"it's just art - look at it and move on"

photo from christo & jeanne-claude's website
just finished watching an intriguing documentary on hbo called the gates . the film documents the arduous journey of the famous gates public art installation in central park in 2005. the artists - husband and wife team of christo and jeanne-claude - started the process back in 1979! i especially loved the political quagmire they suffered through in years prior to the actual installation - talk about a nightmare. everyone had their own spin on their public art - racial, social classism, you name it. when the gates were up for a mere 14 days, it was for all to enjoy - as "just art."
see here for more info on the film.

learning with fdq: ape genius

photo from nova

i don't know what fdq would do without nova. i think his brain would shrivel up and watch america's next top model with me. the other day he gushed on about this nova episode called ape genius. ok, you know that the great apes are human-like in so many ways but what is it about us and them that really separates us from them? through years of research, we've discovered that apes have the capacity to learn, use tools, cooperate, socialize and even communicate among themselves and with humans. so, the big question is why is there no planet of the apes? don't worry, we're still a tad bit smarter than apes.

watch it here.

white people

just found this blog. i think i'm a white person. also, i can't believe they're already up to #75 and it's only february!

forget about the presidential election ...

do you want barack or hillary as your new bicycle?

belated birthday wishes

dn, her hubby and i in chicago 1999

jyn at mit 1993
rc with wifey jc at our wedding 2006 (photo courtesy of allego photography)

i failed to post some birthday shout-outs to my dear friends.

dn - hope you're having a fantastic time in shanghai with hubby! we miss you.

jyn - alas, we are getting older but we still know how to have fun! best wishes! hope to see you this year!

rc - yo, see you this weekend.

more such

photo from here
image from here
fdq and i watched a couple of different movies with friends this weekend. the first is called tillsammans which is "together" in swedish. the second movie is superbad. although both movies are located in different parts of the world (sweden in 1975 vs suburban america in current time) and involved completely opposite types of people (non-conformist hippies vs virgin high-school outsiders), the two movies had one common theme - the search for love. but, superbad wins out on stupid hilarity - highlight is seth's childhood problem . *warning - it's a tad graphic*

prez's day and such

our long weekend was mellow and slow. i started it out with a cold (typical). after shaving fdq's head, he scurried off to a new neighborhood find called linden street brewery. free great-tasting beer, free food - needless to say, he had a great time. more info on the brewery here.

congrats!

nov 2006

our dear friends kl and ll just told us this weekend that they are expecting! baby l is due this august. we hope everything goes well and we're super excited for them!

ta-da!

before
after

we shaved fdq's hair today.

rejected valentine's cards

who would've thought a hallmark card blog would be so funny!

microhoo

microsoft's offer to yahoo was quite the buzz in silicon valley in the last few weeks. fdq showed me this video about negotiation tips to yahoo from shpigler the shark - too funny. also love one of many fake steve jobs post.

happy valentine's day!

from someecards

happy valentine's day! my sweetie fdq sent me beautiful flowers and yummy chocolates at work today. unfortch, i'm catching a cold and couldn't enjoy the wonderful floral aroma. i love my honey bunches!

i found someecards from someone's blog (can't remember!). thought they were funny!

i read more books

all that recent flying (to seattle and la) by myself forced me to grab fdq's copy of freakonomics. yes, i'm 2 years behind on the freakonomics bandwagon but it was still a great read. the book has an interesting twist on real-life stories and it's not boring like my econ classes were in grad school. i also want to know if the book cover means comparing apples and oranges - what do you think?

and i just found out that they have a blog here.

learning with fdq: the internet and kids

photo from frontline
fdq recommended that i watch one of the frontline episodes he recorded the other day. frontline: growing up online starts out describing the how connected teenagers are into the internet and the typical parental fears of not knowing what their children are doing on these online social sites. what was most interesting is that the internet is now a part of our lives and we all have to treat it that way. it's just another venue where kids can express themselves. thinking back, i would've loved all this technology. all we had was a trs-80. i feel so old.

watch the episodes here.

ahh, radio shack

out of office reply

someone i work with forwarded this out-of-office reply he received. i'd like to use this sometime.


From: Ben J <ben.j@xcompany.com>
Date: February 11, 2008 1:02:58 PM PST
To: <jerrym@ycompany.com>
Subject: Ben J has left the company.

I will be out of the office starting 21/01/2008 and will not return until
01/01/2200.

fdq's work

more news about fdq's project at work. too many technical details for me but others may enjoy it. apparently there's a blog about it. i just think their android logo is cute.

sugar in our 'hood

picture from brown sugar kitchen

finally, fdq and i ate lunch at a new restaurant brown sugar kitchen that opened recently next to our complex. the owner/chef is one of the celebrity chefs on food network and she was actually cooking there which was cool. i had the fried chicken and waffles and fdq had the po boy sandwich. we were afraid that it would be too much food but it was the right amount and tasted delish. i'm so excited that we've got a yummy restaurant so close to us. it used to be a caribbean bbq place where fdq went to eat once and got harassed by the owner's mother. he was so traumatized by the experience, he never went back.

celebrating rats

happy birthday!
saturday our friends ec and al had a new year's celebration at their beautiful house. al's birthday was friday and their friend's is this week so they had a delish cake. they had soooo much food and we made mac n cheese in honor of rats. fdq cooked for 3 hours straight before the party and was pooped. much like ck's new puppy renamed peter barker spiderman.
spidey's sleepy time
we had a great time with ck and spidey later. spidey's a little ball of happiness, excitement, and cuteness. i loved how he ran like a 1-year old child - unsure but determined. he tottered like he was going to fall over any second and bumped into/off of things without regard. we can't wait to see him again!

happy chinese new year!

remy from ratatouille

this year is the year of the rat. that's me! and many of my rat friends. enjoy the year, my friends!

fdq got me a cute remy plush from disneyland. remy likes to play with berry but berry doesn't really care for remy.
fdq, kl and sk enjoying flying confetti in nyc 2006

learning with fdq: world's tallest bridge

image from businessweek.com

usually when i see that fdq has recorded "megastructures" on tivo, i ignore it. but last night he made me watch parts of the episode featuring the millau viaduct, which is the world's tallest bridge. the designers wanted to make the bridge as non-obstrusive to the surrounding natural landscape, envisioning the piers as butterflies. they produced an amazing product! there's a good overview of the bridge at amazing nature blog entry or watch a clip from the show here.

fdq's question: why do they call it viaduct versus just a bridge?

business hours are over, baby!

flight of the conchords, business time

i can't get this song out of my head.

"2 minutes in heaven is better than 1 minute in heaven!"

last thing to do in la: watch a musical!

well, okay, maybe watching a musical isn't the "thing" to do in la but we did. i really wanted to watch wicked and los angeles was the closest city to us that was showing it. it's a great musical. the music wasn't quite as catchy as other musicals i've seen but that wasn't important. i liked how the story line is interwoven with the well-known "wizard of oz" story and gives it an interesting twist. the 2 witches were fantastic, especially gaaaaa-linda, the good witch. we loved her self-absorbed, peppy ditsy-ness.
we especially enjoyed the 10 year old girls singing the songs behind us too.

what else is there to do in la? eat & drink!

pool view at boa
inside the boa lounge
friday night: boa for dinner (steak, yum!) and lounging. restaurant was very crowded for dinner but the lounge was not. dinner was on the outdoor deck which had a lovely view of the grafton pool. later, we tried to go to ketchup (or catsup as i'd like to call it) but it was closed.
enjoying the company at katana
late night dogs at carney's
saturday night: scrumptous grilled meats and veges at katana. again, we ate outside on the front balcony. i think eating outside is the hollywood thing to do. we attempted to go to ketchup / catsup again but we weren't willing to walk that far again. after drinking within a 10-yard radius of our hotel, we grabbed some yummy hot dogs at carney's.
rd and fd in line for bennet's ice cream
as and lc enjoying the mardis gras music
at the clock
sunday afternoon: met friends at the historic farmer's market. such a cool market in the middle of los angeles. unfortch, the weather was cool too. and windy. and rainy. we still had yummy food.
overall, the places we ate (and drank) was fun and delish. most importantly, we got to hang out with our so cal friends. thanks to rr for making the res's and to rd for the farmer's market suggestion.
rs enjoying the pig shaped ground meats

what to do in la? play in cool hotel!

ms and fdq testing out the lawn pods
the lobby lounge

view from our hotel balcony

fdq and i had a great time in los angeles this weekend. we stayed at the standard in west hollywood with our friends rs and ms who drove up from san diego. the room decor was simple and understated - very much a 70's throwback. but it was spacious for 4 people. i've always enjoyed the graphics at the standard like the thermostat text.

blow hard or harder?

disco+punk+hiphop+blackout+serialkiller=

new york city in 1977. we watched a 2007 documentary called ny77: the coolest year in hell on vh1 the other night. new york city was riddled with crime and many parts of the city was in disrepair. at the same time, creative music in the forms of disco, punk and hiphop were spilling out of basements and onto the streets. add in the hysteria-causing "son of sam" serial killer and a 25-hour pandemonium of a blackout, you get a unique slice of pop-american history. also, the graphics are cool too. enjoy this clips on spike.