Blog Archive: July/August/September 2004
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.September 30, 2004 - the first debate
-11:50 pm: today was the first of three planned debates between
President Bush and Senator Kerry. based on public reaction and online
polls, the clear winner was the senator from MA. Bush was on the defensive
the whole night, and appeared dumbfounded/confused at points. he had particularly
ackward silences throughout and did not look or seem very sure and confident
of himself. Kerry came off as composed and collected, although he really
baffled me with his "hunt and kill" statements. overall seemed like Kerry
was prepared pretty well while Bush was not and it makes the race pretty
interesting. Bush seemed to be starting to pick up steam, but well see
if these debates change the momentum. speaking of the election, it's only
a month away! if held today, here's how i would vote:
National/statewide issues
*President/VP: no vote. i really don't like either ticket. Bush is
too incompetent and Kerry is too indecisive. i could vote third party,
but it really doesn't matter since Kerry will win California without a
doubt
*US Senator (CA junior senator): Bill Jones (R). Although Jones really
stands no chance at all... Boxer is b**** and has done nothing for
CA during her two prior terms and it seems time for a change. but blah here's
to 6 more years of Boxer doing nothing for CA in DC
*Proposition 1A (local gov't revenues): yes, protection of local gov't
revenues from the state. LA county gives more than it gets....
*59 (public records): yes, seems like there's nothing wrong with making
government meeting minutes publicly accessible
*60 (primary election, general election rules): no, this prop is only
on the ballot as a counter to 62... and doesn't really change anything
*60A (surplus property sales for paying off bonds): yes, i don't see
anything wrong with directing the money from the sale of surplus state
property towards paying off bonds (which CA has MANY)
*61 (bond for children's hospitals): yes, although it's another bond
which would increase the state's already bad deficit, how can you say
no to something meant to help seriously ill children...
*62 (elections rules): yes, passage of 62 would change the voting procedure
in California in that only two candidates will be on the ballot in november.
it makes the march primary elections vastly important and truly open.
candidates will be forced to focus on broad range of people rather than
the core constituencies that partisan primaries require. interestingly,
60 and 62 would both affect how the elections are run... if both pass,
only the one with the larger passing gap would take effect
*63 (mental health services expansion): no, this is a tax on high incomes
(>$1 million) that would go toward expanding mental health services.
although well-intentioned, linking the money to high incomes is risky as
shown with the dot.com bust. the reason the state runs such high deficit
now is because it lost income along with all those who lost their high
income during the bust.
*64 (limits of private enforcement of unfair business competition laws):
no, the commercials may tempt someone into voting for this, but it's way
too limiting. passage would mean that only the state or prosecutors would
be able to sue big companies in particular instances... big companies have
contributed a lot toward approving this measure
*65 (local revenue): no, can't support a prop in which the very people
who put it on the ballot don't even support it
*66 (3 strikes limitations): no, yikes. would it be worth saving a
few million dollars by releasing some violent criminals? i think not.
*67 (telephone surcharge for emergency services): yes, the tax is fairly
small, and would greatly help with alleviating hospital debt incurred
by uninsured patients
*68 (gambling expansion): no, the commercials running for this are
quite disgusting. if it passes, 25% of revenues from Indian casinos would
only be paid if ALL of the tribes agree to, otherwise 16 urban casinos
will open up. clearly it will be impossible for ALL tribes to agree toward
paying 25%, and thus we'll get new urban, Las Vegas styled casinos in CA.
*69 (DNA sample collection): yes, i see nothing wrong with expanding
the state's DNA database. sure the state would have your DNA on file...
but it's not like they're doing anything with it. and if they do have it,
you're some shady person. if a convicted criminal has his DNA on file,
wouldn't he think twice about committing another crime?
*70 (gambling expansion): no, the Indian tribes counter with their
own disgusting commercials. sure they offer a miniscule 8.84% of the revenues,
but in exchange for too much. they want exclusivity, 99 year compacts and
would be subject to fewer environmental regulations and negotiations with
local governments.
*71 (bond for stem cell research): no, i'm opposed to embryonic stem
cell research.
*72 (health care requirements): yes, would vastly help with uninsurance
problem in the state
Local issues
*US House Rep (29th California district): Adam Schiff (D), done pretty
well for Glendale and most Glendale constituents
*CA State senator (21st district): Jack Scott (D), former educator is
running virtually unopposed
*CA State Assemblymember (43rd district): Dario Frommer (D), fellow
Hoover alum who started Sacramento career speaking to my 12th grade AP
gov't class and is now the majority speaker in the CA state assembly
*LA County Measure A (1/2 cent sales tax increase for law enforcement):
after experiencing the 8.75% sales tax in Alameda county, it's really not
too bad for some badly needed funding for law enforcement
September 29, 2004 - Americana at Brand
-11:30 pm: if anyone was curious, the special measures that
could allow the new Glendale Town Center to be built were narrowly approved
on september 14 by Glendale voters. I predicted the outcome totally wrong...
i thought the conservative base of the city would defeat the measures,
but it actually (barely) carried the election. so now that the area is
zoned properly (the whole election was actually about approving the zoning
for the project, and not approving the project itself) will the thing finally
get built? -well, as with everything controversial, there are pending lawsuits
that are preventing any groundbreaking on the construction. the preliminary
hearings on these lawsuits are not scheduled until january, so yeah any
construction on the thing will not likely happen until the spring.
-some interesting facts about the election:
*the "yes" campaign, with funding primarily from the developer, Los
Angeles-based Caruso Affiliated Holdings, spent $2.5 million
*the "no" campaign, with funding primarily from the owners of the Glendale
Galleria, Chicago-based General Growth, spent $1.6 million
*the total, $4.1 million, is more than the combined total that the
Bush and Kerry campaigns have spent in California
*with over 30,000 votes cast, largest election turnout in the history
of Glendale (including all prior Presidential elections)
*vote split by region: richer northern Glendale overwhelmingly voted
for project, while poorer southern Glendale rejected
September 23, 2004 - completing the
incomplete aug9th entry
-12:40 pm: out of boredom, i was reading the old entries
and noticed that the aug9th one was not finished. i remember that for some
reason i was interupted, and never bothered to finish... well let's finish
it now.
-...."leaving the US with B level NBAers led by Paul"
Pierce. the US lost 3 games in the championships and finished an embarrassing
6th place. the prospects for Athens did not look good, and well they weren't.
-the US men's team finished third with the bronze medal, after losing
3 games as well. who to blame? even though they were the ones who actually
lost, i don't think it's fair to blame the players who actually went. they
tried as hard as they could, as evident by their win in the bronze medal
game. after the deflating loss to Argentina in the semifinals, many would've
just given up and succumbed, but the team played hard in a close victory
over Lithuania. Real blame should be cast on the selection committee and
the players who didn't come. most Olympic athletes sacrifice everything to
make it!! the basketball players are invited to represent their country in
sports' biggest event. apparently the millions they make are more important...
and what's with that selection committee? at least try and get one decent
shooter, instead of the freaking young players...
-ack completing the entry has forced me to relive the antagonizing
athens games, at least with respect to my favorite sport. the highlight
of the games for me was definitely the swimming competition. watching Michael
Phelps win a mind-boggling 8 medals and former Cal athlete Natalie Coughlin
win 5 was definitely much better than the bball competition.
September 21, 2004 - back after a loooong
time, passed driving test, the past 6 weeks
-8:12 pm: it has been so long that probably everyone thinks
i've abandoned this thing... well i essentially did for the past 6 weeks....
i tried writing the occasional entry right after losing internet access,
but knowing no one would be reading them kinda took the impetus away.
i could have written stuff the past two weeks since being home, but yeah
haven't done it in so long that there was hardly any reason to until today.
-so i finally passed the driving test and have a license, 6 years
older than most people. yes jen, i beat my sister... (but if you want to
get technical about it, if she gets it before she's 22, she'll still have
beaten me). i was feeling 50/50 going into the test, mainly cuz i was a
bit short on practice. but i passed and used half the errors allotted (15/30).
the test itself started off kinda weird. I swear i turned the engine on,
but apparently it wasn't, so when i put the car in drive and released the
brake, the car rolled back and the examiner was like uh.... you can't even
tell your car is on!! at that point i thought i had failed. so i went through
the whole test a bit rattled, taking everything way slowly. all of the errors
i got docked for in fact were for being too slow. took the turns too slow,
drove down Glenoaks too slow (driving 38 in the 40 zone where everyone pretty
much drives around 50) and making unnecessary stops in turning! but alas
i passed, so there.
-i have spent the last two weeks home in Glendale after the PDL internship
ended pretty much doing nothing. turned in a few job apps which haven't
turned up anything. now that i've passed the test though, i can put myself
fully into the job searching process. weeeee other than that the last
couple weeks of PDL were bleah. i finished my project early, so i did
a lot of sitting around. i did interview for a full time position doing
hybridomas, and was actually offered the job for $39,500. that number comes
out to barely liveable in the bay area and is a full $6000 less than the
median for area. after consulting with a bunch of ppl, i ultimately turned
it down. somehow people convinced me that that amount was actually insulting,
given my apparently good abilities, GPA and what not. Eventually i figured
that i might be being shit on... so instead of starting the job on monday,
i'm looking for another one. of course i tried to bargain the salary
upwards, but they wouldn't have it, so i refused.
-the highlight of the last 6 weeks was the TBP camping retreat to
the middle of the Tahoe National Forest, right after i finished the internship
over Labor Day weekend. 35 engineers spoiled by modern luxuries, attempted
life without hot running water and electricity for three days. Add in the
off-trail "hike," the dead baby jokes, an at-large discussion of male toilet
culture, and other shenanigans makes for one helluva a fun trip! the "hike"
as i call it was an attempt to scale a random mountain along an actual trail.
we were climbing through thick brush and climbing over rocks from a rock
slide. it was quite possible that someone could have caused another rock
slide, and we would have a bunch of dead engineers, but that fortunately did
not happen. at the time on the side of the mountain, i was freaking out. what
we were doing was actually extremely dangerous, and someone could have been
seriously injured or even killed. in the end, all most ended up with was
a lot of cuts on our legs from the brush and some dehydration.
-officer wise, seems like there's much early enthusiasm and planning
going on. some drop off is to be expected as the semester gets into full
gear, but i hope they can keep it going a lot better than last semester.
my gut feeling is that this semester will probably turn out a lot better
than last, unfortunately i'll only be able to make observations from afar.
-well that's all for now... we'll see if get back into the habit
of bloggin....
August 9, 2004 - restarting the job
hunt.... USA Bball misery
-9:35 pm: with less than 4 weeks left at PDL, it's about
time i restarted the job hunt. i sent off my resume to a couple of ppl,
including to ppl within PDL. although the internship has produced reservations
about working at PDL, i figure i still have my best shot there, and
of course it doesn't really hurt to try. after being prodded by the scientist
who heads the IHC group and the director of Target validation research
group, i went over to see the potential boss of my new job...
-a nice 30 second conversation at best, which felt like it didn't
go so well, but she did say she call me back sometime (hopefully before
the end of this month...). a host ppl have suggested other options and
references, so this round of searching seems to be presenting much more
realistic opportunity than May did. If anything were to come out of this
PDL internship, it's definitely that many doors seemed to have been opened.
We'll see how it all plays out, but for now i find myself in the same uncomfortable
situation of not knowing where i'll be in a month as i was in May.
-now the 2004 summer Olympics in Athens are but a few days away...
it seems like such a long time ago that it was 2000 Sydney. the US sent
"dream team 3" to the games to win the gold medal in b-ball. the team barely
beats Lithuania in the semis, but goes on to accomplish the expected task.
Fast forward to 2002, the US hosting the FIBA world championships in the
veritable mecca of basketball that is Indiana. a bunch of unpatriotic NBA
superstars refuse to play, leaving the US with B level NBAers led by Paul
August 8, 2004 - laundry, Harold and
Kumar, and shopping
-7:44 pm: normal features of my weekends feature doing
laundry, seeing a movie and going grocery shopping. last weekend had
the walk through for the Gaia apt after which i saw the Manchurian Candidate,
which was a fairly interesting and tense movie perfect for a campaign season.
the most interesting thing was that the candidate was never clearly identified
with either party, and it was quite conceivable for him to be in either
one.... perhaps more proof to the idea that the democrats and republicans
are really part of the same (shitty) group of ppl.
-anyway walked up university this morning around 9:30 to the laundrymat
and did 2 loads of laundry... brought it back, ironed and watched the
USA bball team (barely) beat Turkey and then walked over to the downtown
Berkeley to see a movie. Chose the funny Harold and Kumar Go to White
Castle, but it was at 2:45 and i had bought the ticket at 1:30. randomly
i decided to walk around campus, mainly to see the progress on the new
Stanley Hall. Seems that it's coming along quite well; they're putting
up the primary steel columns now. on the way back to downtown, ran randomly
into Nathan, who was late for a BART train.
-the movie was quite random, but also quite funny at times. Some
crude humor, profanity but also some clever things, i'd say it was worth
the $7. and it was interesting to see the leads being 2 Asian guys, particularly
for a movie with such a wide release.... (contrast it with BLT)
-and then shopped at Andronico's, which is conveniently located
just 3 blocks down university toward the bay. somehow, i always manage
to spend around $30 and today was no exception....
August 7, 2004 - the PDL intern's
party
-9:22 pm: nearly two weeks since last entry, mostly
because there's really no reason to turn on my computer. But it's on
now because i'm bored, listening away to LP's Meteora album. two notable
things to record about yesterday. first off, we the interns of PDL put
on a party for all of the company's California employees. we were given a
limited $500 for around 300 people. the theme was mardi gras, but there
really wasn't anything mardi gras to it other than the beads. we served
jalapeno poppers, carrot sticks, buffalo wings and virgin magaritas.....
and as you can imagine, the $500 was eaten up, quite literally, quite fast.
one of the employees even complained to me about the low amount of food.
Almost like a reflex, i deflected blame to the HR department that unrealistically
expected us to work with such a small budget. even with $1000, we probably
wouldn't be able to satisfy everyone. the food ran out about 40 minutes into
the party, which was supposed to last 2 hrs, but really only lasted 1 hour.
i think we all looked bad to the company's employees, and unfortunately they
can't/won't be told the truth about why the party sucked so much.
-overall, the other interns and i have felt that the company
hasn't really treated us very well. while i can ill-afford any bitterness,
some of them probably regret taking this internship over others
from other companies. i really wonder if all of biotech is like
PDL... in which case yuck. i think many of the other interns will now
definitely choose academia over industry basing that decision, fair or
not, on the PDL experience. fortunately for them, many still have time
left in college. there are 3 other interns in my boat (i.e. graduated
already... and screwed jobwise come september). the people in my lab group
however are being extremely helpful in trying to find work for afterward.
-ok now to that second notable thing from yesterday. so for like
lunch, David, Nathan and I went to Tung kee noodle house. in the parking
lot, some random women came up to us (well up to Nathan and David) and
told a story about tung kee rejecting her pleas for leftovers. apparently
awaiting food stamps she asked for any help that they could offer. they
gave her a few dollars, and she proclaimed thanks, saying that she was
good and wouldn't spend it on cigarettes or drugs. after we finished lunch
and shopping for the last supplies for the party at alberston's, we were
driving along Newark blvd and we saw her walking in the same direction
as us... smoking cigarettes... wow.. David tried shouting at her from
the car but yeah wow. Talk about your faith in humanity being redestroyed.
Both Nathan and David proclaimed that they would never give money away
again, and i really can't blame them after seeing that.
July 26, 2004 - the democratic rhetoric
-9:39 pm: the 2004 Democratic National Convention
began today, it being the formal process of officially nominating the
democratic party's candidates for president and vice president. Unlike
conventions of the past, the Kerry-Edwards ticket has been de facto
ticket for sometime. however, the convention is an opportunity to fire
up the support... and so all the rhetorical speeches began today. Al
Gore, Hilary Clinton and Bill Clinton offered their reasons for why
we need Kerry in office come next January. Clinton, of course, took single-handed
credit for all the prosperity of the 90s. All implied that Bush didn't
do enough before 9/11 and all directly say that Bush has done all the wrong
things afterward. the old arguments of Bush turning a $5 trillion budget
surplus into a $5 trillion deficit. Bush of course is not the sole person
responsible for that turn around, you need to blame the entire government,
democrat and republican alike, for that.
-i am actually no fan of either of the de facto candidates for
President. Bush is clearly an incompetent puppet who follows what Cheney
and Rumsfeld say. Kerry is a seasoned, 4 term senator from Massachusetts,
whose been in DC way too long, who flip flops on issues just to get votes.
I'm not sure who i dislike more. As much i want to see Bush go, the prospects
of Kerry replacing him aren't too ideal either. And no matter how much
Nader denies it, voting for Nader ultimately helps Bush, particularly
if you live in a state that is "close." Thus voters are faced with either
voting for someone who truly represents their views (the "third" party
candidate) and help Bush, or voting for the lesser of two evils (and it's
not really clear who really is lesser...). Fortunately or unfortunately
I live in California, thus it doesn't matter who i vote for, because Kerry
will win a land slide. California is definitely Democratic leaning, except
for of course the extremely centrist Schwarzenegger Republican anomaly.
It is such a foregone conclusion that California will vote for Kerry that
the campaigns will ignore California, as was the case in 2000, 1996 and
1992. Kinda sad and upsetting given how much California means (those yummy
55 electoral votes). blah....
-the republicans will get their turn at having a convention
in a few weeks... it'll be interesting to see what kinda rhetorical
crap will come out of NYC.
July 24, 2004 - now a regular journal....
-10:45 pm: i'm going to be keeping this blog, even
though it looks like i won't be able to upload it for awhile. blah
whatever. i've just gone from no tv to no internet. at first i didn't
know which would be worse, but if thinking about it longer, no internet
is probably worse. first of all, most of tv is repeats so there's really
not much worth watching. second, limited choices! at least with the internet
you can choose what you want to look at, with tv sorta limited by what's
on, particularly when you have no cable.
-daniel's apartment is stark contrast to Gaia. a much older
building right above west coast pizza, it has a very different feeling
than Gaia. Gaia never really felt like a home to me. Too new and lacking
any charm to it. This place, admittedly looks worse, but has character
to it, and easier to call home. And it will be home for the next six
weeks until my internship at PDL is over.
July 24, 2004 - potentially no updates for a long
time
-7:59 am: moving out of Gaia today... and the new
place doesn't have internet set up i think. so there will be no updates
in the foreseeable future, nor AIM conversations (not that i've even
had any recently). best way to reach me is by email (work email pmasatani
at pdl.com) or cell phone. enjoy the rest of summer.
July 20, 2004 - a contrast in days
of work, music
-9:08 pm: the past two days of work were very stark
contrast to each other.... Monday was probably THE least productive
EVER... damn. I pretty much sat at the cubicle all day. Pretty damn
boring. Today was the complete opposite. I probably had my most productive
day at PDL: planning two experiments, cutting over 150 sections, and
attending two meetings. Wow. The most difficult was the sectioning, particularly
when your freakin blocks break on you (ergggg). I need to decide which
of the two experiments to run tomorrow....
-and now for my latest phase in music. I tend to listen to
the same type of music, or same artist over and over again for extended
periods of time, or specific things like trips. Then when i hear some
song way down the road, it reminds me of that particular time. This song
period association is mostly for summers... For example, whenever i hear
anything from Santana's Supernatural album, i'm reminded of the big family
Yellowstone trip in summer 2000. "Smooth" always brings up images of driving
on the highways of Wyoming, South Dakota and Colorado. Summer 2001 had
this Japanese song called Best Friend by Kiroro. The theme from Star Wars
Episode II reminds me of summer 2002, Gundam SEED music reminds me of summer
2003. I've already assigned the most random of songs to the recent Hawaii
trip, "Wouldn't it be Nice" by the Beach Boys, mainly because it was the
theme of the movie 50 First Dates. Seeing that movie on the way in got that
song stuck in my head that entire trip. This summer has got the modern/rock
and punk stuff going. Weird cuz i never liked that stuff before. I dunno
know why but i find songs like Yellowcard's Only One really catchy.
July 18, 2004 - I, Robot and more
on the Americana at Brand
-7:05 pm: did a bunch of random things, mostly
on whims. First was shopping at Trader Joe's in El Cerrito Plaza and
then Walgreens. That was followed by seeing Will Smith's new movie
I, Robot. Although the movie is generally being blasted by critics,
i was bored and so i decided to see it. I also got in for the discount
$6.50, so whatever. The verdict: not as bad as the critics made the movie
sound, but on the flip side not a super excellent movie like Spiderman
2. The movie most closely falls into the CGI overload category, but has
some interesting story elements. Since all movies involving the creation
of Artificial Intelligence involve the "machines" going bad on us, it
wasn't surprising to see that happening here. The general plot is the
same as the Matrix and Terminator movies: the machines are either in
control or are trying to take control, and it's up to the heroes to stop
it. The machines in I, Robot are exponentially less nefarious than those
in the Matrix or Terminator. Even with the recycled general plot though,
the movie was fun to watch.
-i talked to my mom about the new center that's being voted
on in Glendale. Seems like it's going to fail because of the conservative
base. Seems like people have the perception that the new place, with
its noticeable lack of parking, is going to create traffic congestion
and parking nightmares. And stuff like that, while seemingly acceptable
in the Bay Area, doesn't fly in LA. Oh well, so it'll fail in Glendale.
Burbank will probably build it though....
July 17, 2004 - the rest of the
pics are up, real estate fight in my hometown, friday fun
-10:11 pm: as i promised the rest of the Hawaii
pics are up before sunday... so go ahead and view them! The pages themselves
are more or less finished with, although i may go back and add some
more to the journal entry portions. View July 10
or July 11
-not until today did i realize that there is
a bitter quarrel going on back in my hometown of Glendale. Apparently
the city is desparate to revitalize the downtown area and so a developer
has a proposed plan to build a new town center complete with movie
theatres, shops and housing. Problem is that it's being developed
right next to the Glendale Galleria, and the mall owners are not too
happy about the potential competition. So the developer, Caruso Affiliated,
and the mall owner, General Growth, are locked in a bitter fight that
has divided the city population. Although the city council approved the
Caruso plans, General Growth gathered enough signatures to force the
decision to go before the general public in a special election on September
14. General Growth is paying for the election, hoping the Glendale voters
reject the plan.
-Being from Glendale, i can say that the city needs something
like the proposed Americana at Brand. The current downtown doesn't
boast a place that you can go hang out at on a Friday evening, residents
must go to neighboring Pasadena or Burbank for that. Pasadena has Old
Town Pasadena and Burbank has the media center and the Empire center.
Glendale can only boast the mall, which is becoming an old antiquated
thing of the past. The city council is clearly concerned about losing out
to Burbank and Pasadena, and are thus willing to give away half of the
land for free to the developer.
-in this regard, Berkeley and Glendale are similar. Berkeley
also lacks a "cool" place to hang out, and students must retreat
to Emeryville, San Francisco or Oakland for a decently sized movie
theater screen. So i'm totally for the new center... it should liven
up Glendale, and perhaps make it more well known.
-speaking of lively places to be, i went out after work
with a bunch of PDL interns to dinner and movie. Fun fun! Leslie, Nathan,
Brian, Jamian and I ate at Macaroni Grille in Milpitas. Yummy food
including the strawberry cheesecake dessert. After dinner, Jamian had
to go back to Davis, but the rest of us were joined by Crystal at the
Great Mall to see Spiderman 2. The movie was a lot better than the first
movie, and probably one of the best superhero movies to be made. It was
a great relief to see a movie that was more than just special effects
and that had some substance to it. Afterward we went over to a Q-cup
boba place, complete with plenty of high-schoolers, the William Hung
music video and interesting conversations over milk tea with pearls. All
done about 10:30 pm, Crystal drove us back to Fremont to drop off Brian
at his home.... in a gated community full of $2 million + houses.... wow.
Crystal then dropped of Nathan and me at the Fremont BART station where
we caught the second to last train back to Berkeley.
-i find it very interesting that the day after i visit
something like the Great Mall, i find out about something similar
that's trying to go up back in my hometown. Probably just a coincidence,
but still interesting. We'll see what the voters of the city decide
come mid-septermber....
July 15, 2004 - july 9 is up, Kobe
rejects red, blue and white and stays with the purple and gold
-8:35 pm: the pics/blog for july 9 are now up.
View here.
The rest will definitely be up by Sunday.
-in unrelated news, Kobe chose the Lakers over the Clippers
because well i dunno. More money? And who would you seriously want
to play for... the franchise with a reputation or the NBA's doormat?
Assuming that Bryant isn't convicted, the Lakers will be a far inferior
team next season and definitely not a title contender. After trading
away Shaq, LA suddenly became centerless team that lost offense and defense.
other teams don't have to worry about containing shaq anymore, and
teams won't be afraid of driving to the middle. The western conference
is full of excellent big men, and LA will have enormous trouble keeping
up. And if Kobe is convicted, well an even more difficult season ahead.
At least we won't get the retarded feuding...
July 14, 2004 - reaction to the
Lakers BS
-10:14 pm: well well, the millions of lakers
haters and the rest of the NBA's western conference rejoice now
that shaq has officially left LA. Don't get me wrong, i'm still an
LA fan but i'm happy to see everyone leave. Call it bitterness from
LA's pathetic performance during the finals, but a part of me would
also like to join those lakers haters and Sacramento/Dallas/San Antonio
fans in seeing Kobe Bryant bolt for the Clippers. Or better yet... signing
for the max $130 million and then getting convicted! Then LA would be
totally FUBAR - f**ked up beyond all recognition. Yes i am still really
really bitter over last season, when those whiny crybaby idiots couldn't
put aside their selfishness and naïvete and just play. All that
drama, much worse than anything Hollywood ever made, was a whole lot
of shit to put up with, and well i don't want to deal with it another
season.
-conventional wisdom suggests that Shaq and Kobe will,
in the long run, utterly regret this bitter "divorce." They of course
don't realize that they needed each other to be as good as they were
when they won the three championships and winning the three championships
was only possible because they had each other. Shaq finds himself in Miami
now, surrounded by less talent and probably still on a team inferior to
Detriot. Kobe will be playing for an LA team without a decent center or
will be playing for some Colorado penitentiary team. Neither one will likely
be playing for a championship next season, as none of teams they will be
on look like serious contenders, particularly the inmate team. Down the
road, i wonder if either would be bold enough to admit that this separation
was a mistake...
-we will hear Kobe's choice tomorrow (around 12 pm) on
which LA team. Perhaps, though, the more important decision
will be that announced in September in an Eagle County courtoom.
July 14, 2004 - pics from the first day up
-9:40 pm: after much work, pics from the first
day are up. Links to the rest of the days are active, but there
are no pictures on them. I hope to complete it all by tomorrow evening
but we'll see....
Hawai'i Trip
Page
July 13, 2004 - back from Hawaii!
-7:59 pm: arrived back from Hawaii last night
at about 11:50 pm, and wow what a trip! Sunburns, pineapples, humuhumu
nukunuku apua'as, luaus and more! I'm working on a trip page (like
the one for my trip to Japan) that i will post up shortly.
-In short i had a great time in 50th state. I had much
more fun than i could've ever imagined. Even though we only visited
one island (Oahu), there was more than enough to see and do, and
i'm left with a bunch of good memories, souvenirs and photos. Check
back in a few days for the complete story!
July 6, 2004 - going to hawaii!
-9:31 pm: yup heading over tomorrow after
work and won't be back untl monday night. pics will be up probably
tuesday or so depending how tired i am....
July 4, 2004 - US Celebrates 228th
bday, GBASP and FFTA, the week
-11:59 pm: 228 years since independence
was declared from England, and what a different country and world
it is today? Given everything that has been going on in the world
in recent years, you wonder what ppl back in the founding days of the
country would think. I personally think they would probably be ashamed
of some things but on the other hand proud of others. For all of its
flaws, the US is still one the best places to live in the world.
-ok so that's about as patriotic as i can get....
it's been a week since last bloggin, and well there has been a
lot to blog about, but i haven't done it for being so tired after
each day. So also on last sunday, besides seeing Fahrenheit 9/11,
i bought a cobalt GBASP and Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, just cuz
i was finding life without a tv way too boring. I've already logged
27 hours in a week on that game (nearly 4 hours per day avg...) because
yeah... it's an FF game. Pretty unconventional FF game at that with lots
of tweaking and strategizing to do, which is the type of game i like. So
it's fun and i don't regret the $147 total i spent.
-Monday some of us PDL interns took out one of the
interns, Liz Wu, for her bday at a random chinese restaurant in
Fremont. The oddity of the day was that the restaurant had no pork
dishes!
-Tuesday, i saw the Angels-Athletics game at the
Network Associates Coliseum with a group of interns +Eddie, courtesy
of the organization of future TBP VP Nate-dawg. Even though i didn't
have any beer, the game wasn't as boring as it is on TV. The game did
feature a good deal of offense, with Oakland winning 5-4 on a 2 run
single in the bottom of the 7th
-Wednesay after work i went over to Daniel's new
place, the place where i'm going to live in August, to go eat dinner
and see a movie. We ended up seeing Shrek 2, even though i saw it
already because i didn't want to watch White Chicks or Dodgeball.
Incidentally SpiderMan2 opened on Wednesday, but we were too late
to the theatre to deal with the lines. The second time around,
Shrek 2 was still quite funny.
-Work wise, i've finally run my own experiments
that have had fairly nice results. i can't discuss details, but
the scientist i work under said that if i get good enough results
then she would personally recommend they hire me despite the company's
hiring freeze.... Now talk about incentive for the rest of the summer....
-the brings us to the weekend, namely yesterday
and today. All i did was essentially play FFTA, and eat/sleep.
Reminds me of winter break of sophomore year when i played FFX...
hahah what memories.