tvshow

Stupid White Men

This past Christmas, Vivian received a special present from the LA-we-want-to-be-New-York Times: a pink slip with one week's notice.

It so happened that, despite busting her ass for two-and-a-half years to excellent reviews, she had been hired under the wrong status in the limbo period between the Old Guard (the Chandlers) and the New Guard (Tribune Co.). And the New Guard made a Decree that none shall pass, and that happened to apply to her, and it was Not Good. And, in Orange County, home to the largest congregation of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam, the number of reporters fluent in Tieng Viet dropped from two to one.

So last Friday, a Vietnamese-American in OC was named as a bishop, the first to receive that honor. And the phone rang. Seems the one remaining Nguoi Viet on staff was sick, and Vivian was needed to save the day. She said, "How much?" Ha, ha.

It ended up with a pretty fee for a day's work, and an A1 story (only a contrib line, but hey), which was pretty much impossible to get when she actually worked at the bureau. Confirming yet again my repeated observation that outside consultants and contractors get the better treatment, while the loyal full-time employees get the shaft. Which is all...

Stupid.

Simplify

We moved our first load of crap over to the new pad this weekend. The overriding impression: it's going to be tight. Not that our current place is an excessive mansion, but we're going from a two-bedroom house with storage and lots of built-in shelves to a one-bedroom with no built-ins and no storage. Eek!

If we manage to squeeze in (and downsize), we need a new rule: For each new acquisition, something old and unneeded must...GO!

Anyhoo...how about some pictures?

Venice

Hey, we're moving to Venice! After only five days of looking we found a place that rocks. Nice rear duplex, 5 blocks from the beach, hardwood floors, enclosed yard for the kitties. And the listing was wrong, so we're getting it for a hundred dollars cheaper than intended: only $1050!

For those of you outside of SoCal or some other insane housing market, yes, that's a good deal. Frightening, but we've plopped down more than $60,000 in rent over the last four years. Why didn't you buy? Because we don't have half a mil!

We hope this is our last rental, but buying here is scary. Takes a lot of money, and the market fluctuates wildly. You easily can see your place drop a hundred grand or more in a downturn; just hope you don't need to sell then. Well, we'll see.

At least the kitties are happy.

Tai Chi Is Not Relaxing Me

Wrong! Tai Chi Chuan. Boot to the head.

First off, I am pretty uncoordinated. Got that from my mom, along with premature greying and oily skin. I also get easily frustrated when I don't learn things quickly. So that's my deal. But...

The Mr. Miyagi I-hit-you-with-bamboo-stick-until-you-get-it-right teaching methodology just doesn't sit well with me. Yes, the class is far too large. Yes, it's difficult having all levels of students mixed together. But...

Mr. Miyagi, you didn't show us that part last week. You stopped at this...Wrong! That's wrong! Boot to the head.

Mind you, I dragged my ass out of bed at 7:30 this morning on little sleep and a touch of (I think) food poisoning. I practiced the tiny bit of Tai Chi Chuan we had learned every morning last week but one. I think I'm making a decent effort. But...

After about 15 minutes of listening to his beratement of the class, I wanted nothing more than to walk out and never come back. And I pretty much felt that way the rest of the morning, though I think now I'll be stubborn and keep on going. But...

I would like a little more instruction than: No! That's wrong! You're doing it wrong. Boot to the head!

I know I'm doing it wrong. That's why I'm coming to class and practicing. I want to do it right. My apologies, Mr. Miyagi, that these movements do not come naturally to me. I certainly wish they did. I know that my muscles are too tense, and I need to relax. And your constructive and reassuring lessons sure are helping me to relax! Thank you!

Wrong! That's wrong! Boot to the head!

I want to ride my bicycle

Ahhhhhhhh. We finally received our replacement bike rack, after a dark period of several months (it had been recalled). So today, I was able to take my happy new bike to Carbon Canyon, where I hadn't ridden for nearly six months (and that was on my old bike).

It was a beautiful, slightly cool day, perfect for riding. To take it easy after the long hiatus, I did the gentle ride up Telegraph Road to Four Corners and back.

The mustard flowers are growing up to 8 or 9 feet tall, making some paths look like deep trenches. I'm a bit too chicken to go riding on single tracks with no visibility. Especially since the paths are all washed out from the rains. I did meet a few really experienced riders that were completely unfazed and went up the scary paths...I bid them enjoy.

Oh, the highlight was going through some of the pools that cross the road. It used to be that you'd just barrel through and get a bit of a splash. The first was almost a foot deep, I learned riding through, so I was peddling through water, but managed to cross. The next pool had looser mud at the bottom, and I just fell thunk in the water. So there I was, my left side submerged, my bike on top of me, and my feet still locked in the pedals. Woo hoo. But I eventually made it on my way. Another rider told me later that as he was passing me, he heard the squishing sound my shoes were making as I pedaled. Ha, ha. I'm surprised that no fish jumped out when I took my shoes off.

And this is my baby (30th birthday present), a 2002 Cannondale Jekyll 600.

Mr. Miyagi

Ever wonder what Pat Morita is doing these days after waxing "The Karate Kid" sequels? He's leading our Tai Chi Chuan classes every Saturday at 8 a.m. I kid you not! I have no idea what our instructor's real name is, but he's aka "Mister Miyagi." We think he's a kin of the Miyagi clan. He's so adorable: not much more than 5-feet tall with graying beard, an old goat's sensibilities and an oddball sense of humor. He's anti-Iraq war, or any kind of war for that matter since he's a war veteran, and considers himself "a lover, not a fighter...well, at least that's what my wife says." Thanks, Mr. Miyagi, a little more info than we want to know.

So I asked him if there was a first-day signup sheet for the Tai Chi class and he barked, "This is not Tai Chi! This is Tai Chi Chuan!" Okay. He explained the difference this way, "Woman, over there, what type of food do you like to eat?" She says, "Beef." Mr. Miyagi responds, "So do you like Chinese?" She says, "Yes" and he scrambles for the door. "You see," the wise master says to his class, "I asked her if she like to eat Chinese, not Chinese food. She said she likes to eat Chinese, so I have to run away. It's the same as Tai Chi. Tai Chi is a very deep Chinese philosophy but Tai Chi CHUAN is the exercise only. Chuan means fist. You want to learn Tai Chi, you go somewhere else. Not here."

He showed us a few stretches and one move of 30 or so movements. He has a funny way of remembering his pupils for their faults. He certainly has Tom and I marked. Our next class...more wrist-arm movements like "a goose", or fingers like a "hose shooting water" and the secrets of how to take long hikes without drinking an ounce of water.

157766400 seconds, and counting

The original tvshow came on line 5 years ago today, and the current episodes are every bit as wonderful as the first season.

That means our 5th annual evening at 5ft in Laguna. (And probably the last for a while: no spending money for the next 5 years!)

So what will the next five years bring? Advancing years, crest and trough, more spoiled children, and more fabulous shows...

Are You Up Or Down?

Sadly, our server has been down since Sunday. Bad RAM. I forget what I was going to post then. Down, up.

The votes are in. It's USC for grad school. We're already plotting our move to the Venice area. Up. The schools of the world were in general underwhelmed by my lack of academic CompSci experience. Down. But USC is great for NLP, and I'm on a fellowship, so all is well. Up.

The war is still going. Down. I'm supposed to be happy that the "Coalition" (of two) is doing well, and the war will end soon. Down/Up. And then we can install our "democratic" government to oversee proper flow of Iraqi resources to our pockets. Oh, and maintain a large military presence in the Middle East, lest they (we) make trouble again. Down. Maybe our new dictator will have less of a penchant for gassing and torturing. Up. Or maybe not. Down.