever read! and believe you me, i've read a ton of stuff from trash to trasher. i have a newly found respect for danielle steel after reading BTB. yuck.

on friday @ sg, we listened to this after the mini-seder and cried my eyes out! she was so admirable. as for the japanese...

omg, i just heard about my old cat, hey you. well, his new name is Boris. so apparently Hakan, the new owner (well, not new since i dropped him off in 2003!!!!!) has a chair for him in the dining table. so whenever they eat, hey you/boris jumps on HIS chair, puts his chin on the table and watches everyone eat.

i knew that cat was born a dog!!! i miss him!!!!!! awwwwwwww

i almost fell for this on april 1!

this is an amazing book. i must've lost half of the body water, crying my eyes out. i highly recommend it!!!

lost my blackberry on sat night AND i got sick: a double whammy. unable to reach people, except to actually get up from the bed and turn on the computer - what a concept! i called every single taxi & limo lost precincts in the 5 boroughs, nada. probably too early. wah! it's not that it's the device i lost i'm worried about: it's all the data in there: people's info (personal ones too like people's b-days, nicknames, fav presents, etc.), datebook, all my passwords, etc.

WHY DIDN"T I LOCK THE DEVICE?!?!?!?!!?!?!?

t-mobile said nobody has used it since sat night. which is good.

on another note, i went to see this on that fateful (for blackberry at least) night and he was amazing. the play was NOT GOOD.

back home now. never appreciated my lil' twin-sized loft bed as last night. so happy to sleep in a clean sheet. it's like going into a hotel (whenever i depart for a trip, i always changed sheets, etc. so that when i arrive, i'll have clean sheets to hit me with!).

europe was great. loved being in zurich. it's a doable city. possibly to live there too. but as i've written before, i really got sick of trying to speak german, listening to german, etc. german for 8 days. although at the end of the 8th day, i actually had no problem communicating with people at groceries, drug stores, etc. crazy right?

london was just too expensive. that's all i can come back with: $$$$. it's exactly double the american dollar now and it's just not the right time to travel to europe, period. dollar is falling falling and it's not even good to go to asia. perhaps travel to africa?

what i come back with is that i have newly found love for artist egon schiele. he died at age 28, was pretty amazing. i've seen his entire collection, being in zurich, basel and vienna. what an artist. saw all the works of klimt, including the kiss. unbelievable.

i am very fortunate to have seen all these precious art works (not to mention amazing works of old masters, filled with christ-themed works. just left me speechless.

i'm dying for some korean food right now. and yes, chinese food too. loved wiener schnitzel, but sick of being in smoke-filled places!!!

reporting from vienna:

finally have a moment of time to sit down and check emails and such.

i started off in zurich on the 15th and it's been non-stop since then. weather was perfect and i was once again the road runner from new york: zipping around zurich and then 3 days later, in basel, then a day later in vienna. tomorrow i'm heading out to london and in a way, i look forward to hearing english spoken again. i think i'm getting a bit tired of so many museum hoppings. i've visited at least 25 museums since the 15th and today's onlz the 20th!!!!

okay it's been beautiful until i got to vienna and then it's snowing, i'm freezing. more details on each cities later. i've written a quite a bit of journal.

off to more meat...

gotta get crackin'!

You know the Bible 82%!

 

Wow! You are truly a student of the Bible! Some of the questions were difficult, but they didn't slow you down! You know the books, the characters, the events . . . Very impressive!

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