Sports Thought: Looks like the Ags should be in the tournament! They beat ranked Mizzou this weekend for their fifth or sixth straight, which should easily take them in as like an 8 or 9 seed. Good enough.
New Zealand is cool because: The most popular (as far as I can tell) cookie/biscuit is this thing called a Tim Tam. Basically it's two wafer-y chocolate cookies, with chocolate frosting in between them, and then dipped in chocolate. They're amazing. I was talking about them with a bunch of other international students, and every one of us had identical experiences where someone had recommended Tim Tams, we had bought them at the grocery, and then proceeded to eat an entire box alone in one day. They're that good. My flatmate Brittany and I are slowly trying all the other varieties. Currently we've got black forest, which is good, but nowhere near Time Tam classic.
New Zealand is lame because: I JUST WANT TO BUY SOME LIMES. Seriously. At one grocery store, limes come in packages of three for $3.60. That's $1.80 American. 60 cents a lime. That is not okay. And these ones are really ugly. Another grocery I went to had key limes (read: super small) for $17 a kilo! Not acceptable.
Food Find: I got a "bacon buttie" at the farmer's market, which is mostly just a bacon sandwich. They took a huge pile of (American) bacon, chopped it up, and put it on white bread with grilled onions, mustard, relish, and ketchup (actually tomato sauce ((they called it t-sauce)) which is close but not the same thing). I knew the sandwich was going to be good because there was about a twenty minute line to get them (the only other places that had comparable lines were selling super cheap blackberries). It was awesome, and just as heart attack inducing as you think it is.
Saturday I had an excellent day. I got up early and made it to the farmer's market, which happens every Saturday morning in the parking lot of the train station. The train station is this huge, ornate building that looks a little like a castle, so needless to say it's a great setting for a market. It was composed of about half people who had grown produce in Central Otago and then brought it here to sell and half people who had made some sort of good (baked things, candles, organic beer, various sausages and bacons). The primary goal of going to the market was to get limes, baby spinach, and jalapenos (only got the last) and the secondary goal was to not spend all the money in my wallet (barely accomplished). I got lots of plums and cherries, plus a plum pie and a great loaf of sourdough from this nice woman who baked it all from scratch. After learning how overpriced supermarket tofu is, I'm going to go back this weekend and get some homemade tofu from this little Asian woman who was selling it.
While I was at the market, I ran into my friend Ellen, who goes to school with me (although I didn't know her until I got here). She invited me to the beach with her and her roommate that afternoon, and it was such a phenomenal day that I couldn't pass it up. While we were waiting for the bus out to St. Clair's beach, we met these two British guys who are backpacking across the world before they start college, and they joined our group. Mostly we just relaxed on the beach, briefly went into the water (my feet were numb right as I stepped into it), and made fun of how each other said words. The funniest thing to me was that it was almost a bizarro beach: there were people playing touch rugby (rather than football) and one impromptu game of beach cricket (versus baseball).
That evening was the Highlanders versus Crusaders match, one of the more highy anticipated rugby games in the South Island. In a nutshell, the Super 14 is the main pro rugby league, and it represents Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. The Kiwis have five pro teams, and two of them are based in the South Island (rather than have specific cities associated with each team, they just have regions, and as a result play home games in a variety of locations). The Highlanders are Dunedin's team, representing the Otago region (and Southland). The Crusaders are the other South Island team, representing Tasman and Canterbury. As a result, this game gets pretty pumped up, especially in a college town where kids love to drink and watch sports. What struck me most was how reasonably priced everything was; tickets at most were $20 US, with souvenirs selling for about market value, and beer an unheard of $2.50. The game itself was pretty slow (it ended up being the lowest scoring game in Super 14 history, 6-0), but we went with an American who played rugby in college, so I got a pretty detailed rundown of how everything works.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
Class
Excited: A date was announced today for the Beatles version of Rock Band, September 9 of this year. While I don't think I'm willing to pay the $250 for limited edition Beatles instruments (although maybe it'll have Paul's awesome Hofner bass), I am pretty excited about the prospect of a Beatles game (assuming my Guitar Hero peripherals work with a Rock Band game...). At the same time, I'm a little worried about if the game would actually be, well, fun. The Beatles's music doesn't really fit the mold of things in a Rock Band game. A lot of their earlier stuff is really conventional, as far as musicality (repeat the same three or so chords, George does a really brief solo) while all their later stuff is...unplayable in a video game, to say the least (can't wait to jam out on Wild Honey Pie).
Sports Thought: Well I've finally been convinced to join a fantasy baseball league with some buddies from school. My biggest fear is that I'll either spend every waking out obsessing over my team, or they'll totally suck. I haven't really found a way to reconcile this, but I'm gonna play anyway. I'm also in a March Madness bracket, even though none of the games are actually available for me to watch...
Shaq Says: "Weee weee wha weee weee wha weee wee weeee what's song is this"
Well the first week of classes is officially over (although it ended for me yesterday). On the whole, I'm really pleased with what I'm taking.
POLS 304: International Relations--Peacekeeping. Looks like this class is going to be all about the United Nations and it's various interventions throughout history. What really makes the class is that the professor was the Foreign Minitster (read: Secretary of State) for Afghanistan from like 1992-1996. He also has his own wiki! This class really tripped me up because, although being at the same time on Monday and Tuesday, it was in DIFFERENT lecture halls in the SAME building. Who does that.
POLS 202: Theories of Justice. I wasn't initially taking this class. Originally I was enrolled in Political Communication of New Zealand, but after going to a lecture and discussion where the professor talked non-stop about NZ political parties, figures, assigned us papers that were way beyond my ability (write a 1000 speech tailored for a specific member of NZ Parliament), I dropped it like it was hot. Theories of Justice seems pretty cool. The professor is an overly enthusiastic Australian, who often gets out of breath because she talks so much and so quickly. It's sort of like a hybrid of philosophy and political science, establishing how laws are just, what rights humans have, etc. I knew I was set when the first lecture referenced heavily John Locke and Jeremy Bentham (admittedly the real guys, and not the Lost iterations). This class trips me up too because the two lectures are at DIFFERENT times during the week in DIFFERENT buildings.
ECON 207: Environmental Economics. Taught by an American, who uses Oregon in lots of his examples. Also revealed itself to be very obviously an economics class, when the first two lectures were just about how to maximize your grade, and how the plussage system (more about that later) can work in your favor. Complete with lots of data, graphs, and Excel spreadsheets.
ECON 306: Health and Education Economics. I think this should really be titled Health Economics, with two weeks of Education. This class should be really cool, because it's over a lot of things I'm really interested in. Combined with the fact that the professor is a) an exuberant Canadian guy who has way much more to say than he has lecture time to and b) a carbon copy of my high school economics teacher.
Both the econ classes use a 'plussage' system, which is something I'd never seen before, but after it was explained in great detail by the 207 prof, is something I fully support. Basically, you can do no worse in the class than you do on your final. So in his class, he calculates four grades, one that's 100% final, one that's 80% final and 20% quizzes, 80% final and 20% discussion, and 60% final, 20% quizzes, and 20% discussion. This way, you're not punished for maybe doing really badly at the beginning of the semester, but then figuring it out by the time of the final. You can also, if you really dare, just not do anything and then bank it all on the final.
So far my biggest complaint is that the lectures are too short. Everything is 50 minutes, without fail. At home, the only 50 minute classes were either four times a week, or the supplementary discussions. Everything else was upwards of an hour and a half. I don't really feel like the professors can say everything they need to in 50 minutes, and they're really rushing the whole class to cram information in. We'll see how it plays out.
Sports Thought: Well I've finally been convinced to join a fantasy baseball league with some buddies from school. My biggest fear is that I'll either spend every waking out obsessing over my team, or they'll totally suck. I haven't really found a way to reconcile this, but I'm gonna play anyway. I'm also in a March Madness bracket, even though none of the games are actually available for me to watch...
Shaq Says: "Weee weee wha weee weee wha weee wee weeee what's song is this"
Well the first week of classes is officially over (although it ended for me yesterday). On the whole, I'm really pleased with what I'm taking.
POLS 304: International Relations--Peacekeeping. Looks like this class is going to be all about the United Nations and it's various interventions throughout history. What really makes the class is that the professor was the Foreign Minitster (read: Secretary of State) for Afghanistan from like 1992-1996. He also has his own wiki! This class really tripped me up because, although being at the same time on Monday and Tuesday, it was in DIFFERENT lecture halls in the SAME building. Who does that.
POLS 202: Theories of Justice. I wasn't initially taking this class. Originally I was enrolled in Political Communication of New Zealand, but after going to a lecture and discussion where the professor talked non-stop about NZ political parties, figures, assigned us papers that were way beyond my ability (write a 1000 speech tailored for a specific member of NZ Parliament), I dropped it like it was hot. Theories of Justice seems pretty cool. The professor is an overly enthusiastic Australian, who often gets out of breath because she talks so much and so quickly. It's sort of like a hybrid of philosophy and political science, establishing how laws are just, what rights humans have, etc. I knew I was set when the first lecture referenced heavily John Locke and Jeremy Bentham (admittedly the real guys, and not the Lost iterations). This class trips me up too because the two lectures are at DIFFERENT times during the week in DIFFERENT buildings.
ECON 207: Environmental Economics. Taught by an American, who uses Oregon in lots of his examples. Also revealed itself to be very obviously an economics class, when the first two lectures were just about how to maximize your grade, and how the plussage system (more about that later) can work in your favor. Complete with lots of data, graphs, and Excel spreadsheets.
ECON 306: Health and Education Economics. I think this should really be titled Health Economics, with two weeks of Education. This class should be really cool, because it's over a lot of things I'm really interested in. Combined with the fact that the professor is a) an exuberant Canadian guy who has way much more to say than he has lecture time to and b) a carbon copy of my high school economics teacher.
Both the econ classes use a 'plussage' system, which is something I'd never seen before, but after it was explained in great detail by the 207 prof, is something I fully support. Basically, you can do no worse in the class than you do on your final. So in his class, he calculates four grades, one that's 100% final, one that's 80% final and 20% quizzes, 80% final and 20% discussion, and 60% final, 20% quizzes, and 20% discussion. This way, you're not punished for maybe doing really badly at the beginning of the semester, but then figuring it out by the time of the final. You can also, if you really dare, just not do anything and then bank it all on the final.
So far my biggest complaint is that the lectures are too short. Everything is 50 minutes, without fail. At home, the only 50 minute classes were either four times a week, or the supplementary discussions. Everything else was upwards of an hour and a half. I don't really feel like the professors can say everything they need to in 50 minutes, and they're really rushing the whole class to cram information in. We'll see how it plays out.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Queenstown
Food Find: I was at the grocery store today, looking at the muffins. They had two different sizes, so to differentiate between them, the larger were called Texas. As in Texas apricot blueberry muffin, etc. I was really confused (trying to figure out what ingredient makes something Texas...) and then really excited.
Food Find Two: They deep fry a lot of stuff here, including some cool/interesting things. Of note: a curry roll, which is basically an egg roll, but filled with curry, peas, meat, etc; lasagna, which was like a two inch square segment of pasta, sauce, and cheese, battered and fried.
I went to Queenstown this past weekend on an international student trip. The city is basically (from my gathering) the adventure tourism capital of the South Island. The aim of the trip was to pack in everything one would want to do in Queenstown, so we could have other weekends free to go other places. The activities:
-Stop in Roxburgh to eat Jimmy's Pies, apparently a New Zealand institution. It reminded me a lot of the little hole-in-the-wall bakeries in Texas that we would eat at for assorted famous dishes. Jimmy's had all the standard pies (mutton, mince, potato top) and some cool weird ones (chicken and mango, chicken and apricot). I got egg and (Canadian) bacon, which was good for 10 am.
-Stop at Quartz Reef winery for a tour and tasting. I guess this place is famous for their pinots, and we had a pinot noir and pinto gris. They were really good, although I know nothing about wine.
-AJ Hackett bungee at the Kawarau Bridge. This is the site of the first commercial bungee jump, and still one of the most popular. It's a 43 meter jump off a bridge into this clear, blue water. They ask you how wet you want to get, because they can adjust it so you miss the river all the way to a full dunk. I wasn't nearly as scared as I expected to be, and everyone in the group successfully completed the jump. I don't really remember much, since it's so short (about a 3 second freefall, and then 15 or so seconds of swinging and dangling while they raft over to unhook you) and there's so much adrenaline rushing through you. Still a pretty crazy experience to say you jumped off a bridge (well they'll push you if you don't jump after a five count).
-Dinner at the Cardrona Hotel, this fancy little hotel/restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. It's an old brick building with a big lawn out in the back, very rustic cottage-y. Food was decent.
-Shotover jet boat ride. Another Queenstown institution. You get taken out on the Shotover river, which is another clear, blue river in a souped up jet boat (two engines, 900 horsepower) to zoom around on the water, do 360 turns, get splashed, etc. for around thirty minutes. I think this was the highlight of the weekend for most of us, as this was pretty unlike anything anyone had done before. It's sort of a hybird between a roller coaster and a fast boat ride.
-Tramp in the New Zealand wilderness. Outside of Queenstown is where a lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed, so the whole group went on a hike. We ended up picking the wrong trail, so the views weren't the most memorable, but I did slip and impale myself on a rock, where I had to get four stitches.
-Queenstown Hospital. Spent about two hours on Saturday night getting looked at and stitched up (mostly just waiting though) at the hospital. Thanks to New Zealand's universal health care though, it was all free (even though I'm foreign...). Hopefully when the stitches come out, I'll have a good scar. They're about two or so inches below my left knee.
-Skyline Gondola. Gondola in the sense of a cable car, and not an Italian boat. The gondolas take you up the side of this huge hill/mountain thing overlooking Queenstown. At the top is a swanky restaurant, another bungee jump, and a luge track.
-Skyline Luge. Essentially the poor man's go karts, with gravity serving in place of a motor. The luge track snakes around, with lots of dips and sharp corners, and then a ski lift at the bottom to take you back up to do it again!
-Cromwell. The South Island's stone fruit capital. Stopped at a fruit stand to get some interesting produce (it is summer here after all). I ended up just getting weird things: some pluots (apricot plum hybrids), peacherines (peach nectarine hybrids), yellow plums, and kiwi berries (a little larger than a grape, with grape-like skin, but tasting just like a kiwi on the inside).
Got a little short near the end becaus I realize I have to go to class now. Whoops.
Food Find Two: They deep fry a lot of stuff here, including some cool/interesting things. Of note: a curry roll, which is basically an egg roll, but filled with curry, peas, meat, etc; lasagna, which was like a two inch square segment of pasta, sauce, and cheese, battered and fried.
I went to Queenstown this past weekend on an international student trip. The city is basically (from my gathering) the adventure tourism capital of the South Island. The aim of the trip was to pack in everything one would want to do in Queenstown, so we could have other weekends free to go other places. The activities:
-Stop in Roxburgh to eat Jimmy's Pies, apparently a New Zealand institution. It reminded me a lot of the little hole-in-the-wall bakeries in Texas that we would eat at for assorted famous dishes. Jimmy's had all the standard pies (mutton, mince, potato top) and some cool weird ones (chicken and mango, chicken and apricot). I got egg and (Canadian) bacon, which was good for 10 am.
-Stop at Quartz Reef winery for a tour and tasting. I guess this place is famous for their pinots, and we had a pinot noir and pinto gris. They were really good, although I know nothing about wine.
-AJ Hackett bungee at the Kawarau Bridge. This is the site of the first commercial bungee jump, and still one of the most popular. It's a 43 meter jump off a bridge into this clear, blue water. They ask you how wet you want to get, because they can adjust it so you miss the river all the way to a full dunk. I wasn't nearly as scared as I expected to be, and everyone in the group successfully completed the jump. I don't really remember much, since it's so short (about a 3 second freefall, and then 15 or so seconds of swinging and dangling while they raft over to unhook you) and there's so much adrenaline rushing through you. Still a pretty crazy experience to say you jumped off a bridge (well they'll push you if you don't jump after a five count).
-Dinner at the Cardrona Hotel, this fancy little hotel/restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. It's an old brick building with a big lawn out in the back, very rustic cottage-y. Food was decent.
-Shotover jet boat ride. Another Queenstown institution. You get taken out on the Shotover river, which is another clear, blue river in a souped up jet boat (two engines, 900 horsepower) to zoom around on the water, do 360 turns, get splashed, etc. for around thirty minutes. I think this was the highlight of the weekend for most of us, as this was pretty unlike anything anyone had done before. It's sort of a hybird between a roller coaster and a fast boat ride.
-Tramp in the New Zealand wilderness. Outside of Queenstown is where a lot of Lord of the Rings was filmed, so the whole group went on a hike. We ended up picking the wrong trail, so the views weren't the most memorable, but I did slip and impale myself on a rock, where I had to get four stitches.
-Queenstown Hospital. Spent about two hours on Saturday night getting looked at and stitched up (mostly just waiting though) at the hospital. Thanks to New Zealand's universal health care though, it was all free (even though I'm foreign...). Hopefully when the stitches come out, I'll have a good scar. They're about two or so inches below my left knee.
-Skyline Gondola. Gondola in the sense of a cable car, and not an Italian boat. The gondolas take you up the side of this huge hill/mountain thing overlooking Queenstown. At the top is a swanky restaurant, another bungee jump, and a luge track.
-Skyline Luge. Essentially the poor man's go karts, with gravity serving in place of a motor. The luge track snakes around, with lots of dips and sharp corners, and then a ski lift at the bottom to take you back up to do it again!
-Cromwell. The South Island's stone fruit capital. Stopped at a fruit stand to get some interesting produce (it is summer here after all). I ended up just getting weird things: some pluots (apricot plum hybrids), peacherines (peach nectarine hybrids), yellow plums, and kiwi berries (a little larger than a grape, with grape-like skin, but tasting just like a kiwi on the inside).
Got a little short near the end becaus I realize I have to go to class now. Whoops.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Alive and wet
Weather: It's been raining for four days straight here. My weather widget says it'll stop tomorrow, so we'll see. I can't think of a time when I've experienced rain of this constancy before in my life. What's worse is it's not even hard--a downpour or what have you--it's mostly just a light drizzle that never ends. I get the impression that not only is this typical, basically any type of weather can be expected at any time. What??
New Zealand is cool because: Basically any food can come in pie form. Currently in my fridge I've got chicken and veg, bacon and egg, and the mysteriously named "potato top."
New Zealand is weird because: Internet is all over the place. Actually, as an econ student, I guess I should marvel at the fact that it's pay as you go for bandwidth i.e. you use more gigs you pay more, but mostly it sucks because I'm the kind of person who would use more, and don't get penalized for that in the States.
Shaq says: "I hate leprekons lol."
Well I am alive, contrary to my amount of blogging. I finally got to Dunedin on Wednesday, and since then it's been a lot of stop and go as far as my activities. I've had to do all your basic moving into a new place things (a couple shopping trips for food staples, plus the Wal-Mart equivalent for towels, toiletries, etc) plus all your moving to a new country things (setting up a bank, getting a phone), plus all your starting a new semester things (campus tour, registering for classes, taking care of all my fees) so things have been pretty hectic, although not the most exciting. I'm living in a flat with five others, four of whom are American and one native Kiwi. The roommates are nice enough to be around, but probably people I won't see much of once school gets into full swing. Campus is about two blocks in one direction, the gym about two blocks in the other, and the main drag (George street) is about a ten minute walk, so can't complain about the location at all. The flat itself doesn't have any heating or cooling system, which will take some getting used to, but my room did come equipped with a pretty industrious space heater. The TV gets about seven channels, all of which mostly just show American or British shows (at night) or Rachel Ray and infomericals (during the day). School doesn't start until next week, but registration for classes ends tomorrow, so I guess all the students should be on or around campus by that time. I'm sure there are other interesting things going on, but they aren't coming to mind. I've been told I'll finally have internet access in the flat tonight (I've been using the library), and hopefully I can keep up to date a lot better as a result.
New Zealand is cool because: Basically any food can come in pie form. Currently in my fridge I've got chicken and veg, bacon and egg, and the mysteriously named "potato top."
New Zealand is weird because: Internet is all over the place. Actually, as an econ student, I guess I should marvel at the fact that it's pay as you go for bandwidth i.e. you use more gigs you pay more, but mostly it sucks because I'm the kind of person who would use more, and don't get penalized for that in the States.
Shaq says: "I hate leprekons lol."
Well I am alive, contrary to my amount of blogging. I finally got to Dunedin on Wednesday, and since then it's been a lot of stop and go as far as my activities. I've had to do all your basic moving into a new place things (a couple shopping trips for food staples, plus the Wal-Mart equivalent for towels, toiletries, etc) plus all your moving to a new country things (setting up a bank, getting a phone), plus all your starting a new semester things (campus tour, registering for classes, taking care of all my fees) so things have been pretty hectic, although not the most exciting. I'm living in a flat with five others, four of whom are American and one native Kiwi. The roommates are nice enough to be around, but probably people I won't see much of once school gets into full swing. Campus is about two blocks in one direction, the gym about two blocks in the other, and the main drag (George street) is about a ten minute walk, so can't complain about the location at all. The flat itself doesn't have any heating or cooling system, which will take some getting used to, but my room did come equipped with a pretty industrious space heater. The TV gets about seven channels, all of which mostly just show American or British shows (at night) or Rachel Ray and infomericals (during the day). School doesn't start until next week, but registration for classes ends tomorrow, so I guess all the students should be on or around campus by that time. I'm sure there are other interesting things going on, but they aren't coming to mind. I've been told I'll finally have internet access in the flat tonight (I've been using the library), and hopefully I can keep up to date a lot better as a result.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Okay more
So it's been a pretty long day--I'm still considering it that since there was no formal sleep time, although it's spanned three calendar days. Flight from IAH to LAX was pretty boring; the movie was "The Family that Preys," needless to say, I didn't watch. Watched "The Sting" on my computer (it was awesome), didn't eat the meal (it wasn't).
Had to switch to the international terminal at LAX, which I've never been to before. It's so much swankier than the usual Continental one I'm at. Had some fancy restaurants and lots of neon and giant Kobes. Still had to wait about an hour to get through security (versus no time at all in Houston). Eventually made it onto the plane, which ended up being delayed for two and a half hours while they closed a loose valve. Right. They showed us an episode of Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty while we waited. Quite the consolation. Mostly I passed the time talking to the cool Texan couple in my row. This was an 11 hour flight, but since they were leasing these crummy planes from United, we didn't get individual TVs. Instead, they chose the movies for us, which were "City of Ember" (watched from LAX to Houston in December), "The Longshots" (chose not to watch from SFO to Houston), and "The Family that Preys" (...again?). I sort of drifted in and out of consciousness for most of the fight.
Finally got to Fiji, which was the most podunk airport I've been to. The terrain was beautiful, but it was basically a runway and a terminal in the middle of a tropical village. I had to get off the plane, wait in security, and then walk right back onto the same plane. That math didn't really add up. We were running so late from the LAX delay that I didn't get time to look at all the interesting things in the Fiji tourist shops, but luckily I'll be back in June.
Eventually made it to Auckland, where I had to navigate the bus system to get to my hostel. There was a really helpful Kiwi woman at the airport who got me onto the right bus for the first leg, which took me downtown to this gigantic bus depot. From there, I finally found a map and able to get on the second bus, where another really nice man (the busdriver) helped me get to my next stop. At this point, I was within the radius of my hostel, but still didn't know where it was. I wandered around for a while, until I asked a guy for directions. He just happened to have formerly lived next door to the hostel, so he told me to throw all my stuff in his car, and drove me right there! Another friendly Kiwi.
I settled in, showered, and set out to explore the best I could. Which of course means going to a grocery store. Produce looked good, there was a huge Cadbury selection, and lots of interesting meats and sausages. I bought a sandwich called "Brunch Benedict," which was a cold poached egg, ham, lettuce, and hollandaise on wheat. A good idea, but the sandwich itself was gross. I roamed downtown Auckland for a while, going into a mall and checking out a movie theater (8 American movies and two Chinese). For the most part, the city seems pretty standard, at least the downtown touristy parts. I went to Sky Tower, which is the tallest structure in NZ (and some girls I talked to seem to think in the whole Southern Hemisphere), but is mostly a hotel and casino. I lost two dollers in a slot machine, which I think was well spent. They carded me going in, but the gambling age here is 20, so I was off the hook. Also bought a beer at dinner, so that was exhilirating.
Ok looks like my Canadian roommate Roger wants to sleep, so time to stop making noise.
Had to switch to the international terminal at LAX, which I've never been to before. It's so much swankier than the usual Continental one I'm at. Had some fancy restaurants and lots of neon and giant Kobes. Still had to wait about an hour to get through security (versus no time at all in Houston). Eventually made it onto the plane, which ended up being delayed for two and a half hours while they closed a loose valve. Right. They showed us an episode of Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty while we waited. Quite the consolation. Mostly I passed the time talking to the cool Texan couple in my row. This was an 11 hour flight, but since they were leasing these crummy planes from United, we didn't get individual TVs. Instead, they chose the movies for us, which were "City of Ember" (watched from LAX to Houston in December), "The Longshots" (chose not to watch from SFO to Houston), and "The Family that Preys" (...again?). I sort of drifted in and out of consciousness for most of the fight.
Finally got to Fiji, which was the most podunk airport I've been to. The terrain was beautiful, but it was basically a runway and a terminal in the middle of a tropical village. I had to get off the plane, wait in security, and then walk right back onto the same plane. That math didn't really add up. We were running so late from the LAX delay that I didn't get time to look at all the interesting things in the Fiji tourist shops, but luckily I'll be back in June.
Eventually made it to Auckland, where I had to navigate the bus system to get to my hostel. There was a really helpful Kiwi woman at the airport who got me onto the right bus for the first leg, which took me downtown to this gigantic bus depot. From there, I finally found a map and able to get on the second bus, where another really nice man (the busdriver) helped me get to my next stop. At this point, I was within the radius of my hostel, but still didn't know where it was. I wandered around for a while, until I asked a guy for directions. He just happened to have formerly lived next door to the hostel, so he told me to throw all my stuff in his car, and drove me right there! Another friendly Kiwi.
I settled in, showered, and set out to explore the best I could. Which of course means going to a grocery store. Produce looked good, there was a huge Cadbury selection, and lots of interesting meats and sausages. I bought a sandwich called "Brunch Benedict," which was a cold poached egg, ham, lettuce, and hollandaise on wheat. A good idea, but the sandwich itself was gross. I roamed downtown Auckland for a while, going into a mall and checking out a movie theater (8 American movies and two Chinese). For the most part, the city seems pretty standard, at least the downtown touristy parts. I went to Sky Tower, which is the tallest structure in NZ (and some girls I talked to seem to think in the whole Southern Hemisphere), but is mostly a hotel and casino. I lost two dollers in a slot machine, which I think was well spent. They carded me going in, but the gambling age here is 20, so I was off the hook. Also bought a beer at dinner, so that was exhilirating.
Ok looks like my Canadian roommate Roger wants to sleep, so time to stop making noise.
Finally in NZ
Sports Thought: Watched about the first twenty minutes of the H-O-R-S-E contest while I was waiting to board in Houston, aaaaaand...it was boring. As expected. It started to get good when O.J. went into the audience stands and made a shot, but then I got on the plane. So who knows where it went from there.
Food Find: Really saw the evolution of airplane food on this trip. First leg was a Continental flight from Houston to LAX, which served these disgusting cheeseburgers (I assume, I passed on them) with an iceberg lettuce salad and probably some candy. Then I was on Air Pacific from LAX to Fiji, but they were leasing a plane from United, and got United food instead. This was a choice between beef and chicken, so I went with chicken. It was like a stir-fry TV dinner, with chicken, teriyaki sauace, rice, carrots, and peas. Plus a salad that was just romaine lettuce, a roll, and this thing called an oatmeal chew, which was basically a really soft, oblong, oatmeal cookie. There was breakfast too, which was pancakes filled with raisins and apples, weird sausage, AND banana bread. That's a lot of sweet breads. Then came the king of all, the actual Air Pacific flight, from Fiji to Auckland. It came on a tray (classy); the entree was a foil box containing an omelette, hash brown, sausage, marinara sauce (?), and corn (??). There was orange juice in a little mug, mixed fruit (pineapple, pears, apricot, peaches), a strawberry yogurt, and a little spice roll with authentic New Zealand butter. Plus a hot towel.
America Watch: I've seen Wisconsin Burgers, Hollywood Espresso, and Texan Art School. The last one is really perplexing, because it was mostly just a jewelry store. But the Hollywood and Texas stores show that they're really targeting their marketing at me.
New Zealand is cool because: The little walk man on the pedestrian walkways is animated!
New Zealand is weird because: At the grocery store, they kept the dog food refrigerated and the eggs not!!
Shaq says: "Allen iverson cut off his braids, dam hes cute, lol,"
Ok there's more, but the battery is dying, so that's the best I can do.
Food Find: Really saw the evolution of airplane food on this trip. First leg was a Continental flight from Houston to LAX, which served these disgusting cheeseburgers (I assume, I passed on them) with an iceberg lettuce salad and probably some candy. Then I was on Air Pacific from LAX to Fiji, but they were leasing a plane from United, and got United food instead. This was a choice between beef and chicken, so I went with chicken. It was like a stir-fry TV dinner, with chicken, teriyaki sauace, rice, carrots, and peas. Plus a salad that was just romaine lettuce, a roll, and this thing called an oatmeal chew, which was basically a really soft, oblong, oatmeal cookie. There was breakfast too, which was pancakes filled with raisins and apples, weird sausage, AND banana bread. That's a lot of sweet breads. Then came the king of all, the actual Air Pacific flight, from Fiji to Auckland. It came on a tray (classy); the entree was a foil box containing an omelette, hash brown, sausage, marinara sauce (?), and corn (??). There was orange juice in a little mug, mixed fruit (pineapple, pears, apricot, peaches), a strawberry yogurt, and a little spice roll with authentic New Zealand butter. Plus a hot towel.
America Watch: I've seen Wisconsin Burgers, Hollywood Espresso, and Texan Art School. The last one is really perplexing, because it was mostly just a jewelry store. But the Hollywood and Texas stores show that they're really targeting their marketing at me.
New Zealand is cool because: The little walk man on the pedestrian walkways is animated!
New Zealand is weird because: At the grocery store, they kept the dog food refrigerated and the eggs not!!
Shaq says: "Allen iverson cut off his braids, dam hes cute, lol,"
Ok there's more, but the battery is dying, so that's the best I can do.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Austin
Sports Thought: O.J. Mayo in the NBA All-Star H-O-R-S-E Game! Score. I think from a regular fan's view, the lineup is pretty weak (no Rasheed?), but maybe they were instead going for that lucrative market of Tennesseans and Southern California basketball fans. All I can say is, the last time I saw O.J. play in person, he spent the whole game shooting/dunking over the Lopez twins, so maybe he can embarrass Kevin Durant to some degree too.
Food Find: An important lesson I learned this weekend is that lying is often the right thing to do. I went to the Austin P.F. Chang's with my friend Shannon specifically to have this waiter, TJ, who she had for her birthday in November, since he was like a life changing experience (so much so that he gave her his card at the end of the meal). Although we had to wait about an extra half hour to get a table in his section, he was really excited to learn it was my birthday (it wasn't), and even said he remembered me from Shannon's birthday (impossible). But nevertheless, he brought us free lettuce wraps, upgraded our seafood entree to include THREE different dead things from the sea (scallops, shrimp, and calamari), and brought us a free dessert eggroll (banana in wrapper and fried) with ice cream, fruit, and candles at the end. Apart from the freeness, the food was about what I would expected from a mass producing mega chain. The spicy seafood was too hot to eat consistently (even for two hot-food-loving native Texans), the cucumber salad was tossed in virtually no dressing, and the secret ingredient in the lettuce wraps was an uncompromising amount of salt. The highlight, though, was the Peking duck, which TJ recommended, telling us he "didn't normally like duck," but this was some sort of hyperbolic experience. I don't normally like duck either, but the P.F. Chang's stuff was really well smoked and seasoned, and didn't have too much of that gamey taste you'd expect from non-chicken poultry.
Shaq Says: "Ok i admit it i at performance enhancing frosted flakes 2 yrs ago, lol"
So as I mentioned above, I spent most of the weekend in Austin, specifically at the UT campus. Most of what I did involved food, as usual, or Texan-y things.
-Before I left, got breakfast at La Bodega, a taqueria in town, with my dad. I was really impressed by this place's breakfast menu, since it was basically all your Tex Mex staples, but altered so they could be served in the AM. Dad got breakfast enchiladas, which were corn tortillas filled with eggs, black beans, and cheese, then topped with a "spicy tomato butter" and chorizo. I got some breakfast tacos, one with really good, citrusy crawfish and the other with spice rubbed salmon. The crawfish worked in the taco context, but the fish did not at all--the fish flavor just didn't mesh with eggs. Both came with potatoes and a refried black beans.
-A typical go to in Austin is the Whole Foods in the middle of town, so our lunch was no different. I had already eaten my big TexMexBrex, so I just confined myself to dessert. Unfortunately, Whole Foods has just added a dessert bar, and my major achilles heel is choice, so I ended up getting samples of eight or so. The highlights: a cinnamon roll bread pudding, which was basically a bread pudding with cinnamon and raisins, topped with a cream cheese frosting; Mexican chocolate bread pudding, which had cinnamon and chiles in it; breakfast bread pudding, which was made with challah, and had maple syrup and bacon in it; and mint brownies, which were...brownies with mint in them, and a mint frosting, and then brownies on top as well. There were other things I ate, but I can't recall them so they aren't worth recalling.
-We saw a show at this semi-famous bar in downtown called Stubb's. The band was called the Bridge, who had billed themself as a bluegrass funk jamband, and I think they satisfied all those criteria. I really like bands that have more instruments than the typical guitar-bass-drum combo, and these guys didn't disappoint, sporting a sax player, a guy on a mandolin (both acoustic and an electric, Les Paul mandolin) who also beatboxed, and a keyboardist (who also had an electric organ). They also traveled with a Scandanavian artist duo who "painted the show" and then sold it afterward. The show was really solid, really only limited by the fact that there were about thirteen people in the audience.
-Ate at this place called the Austin Cookie Lounge about two or so blocks from campus which lets you custom make your own cookies. They had six different batters (and two gluten free) which you select from and then about forty mix-ins, including various chocolates, dried fruits, nuts, and candy bars. Once you place your order, they go ahead and bake it for you. This is one of the smartest ideas I've seen, so the less I say the better. That way I can go open my Southern Californian ripoff, and nobody else will beat me to it.
-Sunday night we got to see the 10th anniversary screening of Office Space. The whole movie was filmed in Austin (except for two scenes in Dallas, which was brought up by a fan in the q&a), and Mike Judge, the writer/director, is affiliated with Austin, hence its showing there. I think this movie really proved that there are fanboys for basically every popular quirky film, with people dressing up and bringing props to the showing. We had seats in row V, upper balcony, which was the last central row in the entire theater. I was pretty glad I've seen this movie some fifteen times, since people were quoting along and laughing before jokes were told, and applauding for the first appearance of every character. Afterward, a decent number of cast members came out on stage (Samir, Michael Bolton, Lumbergh, Brian the waiter, Nina the receptionist, Lawrence, the Bobs (one being John C. McGinley, aka Dr. Cox of Scrubs), and Milton) and answered some really nerdy questions (whether the deleted scene with the security guard would be included on the Blue-Ray since it wasn't on regular edition, etc.).
Food Find: An important lesson I learned this weekend is that lying is often the right thing to do. I went to the Austin P.F. Chang's with my friend Shannon specifically to have this waiter, TJ, who she had for her birthday in November, since he was like a life changing experience (so much so that he gave her his card at the end of the meal). Although we had to wait about an extra half hour to get a table in his section, he was really excited to learn it was my birthday (it wasn't), and even said he remembered me from Shannon's birthday (impossible). But nevertheless, he brought us free lettuce wraps, upgraded our seafood entree to include THREE different dead things from the sea (scallops, shrimp, and calamari), and brought us a free dessert eggroll (banana in wrapper and fried) with ice cream, fruit, and candles at the end. Apart from the freeness, the food was about what I would expected from a mass producing mega chain. The spicy seafood was too hot to eat consistently (even for two hot-food-loving native Texans), the cucumber salad was tossed in virtually no dressing, and the secret ingredient in the lettuce wraps was an uncompromising amount of salt. The highlight, though, was the Peking duck, which TJ recommended, telling us he "didn't normally like duck," but this was some sort of hyperbolic experience. I don't normally like duck either, but the P.F. Chang's stuff was really well smoked and seasoned, and didn't have too much of that gamey taste you'd expect from non-chicken poultry.
Shaq Says: "Ok i admit it i at performance enhancing frosted flakes 2 yrs ago, lol"
So as I mentioned above, I spent most of the weekend in Austin, specifically at the UT campus. Most of what I did involved food, as usual, or Texan-y things.
-Before I left, got breakfast at La Bodega, a taqueria in town, with my dad. I was really impressed by this place's breakfast menu, since it was basically all your Tex Mex staples, but altered so they could be served in the AM. Dad got breakfast enchiladas, which were corn tortillas filled with eggs, black beans, and cheese, then topped with a "spicy tomato butter" and chorizo. I got some breakfast tacos, one with really good, citrusy crawfish and the other with spice rubbed salmon. The crawfish worked in the taco context, but the fish did not at all--the fish flavor just didn't mesh with eggs. Both came with potatoes and a refried black beans.
-A typical go to in Austin is the Whole Foods in the middle of town, so our lunch was no different. I had already eaten my big TexMexBrex, so I just confined myself to dessert. Unfortunately, Whole Foods has just added a dessert bar, and my major achilles heel is choice, so I ended up getting samples of eight or so. The highlights: a cinnamon roll bread pudding, which was basically a bread pudding with cinnamon and raisins, topped with a cream cheese frosting; Mexican chocolate bread pudding, which had cinnamon and chiles in it; breakfast bread pudding, which was made with challah, and had maple syrup and bacon in it; and mint brownies, which were...brownies with mint in them, and a mint frosting, and then brownies on top as well. There were other things I ate, but I can't recall them so they aren't worth recalling.
-We saw a show at this semi-famous bar in downtown called Stubb's. The band was called the Bridge, who had billed themself as a bluegrass funk jamband, and I think they satisfied all those criteria. I really like bands that have more instruments than the typical guitar-bass-drum combo, and these guys didn't disappoint, sporting a sax player, a guy on a mandolin (both acoustic and an electric, Les Paul mandolin) who also beatboxed, and a keyboardist (who also had an electric organ). They also traveled with a Scandanavian artist duo who "painted the show" and then sold it afterward. The show was really solid, really only limited by the fact that there were about thirteen people in the audience.
-Ate at this place called the Austin Cookie Lounge about two or so blocks from campus which lets you custom make your own cookies. They had six different batters (and two gluten free) which you select from and then about forty mix-ins, including various chocolates, dried fruits, nuts, and candy bars. Once you place your order, they go ahead and bake it for you. This is one of the smartest ideas I've seen, so the less I say the better. That way I can go open my Southern Californian ripoff, and nobody else will beat me to it.
-Sunday night we got to see the 10th anniversary screening of Office Space. The whole movie was filmed in Austin (except for two scenes in Dallas, which was brought up by a fan in the q&a), and Mike Judge, the writer/director, is affiliated with Austin, hence its showing there. I think this movie really proved that there are fanboys for basically every popular quirky film, with people dressing up and bringing props to the showing. We had seats in row V, upper balcony, which was the last central row in the entire theater. I was pretty glad I've seen this movie some fifteen times, since people were quoting along and laughing before jokes were told, and applauding for the first appearance of every character. Afterward, a decent number of cast members came out on stage (Samir, Michael Bolton, Lumbergh, Brian the waiter, Nina the receptionist, Lawrence, the Bobs (one being John C. McGinley, aka Dr. Cox of Scrubs), and Milton) and answered some really nerdy questions (whether the deleted scene with the security guard would be included on the Blue-Ray since it wasn't on regular edition, etc.).
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Why the Internet Exists
Well nothing has really been going on, so I thought I'd just post about one of the greatest things ever. Shaq's Twitter. Shaq, for those unaware, is a gigantic, barely literate basketball player, Miami police officer, platinum certified rapper, and occasional actor. While I'm sure many of you would love to read all of his Tweets, you might not have the time for such an undertaking. Luckily, I have a disgusting amount of time. So I present the Shaq Twitter highlights.
Typically, Shaq makes a point of telling you what city he's in for an away game, and what he's doing there. Examples.
Typically, Shaq makes a point of telling you what city he's in for an away game, and what he's doing there. Examples.
- I went to alcatraz, i sat n the same cell clint eastwood at in
- Im n love with da city of toronto
- Bernie macs last movie soul man is the funniest movie ever, im watchn it now n denver
- Its co sold in porltand i catn even tpye srtaight
- Its so cold in porland the sun just sent me a text, yo shaq ill c u n may Schwwwwwww
- Why do they call minneapolis, the twin cities, nobody here looks a like, waaa waaa waaaaa
- Say it aint so what im reading about michael phelps....is this real
- Im n canada which teamate should i hit wit a snowball, i say robin lopez
- Is yao ming really a half a million all star votes better than me, my twitterish brothers and sisters
- Last nite i told greg oden , "we r not the same, i am a martian"
- Anotha sleepless nite, n twitter land, aaaaaggggghhhhhhh, whyyyyyyyyyyyy
- ust lil tired, cant sleep after, embarassing losses/ shaqsomnia
- i could neva sleep aftera loss like dat, i have double imsomnia
- I cant sleep gotta get 2 walmart
- Cant sleep after a loss, watchn maury povich, i am not the father schwwwww
- Cant sleep i think i maay have mental imsomnia, plus im watchn the lost boys
- I neva get bored just dnt want u 2 get bored wit me
- Question Should one b remembered 4 what he did Or what he is doing
- If you have done less than what i have done, how can u comment on what more needs 2 happen Shaquille oneal
- Im not bored To much homework Workn on my doctorate Coming soon Dr shaq
- My son had a nightmare hes up wit me, he asked daddy how come u aint sleep, i told him, i dont sleep i dream
- Even the aliens no me, da ones real far, i speak to em like ibadablaa, Jigamagla, bockeraaa
- Just saw punisher, great bloody movie, aggggggh, dats what i , nevamind lol, aggggggh (growl) (snarl) spit
- How come i have the mr rogers neighborhhood theme song stuk n my head, iz he still alive
- Watchn true blood, thats were i was born and raised, dat vampire town, shaqula has been discovered aaaaggggh
- I get my neck cracked b4 everygame, today i felt a xtra clikadee clak
- I need help subway or schlotsskys for lunch, big game tonite
- ABOUT TO EAT DINNER, I PASSED UP 20 MCDONALDS TODAY. I COULDNT DO IT I'M ON A DIET,BUT MCDONALDS FRIES R THE BEST UM UM UM
Friday, January 30, 2009
My Brush With Fame
Food Find: So apparently a place has opened up in BCS (that's the Bryan/College Station area for those like...two people...reading this who are not from Texas) that sells "authentic Australian meat pies." If you'll remember, a few weeks ago I went to a place in San Francisco selling take-away meat pies. These Australian ones seem to be less experimental, and more traditional, but it's still an interesting occurrence. I haven't been yet (but I think I'm going on Saturday), but my dad went and ended up spending 30 minutes talking to the nice owner about the art and science of meat pies. That plus he ended up buying four pies (two shepard's, one beef and bacon, one beef and mushroom), four kolaches, a loaf of bread, and some cinnamon rolls. I think if pies end up being the primary food source in New Zealand, I can make a semester easy.
Popular Culture: While I fully endorse the fact that The Wire is one of the best television dramas I've ever seen (putting it up with seasons one and two of Lost and the Rob Lowe era of The West Wing), I think it may have ruined the entire genre of crime drama for me. Watching both Fringe and Life on Mars, two shows I healthily enjoyed pre-Wire, all I can notice is how un-authentic they seem to be. No chain of command, no studying of criminals, no methodology, people running off on assignments by themselves, it goes on and on. A friend of mine explained to me once why he would never try ecstasy, since "your brain could never chemically be that happy again, the rest of your life is just depression," and I think The Wire may have done this to crime dramas.
Well nothing too thrilling has been happening here, so I thought I'd relay a story which was cool at the time, but is seemingly more relevant now. About a year ago, I went to this legislative seminar with the USC Political Science department, where they flew about seven students up to Sacramento, and we met with state senators and congresspeople and just sort of shot the bull about laws and government and whatever. The trip itself was cool, especially since it was basically an all-expenses paid weekend vacation to Sacramento, with no real obligations on my part. But the best part was, afterwards, I somehow got on the POSC mailing list for cool, secret, events. This came up a week or so later, when I got an email inviting me to a private screening of a Ron Howard movie. Not one to pass up a free film, I RSVPed and found myself at the Ron Howard screening room in the Robert Zemeckis Digital Arts Center (or whatever it's called).
The room was this swanky little theater, seating about fifty, with cool red velvet chairs. Initially I sat in the back, and turned out to be a row right in front of Ron Howard. I did a little eavesdropping while he was on the phone, as he told someone that he wouldn't be able to work on a project since he would be in "Angels and Demons mode" at that time. Eventually I moved up front, and Ron introduced the now Best-Picture-nominated Frost/Nixon. The movie was basically a final cut, with Ron telling us that there wouldn't be any changes to editing or anything until it was released. The footage was a little grainy though, something I guess they clean up in post-production. Afterward he did a Q&A with the audience about what they liked: pacing, score, and a few other things. He really focused on some "Where are they now" slides which came at the end of the movie, asking us if we liked the text, if it fit, etc. A lot of the people in the audience were really obnoxious film types, trying to give legitimate and educated-sounding answers, but I did give some input (aka: got to talk to Ron Howard), which was pretty cool. He had told us that even though it was done, they were going to sit on it until Oscar season, and lo and behold here it is. I guess it's just part of the USC experience.
Popular Culture: While I fully endorse the fact that The Wire is one of the best television dramas I've ever seen (putting it up with seasons one and two of Lost and the Rob Lowe era of The West Wing), I think it may have ruined the entire genre of crime drama for me. Watching both Fringe and Life on Mars, two shows I healthily enjoyed pre-Wire, all I can notice is how un-authentic they seem to be. No chain of command, no studying of criminals, no methodology, people running off on assignments by themselves, it goes on and on. A friend of mine explained to me once why he would never try ecstasy, since "your brain could never chemically be that happy again, the rest of your life is just depression," and I think The Wire may have done this to crime dramas.
Well nothing too thrilling has been happening here, so I thought I'd relay a story which was cool at the time, but is seemingly more relevant now. About a year ago, I went to this legislative seminar with the USC Political Science department, where they flew about seven students up to Sacramento, and we met with state senators and congresspeople and just sort of shot the bull about laws and government and whatever. The trip itself was cool, especially since it was basically an all-expenses paid weekend vacation to Sacramento, with no real obligations on my part. But the best part was, afterwards, I somehow got on the POSC mailing list for cool, secret, events. This came up a week or so later, when I got an email inviting me to a private screening of a Ron Howard movie. Not one to pass up a free film, I RSVPed and found myself at the Ron Howard screening room in the Robert Zemeckis Digital Arts Center (or whatever it's called).
The room was this swanky little theater, seating about fifty, with cool red velvet chairs. Initially I sat in the back, and turned out to be a row right in front of Ron Howard. I did a little eavesdropping while he was on the phone, as he told someone that he wouldn't be able to work on a project since he would be in "Angels and Demons mode" at that time. Eventually I moved up front, and Ron introduced the now Best-Picture-nominated Frost/Nixon. The movie was basically a final cut, with Ron telling us that there wouldn't be any changes to editing or anything until it was released. The footage was a little grainy though, something I guess they clean up in post-production. Afterward he did a Q&A with the audience about what they liked: pacing, score, and a few other things. He really focused on some "Where are they now" slides which came at the end of the movie, asking us if we liked the text, if it fit, etc. A lot of the people in the audience were really obnoxious film types, trying to give legitimate and educated-sounding answers, but I did give some input (aka: got to talk to Ron Howard), which was pretty cool. He had told us that even though it was done, they were going to sit on it until Oscar season, and lo and behold here it is. I guess it's just part of the USC experience.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
2009 New Zealand Open
ETD:So this year's Australian Open, although normally viewed as an appetizer for the three "real" tournaments, has been one of the most interesting grand slams of recent, comparable to even the 2008 NFL season (which by the way will finish with the Cardinals over the Steelers 41-38, bonus points to whoever recognizes that score). I honestly can't think of a single analyst who even came close to predicting anything accurately about the season. Women's tennis has been equally frustrating, with favorites Venus and Jankovic dropping eartly. I don't include Ivanovic because she's headed on the Kournikova path.
The real stories have been in men's tennis, who seem to be stirring up more drama than their wonderful counterparts. Remember when Roddick called Djokovic out for being "quick to call the trainer" in the US Open, only to lose in the quarters to Djokovic? It looks like the loss stayed with him (Djokovic jeered at Roddick in front of the Ashe-packed crowd), because Roddick dominated Djokovic, leading 2 sets to 1, before Joke-ovic retired because of "heat exhaustion." I'm biased since Roddick's serve-faster-than-speed-of-light, hit-a-forehand-no-matter-what style has always been fun for me to watch, but Djokovic has retired in way too many big matches - Deion Sanders would not approve. I'm just ready to see Roddick get yet another shot at Federer and hoping Tsonga can take out Nadal since Nadal-Federer would not be old at all. Speaking of Federer, it was fun to hear his pre-tourney comments on Andy Murray, who was picked as the favourite to win over him. Apparently Federer was confused as to why Murray was the favourite, labeling him as "unproven." After putting Berdych away in five sets (extremely entertaining for those who watched), Federer went on to say that he would "take [Murray] on any day in a five-setter," and that he'd "always favour himself" in a five setter. Murray's beaten Federer the last 4 meetings, and it's a bit sad that Federer won't be able to put the Scot in his place with Murray being taken out quite quickly by Verdasco. While we're on the topic of quick matches, the Federer-Del Potro match was absolutely ruthless, with Federer finishing him off in straight sets 6-3, 6-0, 6-0. News has it Del Potro enrolled in Dallas Academy the following day.
Non-sports related knowledge that I learned today: getting a running start and "sidewalk surfing" after it snows is an immediate giveaway that you are from Texas.
The real stories have been in men's tennis, who seem to be stirring up more drama than their wonderful counterparts. Remember when Roddick called Djokovic out for being "quick to call the trainer" in the US Open, only to lose in the quarters to Djokovic? It looks like the loss stayed with him (Djokovic jeered at Roddick in front of the Ashe-packed crowd), because Roddick dominated Djokovic, leading 2 sets to 1, before Joke-ovic retired because of "heat exhaustion." I'm biased since Roddick's serve-faster-than-speed-of-light, hit-a-forehand-no-matter-what style has always been fun for me to watch, but Djokovic has retired in way too many big matches - Deion Sanders would not approve. I'm just ready to see Roddick get yet another shot at Federer and hoping Tsonga can take out Nadal since Nadal-Federer would not be old at all. Speaking of Federer, it was fun to hear his pre-tourney comments on Andy Murray, who was picked as the favourite to win over him. Apparently Federer was confused as to why Murray was the favourite, labeling him as "unproven." After putting Berdych away in five sets (extremely entertaining for those who watched), Federer went on to say that he would "take [Murray] on any day in a five-setter," and that he'd "always favour himself" in a five setter. Murray's beaten Federer the last 4 meetings, and it's a bit sad that Federer won't be able to put the Scot in his place with Murray being taken out quite quickly by Verdasco. While we're on the topic of quick matches, the Federer-Del Potro match was absolutely ruthless, with Federer finishing him off in straight sets 6-3, 6-0, 6-0. News has it Del Potro enrolled in Dallas Academy the following day.
Non-sports related knowledge that I learned today: getting a running start and "sidewalk surfing" after it snows is an immediate giveaway that you are from Texas.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Black Violin
Sports thought: SC announced that they'll have a home and home with Minnesota in 2010 and 2011. My initial sentiment is...disappointment. While it's nice to at least be playing a legitimate opponent (not everyone gets the opportunity to beef up their National Championship resume with a 70 point performance over the Citadel), and obviously it's going to be impossible to schedule big marquee games every season (see: Ohio State, Nebraska), it still is...Minnesota. The same Golden Gophers who lost their last five straight (including one to a Michigan team trying to rewrite the book on the term "rebuilding season"), and muscled their way into the Insight Bowl (wowwww) on a 7-5 record. Now granted that was 2008, and we don't see them until 2010, but if I had to chance SC's national title shot, I'd feel a lot more comfortable saying 2010 then 2009 (since we'll probably have a second year starter at QB, potentially a senior Joe McKnight, and some returning starters on defense), and we can take as many big wins over big programs as we can come by. So I guess...let's all hope Notre Dame gets better? Ha, yeah right.
Texas appreciation: I think people who stay in Texas most of their lives don't really savor the fact that kolaches--arguably the greatest breakfast option of all--are virtually nonexistent outside of the state. For those unfortunate enough as to never having been introduced to a kolache, it's basically a dinner roll (i.e. some soft, sweet bread), filled with jam, fruit, delicious cured meats, or cheese. If I really had to lower myself to a comparison, the fruit ones are like a danish and the meat ones are like a Hot Pocket. Except that really doesn't do a kolache justice. Their excellence comes in the fact that the bread is really light and doughy--not the sort of glazed, flaky examples you find in other breakfast foods. Although they don't get a lot of respect in terms of Texas cuisine, I would argue that kolaches easily deserve a place up with Tex-Mex or brisket.
Music: Do people actually listen to Tom Waits? And if so, how??
So tonight, thanks to my A&M contact and good friend Kathryn, I scored tickets to see a group called Black Violin on campus. We didn't really know much, except that the show was billed as a "hip-hop violin duo" and that the tickets were free. The first thing I noticed, milling around the foyer before the show, was that the crowd who had shown up was noticeably hipper than I expected. Now I'm going to have to choose my words carefully here, but in my mind, A&M students have a certain...look to them. This may or may not include crew cuts, camo hats with fishhooks in them, and Wrangler jeans. Now while not all students look like this, I think you'd be hard pressed to get a group of fifty or so in a room, and have nobody fit this description. Except that was absolutely the case with the Black Violin show. Maybe 200-300 students, and they were all...well...cool. I pointed this out to Kathryn, and she was, understandably, offended.
Now what we didn't realize was that Black Violin was here as a part of a bigger show. So we sit down and here starts a sorority doing about a fifteen minute step routine, followed by two more. The effect/reaction on the crowd was awesome--people were shouting and hooting back at the performers, doing the stepping and clapping motions along with them, and dancing in the aisles. This was, admittedly, my first step show, but it was a pretty excellent experience. They had these whole elaborate skits played out, used canes and props, costume changes, the whole works.
Black Violin came and played after this. The group (which was actually one violinist, one violist, and a DJ) predominantly played rap covers on their instruments. The DJ would play beats from a lot of current, popular things (Lil Wayne, Usher, Akon, etc.) and the guys would do the vocal equivelents and a whole slew of flourishes. This was the first, and most likely last, time I've ever seen a dance pit form at a violin concert, complete with the obligatory grinding. The guys also did some hip-hop classical covers (most notably Brandenburg 3), and their version of a rap battle on their instruments. The musicians themselves were hilarious, and put on a great stage show. I went home and got their album, which isn't nearly as good (part of the problem is I assume they don't have the rights to all the songs they play in concert, so can't put them on a record), but the show itself was a blast. I don't think I'm ever going to get to see people dancing in the aisles to violin music again in my life, so this goes down in the record books.
Texas appreciation: I think people who stay in Texas most of their lives don't really savor the fact that kolaches--arguably the greatest breakfast option of all--are virtually nonexistent outside of the state. For those unfortunate enough as to never having been introduced to a kolache, it's basically a dinner roll (i.e. some soft, sweet bread), filled with jam, fruit, delicious cured meats, or cheese. If I really had to lower myself to a comparison, the fruit ones are like a danish and the meat ones are like a Hot Pocket. Except that really doesn't do a kolache justice. Their excellence comes in the fact that the bread is really light and doughy--not the sort of glazed, flaky examples you find in other breakfast foods. Although they don't get a lot of respect in terms of Texas cuisine, I would argue that kolaches easily deserve a place up with Tex-Mex or brisket.
Music: Do people actually listen to Tom Waits? And if so, how??
So tonight, thanks to my A&M contact and good friend Kathryn, I scored tickets to see a group called Black Violin on campus. We didn't really know much, except that the show was billed as a "hip-hop violin duo" and that the tickets were free. The first thing I noticed, milling around the foyer before the show, was that the crowd who had shown up was noticeably hipper than I expected. Now I'm going to have to choose my words carefully here, but in my mind, A&M students have a certain...look to them. This may or may not include crew cuts, camo hats with fishhooks in them, and Wrangler jeans. Now while not all students look like this, I think you'd be hard pressed to get a group of fifty or so in a room, and have nobody fit this description. Except that was absolutely the case with the Black Violin show. Maybe 200-300 students, and they were all...well...cool. I pointed this out to Kathryn, and she was, understandably, offended.
Now what we didn't realize was that Black Violin was here as a part of a bigger show. So we sit down and here starts a sorority doing about a fifteen minute step routine, followed by two more. The effect/reaction on the crowd was awesome--people were shouting and hooting back at the performers, doing the stepping and clapping motions along with them, and dancing in the aisles. This was, admittedly, my first step show, but it was a pretty excellent experience. They had these whole elaborate skits played out, used canes and props, costume changes, the whole works.
Black Violin came and played after this. The group (which was actually one violinist, one violist, and a DJ) predominantly played rap covers on their instruments. The DJ would play beats from a lot of current, popular things (Lil Wayne, Usher, Akon, etc.) and the guys would do the vocal equivelents and a whole slew of flourishes. This was the first, and most likely last, time I've ever seen a dance pit form at a violin concert, complete with the obligatory grinding. The guys also did some hip-hop classical covers (most notably Brandenburg 3), and their version of a rap battle on their instruments. The musicians themselves were hilarious, and put on a great stage show. I went home and got their album, which isn't nearly as good (part of the problem is I assume they don't have the rights to all the songs they play in concert, so can't put them on a record), but the show itself was a blast. I don't think I'm ever going to get to see people dancing in the aisles to violin music again in my life, so this goes down in the record books.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Food
Sports thought: So I'm infinitely happy that the Eagles aren't going to the Super Bowl. Apart from the fact that they're an NFC East team not playing in northern Texas, and thus a sworn enemy, this also comes from a culinary standpoint. Every year, my dad and I make a big food production for the game based on the cities the two teams are from...and I was not going to be eating cheese steak. No way. I'm a little disappointed that crab is out with Baltimore, but Arizona still leaves us a lot of southwest, Meixcan-y options. And Pittsburgh has uh...you know...steel cut oats? There's gotta be some sort of regional cuisine for them.
Weather: It was like 65 degrees today. Texas is awesome when it wants to be.
This long weekend has been filled with various cooking escapades. Starting Friday (and continuing into Saturday morning), I made some scratch cinnamon rolls. Next time you go into a bakery and buy some cinnamon rolls, make sure you thank the makers/bakers profusely. So much more work went into these things than I thought possible or expected (although part of the reason was it was an Alton Brown recipe, which have like eighty more steps than you think should be necessary). The basic steps are make dough, let dough rise, realize three hours later that dough hasn't risen at all so do it again, knead and roll out dough, fill with sugar and roll into cool nautilus shape, cut into rolls, refrigerate overnight, put in empty oven and steam for half an hour, bake for half an hour, make icing, ice rolls, consume. This was definitely one of those recipes that will be made once and only once in my life, because it was so much work for so little payoff. When you can buy a tube of Pillsbury (as much as it pains me to say this) and they taste just as good (it's the delicious preservatives), then you really don't need to be making cinnamon rolls.
The next two meals were much more successful than that breakfast. I've been reading a lot of articles recently how it's getting really trendy to put fruit in hamburgers (food trend right here: fruit hamburgers and bacon desserts. I'm calling it), so we pulled a blueberry hamburger recipe. The ratio is like 1.5 lbs of meat to 1/2 a cup of blueberries, so you don't taste them at all. They really only exist to moisten the meat, which they do magnificently. I think I could serve the beef ones (what my dad ate) in a restaurant, since the black flecks of the berry pretty much disappear, but mine (turkey), looked like a moldy patty (although not tasting as such), and I don't know if the general public could be down with eating that. But seriously try it--you don't taste the fruit, it's full of antioxidants, and you can get away with a leaner cut of beef, since the blueberries add so much juice.
Today I made two different types of molé, which we ended up using for enchiladas. For those unaware, molé is basically just a general Mexican sauce, usually full of thousands of flavors and assorted ingredients. I made two different ones today, a green and a red. The green was pretty basic (well as far as molé goes...still pretty weird on the whole)--essentially tomatillos, cilantro, jalapeno, honey, assorted spices, pumpkin and sesame seeds all in a blender. The red is a lot stranger, but usually what people think of when they think molé. It had me roasting garlic, then blending it with dried ancho peppers, raisins, almonds, cocoa powder, onions, cinnamon, turkey broth, and probably other weird things I'm forgetting. This may seem like a lot of random things, but the end result is this awesome sauce, with really (ok sorry if I sound snobby-foodie here) complex layers of flavor going on. I would definitely make the red molé again...if it didn't involve me soaking dried peppers, blending various sauces, working things through a sieve, watching/stirring a sauce for 45 minutes, etc. You get the idea. Maybe someday for a party, but it's in no way casual food. We ended up making spinach and chicken enchiladas, using both of the sauces. Turned out pretty phenomenal. And just ask if you want any of these various recipes. I stand behind all of them. Except cinnamon rolls. Just go buy a tube.
Weather: It was like 65 degrees today. Texas is awesome when it wants to be.
This long weekend has been filled with various cooking escapades. Starting Friday (and continuing into Saturday morning), I made some scratch cinnamon rolls. Next time you go into a bakery and buy some cinnamon rolls, make sure you thank the makers/bakers profusely. So much more work went into these things than I thought possible or expected (although part of the reason was it was an Alton Brown recipe, which have like eighty more steps than you think should be necessary). The basic steps are make dough, let dough rise, realize three hours later that dough hasn't risen at all so do it again, knead and roll out dough, fill with sugar and roll into cool nautilus shape, cut into rolls, refrigerate overnight, put in empty oven and steam for half an hour, bake for half an hour, make icing, ice rolls, consume. This was definitely one of those recipes that will be made once and only once in my life, because it was so much work for so little payoff. When you can buy a tube of Pillsbury (as much as it pains me to say this) and they taste just as good (it's the delicious preservatives), then you really don't need to be making cinnamon rolls.
The next two meals were much more successful than that breakfast. I've been reading a lot of articles recently how it's getting really trendy to put fruit in hamburgers (food trend right here: fruit hamburgers and bacon desserts. I'm calling it), so we pulled a blueberry hamburger recipe. The ratio is like 1.5 lbs of meat to 1/2 a cup of blueberries, so you don't taste them at all. They really only exist to moisten the meat, which they do magnificently. I think I could serve the beef ones (what my dad ate) in a restaurant, since the black flecks of the berry pretty much disappear, but mine (turkey), looked like a moldy patty (although not tasting as such), and I don't know if the general public could be down with eating that. But seriously try it--you don't taste the fruit, it's full of antioxidants, and you can get away with a leaner cut of beef, since the blueberries add so much juice.
Today I made two different types of molé, which we ended up using for enchiladas. For those unaware, molé is basically just a general Mexican sauce, usually full of thousands of flavors and assorted ingredients. I made two different ones today, a green and a red. The green was pretty basic (well as far as molé goes...still pretty weird on the whole)--essentially tomatillos, cilantro, jalapeno, honey, assorted spices, pumpkin and sesame seeds all in a blender. The red is a lot stranger, but usually what people think of when they think molé. It had me roasting garlic, then blending it with dried ancho peppers, raisins, almonds, cocoa powder, onions, cinnamon, turkey broth, and probably other weird things I'm forgetting. This may seem like a lot of random things, but the end result is this awesome sauce, with really (ok sorry if I sound snobby-foodie here) complex layers of flavor going on. I would definitely make the red molé again...if it didn't involve me soaking dried peppers, blending various sauces, working things through a sieve, watching/stirring a sauce for 45 minutes, etc. You get the idea. Maybe someday for a party, but it's in no way casual food. We ended up making spinach and chicken enchiladas, using both of the sauces. Turned out pretty phenomenal. And just ask if you want any of these various recipes. I stand behind all of them. Except cinnamon rolls. Just go buy a tube.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Internet Goings-On
Food Find: I made some wicked chicken salad today. And we're talking the kind you put in a sandwich, not a salad that happens to have chicken on it. Someday when I open my restaurant/bakery/universal trend-setting-hub, I'll serve seven different chicken salads, one a day. Or maybe eight, that way people who only eat there on Mondays can try each flavor.
Weather: People keep saying it's about to get oppressively cold here. Well, I'm already spending all the time indoors, might just continue on with that.
Got home last night, and I've already run out of things today. Today I spent a lot of time with two websites--kiva.org and couchsurfing.com, both of which are really brilliant examples of the power of the internet, it breaking down physical barriers, getting people in contact with others, yadda yadda. Kiva is one of the coolest things I've seen; basically it has postings by entrepreneurs in third-world countries who need loans, then users on the site can give them 'micro-loans,' (starting at $25), which are interest free and are paid back usually within the year. In return, we, the lenders, get some assuaging of our hippie, liberal guilt, and periodic updates on how their businesses are doing with our money and so forth. I spent a while looking at the various people asking for money (which is hard, since the money is flowing in and, as a result, the people turn over all the time), and ended up giving to Dilorom Nurmatova, a bazaar owner in Tajikistan who needed a loan to buy more sweets (!!), and this baller Stephen Asare, a grocery store owner in Ghana trying to expand is inventory. To read more about Kiva, there was a pretty amusing editorial in Time a month or so ago by Joel Stein.
Also, I signed up for and starting perusing Couch Surfing. The basic premise is you volunteer your couch for wandering travelers, and at the same time are given access to a huge global network of people doing the same. Right now I'm trying to find somewhere to stay in Auckland, since I gave myself an intentional layover there of about three days. It's a pretty overwhelming process; there are hundreds of people in the city offering places to stay, ranging from 20 to 60+. Essentially, I'm trying to find someone who I think I would get along with and would be cool to be around for a few days from what is essentially a Facebook profile. I'm going to start corresponding with a few people in the upcoming days, and hopefully something will connect. And then superhopefully when I get back to LA, some cool, exotic travelers will come crash on my couch.
Weather: People keep saying it's about to get oppressively cold here. Well, I'm already spending all the time indoors, might just continue on with that.
Got home last night, and I've already run out of things today. Today I spent a lot of time with two websites--kiva.org and couchsurfing.com, both of which are really brilliant examples of the power of the internet, it breaking down physical barriers, getting people in contact with others, yadda yadda. Kiva is one of the coolest things I've seen; basically it has postings by entrepreneurs in third-world countries who need loans, then users on the site can give them 'micro-loans,' (starting at $25), which are interest free and are paid back usually within the year. In return, we, the lenders, get some assuaging of our hippie, liberal guilt, and periodic updates on how their businesses are doing with our money and so forth. I spent a while looking at the various people asking for money (which is hard, since the money is flowing in and, as a result, the people turn over all the time), and ended up giving to Dilorom Nurmatova, a bazaar owner in Tajikistan who needed a loan to buy more sweets (!!), and this baller Stephen Asare, a grocery store owner in Ghana trying to expand is inventory. To read more about Kiva, there was a pretty amusing editorial in Time a month or so ago by Joel Stein.
Also, I signed up for and starting perusing Couch Surfing. The basic premise is you volunteer your couch for wandering travelers, and at the same time are given access to a huge global network of people doing the same. Right now I'm trying to find somewhere to stay in Auckland, since I gave myself an intentional layover there of about three days. It's a pretty overwhelming process; there are hundreds of people in the city offering places to stay, ranging from 20 to 60+. Essentially, I'm trying to find someone who I think I would get along with and would be cool to be around for a few days from what is essentially a Facebook profile. I'm going to start corresponding with a few people in the upcoming days, and hopefully something will connect. And then superhopefully when I get back to LA, some cool, exotic travelers will come crash on my couch.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
More Bay Area
Food find: Going off another excellent recommendation, we set out to find the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in the middle of San Francisco's Chinatown. The way the factory location had been described (and confirmed by the fact that my dad's only knowledge relegated it to lore) put this place pretty close to an urban legend. Basically, the instructions I initially received to get there were to "wander around Chinatown...walk through all the back alleys...and eventually you should find a little room that's a whole cookie factory." We had an address, but it was just "Ross Alley." But luckily, the power of the internet helped us narrow the quest down, although the instructions were still pretty much the same. We parked on the outskirts of Chinatown, and weaved through the stores, all selling identical Chinese crap (slippers, two dollar t-shirts, wooden umbrellas, Chinese finger traps), until we got to this sketchy, possibly smoke-filled alley. One of the doors opened to the cookie factory, which was seriously four ancient Chinese ladies folding the cookie discs into their shapes as they came off this gigantic steel machine that took up most of the space (albeit a five by forty or so room). There was a nice man who gave us free samples (essentially just hot discs), but pictures were fifty cents. We bought a bag of throwaways (discs that didn't make the cut, since they were too small, fused to one another, etc.) and a bag of adult fortune cookies, which mostly have bad, quasi-sexual puns. The best has been "Sultan who has ten wives, nine of them have it pretty soft," which isn't to show you how high quality the jokes are, but more how dismal the quality is. They just don't make adult-themed cookies like they used to.
A Bad Joke: Since this morning was dominated by Chinese stereotypes and offensive accents, we'll keep it up "Confucius say man who go through airport security sideways is going to Bangkok."
So perhaps the highlight of this Bay Area trip came yesterday when we went to visit one of my dad's oldest friends in Los Altos Hills. The explicit purpose of the trip was to see the vineyard he'd planted in his backyard, but mostly it was just to see all the surrounding craziness. We toured his house, which was more like three adjoining buildings, as he told us about his extensive plans to knock out bathrooms and bedrooms to create a bigger living room, dig under the house (which was built pretty unstably onto a hillside) to put in more bedrooms and an office, and other pseudo-whackjob renovations. He took us out to the vineyard (compl
ete with a beehive to pollinate of course, which also happens to yield 25 pounds of honey a year), which was about nine months old, and yielded a handful of grapes this season. Mostly, it was a bunch of three foot-or-so long vines hanging in a big pile of foot high grass. And of course you can't grow wine in such a shabby lawn...so he had a whole family of goats to take care of it. He had originally bought a pregnant female and a nasty looking ram six months ago, only to find out that the female simply fat and not pregnant (isn't that always how it happens...). But luckily, she just gave birth to four goatlings, which are about two weeks old. These guys can't really do anything except bleat and scamper, so needless to say they were pretty incomparably cute. We played (read: cradled) with them for thirty or so minutes, saw the vineyard, and then managed to find our way back to the goat pen to play with them some more. If anyone has the opportunity to get some baby goats, you're really doing yourself a disservice if you don't. Although the main downside seemed to be that the mother and (especially) the father were the antithesis of cute, being grumpy and ugly and not at all interested in us. These goats were really just another part of his plan; every time we turned a corner there was a new idea, from building a wine-tasting gazebo to fixing up an old Porsche and a Mustang, to knocking out the entire driveway to build a cul-de-sac. And of course, we all left with business cards for the wine company so we can someday buy his locally grown and pressedSunday, January 11, 2009
Outsourcing
Food find: I was at the Cupertino Whole Foods today and came across individual packages of hummus. These were so cool that I bought one for myself and one for my sister. While the only style that was available was the regular, their website claims I can buy it in any variety of eight flavors, including jalapeno and red hot chili pepper.
Excuse this Disruption: Sometimes I don't have the desire or inspiration to write about anything here, but want to fill space with a post. When this happens in the future (and tonight), I'm going to call on my occasional other-half Brian to provide insight on whatever he feels like. Brian's expertise are sports, acting like he knows a lot about science, Prada's performance on Wall Street, eating juicy fruits at inappropriate times, and every movie Jason Statham has made. Here's what he has to say today in what will possibly be called "Excuse this Disruption":
Excuse this Disruption: Sometimes I don't have the desire or inspiration to write about anything here, but want to fill space with a post. When this happens in the future (and tonight), I'm going to call on my occasional other-half Brian to provide insight on whatever he feels like. Brian's expertise are sports, acting like he knows a lot about science, Prada's performance on Wall Street, eating juicy fruits at inappropriate times, and every movie Jason Statham has made. Here's what he has to say today in what will possibly be called "Excuse this Disruption":
So today I came across one of the most entertaining sports clips I've seen in a while, it's well worth the watch, especially if you're a Colts fan:http://www.nfl.com/videos?
Now that I think about it, if I were an NFL player I would definitely trash talk all day. While I completely respect the class that players like LT who let their playing do the talking, I would definitely spend at least 50% of my energy jabbering. It's a shame that refs call unsportsmanlike conduct so often because taunting and jawing are some of the more entertaining parts of the game. "I'ma dump 18 on his head. And I'ma call him Eli if I can do it." So genius. Speaking of unsportsmanlike conduct, creative touchdown celebration I am looking forward to seeing next year: TO grabs a game winning touchdown, signs the ball, and hands it over to the head coach (preferably Andy Reid). That would be worth the $50,000 fine the next day.
Was anyone really surprised with the Cards game? It's pretty obvious Ken has been hiding his teams talent after clinching, and Kurt Warner is too experienced and sly to tell reporters he was just messing around for the last quarter of the season. Also after winning my fantasy league by literally 1 point on DeAngelo's MNF performance of 30-something points, it's also pretty obvious that the Panther's sole purpose this season was to screw with fantasy leagues across America. Eagles-Giants should be entertaining. Ideally the Giants lose, but take McNabb and Westbrook out of the game with injuries. Cowboys fans rejoice.
If I could have one wish right now, it would be that Yao, McGrady, and Artest can play together all at the same time for more than 3 days at a time.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Switching Coasts
Sports Thought: Here's a list of things I don't care about:
1) The SEC
Food Find: A restaurant in SF called The Cravery, which sells fast food gourmet pot pies. Dad got an herbed chicken and mushroom and I got this awesome Thai chicken curry one. Apparently they just opened one in the Coliseum too, so everyone go eat pies in the fall! Why this isn't a bigger trend, I'll never understand.
Good word: Today was really personified by the word FUMA. Coined by the eternal Katie Coulson and/or Kelly Conley, FUMA stands for Fire Under My Ass. Although initially referring to something like a deadline ("I can't write this paper without a FUMA"), today it was what got me through my various airports.
Accomplishment: Woke up on the East Coast, going to bed on the West.
Today was substantially more stressful than it should have been. The plan was simple: wake up at 5:30 am, get on the T to Logan Airport, get on my plane to Newark which left at 8:30, connect at 11 and fly to San Francisco. Simple.
What actually happened. So I set three alarms (since missing this flight would be a very, very bad event)--5:30, 5:35, and 5:40. One of the girls I was staying with, the indispensable Becky Martinez, offered me a second alarm clock, just in case. I refused. Hubris. So naturally, since I went to bed at 2 am or so, I sleep through the alarms. All three of them.
(Side note: I can really only think of two other instances when I've slept through an alarm. 1) Senior skate day in high school, in which I show up to school unshowered and unshaven virtually as the buses are pulling away. 2) My first day of work at It's A Grind (albeit the second time), when I had to be there at 5:30 am to open the store).
Luckily, it's only seven am when I finally get up, as opposed to 10 am or Friday. While I'm getting dressed, Becky Martinez pulls out another MVP-caliber performance and calls me a cab (since by now, there would be no way I could take the T and make it on time). I book it out of the suite (ten minute turn around from waking up late to dressed, with cab awaiting), and promptly get lost at Harvard. After calling Becky, the cab people, and various deities, I finally find out where I am and get going. For the most part, this leg of the trip ends up being boring. All I can say is, I'm glad I a) checked in the night before b) printed out my boarding passes and c) didn't check any bags and packed intelligently. The rest of this leg was pretty pedestrian, ending with me showing up to my gate about ten minutes before it boarded. Pretty nice for waking up an hour and a half late.
But, since I'm flying on two planes today, it's only fitting that I have two crises. The plane to Newark boards on time, and everything seems chill. They warn us there's some ice on the wings, and a bunch of maintenance guys go out and hose them off. Problem solved. At this point, the plane starts to taxi, I start to drift off. Thirty minutes later I wake up. We're still on the ground in Logan. Eventually the pilot comes over, tells us there are some mechanical problems, and we'll have to get a new plane. Well great. I've got about an hour and a half between when this flight lands and my next one departs, and there's no way I can get on a new plane in that time. The pilot then comes on again, twenty minutes later, and tells us just kidding, the maintenance guys fix it all and we're good to go. I sleep. We arrive in Newark (I can see the Statue of Liberty out the window), and the Continental people are there to help everyone get to their connecting flights. North Carolina and Japan have missed theirs, but everyone else is good to go. They point us to the airport carts to take us to the gates, just to be safe. I find one, ask the guy to take me, he refuses, instead pointing me of where to go. I assume since he won't drive me, it has to be close. Wrong. I cover the entire length of the Newark airport until I find my gate. They were holding the plane for me, and I arrived at exactly 11:20, when it was scheduled to take off. I was that guy. I get into SF, now I'm in Menlo Park, and everything is great.
So just to drive home the monster day Becky Martinez had for me, she also suggested that while I was in San Francisco (where I spent the whole afternoon), I check out the penny arcade, formally the Musee Mechanique. Located on Fisherman's Wharf, this place is essentially a big warehouse full of old and really old arcade games (why were there no Goosebumps novels set in this). Most everything runs for a quarter or fifty cents, and they were without a doubt some of the coolest machines I have seen. For example:
-"Jolly Jack," a creepy sailor puppet who laughs for like a minute and a half, switching from high pitched hysterics to low bellowing, all equally disturbing.
-An arm-wrestling game, which, for fifty cents, will rip your arm out of its socket (twice!).
-At least half a dozen player pianos
-Monkeys playing instruments???
-Five or six different machines which, for a quarter, will depict a little puppet getting its head chopped off in a guillotine.
-"Ask Ramses," in which you turn a dial to a certain question (in my case "Am I stingy?"), and a skull in a coffin shakes his head yes or no ("No").
I'm sure there were other cool ones, but we burned through our five dollars in quarters really quickly. If you're ever in the area, go! It's so worth it. And creepy.
1) The SEC
Food Find: A restaurant in SF called The Cravery, which sells fast food gourmet pot pies. Dad got an herbed chicken and mushroom and I got this awesome Thai chicken curry one. Apparently they just opened one in the Coliseum too, so everyone go eat pies in the fall! Why this isn't a bigger trend, I'll never understand.
Good word: Today was really personified by the word FUMA. Coined by the eternal Katie Coulson and/or Kelly Conley, FUMA stands for Fire Under My Ass. Although initially referring to something like a deadline ("I can't write this paper without a FUMA"), today it was what got me through my various airports.
Accomplishment: Woke up on the East Coast, going to bed on the West.
Today was substantially more stressful than it should have been. The plan was simple: wake up at 5:30 am, get on the T to Logan Airport, get on my plane to Newark which left at 8:30, connect at 11 and fly to San Francisco. Simple.
What actually happened. So I set three alarms (since missing this flight would be a very, very bad event)--5:30, 5:35, and 5:40. One of the girls I was staying with, the indispensable Becky Martinez, offered me a second alarm clock, just in case. I refused. Hubris. So naturally, since I went to bed at 2 am or so, I sleep through the alarms. All three of them.
(Side note: I can really only think of two other instances when I've slept through an alarm. 1) Senior skate day in high school, in which I show up to school unshowered and unshaven virtually as the buses are pulling away. 2) My first day of work at It's A Grind (albeit the second time), when I had to be there at 5:30 am to open the store).
Luckily, it's only seven am when I finally get up, as opposed to 10 am or Friday. While I'm getting dressed, Becky Martinez pulls out another MVP-caliber performance and calls me a cab (since by now, there would be no way I could take the T and make it on time). I book it out of the suite (ten minute turn around from waking up late to dressed, with cab awaiting), and promptly get lost at Harvard. After calling Becky, the cab people, and various deities, I finally find out where I am and get going. For the most part, this leg of the trip ends up being boring. All I can say is, I'm glad I a) checked in the night before b) printed out my boarding passes and c) didn't check any bags and packed intelligently. The rest of this leg was pretty pedestrian, ending with me showing up to my gate about ten minutes before it boarded. Pretty nice for waking up an hour and a half late.
But, since I'm flying on two planes today, it's only fitting that I have two crises. The plane to Newark boards on time, and everything seems chill. They warn us there's some ice on the wings, and a bunch of maintenance guys go out and hose them off. Problem solved. At this point, the plane starts to taxi, I start to drift off. Thirty minutes later I wake up. We're still on the ground in Logan. Eventually the pilot comes over, tells us there are some mechanical problems, and we'll have to get a new plane. Well great. I've got about an hour and a half between when this flight lands and my next one departs, and there's no way I can get on a new plane in that time. The pilot then comes on again, twenty minutes later, and tells us just kidding, the maintenance guys fix it all and we're good to go. I sleep. We arrive in Newark (I can see the Statue of Liberty out the window), and the Continental people are there to help everyone get to their connecting flights. North Carolina and Japan have missed theirs, but everyone else is good to go. They point us to the airport carts to take us to the gates, just to be safe. I find one, ask the guy to take me, he refuses, instead pointing me of where to go. I assume since he won't drive me, it has to be close. Wrong. I cover the entire length of the Newark airport until I find my gate. They were holding the plane for me, and I arrived at exactly 11:20, when it was scheduled to take off. I was that guy. I get into SF, now I'm in Menlo Park, and everything is great.
So just to drive home the monster day Becky Martinez had for me, she also suggested that while I was in San Francisco (where I spent the whole afternoon), I check out the penny arcade, formally the Musee Mechanique. Located on Fisherman's Wharf, this place is essentially a big warehouse full of old and really old arcade games (why were there no Goosebumps novels set in this). Most everything runs for a quarter or fifty cents, and they were without a doubt some of the coolest machines I have seen. For example:
-"Jolly Jack," a creepy sailor puppet who laughs for like a minute and a half, switching from high pitched hysterics to low bellowing, all equally disturbing.
-An arm-wrestling game, which, for fifty cents, will rip your arm out of its socket (twice!).
-At least half a dozen player pianos
-Monkeys playing instruments???
-Five or six different machines which, for a quarter, will depict a little puppet getting its head chopped off in a guillotine.
-"Ask Ramses," in which you turn a dial to a certain question (in my case "Am I stingy?"), and a skull in a coffin shakes his head yes or no ("No").
I'm sure there were other cool ones, but we burned through our five dollars in quarters really quickly. If you're ever in the area, go! It's so worth it. And creepy.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Rocky Horror
Sports thought: Oh my god this Fiesta Bowl is so indescribably boring.
Food find: I am really proud of the fact that the Harvard dining hall food, for the most part, is equivalent to that of EVK (arguably the lesser of the two USC dining halls), and doesn't hold a flame to Parkside when it's on.
Currently: Half typing, half reading the Harvard Crimson. They deliver the newspaper to every room on campus. Wow. Update: What is this?? All day I was looking forward to doing the Crimson crossword puzzle, and now I find out that there isn't one.
Accomplished one of my life goals a few nights ago, which was seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show at a midnight. For those not aware, RHPS was a musical (then made into this movie) from the late seventies spoofing horror and sci-fi movies. For the most part, this movie is pretty lame and weird and cheesy. But, it pretty much created the cult film genre. Since it's release, it has been showing non-stop somewhere in the country at midnight showings. There's essentially a script for the audience, who is supposed to yell various things back to the screen at any time. Combine that with any range of props (we threw rice during a wedding scene, put on party hats during a party), plus eight or so actors who act the movie out as it goes on, and it's one of the coolest experiences ever. They start of before the show making all the people who have never seen it before (the "virgins") stand up, and pick a few to come down on stage and harass them. One of which was me. It wasn't too bad though--all I had to do was take off my shirt and do the Time Warp, the big dance number in the movie. Now that I know what to expect, I really want to go see it again. And all of you should too.
Food find: I am really proud of the fact that the Harvard dining hall food, for the most part, is equivalent to that of EVK (arguably the lesser of the two USC dining halls), and doesn't hold a flame to Parkside when it's on.
Currently: Half typing, half reading the Harvard Crimson. They deliver the newspaper to every room on campus. Wow. Update: What is this?? All day I was looking forward to doing the Crimson crossword puzzle, and now I find out that there isn't one.
Accomplished one of my life goals a few nights ago, which was seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show at a midnight. For those not aware, RHPS was a musical (then made into this movie) from the late seventies spoofing horror and sci-fi movies. For the most part, this movie is pretty lame and weird and cheesy. But, it pretty much created the cult film genre. Since it's release, it has been showing non-stop somewhere in the country at midnight showings. There's essentially a script for the audience, who is supposed to yell various things back to the screen at any time. Combine that with any range of props (we threw rice during a wedding scene, put on party hats during a party), plus eight or so actors who act the movie out as it goes on, and it's one of the coolest experiences ever. They start of before the show making all the people who have never seen it before (the "virgins") stand up, and pick a few to come down on stage and harass them. One of which was me. It wasn't too bad though--all I had to do was take off my shirt and do the Time Warp, the big dance number in the movie. Now that I know what to expect, I really want to go see it again. And all of you should too.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Mapparium
Sports thought: I'm still not sure what the Utah win will stand for in the long run. I think a really convincing Texas win over OSU and a one-sided National Title game (especially if it's an OU win, however likely that is), will be more playoff fodder, because this will be the second year in a row that none of the BCS bowls were really competitive. I don't think Utah should be national champions, as some people are semi-facetiously arguing, but I do think a lot of people would pay a lot of money in tickets and ad space to see them (and SC) keep playing.
Food find: Ate at a Harvard sandwich shop called Z Squared today, and I got a curried chicken salad sandwich. This is the second time now (prepacked sandwiches on campus being the first) that I've seen this combo, which is essentially chicken, mayo, curry powder, celery, raisins, etc, and I think it's awesome. Hopefully more 'artsy' sandwich places will start to pick it up.
Currently: How do east coast people live with radiators? And seriously, wtf is going on. It sounds like someone is beating on the window. This is horrifying.
If you're ever in the greater Boston area and have a passion for Christian Science, cartography, or stained glass, then you should check out the Mapparium. It was actually one of the cooler places I've visited; it was a huge globe that you could walk inside, entirely made out of stained glass. There was a long glass bridge along it, a lot like the one Obi-Wan had to go across to shut down the Death Star core in Episode IV. What I found the most interesting was that since the globe had been constructed in 1935 or so, all the countries were still in that configuration, including the massive USSR, a single Korea, and like fifteen countries in Africa.
Then we took a tour of the gigantic Christian Science church next door. The guide did a good job of blending facts about the actual church (the organ had over 13,000 pipes!) and the religion (they don't believe in medical treatment...). The church itself was this massive building (actually two churches fused together), with huge stone walls and cool roof domes, that for the most part, hasn't been modified since 1904. Definitely worth the visit.
Food find: Ate at a Harvard sandwich shop called Z Squared today, and I got a curried chicken salad sandwich. This is the second time now (prepacked sandwiches on campus being the first) that I've seen this combo, which is essentially chicken, mayo, curry powder, celery, raisins, etc, and I think it's awesome. Hopefully more 'artsy' sandwich places will start to pick it up.
Currently: How do east coast people live with radiators? And seriously, wtf is going on. It sounds like someone is beating on the window. This is horrifying.
If you're ever in the greater Boston area and have a passion for Christian Science, cartography, or stained glass, then you should check out the Mapparium. It was actually one of the cooler places I've visited; it was a huge globe that you could walk inside, entirely made out of stained glass. There was a long glass bridge along it, a lot like the one Obi-Wan had to go across to shut down the Death Star core in Episode IV. What I found the most interesting was that since the globe had been constructed in 1935 or so, all the countries were still in that configuration, including the massive USSR, a single Korea, and like fifteen countries in Africa.
Then we took a tour of the gigantic Christian Science church next door. The guide did a good job of blending facts about the actual church (the organ had over 13,000 pipes!) and the religion (they don't believe in medical treatment...). The church itself was this massive building (actually two churches fused together), with huge stone walls and cool roof domes, that for the most part, hasn't been modified since 1904. Definitely worth the visit.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Bumming Around
Weather: Hard to tell, since I haven't actually been outside today...
Sports Thought: So I really hate when people look to far ahead in sports, because it really is a volatile entity, but imagine this. I don't think its too out of line to suggest a scenario where SC and Texas go undefeated (or at least clinch title berths) in 2009 (esp if Bradford and Tebow go out), setting up a National Title rematch which would be, conveniently, in the Rose Bowl. The media would perhaps explode in ecstasy.
Accomplishment: The coolest thing about this hotel is you can go to the grocery store, two malls, and two other hotels without going outside. So I went food shopping without having to deal with the ridiculous winds and temperature in the teens.
Currently: Am about twelve hours away from being very temporarily homeless. I have to check out of the hotel around 11, but Katie (the next leg of this trip) doesn't get in until noon-ish. I could go somewhere and do something, but will of course have a suitcase with me.
So the last few days have been a cool combination of vacation (not doing anything all day) and vacation (visiting somewhere cool). The last formal day of the convention was Tuesday, which all we had on the schedule was legislating, and then a banquet later that night. The legislative session was mostly just more note passing to UCLA and crossword puzzling, the highlight being that we got to vote on where the 2010 convention will be (Atlanta won over Dallas). The 2012 convention is probably going to be hosted by the west coast schools, so I'm helping out with crafting a bid for whatever city we choose (looking at Salt Lake City), to present in 2010.
As for the banquet...well Eman and I weren't exactly riveted by the opening banquet, so we decided to uh...exchange our tickets. As a result, this freed up some finances for us to go out to a fancy dinner. We went to this restaurant called Legal Seafood--apparently a Boston institution--which was pretty awesome. Eman got virtually every edible aquatic animal deep-fried, and I got this huge grilled tuna steak with seaweed (!!) salad and jalapeno polenta (?!). We were going to get lobster, but even with a pocket full of cash, they started at $30 and went up from there. Dangggggg.
Snowed at least two inches yesterday, and was intensely blustery. Note to west coast/southerners: the thing they don't tell you about snow is that, although cool initially, once it melts it just leaves big piles of gray slush everywhere. It's like having puddles around, but they're gross and melty and you can't walk anywhere because there they are. We braved the mush piles yesterday to do some more sightseeing, essentially hitting up some old places (Boston Common, Newbury Street) again, but this time with snow.
We were going to celebrate New Year at the Wharf or Boston Common, but since it was indescribably windy (one of the UCLA girls had her flight canceled yesterday morning) and they weren't shooting off fireworks, we didn't really see the point of going to windy, open spaces. Instead, we did a big countdown in front of the Boston Public Library, with hundreds of hot bodies, so at least a little more manageable. Something Eman kept noting was the sense of city identity here, versus LA. Essentially, he felt that LA would never put together a big outdoor celebration, with lots of people coming and chilling out (and chanting "Yankees suck" which seemed a little out of place in January...), all put on by the city. Even on the subway, people were always talking to us, giving us suggestions about what to do on New Years and what was going on everywhere else.
Apart from that, I've been sleeping in, watching bad movies on TV (remember Jumanji? Ritchie Rich?) and football. Which is how a vacation should be.
Sports Thought: So I really hate when people look to far ahead in sports, because it really is a volatile entity, but imagine this. I don't think its too out of line to suggest a scenario where SC and Texas go undefeated (or at least clinch title berths) in 2009 (esp if Bradford and Tebow go out), setting up a National Title rematch which would be, conveniently, in the Rose Bowl. The media would perhaps explode in ecstasy.
Accomplishment: The coolest thing about this hotel is you can go to the grocery store, two malls, and two other hotels without going outside. So I went food shopping without having to deal with the ridiculous winds and temperature in the teens.
Currently: Am about twelve hours away from being very temporarily homeless. I have to check out of the hotel around 11, but Katie (the next leg of this trip) doesn't get in until noon-ish. I could go somewhere and do something, but will of course have a suitcase with me.
So the last few days have been a cool combination of vacation (not doing anything all day) and vacation (visiting somewhere cool). The last formal day of the convention was Tuesday, which all we had on the schedule was legislating, and then a banquet later that night. The legislative session was mostly just more note passing to UCLA and crossword puzzling, the highlight being that we got to vote on where the 2010 convention will be (Atlanta won over Dallas). The 2012 convention is probably going to be hosted by the west coast schools, so I'm helping out with crafting a bid for whatever city we choose (looking at Salt Lake City), to present in 2010.
As for the banquet...well Eman and I weren't exactly riveted by the opening banquet, so we decided to uh...exchange our tickets. As a result, this freed up some finances for us to go out to a fancy dinner. We went to this restaurant called Legal Seafood--apparently a Boston institution--which was pretty awesome. Eman got virtually every edible aquatic animal deep-fried, and I got this huge grilled tuna steak with seaweed (!!) salad and jalapeno polenta (?!). We were going to get lobster, but even with a pocket full of cash, they started at $30 and went up from there. Dangggggg.
Snowed at least two inches yesterday, and was intensely blustery. Note to west coast/southerners: the thing they don't tell you about snow is that, although cool initially, once it melts it just leaves big piles of gray slush everywhere. It's like having puddles around, but they're gross and melty and you can't walk anywhere because there they are. We braved the mush piles yesterday to do some more sightseeing, essentially hitting up some old places (Boston Common, Newbury Street) again, but this time with snow.
We were going to celebrate New Year at the Wharf or Boston Common, but since it was indescribably windy (one of the UCLA girls had her flight canceled yesterday morning) and they weren't shooting off fireworks, we didn't really see the point of going to windy, open spaces. Instead, we did a big countdown in front of the Boston Public Library, with hundreds of hot bodies, so at least a little more manageable. Something Eman kept noting was the sense of city identity here, versus LA. Essentially, he felt that LA would never put together a big outdoor celebration, with lots of people coming and chilling out (and chanting "Yankees suck" which seemed a little out of place in January...), all put on by the city. Even on the subway, people were always talking to us, giving us suggestions about what to do on New Years and what was going on everywhere else.
Apart from that, I've been sleeping in, watching bad movies on TV (remember Jumanji? Ritchie Rich?) and football. Which is how a vacation should be.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)