Despite my worst fears, I made it back from my first two day excursion snowboarding with nary a scrap or bruise. Not for lack of trying mind you. I nearly called it quits on one "run" that wove through rocks, trees, and ski lift poles. Luckily it was not a well traveled run or else the part where my butt was stuck in the powder and the board was above my head would have turned out much worse. I was pretty lucky as it was since I stopped just inches from a very large bolder. Definitly not for beginners ... trust me, it's only my third time up on the snow.
This morning I had a meeting at the BART offices. There isn't much parking around there and it's only a twelve block walk. Twelve blocks in the driving rain that is (why is it driving rain? no one WANTS to drive in it.) My umbrella almost buckled twice and most of the time I was wonder what the point was since everything below my chest was getting drenched regardless. Anyway, I had to change out of my pants mid day because my office is too cold and damp to dry them effectively. Luckily, many of my co-workers are on vacation or else someone might notice that I have my socks hanging out to dry right now.
Scarcely two days left until New Year's Eve and I'm not ready for the party yet. I'm hoping copious amounts of alcohol and other good spirts will make up for my lack of planning. I'm also hoping that the parking situation doesn't get out of hand....
I was talking to a good friend the other day about what certain people's views on things were and how open these people were to change. He told me that he and his wife had been discussing how to celebrate Christmas. She was very much opposed to the way that we now celebrate Christmas, which in her view was a monetary way of celebrating (of course, at some other point she was asking him why he hadn't bought her certain things.) She wanted to go volunteer for something like Habitat for Humanity. He was of the opinion that some of the people that benefit from Habitat weren't necessarily people who needed it, but rather people who had managed their money poorly, choosing to spend it on tricked out cars with shiny spinners and what not. And of course, having volunteered before, he knew how poorly some of these operations were run. (Note: She had never volunteered for Habitat before, so she couldn't have known this.)
My take on the whole thing? Maybe volunteer service and giving aren't so much about what the results are. For me at least, I despise most of what happens during Christmas: traffic jams, long lines in the malls, awkward gift giving ... but what I do like is that moment when all of it seems inconsequential, when you finally find a gift that's just right. I like the fact that it forces you to think about what's important in your life ... and who is important. It makes you think about them. Perhaps you'll find a nice gift, or merely write a Christmas card, or even just spare a few moments considering whether or not you need to shop for that person, pondering what you might have done the year before and if things had changed. And volunteer work? If you find the time in your busy schedule to do it, or if you have a little left over in your wallet to give, don't think about where it goes, and if the people that you help out will appreciate it or if they deserve it, or if the charity you donate to takes most of it for themselves, or even if the homeless guy on the street is going to buy alcohol with it. Think of it as an investment. No, not an investment in the other person. And investment in humanity. In yours.
Perhaps today I'll be able to blog a conherent thought. That'd be nice wouldn't it? Of course, I'm at work right now ... not working. Likewise, most of my co-workers aren't working. I'm sort of puzzled why we even bother opening the office. Surely no one is that naive. But then, it's also a time for bosses to treat their subordinates to lunch and whatnot, so I suppose it's important. (And I guess I have done something ... just a lot less than I normally do.) It's around this time of year that I start thinking about new year's resolutions. I usually start early so that I can reason myself out of that insanity before I get krunk on NYE and start making promises that won't outlast the UGG boot fad. Speaking of which, have you heard about these? They're these Australian boots which are pretty much shapeless and look quite comfortable. All of Hollywood is apparently sporting them (at least the women are) and they're sold out domestically until April. That's right, if you want a pair, you have to go to Canada (Australia's sold out too.) But hurry, they're almost gone there too. I found one of the comments made on NPR this morning rather interesting. The woman, who was looking for some blue UGGs for her daughter was going to Canada to get a pair and she said, "I can't believe people are so crazy." Indeed. Truly we've become a reflection of our leadership, or they us. Paul Wolfowtiz (for those of you who do not know, he's a political that's fairly close to the president and very much related to the war in Iraq) was quoted as saying at a press conference IN IRAQ that the main problem was that, "... the main problem is that there are too many foreigners in Iraq." Maybe it'd be wiser if we didn't look to others first for the source of our problems. If we looked instead at ourselves. That we are indeed as crazy as the other person ... or in my case, lazy.
LotR Madlibs: Rich has kindy summarized Fellowship of the Ring for those of you who managed to forget what happened. Try not to laugh too loudly.
Ender and Level Orange: Bridge is a great game. In bridge, the sides are always Us and Them. There's no good and evil, no propoganda, no moral high ground. And there's only one way to win. Understand and respect your opponent.
One-eyed Kings and games of chance. Love is choice, choice is blind. Weighing consequences is delusion, cause and effect is a trick Pavlov played. We're all pretending to be a dyslexic dog. Yeah it's a gamble, but I'm all in.
I've been sick for the last couple of days. During that time I've learned the following things. Time passes much more quickly when you have to spend every other hour sleeping. The most trivial of chores are nearly impossible when you're tired and incoherent. And many of the problems in this world stem from two things: people aren't willing to speak up and people aren't willing to admit it when they are wrong. Now that I'm recovering, the usual biological things occur. Likewise, dear reader, you can wrap this entry up in a tissue like a wanton and toss it in the can.
Something that is worthy of note: Many thanks to Brian Lee for making a donation in my name. Truly honored and humbled am I. In short, it had something to do with Wells Fargo and the flu. Merry Christmas!
Instead of my usual barage of weekend happenings, I'll opt for something that's a little more specific and personal: I found out on Saturday that one of my good friends was no longer together with her boyfriend. It was somehow fitting then that when I went home that night, the rising winds heralded the brief storm that deluged the East Bay. She and he had had a tumultuous relationship. "5 years, cut and paste," as she used to describe it. The rains that night fell so heavily that at times it seemed like water must have been flowing like rivers in the gutters and at other times the wind was stronger, throwing water every which way but down. I had had an inkling that something was amiss, in a scene at a wedding, in a half-heartedly kept discretion over a phone line. Wearily I tried to get up and look out the window at the maelstrom just beyond, seeing nothing more than wet glass. Even then, I decided not to press my inquiry; and at the party that night, she remarked, "Our circle of friends are very different now aren't they?" And in the morning, I was afraid to get out of bed to survey the damage. "I guess it has been a long time since we last talked." The Sunday morning sunlight spoke no news of the storm just passed save for a few more fallen leaves and a slight dampness to the streets. It was difficult to tell then, how terrible the rains had been, how fierce the wind. And saddened me slightly that I, once closest of her confidences, would not be remembered as shelter from the tempest this time.
Yesterday was Carol's office Christmas party. At the last minute they were able to reserve a space at Thanh Long restaurant in Outer Sunset (Judah and 46th). In proper holiday tradition, it was an open bar and that provided much of the excitement for the evening. More about that later. During the social hour we were provided Budda Rolls and Crab Dumplings to munch on. The Budda Rolls were you standard faire spring rolls, tasty but nothing to write home about. The Crab Dumplings were made of a rich and creamy crab filling wrapped in fried wanton. An artery buster for certain, it was a little to flavor filled for me. I ended up have a few though since I was hungry. The final appetizer came after we sat down. What should have been the most ordinary dish of all, turned out to be one of the tastiest. Thanh Long's calamari is fried just long enough to leave a thin layer of semi-cooked breading. A combination of crispy and soft and chewy, the calamari was just about as good as I've ever had. That set the stage for the most decadent dish of all, the roast crab.
Thanh Long is famous for it's roast crab. It's a large dungeness crab cover in oil and pepper. The crab meat is juicy, tender, and melt in your mouth good. There's only one way to eat this and that's with your hands. The staff graciously offers everyone a plastic and I recommend that you take it. Even with my cautious eatting habits, I had small flecks of crab, oil and pepper on my clothes. But I didn't care. Since it was a company party, I didn't see the bill, but I understand that the crab is $40 a plate. Whatever it is, it is worth it. You probably should eat it too often because it's loaded with cholestrol and expensive. But it you have the desire for fine crab dining, this is the place.
During the course of the night I met many of Carol's co-workers. I had a few drinks, all of which were very good. And what would a holiday party be with out someone falling over? In the end, popular opinion wasn't that Ann was drunk, but rather that she had an allergic reaction or that because she was diabetic, she fainted because her blood sugar was low. Even though the paramedics came and went, the party was fun and no one was hurt. Sooo much better than my office parties....
My computer's starting to complain. I think it's the tempurature. The airflow inside my new desk must be pretty restrictive. When I get a chance I need to clean the dust off all the parts and make sure that it breathes properly. Question is, do I do the physical maintenance first or do I back up my data? Backup first of course, I know, but that means organizing it (the only thing messier than my desktop is my virtual desktop.)
I dropped off my first Christmas present of the year. I bought a LoveSac for Dave and Lila. Dave's still in Japan, but Lila seemed to like it. I really hope that it expands a little more, after a hour of jumping on it, it still had a bit of room to grow. If you haven't had a chance to try one out, there's a store in Valley Fair. Very comfy.
I missed Part 2 of the remade Battlestar Galactica miniseries. I thought Part 1 was quite good, aside from one quesitonable actor. I'm hoping that I don't miss the rebroadcast.
For various and sundry meanings of: Work. It's something that I should have been doing today. Today was the office potluck though. And with so many people not working, i.e. running out to buy food at the last minute (ahem, me) or cleaning up afterwards, it was difficult to really get started. Also, I had to table for our giving campaign fair, so that sucked up an hour of unbillable time. It's on days like this that I wonder if I really work for a living.
I tried to toot my own horn but all I could say was, "What the hell was that noise?" So what have I been doing all day? In between the unproductive drafting as-builts, measuring grades, and estimating lengths of drainage pipes, I've been taking IQ tests. One slipped by my pop-up blocker and I was drawn in ... I figured ... it's only 20 questions ... well, 20 turned to 40 ... and you know how that story ends. Anyway I ended up with a score of XYZ and I thought ... I wonder if that's high. I found a table that said I was one in 85. Hmmm, that sucks ... that test sucked ... I need a better test. So I found one, squandered a bit more time and I ended up with XZY, which was a bit higher. Ah ha! That made me eligible for the high IQ test. I opened that one up and scanned the questions. Then thought to myself. Oh my God. I don't even understand what they're asking. Oh well, I guess XZY is good enough for today. So after all that test taking, I found out that I'm smarter ... well, just as smart as ... just as smart as I was before I took the tests. Some how that doesn't make me feel very smart at all.
The truth is: "Nothing in the world can take the place perseverance. Talent will not; nothing more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derilicts. Persistence and Determination are omnipotent." - Calvin Coolidge.
For one reason or another, I've been reading/watching/hearing more news lately. Driving into work every morning listening to NPR makes me want to speak out. But the shear volume of things to talk about: the politics of steel tariffs, the Insulin Defense, World AIDS week, cannibalism, US/China/Taiwan tensions, makes me dizzy ... and would certainly bore the few of you who bother to read this. It does make me wonder, what the socieo-economic and political view of my friends are. It something that I think I should know. My supper club, is pretty much liberal, as is Carol. But I only know that because I've talked some politic with them. On the other hand, I'm not quite sure where Rich, Lily or Yu-Ching are on the political spectrum. I think that's mostly because I think that they don't care about politics much. So I don't bother to ask. Actually, I rarely bother to ask about much at all. And that's really the big problem.
Flagrant Plagiarism from Carol's friend Dardy - Google Phrase of the Day: "Miserable Failure". A gift for all you George W. Bush critics.
A brief run down of the long weekend: Saw Vienna Teng in concert; caught a preview of some of her new songs. Hung out with Vienna Teng at Jupiter (Richard and Davey went to High School with her). Wasted much of Thursday daytime pondering what to bring to Thanksgiving dinner. Ate my way through Thanksgiving dinner over at Carol's sister, Judy's, house. Practiced my flagging Mandarin on Carol's parents. Impressed them more with my culinary skills than my witty chinglish. Went to the SF Auto show on Friday. Wasn't terribly impressed. Dragged Richard and his father along (Richard now needs new rims for his MR2) Met up with Linda to go see Allegria. Thought it was excellent (on par with Varekai, much better than Quidam or Dralion) Picked up my new cherrywood (laminate) corner desk on Saturday. Had the good fortune to be able to fit it into my car. Met up with Carol for lunch in the city. Went to the most horrible boba place in the Sunset (Ten Ren). Went home to attempt them assembly of my desk. Quitting in frustration, went to see Love Actually again (it was just as good). After getting back, tried in desperately to assembly the desk. Found instructions wedged between two pieces sometime later. Use superglue to fix some "mistakes" Went to bed with desk half completed. Finished building desk (mostly) on Sunday. Went running in the rain. Helped Carol bake lasagna. Went to bed dreading the beginning of December.