devil's night came and went

turns out, devil's night, which i always assumed was a nationwide phenomenon of flame and destruction, is actually special to detroit. this is a belief i have held through college and it wasn't until very recently that bringing in your decorations and taking cover on oct. 30th was not a common practice.

meanwhile, in DC the thing to do on the night before halloween is to go to the high heels race in adam's morgan/dupont circle, when a bunch of drag queens run down 17th street and a very crowded populus watches on.


unfortunately, i didn't see much (too crowded), and i got my camera stolen/lost to boot (sad sad sad). i'm already in the process of buying a new one, but at least i got to see a hairy fat man wearing a thong. weeee.

are there even 774 people who work for the FDA?

China Arrests 774 in Crackdown on Food and Drugs

ok, so there are actually more than 8,000 people who work for the FDA, but 774 is still a lot. just shows that china is very big. what they aren't big on are acronyms. take for example the "General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection & Quarantine," which shortens to GAQSIQ, as in, "that gak is so sick!" doesn't lend itself much credibility.

latest pokemon news

pikachu's a girl! (thanks, maggie, for the update)


look how happy she is!!

holy crap, facebook, you are god.

Microsoft to Pay $240 Million for Stake in Facebook

and that $240 million is for a 1.6% stake in the company.

The Microsoft investment throws the value of the holdings of Facebook investors into the stratosphere. Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old Facebook founder who dropped out of Harvard to build the company, owns a 20 percent share which is now valued at $3 billion. Accel Partners, the venture capital firm that invested $12.7 million in May 2005 and owns 11 percent of Facebook, now holds stock worth $1.65 billion.

can you imagine getting into this at the bottom? any chance any of those guys are single? or girls. whatever.

and now that facebook has established ridiculous dominance in the social networking world, and only looks to grow even more, let's pontificate on what will be the ultimate downfall of the holy roman empire. some ideas:

1. one of the ideas that has gone into play is that microsoft or facebook or whoever will target ads to what you write in your profile. so, if "mariah carey" is in your "favorite music," the ads on your screen will show you albums from jojo or janet jackson or rihanna or whoever the hot new R&B thing is. this can be applied to almost any section of your profile.
it is also really creepy and could completely turn people off. it feels cheap and intrusive and very sell-out-ish. then again, gmail does it(reads your email and displays relevant ads), and their growth doesn't seem to be stopping.

2. maybe facebook is a phase. maybe as we all get older, we really won't use facebook anymore. maybe when we have kids, we'll become old and grumpy and talk to our friends on the phone and write long e-mails once a month to catch up. as we fall off the social networking radar and don't see the point in cleverly proving our friendship on fb walls, a new site will grab the attention of a younger generation, eventually making fb users a dying breed (literally). kind of like newspapers.

3. facebook changes so much it becomes unrecognizable. too many ads, too many colors, too many features. who knows what, but for some reason, zuckerberg decides to change something, and people just can't stand it anymore.

anyone else have theories on the downfall of facebook? it could be 2 years, 5 years or 20 years from now.

i personally think #2 is most likely, but it won't happen for quite a while. there are already high-schoolers obsessed with it, and their zeal should carry on well through college. i think myspace has had its time in the sun, but facebook's longevity will prove to be much more impressive.

is this child abuse?

not sure, but it's hilarious. it's also the background of my computer right now. thanks jesse!

back and jetlagged

finally back! reasons why it's nice to be home.

1. clean water. not worrying about horrible stomach issues is nice. although, as my cousin put it, drinking bad water is an "easy way to lose four pounds." yes, just like bulimia.

2. cool weather. 80 degrees is cool weather.

3. central air.

4. no monsoons

5. no forced feedings. chinese tradition dictates you feed your guest near the point of projectile vomit. this occurred twice a day for the 9 days not spent in planes. needless to say, i'm currently fasting. luckily, one way to offset the calories in the philippines was for me not to drink. that means 13 days (and counting) of little to no drink. that's a recent record.

6. alone time. actually, my roommate's parents are staying with us right now, so it's a full house, but just being in my office alone is nice. dealing w/ people 24/7 sucks.

7. berries. they don't have berries in the philippines.

reasons why i'm sort of sad i'm back.

1. my family is nuts. this is amusing in its own way. i also found out my great grandfather had a concubine. this was in the 30s, when it was definitely not legal. sort of badass, sort of really sad for the two wives.

2. free food. and free everything. but then again, i wasn't being paid.

3. drivers. all my relatives in the philippines have drivers. it's a pretty insane road situation, but even better is that if you go to the mall, you get dropped off at the front, and then picked up from the same spot. beck and call, etc. sometimes it's nice to be a big fish in a small pond. forget the fact that the country is dirt poor, corrupt, and miserable for most. they have drivers ...

4. lastly, my $2 manicure/pedicure and super cheap massage. plus cheap white water rafting, free shooting range, and buying jewerly in a complex that resembles what imagine fort knox looks like.

this badass photo is just what i'm talking about:


more pics on facebook. not on fb? you don't matter.

columbus day: celebrating smallpox and slavery

and packing for the philippines.

if there's one perk about living and working in dc, it's that the federal govt hates to work. that means, any semblance of a holiday is a day off. enter christopher columbus, who gets the bejesus protested out of in ann arbor, but earns a day of sabbath in the nation's capital.

meanwhile, if ya'll didn't know, i'm heading overseas for 12ish days. i don't know if i'll be able to blog a lot, but i will pop in with updates here and there. it's going to be a lot of family quality time, and i think it's also monsoon season, so there's something to look forward to.

one big reason for the trip is for my grandmother's 85th bday party. per chinese tradition, i have to wear red. i found the most beautiful perfect dress in georgetown, but true to form, it was $850. dejected, i settled for a cheaper frock.


i also bought shoes, but am undecided of which of these two to wear. they are both red patent leather. considering the dress, any suggestions?

a lions game. a broken heart.

a trip to fedex field seemed like a good idea. not so much. some highlights, clearly none from the gameplay itself.

1. it was really hot and humid. apparently it got over 90. unbelievable. it was so hot i couldn't even bring myself to drink too much booze. considering i saw 2 women pass out at the stadium, that $5 water i bought at halftime was the best investment of the day. it's october people. GLOBAL WARMING. it's real.

2. redskins fans really aren't that bad. i only had a couple hecklers, but i mostly got condolences at the end of the game. and apparently the guy with the megaphone who called me fat, ugly, and slutty got his comeuppance. as one woman who recognized me later told me (i must have one of those memorable faces), "we kicked that drunk fool out. that just isn't right." how sweet.

3. because we got upgraded to club seats, we also got to go to the club seats afterparty. this involves cover bands and drunk yuppies awkwardly dancing or watching more football. talked to this 40 year old dude from taylor, mich., about our fantasy teams and did a lot of knuckle punching with despondent lions fans.

4. did you know john fogerty's "centerfield" is the ultimate white man's anthem? not only is there no better song to get a mob of middle aged white people with no sense of rhythm onto dance floor, but its lyrics are pretty apropos to the state of white people in major league sports (minus hockey). a whiny punk begging for playing time? of course white people love that song.

after the game, i worked at jcrew for a while (where the AC was broken, of course), then went to the bar for a short bit. if it weren't for my savvy water consumption, i'd probably be dead right now. i followed it up with 10 hours of sleep. thank god it's a long weekend.

quick tv update

wednesday night is a crazy night for TV. notes:
1. gossip girl is by far my fave show on wed now
2. bionic woman is completely disappointing all my expectations. the bionic woman is a horrible actress, and the writing is pretty rocky. it's a train wreck, basically.
3. pushing daisies is completely adorable. reminds me of that ewan mcgregor flick big fish. it also reminds me of the addams family.
4. life is a bit surprising since my tvguide podcast just despised it. i'm a fan of damian lewis (of band of brothers fame). he is one sexy redhead.
5. dirty sexy money seems fine, but i think i can only stand one "rich people acting crazy" soap opera a week. that honor goes to gossip girl.

full circle. i should get a writing award for that one.

why microsoft will lose

in this story about the zune, this was the NYT headline:
Microsoft Updates Its iPod Competitor
the headline can't even mention the zune by name, but only in reference to the ipod. genius. i didn't come up with this myself (obv.), but this is the ipod market, not the mp3 one.

new york times essay contest

i liked the winning "why college matters" essay, but many, many others did not. (check out the comments)

But what do we really stand for? Like a true postmodern generation we refuse to weave together an overarching narrative to our own political consciousness, to present a cast of inspirational or revolutionary characters on our public stage, or to define a specific philosophy. We are a story seemingly without direction or theme, structure or meaning–a generation defined negatively against what came before us. When Al Gore once said “It’s the combination of narcissism and nihilism that really defines postmodernism,” he might as well have been echoing his entire generation’s critique of our own. We are a generation for whom even revolution seems trite, and therefore as fair a target for bland imitation as anything else. We are the generation of the Che Guevara tee-shirt.

the genius of the essay is that by criticizing it, you also are playing into its premise. that by responding, you are as reactionary and "post-everything" as the author says we are.
some of the comments/criticisms are bizarre (the post-modern/liberal one, comes to mind), but i do agree that the end was "weak." while i don't think we're all quite as hopeless as past generations believe us to be, i'm not convinced we're mounting our armchair revolutions either. his optimism is credibility-busting. i guess i'll believe it when i see it.
and to all the critics who say this kid doesn't have the answers to "where is this generation going and what is it’s focus"—all i say is, that's sort of the point. we don't have one direction, and we don't have one path. but it doesn't mean we're going nowhere.

new york says dc is fresh. thanks!

new york times writes a story praising the hipness of dc.

“The city has exploded,” says Mary Elizabeth Albaugh, the founder and owner of Betsy Fisher, a well-established boutique on Connecticut Avenue. Albaugh opened her store because, she said, “Washington was a ghost town when it came to shopping. There was Ann Taylor and there was Alcott & Andrews,” a rather staid office-wear chain that was home to floppy bow ties and boxy jackets. Not anymore. At 5 o'clock one recent evening, Albaugh carted in a cocktail bar so that politicos and media types could enjoy raspberry martinis while they tried on Tom K. Nguyen pantsuits and Marika Charles tops. Instead of dress sizes and price tags, the conversation was about whether President Bush might shut down Guantanamo Bay.

this is SO dc. but i appreciate the recognition.
another funny quote: "Adams Morgan — formerly the closest the city really got to trendy."
if this is the closest we ever got to trendy, then i must have missed the memo that said dirty, crowded, rundown, and rat-infested was hip. i love AM, but mostly for its rugged charm.

awesome senegalese advertising blitz

in an effort to stop senegalese migrants from illegally sneaking into spain, the original hispanics are launching an ad campaign encouraging the potential movers/shakers to stay in the motherland.

the commercials go something like this:
"You know how this story ends."
"Don't risk your life for nothing. You are the future of Africa."

In one advertisement, a father recounts how his son died on a boat with 63 others. "There were no survivors," he says. "My son was my only hope, he supported me and my family."

In another, a grieving soccer player tells how a friend died along with 50 others, "and the rest were repatriated." The next shot shows a lone soccer ball rolling out to sea from an empty shore.

this is sort of bush league and mean, but in a lot of ways, it represents what i think proper immigration policy should be.

much like winning the hearts and minds (and we know how well that's working out), the best way to combat illegal immigration is to convince the people who want to move that staying is actually a good idea. there are 4 ways to accomplish this: 1) scare tactics (see above), 2) make spain/america seem worse or senegal/mexico seem better (aka trickery) 3) make spain/america actually worse, or 4) make actually mexico/senegal better.

forget the wall. i like #4 the best, but i'm not above #2.

make them believe.

TMI post: about doctors and STDs

this isn't too gross, but i just thought i'd warn everyone first anyway.

went to the women's-only doctor last week (if you know what i mean), and got my annual. obviously i'm not going to reveal details, but i found the nurse practitioner's insistence that i get an HPV vaccine shot interesting. first of all, it's nice that it's covered (and they're pushing it), considering it's so controversial in the outside world.

the idea that giving preteens the HPV vaccine will somehow encourage them to have sex is stupid. no one refrains from having sex b/c they think they're going to get HPV or cervical cancer. we kids don't think that far ahead. (AIDS and babies is another issue)

anyway, i was just happy to see that it was so aggressively suggested and that my HMO was on top of that. i now have monster bruise on my upper arm for my troubles. i mentioned the appointment to my mom, which is always uncomfortable, but i didn't mention the vaccine. i'm sure she'd approve, actually, but i didn't want to open the door to some potentially really awkward questions. ick.

instead, i just post it all on my blog. ::shrug::