get your vote on!

California, you have just over an hour left!

Just in time for Halloween

I kid you not! Final Jeopardy of the day:

Category: 21st Century Games

The villains in this game were inspired by the swine flu epidemic scare.

None of the geniuses on the show got it but I knew straightaway... WHAT IS ANGRY BIRDS?

And as the universe (or multiverse, whatever) would have it, Alex Trebek read the correct question just as I was opening a box full of Halloween costumes. Guess what some choice friends and I are dressing up as!

CAW!

life and death

I have been very quiet for the past week, very sad and quite inactive. My dog, Neo (you have known him as Q-Tip) has passed away last Saturday.

Neo, my baby of weird and slightly evil love.

I could wax poetic about his many unique qualities that made him different from any other dog I've ever hugged, about how he could make me laugh and cry and yell all in one day and I'd still carry him to the bed so he could sleep by my feet, his preferred haven. There are so many silly and happy memories, and painful ones, too. There are so many strange stories of a deaf dog who, though thin as a rail and with hair as fluffy as a fussy lapdog,  could scare raccoons and dobermans and all manner of large creatures. To his dying day, the only animal he ever lost to was a skunk.

Neo is not my first pet to pass; two dogs and a sweet cat have come and gone before him. I always thought that each of their deaths was different, and it's true that each has gone a separate path. Some transform tangibly into a sad version of their former selves while others jump and prance and fight for food on their dying day. The difference with Neo was that we - Neo included - did not let him die naturally. This is the first time I have agreed to euthanize anyone, and I believe this has defined my mourning more than anything.

Neo was born deaf and as he grew, he faced a slew of health problems. The ultimate ailment was his sensitive skin... it was so sensitive that at times, his own mucus irritated him. Neo was afflicted with a mucus problem that was overtaking his body and causing contact with his skin to be painful. I knew that he was a survivor, that this skinny little dog who did not eat until he was full and slept all day was a dog who had outlasted all manners of veterinary visits and unexplainable rashes. He was strong for such a skinny dog and I knew that his physical fortitude indicated a willpower of equal strength. But last Monday, when I was washing him, I thought about euthanization for the first time as he cried uncontrollably in the tub. I had refused it flat out every time my mother had so much as mentioned it in passing. But when Neo couldn't stop crying even after I took him out of the tub, I knew this time nothing I or my mom or the vet could do would fix Neo.

I ended up crying well before Neo died. I cried a little everyday just because I was thinking about euthanization, and I cried more when I reasoned that in the end, I didn't know how to make him better. I cried when I confided in my mom and she told me she would take care of it. She would schedule an appointment on Saturday, when I was visiting my sister in Los Angeles and wouldn't be able to bawl at the veterinary office. I cried when I relinquished Neo to my mom, knowing that this was the last time I'd ever hold him. I felt like the worst mother in the world, sentencing her dog to die. The guilt overwhelmed me and I cried all the way home, unable to see through my tears. And when I opened the door and saw an empty couch, I cried again. I shed many tears before Saturday.

Crying over something that hadn't happened felt different... I was always thinking what have I done! I can still go back and get him! It added a new layer of stress and guilt that I had never experienced before. But in  this case, pushing the mourning period forward was a good thing because I did not have a lot of time after Saturday to cry. On Friday I flew out to Los Angeles for my sister's un-bridal bridal shower, hardly a time to dwell on a dog I couldn't save. I returned early Sunday, only to be besieged by cancelled flights and Sunday Streets barring my way home. Between the hours it took me to get home and a new workweek starting the next day, there was little time to reflect on Neo and what I had agreed to. I have been wanting to run out of the office and finish crying about Neo, to give him a proper sendoff in a sea of salty tears and crumpled tissues. And I won't be able to anytime soon with a flurry of engagements that I have already committed to, some that I cannot back out of without risking a family schism.

But no matter the obstacles blocking my desire to sit around and mope about Neo, I cannot just abandon my responsibilities, friends, and family to cry about something I cannot change. Neo was made of tougher stuff, and he'd expect me, his human, to be just as resilient. After all, life goes on. One love has died but there are so many others living and breathing, and I cannot cross them out. I'm not saying that I'll easily forget that little dog - I certainly do not intend to - but instead of trying to squeeze in a sobfest at the nearest break, I will be content with shedding a few tears whenever a memory of Neo strikes. Eventually, these memories won't cause tears, just as memories of other pets no longer bring sadness.

Neo in fluffier days...

As I fold laundry fresh from the dryer, I know how much Neo would have loved to sink into the warm clothes and gaze at me with his dark eyes, ears flopping to each side like graceful wings. Though a tear swells up in my eye, I wouldn't say I'm crying.

that explains it

Most of the articles produced by Yahoo! are poorly-researched, somewhat illogical, and riddled with grammatical errors.

However, the site has just redeemed itself with a rather enlightening article on popular diets... the only thing worth reading here is the last sentence under the "What's missing?" portion of the Paleo Diet:

The Paleo Diet is also low in carbohydrates-and there's research that shows limiting or eliminating carbs impacts your memory and your mood.

So that's why I remember everything! All hail the mighty potato and the royal court of pasta, rice, bread, and corn!

bad luck

If you were a life-changing, world-shaking, politically active superstar, chances are today wasn't the best day in your life.

Because three men who made huge impacts on millions of lives have passed away today:

• philanthropist-billionaire Warren Hellman, the force behind many a San Francisco power deal and the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival
• first president of free a free Czechoslovakia Vaclav Havel who fought Soviet influence
• eccentric and brutal North Korean president Kim Jong-Il

I know it's morbid but the third one is for the best. It's likely that the Demarcation Zone won't be done away with anytime soon but any transfer of power is sure to cause some unrest. Also, since Kim Jong-Il had such a strong cult of personality, no one else will have the same charisma with the people. Even if the executive power passes down to the son Kim Jong-Un, his reign will be dimmer than Kim Jong-Il's.

Saddam, Quaddafi, and Kim... it looks like dictators are dropping like flies from my Axis of Evil cookbook:

full of trivia tidbits and recipes for delicacies

you cannot make this up

Final Jeopardy from tonight's episode of Jeopardy!...

Category: Movie Characters

Answer: "900 years old when he died, he spoke in OSV syntax, object-subject-verb."


The question (which is the "answer"...)

image from Guided by Yoda

Who is Yoda?!!!!!

we need to keep up

Sometimes it feels like the world is moving very fast... Gaddaffi is yanked from his hidey hole in Libya and killed, Obama promises to pull everyone out of Iraq by Christmas, and these Occupy movements are growing. Granted, some of this is good news... finally free of its longtime dictator, Libya has the opportunity to truly modernize and set up a fair government for its people. So it's good news, delivered in a bloody and fashionable shroud.

And of all days, I finally feel not one but TWO stateside earthquakes on the day of California's earthquake drill. This was especially important to me because I NEVER feel domestic quakes - I believe the first tremor I really felt was while dining out in Taipei. The 4.2 earthquake rumbling just hours after the drill was too ironic and set off a few laughs at work yesterday.

a real tear-jerker

not since Dobby died have I been so saddened by a movie!

Never Let Me Go is based on the Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name and stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield in a parallel Britain where clones are created and raised for a morbidly nightmarish and shocking purpose: organ farms.

so sad...

Judging from the TV Guide summary, I had no idea that this movie was this sort of shocking dystopia. All I had to go on was a blurb akin to "three children in a seemingly idyllic boarding school are faced with a haunting reality." Naturally, I thought that the reality was growing up... unsurprisingly, I was knocked off my rocker! But after the initial shock when Miss Lucy discloses the children's fate - I missed the first five minutes of the movie which apparently is the first giveaway - I decided that this eerie twist added some gloom and goth to the familiar love triangle.

L to R: Carey Mulligan as Kathy, Keira Knightley as Ruth, and Andrew Garfield as Tommy

Also learned that Carey Mulligan did this project shortly after An Education... you can tell her stock just skyrocketed after these those two projects. For me, Keira and Andrew were good, just not nearly as brilliant as Carey.

What really amazes me is the casting choices for the first third of the movie, which documents the young childhood of the trio. Going only on looks, I feel like these girls were picked solely because they look so much like their adult counterparts. But these lasses have acting in their blood, too!

Ella Purnell (left) plays young Ruth while Isobel Meikle-Small nails the part of young Kathy

By the way, watching the first third of the movie is absolutely heartbreaking... watching these promising young children just accept their sad fate... all I feel is melancholy, and it only adds to the poignancy of this film.

Now I'll be thinking many sad thoughts at work...

Thanks to this movie, I am never going to volunteer to donate my DNA or eggs to anything, anyone, or any cause!

totally unnecessary

Though I enjoy pork once in a while but I've definitely lowered my consumption of this meat ever since watching Babe as a little girl. And now it might go drop even more.

Saw this disturbing report from ABC News on the treatment of pigs bred for pork in Iowa... as if the "standard industry practices" weren't bad enough, these ingrates think it's okay to "thump" piglets... totally sickening.

Unfortunately the bacon-maple whoopie pies I began making tonight will have to wait... I don't feel like serving these treats right away, even though the bacon from Trader Joe's does not come from this hellhole called Iowa Select Farms.

Scroll to the end of the I-Team's blog post and check your pork. Mine is safe:

way off of "3W" and "3S"

People are going to eat pork, so there's a job to be done raising pigs for food. But surely the method doesn't call for tossing live animals around like phone bills or manhandling infants. There is definitely a way to get the resources you want while respecting the pig and - most importantly - your own human species.

something worth fighting for

Happy Gay Pride Weekend! And a big fat high-five to New York for legalizing gay marriage - which by the way is something that should not have to be passed into law.

I was talking to my landlord earlier today and we agreed that it's a shame how California really doesn't set breakthrough precedents anymore... not in green lifestyles (see my posts on Seattle or Condé Nast Traveler's "How Green is My Berlin") or civil rights (New York joins the prestigious list of states that have legalized gay marriage... other honorees include Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Vermont.) The evening news reports that people around the world are celebrating Pride a little more enthusiastically this year because of the strides we've made... from New York to repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell to other countries recognizing same-sex unions.

Not to be a party pooper but all I can think is where the hell is California in all of this?

just in time

On Saturday the three of decided to take a daytrip to Vancouver... much better than attending the four hour-long graduation ceremony for the entire university.

Picked out a sweet rental car...

Kia Soul... so boxy!

The lady at the rental counter said that it was a new car, and I sure believe her! Driving this car was like driving through melted butter... the steering and gas pedal were so smooth... I ended up netting my first moving citation! Lesson learned!

Getting to Canada didn't take as long as I thought... probably because I napped part of the way.

waiting in line at the border

Less than an hour more of driving and we were there at Granville Street! Popped by the waterfront and visited old Gastown, which has a semi-steam-powered clock:

Water Street, Gastown 

the Steam Clock

but only the top bit is steam-powered!

Had a hard time deciding where to eat but ultimately decided on Chill Winston, most likely because of the huge outdoor seating area.

the Outlaw, alright but a "Canadian version of a caipirinha" it was not

arctic chard tartare

scallops with apricots and bacon... can't go wrong with bacon!

the perfect brunch: smoked steelhead eggs "benny"

The flavors weren't terribly smashing here but I will say that all of the seafood we had was pretty darn fresh.

Continuing our trek through Granville Island...

we stumbled across Chinatown... 

nothing says Chinatown like a decorative gate! 

sunning by the pond at Dr. Sun Yat Sen park

...and a tank?

remember Goldeneye for the N64 and how you could pop inside a tank for a breather?

Honestly, we had a downright difficult time locating Granville Public Market... I knew we had to get off the island and look west of the bridge but I didn't draw a detailed-enough map. So we headed back to Seattle and beat traffic.

forgot to ask for stamps both ways... oops!

By the way, did you know that at the time of our visit - last weekend - the conversion rate was approximately 97 cents to $1 US!? America Jr. beat us!?

Not really... looks like some people went a little too far with the loss to Boston... but there also seems to be an appropriate show of remorse. Between the attack on Giants fan Stow and all of this locura in Vancouver, people need to remember that all the emotion of the game needs to stay in the stadium.

his 70th

Happy 70th Birthday to the one and only Bob Dylan!  Voice of the times and a huge force behind the rise of it-makes-you-think folk-rock.

A co-worker passed on his song of choice from the Poet...

as my co-worker said, the last four lines are really something...

I'm sick of love, I wish I never met you
I'm sick of love, I'm trying to forget you
I just don't know what to do, I'd give anything to
Just be with you

It sounds stupid until you've experienced it; then and only then does it makes perfect sense.

My picks... young Bob takes to the streets...

this one got huge raves from Rolling Stone magazine... used to hear it a lot on my "oldies-classic rock" radio station...

Live free, friends!

not so much a snake as a worm

G. W. Bush got Hussein and B. H. Obama got Bin Laden.

Osama bin Laden killed in Pakistan - Americas - Al Jazeera English

But you and I know that unfortunately, this isn't the end.