Two Movies Over Memorial Weekend

Unleashed
Besides the unique premise of a fighter who behaves like puppy dog when collared and a rabid dog when unleashed, the storyline of is quite standard. The movie, however, was very well done. It was entertaining--intense, harrowing yet heartwarming, and funny.

Crash
"Crash" is a lot more ambitious--as most movies with intersecting storylines are--and deals with overt and subtle forms of racism. When "Crash" mentions stereotypes without any true consequences, it oversaturates itself with throwaway scenes. Haggis's directing undermines his own script--he uses cheap tricks such as slow motion and close-up reaction shots to emphasize scenes that already speak for themselves. Perhaps I'm being too finical though, because when the stories work, and quite a few do, they blow me away.

Threadless Sale

Only $10/shirt! What great value! What great shirts! Go to the Threadless t-shirt sale; through June 6th only.

Buy the Benni shirt!

Or let people know you're just a piece of meat!





I might as well use up the same blog space to announce:

1. Alias's finale was a total shocker; can't wait for next season.
   
2. I plan on rewriting the prequel scripts for Star Wars.
   
3. Carrie Underwood sucks.
   

Thank you for watching.

Rediscovered Gem of Oakland

                 1931                                           2005

Exercise groups congregated at its foot; joggers trained on its steep steps. Though lush trees surrounded the pathway, the barren and weed-filled center revealed few clues of its beautiful past to those who strolled by.

One day, as she researched old newspaper clippings, Barbara Newcombe found a photo of the Cleveland Cascade as it was in 1931. The citizens of the neighborhood, reenergized, formed a coalition to restore the hill-hugging waterfall that bridged the west end of Cleveland Street to Lakeshore Avenue.

Designed by landscape architect Howard Gilkey, the Cascade was built in 1923, and enjoyed a prosperous run until at least 1931. Photos found in the 1950s indicate the hillscape was as barren then as it was in the 2000s, leading people to suspect World War II neglect as the cause of its dilapidated state. However, little documentation exists, and the true cause or causes remain a mystery.

Friends of the Cleveland Cascade have organized fundraising efforts and a sudoriferous* excavation event that jump-started the restoration process.

Though I may not be here personally to witness the unveiling of the new waterfall, I hope you remaining Oaklanders will pay this mini-monument a visit!

*My Wordsmith word of the day. Gotta use it to remember it.

Transforming a Town

When a PBS documentary mentioned "Chihuahua, Mexico," I could not help but giggle like a nine-year-old--the way I still do every time I hear "Lake Titicaca." But awe soon replaced incorrigible silliness (though it is bound to make a comeback elsewhere). One determined man, Juan Quezada, through trial and error, taught himself how to make pottery from resources available around his town. When his work was discovered and then publicized by an American anthropologist, Juan taught his family and the community his craft. Now Mata Ortiz is full of artists who can sustain themselves economically and contribute to an amazing art movement.

What have I done for Oakland lately? Well, a clean-up, but that hardly seems enough.

Read more about Mata Ortiz.

A Very Chinese Weekend

I felt lucky Friday night, lucky enough the snab the 2 round-trip tickets from Southwest at the Asian Employee Association's Scholarship Fundraising dinner. I wasn't that lucky, but I did win something from the raffle: "Martin Yang's Chinatown Cooking" and a Chinese placemat/napkin/chopsticks set. Unfortunately, Mr. Yang does not cover sizzling rice soup in his cookbook.

Volunteers gathered at the Lincoln Neighborhood Center Saturday morning to participate in the Great American Cleanup, this year showcasing Oakland's Chinatown. After lion dancers flirted with the crowd, Keep Oakland Beautiful presented an award to Tzu Chi (a Taiwanese Buddhist Association) members, who clean the streets every weekend. I did not leave empty-handed either. Glad was a sponsor of the event, and provided a mountain of boxes filled with Glad trash bags. As we could not possibly use all the bags, I got permission to take home two boxes for my move.

The event went along smoothly for one planned so hastily; the only faux-pas was the lunch: the Buddhists--and hence vegetarians--could not eat the supplied supreme pizzas.

The Revenge of the Sith Experience

I slept late Wednesday night, and by the time I dragged myself out of bed Thursday morning and arrived late at work, I was not in the mood to later wait in line and watch what I knew was going to be a mediocre movie. Why, oh why had I already bought tickets for the 3:30 pm show on opening day?

I left work at 12:45, and I headed over to the Emeryville Bay Street theatres. The 3:30 line had been set up, but only eight people were in line before me. I plopped myself down, opened my Ovid book, but could not concentrate on the text because the girl in front of me was engaging in an inevitably stupid conversation with some other similarly-dressed hipsters.

I had sworn that I would only drink one cup of water so I would not have to use the bathroom while in line or in the theatre. Since I was there alone and would have no problems finding a seat, I decided to leave the line and kill some time going to the bathroom and calling my friends who were not at work (except I called Erik--he's exempt from certain considerate thoughts due to my neediness).

When the line grew longer, I decided to return. However, this time an ugly guy stood behind me and kept humming a horribly repetitive tune. I would step away from him, only to have him follow me over, perhaps illogically thinking that the line had moved? I left the line once more and waited for more people to fill it up. I ended up standing behind some college kids, who were annoying, but considering my threshold for such things, they were perfectly nice and wholesome.

A couple then filed into the line behind me. They had brought two of their kids and three of their kids' friends; four of the kids were dressed up as either Anakin or Darth Vader, and they soon initiated a lightsaber fight. The couple asked me what I did for a living, and I returned the question. The mother told me that she was a stay-at-home mother. As the conversation progressed, she revealed that she had an architectural background. At that point, I lost it and kept asking her where she worked, even though she had told me she was a STAY-AT-HOME MOM. What embarassing idiocy on my part. They still offered to let me sit with them if I wanted. I thanked them, but I was there alone so I could have the freedom to move around, well, freely.

Though there was a sign labeling our line, people kept coming up to me around 2:25-2:40 to ask me if we were the 2:45 line. I suppose in a way it's convenient, and it's nice to have contact with strangers.

Our line was let in 40 minutes before to the show. As I approached my perfect seat, one of the hipster guys rushed to me, gesticulated--binder in hand--towards my seat, and stated, "We're trying to reserve some seats here." He wanted to drop his binder on my seat, but I put down my backpack first and shrugged. "Well, I'm here now." He looked around, saw that he had already staked his claim on 15-25 seats, and said, "I guess I saved enough already." I ignored him. This wasn't the first time someone tried to get me to move for their convenience. I'm perfectly fine with people consolidating, moving in to fill in empty seats, but no one can make me move to another section or to a bad seat--not if I was there first.

Johanna, whose phone was busy when I first called her, returned my call when I was already seated. I would not normally take a call inside a theatre, but

1. it was thirty minutes 'til show time;
   
2. people all around me were talking, albeit to their friends who were physically there; and
   
3. I was lonely.
   

The theatre was by no means full. The previews were good. The movie was as expected. The scenery and machinery looked beautiful. The computer-generated human/robot/alien/clone movements, however, looked exactly that. And let's not speak of the dialogue, plot, and burning questions that Lucas should have properly addressed (which I will post after most of you have already watched the film and/or have declared that you never will).

Book Review: Bad Acts and Guilty Minds

Title: Bad Acts and Guilty Minds--Conundrums of the Criminal Law
Author: Leo Katz
Pages: 351
Comments/Review: I am forcing myself to write book reviews so I can reprocess what I've read.

This book presents so many hypotheticals that once I got caught up in them, I hardly remembered what the point was. I was, however, convinced that I would become Duke Law Class of 2008's Hypo Girl after reading this book.

Let me review the purpose of each chapter for my own sake:

Chapter One: "Necessity, the Mother of Invention" discusses the shortcomings of having laws that are absolute, and gives examples of cases in which absolute laws would fail to provide a clear-cut decision.

Chapter Two: "Bad Acts" not only raises the issue of defining which acts are "bad," it also looks into what we would consider "acts."

Chapter Three: "Guilty Minds" examines the intentions of a criminal, and considers negligence and necessary risks. It also explores how badly we judge probability vis-à-vis risk.

Chapter Four: "The Root of All Evil" discusses causation.

Chapter Five: "The Company You Keep" addresses complicity and conspiracy.

Chapter Six: "The Crime That Never Was" deals with attempted crimes that have failed.

Instead of being thoughtful, I thought I would throw in some interesting studies/hypotheticals mentioned in the book.

A group of doctors was asked: "Imagine that the U.S. is preparing for the outbreak of an unusual Asian disease, which is expected to kill 600 people. Two alternative programs to combat the disease have been proposed. Assume that the exact scientific estimate of the consequences of the programs is as follows: If program A is adopted, 200 lives will be saved. If program B is adopted, there is 1/3 probability that 600 people will be saved, and 2/3 probability that no people will be saved. Which of the two programs do you favor?" The vast majority of the doctors, 72 percent of them, opted for program A.

Another group of doctors was given the same "cover story" as the first, but they were asked to choose among the following alternatives: "If program C is adopted, 400 people will die. If program D is adopted, there is 1/3 probability that nobody will die, and 2/3 probability that 600 people will die. Which of the two programs do you favor?" Only 22 percent of the doctors opted for C. The odd thing is that C is but a different way of phrasing A. If people's preferences among risks are so unreliable, is the notion of negligence workable?

Henri plans a trek through the desert. Alphonse, intending to kill Henri, puts poison into his canteen. Gaston also intends to kill Henri but has no idea what Alphonse has been up to. He punctures Henri's canteen, and Henri dies of thirst. Who has caused Henri's death? Was it Alphonse? Gaston? Both? Or neither?

Where Should I Live?

[Note: The script that allows you to view the maps, tables, some of the ratings only works if you go to this entry's trackback page.]

Cast your votes now!

Alexan Farms
Home page | Apartments.com profile
Rent: $690, plus $75 for enclosed garage, no utilities included
Amenities: 24-hour business and fitness centers, not gated, no alarm, W/D hookups
Ratings: By grad students, 2004 | By grad students, 2003 | By all residents
Crime: Map | Table

North Pointe Commons
Home page | Apartments.com profile
Rent: $660, plus $100 for enclosed garage, includes alarm, cable tv, garbarge/sewer
Amenities: 24-hour fitness center, business-hour business center, gated, W/D hookups
Ratings: By grad students, 2004 | By grad students, 2003 | By all residents--very suspicious that multiple reviews are posted the same day
Crime: Map | Table

Woodstone at Croasdaile Farm (very limited no. of 1brs)
Home page | Apartments.com profile
Rent: $710, plus $80 for enclosed garage, includes alarm, water, garbarge/sewer
Amenities: 24-hour fitness center, business-hour business center, not gated, W/D included
Ratings: By grad students, 2004 | By grad students, 2003 | No ratings by all residents
Crime: Map | Table

With a Title Like That...

I ordered Leo Katz's "Bad Acts and Guilty Minds: Conundrums of the Criminal Law" used, and it arrived in fairly good shape. However, as I started trekking through the pages, I noticed the edges of the cover were becoming frayed. The plastic covering, slowly separating from the cover base, would make little flapping sounds when I rubbed my thumbs along the edge.

I tried to control my urge to rip the plastic cover off, but I finally cracked yesterday. Unfortunately, ripping the plastic left marks on the remainder of the cover, and lifted off areas that were more densely covered with black ink. I am stuck with a shitty-looking book, but I feel satisfied somehow.

I was ashamed of my actions, however, and had tried to hide what I was doing from Erik. He must have noticed I was doing something weird to the book, but kudos to him for not saying anything.

Taking Back Tuesday's Post

My left arm is still sore from the tetanus shot, but it seemed much worse last night. I dreamt I got infected with the disease (I don't think you actually can--the shot contains no live bacteria) and lost my arm. I assume the pain I felt last night came from turning accidentally onto the affected area.

I googled "tetanus shot adverse effects," and one of the sites that popped up was ThinkTwice. ThinkTwice is an organization that advocates parental research of immunization drugs before blindly submitting their children to shots. (And if you need to claim religious exemption from immunization, the Christian Science Church is the most recognized denomination to serve that purpose, although citing your religion is usually not required--sometimes not even recommended.)

If you react badly to immunization shots (blindness, muscular distrophy, death), I wonder if you pretty much get kicked off the evolutionary ladder. After all, you could die from tetanus or from "preventing" it; in addition, this unlucky disposition may or may not be passed on to your children. What a punch in the face. Or, a stab to the head.

I Want to Make Getting Immunizations My Hobby

I drop my backpack to the floor, take off my jacket and lay it on top of the bag. I sit down in a chair, roll up my sleeve--

"Stand up, c'mon, stand up now." The nurse motions with one hand as the other holds the needle.

I look puzzled.

"Everyone takes their shot standing up," she explains.

"Really?"

I don't have any memory of my last shot, which--according to my files--was in 1993. I vaguely remember childhood doctor visits where I either lied down and exposed my tush, or sat in a chair and exposed my arm (these memories are tied to the sensation of licking lollipops). Nope, no memories of getting a shot while standing up.

I rise, abandoning the chair, feeling a bit like packed meat about to get labeled, about to get smacked by the next machine on the assembly line. The man before me had a TB test, which took two seconds, and now it was my turn for a tetanus shot. The guy behind me, also waiting for a TB test, looked on patiently enough, but his mere presence made me feel rushed.

I can't look at the nurse; she's holding the dreaded needle. She rubs my arm with a swab of cotton. She laughs. "This is not going to hurt!"

"It isn't?" I feel a tiny prick and figure the needle just entered the surface of my skin.

But: "It's over!" and "Next!"

I am such a wimp.

What It Means to Be a Grown-up

I can't post "cute" messages on my answering machine anymore. Gone are the days of Vader's breath, my songs, and "Hello? Hello? Just kidding."

Aqua Teen Hunger Force, DVD Volume Three, comes with answering machine pranks from all major characters. I am disheartened when I realize that I really won't be able to use those recordings, ever. I haven't figured out most of my cell phone functions, but I suppose I shouldn't download Wookie roars as my ringtone either.

The day will come when I have to buy matching furniture; not from a set, per se, but rather pieces that match one another.

Well, all that still beats increasing wrinkles and slothlike metabolism.

How Flowers Come Into My Life

Curves Annual Swimsuit Competition Update:

I entered the "Swimsuit from Another Era" category, but I won for "Cutest." I looked at Polaroids of other contestants, and most of them seemed to have donned the display bikini placed in the middle of the circuit. Our branch was obviously hurting for entries. I was one of four people who actually wore her own bathing suit.

So much for cutting down on crap. Luckily, the pedicure, the crappy book, and the beach towel went to the other three original-suit wearers, and I am now a proud owner of orchids.

Conversations and T-shirts

For some reason, almost all conversations I overhear sound lame. And all morning radio talk shows are like overheard conversations, seemingly amusing to the people in the studio only. The morning commuters, like people stuck behind you in line or in a crowd, are the captive audience.

At least I get to listen to music at work (sometimes), if not during my morning commute. Right now I'm flying high with Ryan-recommended Elkland.

My fingers are once again itching to buy things. Threadless has two new t-shirts that I'm eyeing.


(...I wonder how many people have wanted to club me in the head when I talk to my friends in public.)

Lucky Seven Miscellany

1. Anthony has escaped another American Idol elimination! I was so disappointed when Constantine had to go, but my hurt feelings have patched up now that Scott Savol is finally out of the picture. Go home, woman beater!

2. Once in awhile, I decide that it's okay for me to embarass myself. Yesterday's stunt involved participating in Curve's annual swimsuit competition, in which Curves members put silly swimsuits/bikinis over their workout clothes. I hope I don't win anything, because I sure as heck don't need more Curves junk.

3. I never knew that "mother lode" was spelled that way. But now I do.

4. Season 4 of Alias, after a slow, sluggish start, has finally picked up momentum. Last night's episode made me cry. Ok, that may not be the hugest feat, as I also cried when Constantine sang "Bohemian Rhapsody."

5. I made one-week's supply of vegetable soup Monday night. However, I added too much lemon pepper, which almost ruins the taste. I wish there were "anti-flavors" out there, like anti-lemon. Then I could add it, and the soup would be fixed...I also chopped a lot of onions, and I haven't been able to wash that smell off my fingers. Drives me nuts every time I pick my nose. Kidding. Maybe.

6. I have to get a TD booster shot before Duke will let me in. The last shot I had was in 1993. I'm scared. I was originally scheduled my shot for tomorrow, but I decided against having a sore arm, since I'm supposed to help Ryan move Saturday. My pain has been rescheduled to next Tuesday.

7. Alex helped me pick a good laptop that fit Duke's computing specs. But since the warranty only covers three years, I'm waiting for current finals to end before I order my laptop. I definitely want to make sure it will still be covered during my 3L finals. My aunt wants to help me pay for it, but I'd rather not take her money. She's making a big stink out of my "disobedience"--she thinks I don't want to take her money because I don't want to be obligated to her when she gets old. She's right about that, especially since the "obligations" include letting her live in my future home. I'd pay her asylum fees, no problem, but I'd rather disappear off the face of the planet than live with that monster.

Researcher Extraordinaire

...or, rather, I'm just driving myself crazy.

Now I'm uncertain about the "safer" apartment I had decided on--North Pointe Commons--and would prefer to live in the Woodstone Apts. In addition to ApartmentRatings.com, I've also discovered the Duke Graduate/Professional Students' Apartment Ratings and the Durham Crime Mapper (I've been highlighting neighborhood crimes on an Excel grid I created).

Though North Pointe is gated, more crimes are committed there than in Woodstone, the highest rated community by grad students.

Unfortunately, Woodstone has very few one bedroom apartments, and even fewer of those are top-floor units. Though I would be the first one on the waiting list should my application be accepted, the chances of someone moving out are apparently pretty thin.

Sigh.

Nice Discoveries Made Nicer by the Fact I'm Still at Work and Bored

I had thought in the back of my mind that "Angry Candy, Fragments of" had a new blog somewhere, but I just couldn't find that email/announcement. And now I've found it here.

I love reading her blog, and Penguin's Boyfriend's blog as well. The point is, send me your blog address if you've got one!

One of FOAC's posts addresses her personality change, as observed through thespark.com tests. I had changed as well. I used to be a "politician": Dominant Extroverted Abstract Thinker, and now I'm an "experimenter": Dominant Introverted Abstract Thinker. I've become introverted in the last three/four years.

You are an EXPERIMENTER (DIAT). Although you're slightly shy (admit it!), you love control. When a problem comes across your way, you stomp on it swiftly and decisively. You are bothered easily by failure in others and failure in yourself. You don't like people that you don't think are intelligent. Rather than arguing with them, however, you would just as soon ignore them altogether.

In relationships, you have a strong heart. And because you're introverted, people take you as someone they can trust. But the fact is that in addition to solving problems, you like to create them.

You're a good person at heart, but then again, who isn't?

More Important/More Importantly

Fragments of Angry Candy, I hope you post an opinion about this.

Some grammarians hate the use of "more importantly":

"More important" and "more importantly" are used as full-sentence modifiers, often in the initial position and treated parenthetically (set off with a comma). Either phrase can usually be translated as "what is more important."
More important, the armies in the east had used up all their supplies.
Many writers will use the adverb form, "importantly," thinking that the phrase modifies a verb in the main clause; usually, however, that is not the case. The phrase will almost invariably modify, adjectivally, the entire clause, and the adjective form, "important," will suffice. Burchfield says that "more importantly" was a despised construction during the 1970s and 80s, but that nowadays both phrases seem be used about equally and with equal acceptability.
Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996.

But then:

"More importantly, what will be written in God's book of remembrance?" There is no grammatical reason to avoid using "importantly" in this structure. Since the function of the phrase is adverbial (it modifies the proposition of the entire sentence, rather than modifying a noun), the form ending in -ly is the better choice. If anything, "more important" is the non-standard, informal choice. The only way it can be considered acceptable is if it is interpreted as a reduction of "what is more important...." This phrase is decidedly conversational, rather than formal and the reduction only increases the informality.
Authority: Ken Hyde, University of Delaware English Language Institute.

"More important" sounds so affected to me, but I'm not sure Mr. Hyde has me convinced either. But all in all, though many things may bother me, the casual use of adverbs doesn't--the most notable example being the use of "hopefully."

Ovid's Metamorphoses

I've begun to read Allen Mandelbaum's translation and I'm hooked. Though I tend to love Ted Hughes's translations the most, he unfortunately only worked on parts of Ovid's book (Hughes's version is called "Tales from Ovid").

I don't suppose everyone who is curious to read Mandelbaum's book knows that Apollo and Phoebus are different names of the same god. Here footnotes would be useful, since those two names are used interchangeably in one tale. I would also love to reference genealogy charts, but there are no appendices. Still, keeping mental track of Greco-Roman genealogy is more interesting than trying to read 1 Chronicles of the Bible.

I wonder how Apollo rides his sun chariot, which should take all day and all night (or should I say all day and all day?), and still has time to rape young women.