xiaoshira

I am considering being a foster pet owner this fall when I start my new job. I'd like a dog, I think. But I have concerns - I'll be a lawyer, so I don't know what my hours will be. Also, I don't like cleaning up pee, and I'm slightly irresponsible. I love animals though, and I think I would love having a dog. I'd also love to give a home to a dog who needs one. Thoughts? Does anyone still read my journal?

anybody know anybody in miami? i'm bored.

I love how for the vast majority of the voice mails I leave, I can erase and rerecord if I say something stupid just by pressing pound and listening to instructions.

What is the best website or software to recommend music? I am sick of having a really outdated ipod.

I weighed myself for the first time post-haircut at the doctor's office today. I weighed at least four pounds less than the last time I checked, which I believe was when I was exercising semi-regularly, and my weight was the lowest it's been since junior year in high school. Hmm.

so, i can't get my wireless network set up, it's just NOT working. comcast came by and insists it's not them, meanwhile i've bought TWO separate routers and talked to two separate tech supports, tried setting it up on two separate computers, and have the same problem the whole time where it won't configure despite the connection being proper. wtf do i do? i called "geek squad" but they're going to charge me $150.

the comcast guy was a spectacular breed of asshole, too. the kind that purports to be trying to be nice and help you, but just sticking it to you the entire time. and when i explained calmly i was having a problem he was like "you're not going to hit me, are you?" what the fuck, man, seriously. at another point he was like "don't you have a boyfriend who can help you set this up?" and i said "no," and he said "why not?" and i said "i just broke up with someone." not that it was any of his business. it was just a bizarre interaction.

and then he said if he helped me with the wireless router it would cost like $100, so "you better get your checkbook." i said basically, no - i just need to have wireless internet, and if you can't help me i may have to cancel my subscription and switch to DSL. and then he sort of grudgingly tried to help while reminding me constantly he's doing me a favor, but it of course didn't work when he ran through the steps (duh). and he kept trying to tell me it wasn't the cable modem, it was nothing from their end, he couldn't help, so i told him well, i had experimented with changing everything else and it was still having the same problem so him insisting that it wasn't the cable modem was useless - and i appreciated him trying but if i can't get someone to get this to work i AM switching to dsl, because this is ridiculous. and he was all sullen and didn't even say goodbye.

seriously, bizarre.

any of you geeks want to come visit me and set up my wireless router because there is apparently something i and the linksys/dlink tech support people are missing?

Isn't it weird how someone using a cell phone nearby is more annoying than two people having a conversation nearby? Why IS that?

I think it is my lot in life to get into collisions at < 5 MPH. Not really a terrible lot to have, but an annoying one. I find it a somewhat excusable one too given my bona fide lack of depth perception.

In looking for a McDonalds to get a biscuit this morning, I turned the wrong way down a one way street, and in trying to make a 3 point turn, hit a parked car right in front of the power crew it belonged to. It was a rental, so they made me get a police report (from the Georgia Tech police, but still).

It was really just a scratch on the finish - I probably could have buffed it out myself with the proper tools. I hope the rental car company doesn't try to charge me a zillion dollars.

Then the day got even worse, sort of. But I'm not that worried about it. I've still got one thing left before bedtime that could go badly so I shouldn't tempt fate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/24/education/24charter.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&hp

"Eleanor Sobel, a school board member who is among Ben Gamla’s most vocal critics, said making sure the school did not stray from constitutional rules would take a near-impossible level of supervision."

Oh PLEASE! Because they teach HEBREW, a language that is affiliated with JEWISH people? Because it's JEWISH PEOPLE TEACHING HEBREW? Yeah, you better supervise the crap out of them, or someone might learn something about Judaism!

Do you know how much religion kids who do not celebrate Christmas, or any non-Christian kids, have to put up with in ANY public school? It's a heck of a lot closer to "straying from constitutional rules" than anything this charter school will be able to get away with, even if Ms. Sobel doesn't attain her goal of near-impossible supervision.

As a product of a public school where the population was overwhelmingly Christian, I would actually prefer a more open and tolerant view of religion in public schools, but of ALL religions. The current "strict" approach leads to watering everything down so that the minority religions are reduced to absolutely nothing, and if there is anything remotely representative of a minority religion people throw a fit. And Christianity is reduced to the most secular version of itself, but it is still a real presence. I hate it when people try to pretend Christmas is totally secular. I DO NOT MIND Christmas, but I think Hanukkah and other holidays should be allowed too. I'm not sure if I've told the Hanukkah bush story from my high school, but that really burns me to think about.

(I don't think they should perpetuate that Santa exists in public elementary schools by for example, having someone dress up as Santa, but that's a different story).

I am FLABBERGASTED that everyone liked this movie. It *wasn't* intelligent, the dialogue was horrible, the wrap-up of the first two was disappointing, and I actually can't think of a worse action film. I was laughing out loud at the ridiculous lines half the time. I really liked the first two a lot, for the record.

I found a dead roach when I removed some boxes that had been sitting next to my refrigerator.

Does this NECESSARILY mean there are dozens more waiting in the wings? What the hell should I do about it right now? !!!!

OK, the one time I actually *need* something from facebook it goes down. WTF.

I am now a member of the New York state bar.

Do you require an ear trumpet?

I'm considering going vegan temporarily, and then being vegetarian indefinitely. I realize that a person who likes animals as much as me and can't even contemplate the thought of animal death without feeling teary shouldn't really be eating any animals. Really, I probably shouldn't be eating products of animals either given that the animals are treated poorly, but unfortunately dairy products are probably in my top ten reasons for living, and I think I would get depressed if I thought I'd never eat them again.

There's also the religion thing, the motivator for my dietary restrictions ... when I went kosherish in high school I quit all unkosher animals, and compromised the no meat with dairy rule by quitting mammals altogether, but continuing to eat poultry and not separating it from dairy. At some point I took it a step further by not allowing myself to eat unkosher poultry, which meant I only ate poultry at home, and ate fish or veggie out. Last year when I was getting divorced I started eating unkosher poultry again as part of a step back from religion, but with the thought that I might make a change when I got over that struggle. My rabbi is vegetarian and I've always admired the way she weaves the kosher laws into her compassion for animals, and I think I'd like to do the same.

One problem with this plan is parmesan cheese. I am one of those people who eats spaghetti with the bag of parmesan next to me, dumping generous amounts on after every three bites or so. But parmesan is one of those cheeses that you really can't make without rennet.

I'm going to pick my parents up from the airport in a few hours. They've never been to a foreign country before. For some reason I'm really excited about the prospect of watching their first experiences and listening to their comments on all the little and big things that are different from home. I only wish it were Beijing instead of Hong Kong where they were visiting me - I can navigate Beijing better, and I can communicate in the local language there.

They only have three days with me, and then another week with my sister in Japan. I'm sort of trying to compensate for it by jam-packing their time here and getting them 3 different passport stamps (HK, Macau, Zhuhai in PRC). In fact, I'm planning on rushing them off to dinner far away from their hotel before checking in, and leaving their bags at my apartment. Oh well, they are well familiar enough with my borderline insane penchant for overscheduling things, so they've got to expect this. I'm a little worried about my dad and jet lag... my mom worked nights for 10 years so I'm thinking she'll handle it. Man, it's going to be weird to see them here.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/diet.fitness/05/07/energy.drink.ap/index.html

"Of course, we intended for Cocaine energy drink to be a legal alternative the same way that celibacy is an alternative to premarital sex," Ivey said. "It's not the same thing and no one thinks it is. Our product doesn't have any cocaine in it. No one thinks that it does. We think it is most likely legal in the United States to ship our product."

Um... is there some sort of consumer product called "celibacy" that I don't know about, or is this the most ineffective analogy ever? "Our drink called Cocaine doesn't have any cocaine in it like the concept of celibacy doesn't have any sex in it?" And premarital sex, at that! I don't think celibacy has ANY sex in it.

I passed the bar. THANK GOODNESS.

In New York you are supposed to start submitting all your character & fitness paperwork before you find out if you passed, but I'm too superstitious to do that. So now I have to do it all really really quickly. But I'm so, so relieved.

Something I never expected to say... I have a "nail place" that I frequent. This is by virtue of the fact that they are open until midnight daily and have only once turned me down for a walk-in. Until recently I considered regular nail treatments the ultimate waste of money, but the truth is, manicures are very helpful in getting me not to wreak havoc on my fingers and cuticles when I'm anxious (ha!).

My "nail place" is really a Thai foot massage place that also does nails. I had never gotten a massage but I always see people having it done, and I've heard people recommend it. So tonight I had some free time after a really cool dinner at a vegetarian menu-less Chinese restaurant, and I asked for one with my pedicure.

It hurt like hell! I was wincing and concentrating on not yanking my foot away from this friendly muscular woman who was putting excruciating pressure on it in various places. I thought there was no way this procedure would not leave me with black and blue bruises all over. At one point the Australian guy next to me had just finished getting his massage and forgot to put the reclining chair down before trying to get up, and it tipped over. My masseuse rushed to his aid, affording me momentary relief. On his way out, the guy ironically said to me "I'm so sorry to startle you while you were relaxing!"

Not a worthless experience, though. The massage was quite long, and parts of it were less unpleasant than others. In addition to being an informative experience (won't be getting Thai foot massage again), I managed to finish The Mayor of Casterbridge in the chair. And my feet feel good now. I guess. Soft, at least.

http://www.cuteoverload.com and http://www.engrish.com are two websites with concepts that make me very happy - showcasing baby animals and funny mistranslations are highly entertaining to me. Both sites are structured somewhat similarly - a photograph of a cute baby animal or an instance of bad English gets posted, with a caption underneath added by the moderator. But Engrish's comments are funny and usually enhance the amusement, while cuteoverload all but destroys the warm fuzzy feeling by making the most asinine remarks, typed in this fake voice that consistently uses spellings like "kitteh" and "bebeh."

My issue with Engrish is that apparently you can get T-shirts, etc. with some of the Engrish on it. But... didn't a lot of the engrish come from T-shirts to begin with? I suppose this is for those individuals not fortunate enough to go to a foreign country to scour for their own bad English.

On a not entirely unrelated note, if I haven't said this to you before, please don't ever get a Chinese character tattooed on yourself without asking a Chinese person... or at least me, if you really can't find any Chinese people. This should go without saying, but you'd be surprised.

A VT student spoke these words yesterday, referring to the administration's failure to warn the campus about the original shooting.

I don't agree that the administration mishandled the situation given what they knew at the time, but for the purpose of future policy, I think that when there is an unsolved murder of a student in a dormitory with the suspect having fled and possibly armed and at large, the university community should be sent an e-mail with the available factual information as soon as possible. If I had woken up that morning and read those facts in an e-mail from the administration, I may have gone to class anyway, I may not have. It's not that I think the administration is responsible for what happened because they did not send this email, it's just that I don't see any real disadvantage in not sending it. Even if it was a domestic disturbance, even if the guy had no plans whatsoever to kill anyone else, it still seems like if you accidentally run into a guy trying to flee the scene of a recent murder he committed, and he still has the gun, he might be desperate enough to shoot you. Isn't that why they issue radio announcements about escaped prisoners?

A co-worker argued with me that these e-mails will not be taken seriously if they come too often. My instinct is that first of all, shootings aren't that common in campus buildings - I don't actually think they WOULD come too often. Second of all, even if people do get somewhat inured to the e-mails, they're still better able to take care of themselves than if they don't get the e-mail at all. At Michigan we always got e-mails about incidents such as robberies on campus, and people did take them seriously.

Same co-worker also made the analogy to a small city, implying it would be ridiculous to notify an entire city when this kind of thing happened. I don't really think that's true either; I think the reason nobody considers a mass e-mail when crimes are committed outside of a cohesive community is the obvious, that there's no mass distribution list to send the e-mail to.

But again, I don't personally fault the administration for handling this the way they did; they thought it was an ex-boyfriend or something, and they didn't have a policy in place for situations like this. But if schools are going to put a policy in place in the wake of these events, I think it should be to err on the side of warning when there is a known possibility, even a small one, that students' lives could be in danger.

That is, all of you on my friends list and commenting on NYT articles who are posting variations on the theme of "if only people were allowed to carry guns on VT campus, this might have been prevented." :)

As I commented on skreidle's post earlier, I respect this point of view, but I also disagree with its premise. None of these kids were going to carry a firearm to their Monday morning 9 AM German class. They barely even lock their doors to protect themselves from petty theft.

If we had a society where everybody carried weapons routinely, then maybe. But where everyone has a gun, everyone has the power to make a split-second ill advised decision to blow someone away in the heat of passion, or threaten to... even with mandatory weapons training and strict licensing requirements (which the strong Second Amendment advocates might oppose? I'm honestly not sure on this), I don't trust the general populace not to commit more such crimes when there are more guns around. Do you? Honestly? This is all not to mention the tragic, tragic accidents that happen when kids or even idiot grownups play around with guns. Of course I have no statistics whatsoever to back this up, but my gut says that the increase in these sorts of deaths would surpass the nearly 3 dozen tragic losses we suffered today.

But more than this, I really wish we didn't always have to make these sorts of things *about* something. I don't think giving the good guys guns would have helped, but I honestly don't think more gun control would have prevented this either. I don't know what would have short of guns not existing at all, which is my desired solution to the problem. It just makes me a little queasy to see the polarized agenda come out so quickly, even though I suppose it was an inevitability.

I have been cold for like three straight weeks, because my apartment is cold, my office is cold, and Japan is cold (Hong Kong is hot, but I'm not outside much during the week). This weekend, I was in search of a robe to wear around the house, and a sweater to wear around the office, to tone down the perpetual goosebumps.

I've sort of realized over the years that shopping is really different in cities and suburbs, and it makes me feel like a bumpkin to try to shop in a city. In American cities I can avoid this problem by finding some chain store that I recognize from my "drive minivan from home to parking lot and browse various stores in contained mall area" savvy. These include stores like J. Crew, Benetton, Express, Urban Outfitters, the Gap, Old Navy, Anthropologie (irony: Old Navy JUST e-mailed me as I typed this).

Hong Kong makes this defense mechanism impossible. Oh, they have stores I recognize. Gucci, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Kate Spade. They even have an entire store devoted to Theory, which would be my designer of choice were I to have a clothing budget the size of my parents' combined income. There are three Gucci stores between my apartment and my office. Who the hell patronizes these places? Do fantastically rich people flock here to shop at multiple Guccis? To walk into one Gucci store carrying a Gucci bag from another store, and then walk out with one in both hands? Is this some sort of rich person thrill I don't know about?

And for what I have to believe are the hundreds of thousands of people whose bank accounts scream in terror at the very mention of the International Finance Center mall... well, those people must shop at the Chinese-style densely packed stall-shops in buildings called Plazas or Arcades, where you ride the escalator, walk around a small block of 4 or 5 random stores, and then go up to the next level. These stores, which can physically fit only a handful of customers, make me uncomfortable. It's not clear whether bargaining is acceptable there, the quality of the product is questionable, and you have no idea what stores are in front of you or behind you.

Then there are the street markets. Now HERE is some junk. You have no idea what kinds of shit they will sell on the street! To name a few: clothing, luggage, stationery, underwear, artwork, batteries, sunglasses, magnetic bookmarks, and of course, the sex toys. You're walking by stall after stall, and then suddenly your face is four inches away from a massive vibrating dildo. Disconcerting, I assure you. But bargaining is fun, and you can almost always convince yourself you got a really good deal on whatever it is you're buying.

There are some chains that are at least within throwing distance of my budget, and familiar friends from home... they have the Body Shop on every corner, and I've seen a Benetton, an H&M.

The most interesting thing about shopping in Hong Kong, though, no matter what level of shopping you're doing, is listening to the shopkeepers and staff speak to customers. At any given moment, Cantonese, Mandarin, and English are being spoken, and within a 30-minute time period, the same staff member will have likely spoken all 3. A trilingual requirement for working in retail! Imagine that.

Ultimately I found my sweater and robe, in the last store I visited, Sunday night right before the stores closed, in a UK store called Marks & Spencer. Paid a little more than I wanted to, but not the outrageous amount I would have in the big malls here. And it was certainly worth the ride.

Ever since the first time I went to China, I've felt in a strange way incomplete no matter where I am. When I'm in the U.S., some part of my mind is always figuring out a way to get back to China, and I feel unsettled whenever I don't know the next time I'll be in China. When I'm in China, there is this unique sense of loneliness that comes over me, and some part of me is unable to be totally comfortable, because I'm so far away from home and family.

Somewhat unexpectedly, I am back in Asia - in Hong Kong, to be exact. Sort of a long story how I got here, involving my negotiating a temporary position that didn't exist, and probably some luck.

Hong Kong is this linguistically anomalous, cultural limbo city that is almost, but not quite, like being back in China. I speak two of the three languages that are supposedly common here (English and Mandarin), and not a word of the third (Cantonese). White people are a minority here, but a significant minority, and not at all an oddity. English is sufficient to get around, though I sort of wish it wasn't.

I haven't seen much of the place yet, because I live and work in buildings about a 10 minute walk apart from each other in the Central district. What I have seen is remarkable. Some streets are impossible to cross in the conventional way, but there are subway stations that stretch for blocks underground and have a dozen exits, and 2nd-story walkways that connect significant numbers of buildings, most of them involving high-end shopping. Everything is clean.

But I'm slowly getting settled in here. I'm lucky to get some idea of what my life as an attorney in a China office of a big New York law firm would be like - and in some sense, this is the life I was pursuing when I decided to go to law school.

That's it for now, except this is one of those countries where milk is kind of gross. Cheese, ice cream, you can find anything, so I'm not complaining. But milk is kind of gross. And there is no fucking way I'm paying $7 for an imported Lean Cuisine.

Word is figuring out what formatting I want to use and doing it automatically as I type. Like, it's changing from bold to regular, and back to bold when I press enter. Usually I can't get it to format correctly even if I'm explicitly telling it to. WTF?

that the New York bar exam gives you points for bullshitting even when it's absolutely obvious and undeniable that you are doing so?

With respect to multiple choice questions, I'm having the most trouble with the subjects people describe as "easy" (torts, criminal law) and the least trouble with the subjects describe as "hard" (contracts, property). Somehow doing well in "hard" subjects does not make me feel as smart as doing poorly in "easy" subjects makes me feel stupid.

Some of the Barbri lecturers are insufferable, by which I mean their style is irritating and/or painful to watch. Some of the insufferable Barbri lecturers actually teach the material well, and others do not. It is not possible to discern this in advance of the lecture.

They use my first name in the hypotheticals a ridiculous amount. Bonnie is a popular choice for crim law hypos usually also incorporating the predictable "Clyde," but I've been a part of examples in Wills and Evidence in addition. So my name appears routinely in Barbri illustrations and hurricanes. Hm.

I am praying that I get this right the first time because heaven help me if I ever have to do this again.

I have strong positive and negative feelings about the red hot chili peppers. I think "Under the Bridge" is one of the best songs ever written. There are a handful of other songs that are undeniably solid, at least one or two on each album- I like "Californication" and "Scar Tissue," for example, though the latter was seriously overplayed. A somewhat unrelated positive; Kiedis's hair of the 1990s is fairly said to be one of my inspirations.

And then there is a lot of repetitive crap. They have this tendency to create stupid-sounding rhymes, nearly painful to listen to. A non-RHCP example of this is that song "I've seen better days." Very catchy tune, but then the guy sings, "I've seen better days...I've been the star of many plays." What?! RHCP does this a lot, though not quite as egregiously. As for the music, there are themes throughout their music that I frankly get sick of, such as being bombarded with straight eighth notes on a single pitch. This can be effective, but not everywhere. The pseudo-rap stuff I can take or leave; if I want a rap hybrid, I'll turn on my man Nelly.

Then they come out with this new song called "Snow" that may be my favorite song of the current century. The verse/first four minutes is perfection. I could listen to it all day. The last two minutes don't *quite* fit, and is a bit reminiscent of the repetitive stuff that grates on me, but is forgivable because of the intense instrumental foundation and building harmonies in it, and because it seems to gradually step the song down to a strong conclusion. And the words aren't bad!

If my world weren't turned upside down enough by this, I found myself liking a Foo Fighters song! Foo Fighters were a big disappointment to me as a huge Nirvana fan, because I found their early music rather blah. People fought me on this, but it just lacked something. But I heard a song in a coffee shop that I later googled and found to be theirs, listened to the itunes clips of their most recent album, and liked it enough to download the whole thing. Shock!

OK, I'm officially giving up on CNN.

They put a bunch of crappy video on their sidebar, and half the time it's about some poor animal that's dying that I'm going to feel sorry for and don't need to know about, and will probably ruin my day just to read the headline; the other half it's a headline I might actually want to read but am frustrated that I can't because it's only on video.

So the question is, WHAT news site should I look at?

I strongly prefer one where I don't have to log in. I know this is largely nonsensical, but I just don't want to have to log in, or permanently log in, or anything.

My only other preference is that it be reputable, meaning not too flagrantly skewed.

OK, I noticed after I sent an e-mail to my friend through gmail, an ad on the "web clip" on top came up about some bar study course. Which was odd, since I had just mentioned studying for the bar in my e-mail.

And I'm desperate enough that I totally clicked on it!

Is this a coincidence? Or does Gmail scan your sent emails for marketing possibilities?

I no longer put two spaces between sentences
I no longer omit the final serial comma in a phrase like "red, white, and blue"
I no longer spell it "judgement"

I really hate the acronym "SCOTUS." I'm talking irritation and animosity whenever I see it. I mean, it sort of reminds me of the word "scrotum," which is not the kind of thing I want to be thinking of while studying Federal Courts.

Since I got no indication that I would like Borat, I went to see the Prestige instead, and I thought it was great! I don't think it's spoiling too much ( but I'm going to cut it anyway... )

I'm deciding whether to go see Borat in 2 hours, so if anyone has any insights on whether I would like Borat, please let me know. I realize this requires a level of knowledge of my sense of humor that maybe a handful of people on this list has, but I thought I'd ask anyway. If it helps, I don't think I would like it.

Does anybody want to help me learn how to do something in programming that I feel has GOT to be pretty simple as programming goes, but I have no idea how to do it?

Also, I signed up for myspace.

I just accepted a job in Atlanta for 2 years after graduation, starting in August of 2007.

I'm a little nervous for a number of reasons, but it's a great job and I was lucky to get it.

Hope everyone is doing well.

So I'm going to be interviewing in NYC for 3 days in September (20, 21, 22), and need somewhere to stay for those nights and potentially over the weekend. Does anybody want to have me crash on their floor? I have another option if nobody can take me, so no pressure. Just would prefer to stay with a friend :).

My last day of being 25 was quite eventful. I got my first-ever leg wax (overrated is the verdict so far), and, more momentously, my summer program went to the SF Circus Center and I tried the flying trapeze.

Now, I have an interesting fear of heights in that I can't even go very near a ledge that if I fell off of, I'd get seriously hurt (even at the opera), but once you strap me into something, I'm no longer afraid. So since I was picked to go first (probably since I was talking a lot of trash about going up the ladder), it wasn't so bad. I walked up the ladder and was immediately strapped into something. They had us put our legs on the bar and then let go with our hands, and then put our hands back, and drop. It was a really strange sensation, but fun, and not too scary.

Then they let us do it a second time. So I had to climb up the ladder when another girl was getting ready to go, and, on the outside edge of the net, where it wasn't clear where you'd fall if you slipped off, just WAIT THERE ON THIS TINY LITTLE PLANK FOR LIKE, FIVE FULL MINUTES. That was the stuff of my nightmares, and I was terrified until strapped in again. It was a bit of a shame, because I was *almost* good enough that I could have done the catch if I hadn't been so jittery the second time.

In order to go to the trapeze event, I had to leave work on a day where I was working for a partner that I have been wanting to work for all summer. And I ended up missing a conference call, I found out this morning. But he knew I was going, and it is good for me to learn not to feel guilty about that sort of thing. I am overworked for a lot of reasons right now, but one of them is that under this "summer associate" umbrella, I feel tremendous self-imposed pressure that if a work-related opportunity comes by that could be my Interest, I must take it. And the way the chips fall is, inevitably, that all the work-related opportunities will come at the same time.

I am desperate for housing in San Francisco from May 15-Aug 12 - ANYBODY have any connections? ANYONE?

Thanks... :-/

My life is more than a little bizarre/surreal right now. I can't say more, but I wanted everybody to know, and this is just about the only way I have of doing so.

Hmmm... where is carpeicthus when you need him?

Hey, if anybody has netflix, I want to add you and look at your movies!!

BELOIT COLLEGE'S
CLASS OF 2002 MINDSET LIST®

1. The people starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1980.
2. They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever been shot. Depends on what you mean by "meaningful," but I definitely remember the Reagan administration.
3. They were prepubescent when the Persian Gulf War was waged. Also subjective. We were 10/11; for many, puberty can start that early.
4. Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression. Uh...no.
5. There has only been one Pope. They can only remember one other president.
6. They were 11 when the Soviet Union broke apart, and do not remember the Cold War.
7. They have never feared a nuclear war. "The Day After" is a pill to them—not a movie.
8. They are too young to remember the Space Shuttle Challenger blowing up. Not only do I remember this, but I remember it very distinctly. I remember watching it in school.
9. Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
10. They never had a polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is. That's just ridiculous. Yitzhak Perlman was on Sesame Street all the time. Of course we knew what polio was.
11. Bottle caps have not always been screw off, but have always been plastic. They have no idea what a pull top can looks like.
12. Atari pre-dates them, as do vinyl albums.
13. The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them. Completely wrong. Tapes have existed for as long as I can remember; that doesn't mean records were totally gone. I used records more than tapes until I was at least 10, and we still have a record player at home.
14. They have never owned a record player. Again, wrong.
15. They have likely never played Pac Man, and have never heard of "Pong." WHAT? My favorite arcade games since I was a kid.
16. Star Wars looks very fake to them, and the special effects are pathetic.
17. There have always been red M&M's, and blue ones are not new. What do you mean there used to be beige ones? See, this just makes me ANGRY. The blue ones came out when I was not only old enough to remember, but old enough to be pissed off about losing the "beige" ones.
18. They may never have heard of an 8-track, and chances are they've never heard or seen one.
19. The compact disc was introduced when they were one year old.
20. As far as they know, stamps have always cost about 32 cents. Ridiculous. I mean, we all sent letters when we were kids, and I remember distinctly that they cost 22 cents to mail. Then 25.
21. They have always had an answering machine.
22. Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black & white TV.
23. They have always had cable.
24. There have always been VCR's, but they have no idea what Beta is.
25. They cannot fathom what it was like not having a remote control.
26. They were born the year Walkmen were introduced by Sony.
27. Roller-skating has always meant in-line for them. Uh, no... I don't even think "roller skating" means that now; don't we usually use the term "roller blading"? In any case, I used "skates" until I was 11 or 12.
28. "The Tonight Show" has always been with Jay Leno.
29. They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
30. Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave. I didn't have a microwave until I was like 8, and we always used "jiffy pop."
31. They have never seen Larry Bird play, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is a football player.
32. They never took a swim and thought about Jaws. Jaws is kind of timeless, though.
33. The Vietnam War is as ancient history to them as WWI and WWII or even the Civil War.
34. They have no idea that Americans were ever held hostage in Iran.
35. They can't imagine what hard contact lenses are.
36. They don't know who Mork was, or where he was from. No, that was a very popular rerun. The 80s was also the era of "Nick at Nite."
37. They never heard the terms "Where's the Beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel" or "De plane, de plane!"
38. They do not care who shot J.R. and have no idea who J.R. is.
39. The Titanic was found? I thought we always knew where it was.
40. Michael Jackson has always been white.
41. Kansas, Boston, Chicago, America, and Alabama are all places—not music groups.
42. McDonalds never came in Styrofoam containers. Maybe I ate McDonalds too young, but I very much remember this.
43. There has always been MTV, and it has always included non-musical shows. It was mostly videos when I was a kid.


So, this list basically justifies the cliche of "when you assume, you make an ass out of you and me." It seems like the list assumes that kids don't have brain function until they're teenagers. This is, of course, ridiculous. Not only were a lot of these things part of my memories, but they were very formative memories for me. I mean, I kind of ignored the items where it just assumes that people are incoherent, and aren't taught history. It also assumes that every kid had the latest technology as soon as it was introduced. Maybe if, when the microwave came out, every family went out and bought one, their kids born in 1980 would always have had microwave popcorn; ditto for tape players.

Basically, I don't approve of generalized experiences unless it was physically impossible for a certain generation to have experienced something. In other words, if they're going to use the intro "they have never..." they better keep the punchline squarely in the 70s.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/08/24/shark.attack.ap/index.html

It took me the longest time to parse this one. like, I was thinking [shark attacks] [research] [diver]. As in, some shark attacks researched a diver.

My new endeavor, entirely public:

http://www.zoogsinger.com/legaltender

What is here is not public, but I am generally willing to add.

I woke up feeling EXTREMELY content with the entire previous evening, but I was out of the moment enough to be concerned about things like where the hell the disposable cameras, the broken glass, the top of the cake and my rehearsal dinner dress were. I made some phone calls and we went to the breakfast Eric's parents were throwing. I will skip the minor anxiety over finding everything; it all got found unless there is still something I'm forgetting. We managed to get to the courthouse before leaving town to get the certified copies of our marriage certificate, etc.

For those who don't know, we don't have time for a honeymoon right now; Eric has to teach summer school this week and there was really no way out of it. I was able to get off this week so I came back here with him for the week. For the first two days we stayed in a nice hotel here, and the rest of this week, of which tomorrow is SADLY the last day, we've been getting our "new" home organized.

On the drive up we had a picnic at the place Eric first proposed to me, which was nice. When we got to the hotel (which was SOOOOOOOOOOO amazing) we went swimming and in the whirlpool and sauna. It takes me so long to break a sweat in the sauna I might as well just not go in there at all. I fell out of the hot tub and got the biggest bruise I have ever had. It looks kind of like a "g" that covers my entire outer left thigh. We had a great meal there, and lovely cocktails. It was extremely nice.

Eric's mom delivered lots of our wedding gifts. She asked me if I was sad that it was over, and I said that I wasn't; if anything it was a relief, and a BIG one since it went SO well. Plus, there are SO many things still to be excited about. Putting together our mostly kosher kitchen, changing my name, and especially this week, just SAVORING every second of it, because I have to leave again this weekend. And I so, so don't want to leave him, and our apartment together, and the marriage, right now. I'm having SUCH a good time.

One more piece of news before I shove off for now... one of our wedding presents was our new kitten, Eleanor. She's adorable, and is a pretty damn well behaved cat. I'm afraid she will be a Daddy's girl by the time I get back from DC, but we're very excited. She came from a farm.

Ok, so that's my wedding, written down for me to go back and read for all time :). Hopefully I will be posting pictures of wedding and kitten (friends only) at some point soon, and if there's anything you'd like elaborated on, lemme know.

I think if all I had to do all day was make power point presentations I would never get bored.