The Chorus (Les Choristes)

The Chorus (Les Choristes)

Arthur got permission to bring Don and me in to this movie last week which he was reviewing. I think it's a great review, very accurately capturing the feel of the picture. I'd recommend the film as well if you want an easy feel-good film (with subtitles of course).

The link is to Arthur's review on culturevulture.net.

After a great week in the Bay Area...

A gorgeous oak in Napa

The vineyards at Pride Mountain on the Napa/Sonoma divide 

More vines

It's back to the grind...

I missed the shuttle and didn't make Financial Management at 8:30am... (Shoveling was more work to deal with than it appears at first glance, as there's nowhere to dump the snow!) That shine sure wears off fast.

I had previously found out that a class being offered this year, Politics and Policy Making in Metropolitan Areas (aka Urban Politics), will not be available in 2006, and it's Mondays at 9am, conflicting with Financial Management. Being late for Financial Management (but early for Urban Politics), I went to Urban Politics instead and found it extremely stimulating and interesting. I'll check out Financial Management on Wednesday morning if I can haul my ass over there at 8:30 again and make the comparison and decision then... Besides, if I can't make it in week 1, then it's never going to happen.

erratic wireless

I'm in SF right now, having missed the blizzard of the Northeast. I have a feeling my picture of the dusting from earlier in January is going to look pretty quaint after getting back. My roommate called and asked if we own a snow shovel (we don't...)

I'm not writing a lot because the wireless I've been using is very erratic, in and out. And I'm off to the membership event for Chinese for Affirmative Action where I used to work in a few minutes. There's some kids performing, and I'm trying to help make sure that people are there at the beginning of the evening so that they feel appreciated. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there as well.

I've been enjoying having a week to relax. I spent some time in the Oakland hills this afternoon walking around with Cathy, visited lots of friends and relatives over the past week, got my hair cut, read some magazines, watched taped Alias episodes, ate tons of great food -- the things that you want to do as part of regular life but can't because of problem sets or being located in Jersey. Regular visits to the Bay Area: Part of the Solution.

Anti-War Words Ring True Today

Anti-War Words Ring True Today

I think that the extension of Dr. King's words from Vietnam to the current conflict is an interesting approach, and the article is worth pondering on this special day.

I woke up and saw snow on the ground. It's been a warm winter so far (which I've appreciated), really snowing only when I was away for a day. But it's been dusting on and off all day which has been pretty. I am not one who missed the seasons when living in CA, but snow is just a remarkable reminder of the power of weather. Stay warm you all... 

The New York Times > Arts > Art & Design > Architecture Review: 600 Feet of Surprises, and No Stodginess in Sight

I know I know, with all the important things going on...

But I am oddly excited by this building going up as the EU central bank. I just think it is so cool.

The New York Times > Arts > Art & Design > Architecture Review: 600 Feet of Surprises, and No Stodginess in Sight

Buy Blue

Okay, one short entry before bed. I talked about this site a bit in November when this was new, and I thought it was an interesting way to consider the ways that our spending impacts electoral politics in a fairly direct way. Buy Blue is an intriguing idea.

I was reminded of it again today after seeing the NYTimes article about the many many companies which have donated a quarter million dollars each to the presidential inauguration party. Here's the list and the article. You know when they're trotting out Laura Bush to defend their actions that they're at least aware they're in in sensitive PR territory. Not that it changes their behavior...

Post-Exam Life

I've been done with tests since Thursday, and it is a relief. It's been a while since entering anything here. Somehow being done with tests and STATA has meant a temporary respite from all the time in front of my computer.

I'll write more in the next day or two. In the meantime, check out some friends' blogs if you like. I'll move this to the side once I figure out how to deal with the template HTML. In the meantime, they're here.

Louise
Mandy
Scott
and again, the one that inspired this all,
Cathy

It's time for bed. Take care you all...

The New York Times > Business > Your Call (and Rants on Hold) Will Be Monitored

The New York Times > Business > Your Call (and Rants on Hold) Will Be Monitored

This is sort of disturbing yet oddly fascinating. Who ever knew that they could listen to you while you're on hold?

The New York Times > Arts > Television > Reporting Live From Hell: TV Scrambles for Glory

The New York Times > Arts > Television > Reporting Live From Hell: TV Scrambles for Glory

I just reread the salon article which I had blogged. It is accurate, but it leaves out the fact that Fox still drew more overall viewers than CNN, despite the fact that "according to Nielsen Media Research, CNN was up 75 percent overall with an 81 percent peak during prime time. Fox News, though, saw just an 18 percent increase in overall viewers and fell 6 percent during prime time." Here's the link for the Salon article again if you want it.

The NYTimes articles points out though that in total viewers (as opposed to increases over usual vierwership), CNN remains "a distant second to Fox." I don't think that the gap is so much that "distant" is fair (MSNBC is distant), but CNN does still remain behind. If you get the print version, there's also a graph that is on E1 that shows this information that for whatever reason doesn't seem to be online.

Royksopp

Royksopp

The "Remind Me" video is excellent. I no longer have a tv or cable, but somehow I don't recall MTV playing it very often.

Now back to STATA.

Salon.com News | Fox News gets blown away

Salon.com News | Fox News gets blown away

I don't know if this article is accessible if you're not on Salon Premium, but I found it very accurate. In Thailand, our hotel actually had both CNN and Fox News, and I do remember being floored at how bad the Fox News coverage was. While CNN was doing fairly coprehensive news coverage regarding what was taking place in different countries after the tsunami, it really did appear that Fox News was reading one single White House Press Release about how much the U.S. has done to help.

Interestingly, BBC World did seem to have equivalently good coverage as CNN though.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Worse Than Fiction

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Worse Than Fiction: "Iokiyar"

I love blog it now.
I love Paul Krugman.
I love newly birthed words, particularly this new word, this "Iokiyar."
I love having the remnants of jetlag so that I pop out of bed at 6am and decide I must make a scallion omelette (after turning on my computer of course).

Cheers.

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) Home

Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) Home

I'd been using Mozilla because my IE was popping up windows like crazy. The new free anti-spyware software made by Microsoft themselves removed something like 21 pieces of spyware from my laptop. Now I seem to have a browser choice. If only google would make the google searchbar for Mozilla...

www.mnftiu.cc | get your war on | page 42

www.mnftiu.cc | get your war on | page 42

So I'm testing the "blog it now" function on my google toolbar. This link is for my current favorite comic strip. The abrasiveness is the charm.

O Stanford, How You Find Ways To Torture Me Still

There are the occasional moments of nostalgia when I think that I can forgive Stanford for the years of torment. I even consider whether I would give to the Stanford Fund despite the fact that I swore never to after (former) President Casper personally threatened my classmates who were working to make the university's investments more socially responsible. On a related note, I also will never forget that the only time Casper spoke to me (sort of) personally the entire 4 years was in the kitchen of Columbae, where strangely, Casper was inquiring quite loudly through a megaphone whether all of us seniors had given our senior gift. All to get that alumni giving stat up, in order to claw Stanford's way up US News and World Report's Rankings.

A hint: there's something wrong beyond fundraising techniques.

This year, making it to the 5-year reunion, I bit the bullet and paid extravagantly for the events I attended despite being a relatively poor student again. I start to be at peace with the idea that perhaps I should join the Alumni Association or something. Perhaps it wasn't that bad.

Then I read something like this pro-Nike bullshit which encapsulates the Stanford experience perfectly, and I realize that the Alumni Association isn't getting my money this year or any year soon. Ready to go to bed, thinking I'll look at something light, I flip through Stanford magazine and get myself all riled up. Damn.

Ah, the memories that won't go away. The lovely student who in response to my friend's questions about whether she would sign a postcard urging farm owners to increase the price of strawberries by 5 cents in order to improve working conditions for workers, got up, ripped the postcards on her table in half and screamed "I'm tired of being told what I can and can't eat, and I don't care about the workers." Or the time my friend Sarah got into an argument with (then) Provost Condi Rice about whether the school's record of (not) tenuring women was bad enough that it should be tenuring the female janitors. The memories once triggered flow.

Ah, $tanford, where the priorities were always clear.

jeb & colin, oh dear

I saw the article reproduced on salon, but you need salon premium to read it. You can see it for free on the original site, the Guardian. It's about the small ridiculousness of our present government and its representatives, Mr. Jeb Bush and Mr. Colin Powell.

and the older generation 

The wedding that brings family together in Taiwan. 

The young people in Miao-Li 

cheese + fish = __[fill in blank]____ 

Buddha 

A lunch of organ meats 

My brother and I at Sun Moon Lake 

At a fish market on an island off Kaohsiong 

Back in NJ

I'm back in the US after a lot of flying.

I had a great trip considering the circumstances and will try to put up some words or pictures or something if I can carve out the time. In the meantime, I've got to switch back to this time zone and actively reengage with preparation for various final assignments and tests.

Regardless, I am extremely thankful.

In case you've been thinking about donating to tsunami and earthquake victims and haven't yet done it, here's a link for donating to Oxfam America's Asia Earthquake Fund .