blogging when i should be finishing my story.

went for a job interview today. i think i've really regressed in my interviewing skills partially because i'm so nervous and unconfident. sucks. i've been sending out about 3 resumes a day now. fucking tenatious. in terms of school, though, i'm totally going through senioritis. i'll be phoning it in for the next month and a half...

add to top ten useful things i've learned from steve-o: how to unclog a toilet (tmi?).

weather's been getting warmer - above 50 degrees every day this week so far. it's quite a shock. new york shakes off winter like an old ratty coat that it doesn't want to get rid of for sentimental reasons.

an "out like a lamb" playlist:
"be yourself," audioslave
"beverly hills," weezer
"some girls," rachel stevens (good ol' UK cheese music)
"life is short," butterfly boucher (even though it was on "gray's anatomy" last week. god, i cannot believe i just admitted i watched that show.)
"it's a hit," rilo kiley (i swear, i only like 2 of their songs, i'm no margot)
"mr. blue sky," electric light orchestra

feeling pretty drained from looking for jobs and apts and temping in the tfa sweatshop. speaking of which, i got a $2 raise today! whoo.

for easter dinner, i made lasagna rolls and fried zucchini. both were hella good. i esp. recommend the fried zucchini. then deep fry whatever you've got in the fridge.

also, i updated my portfolio site FINALLY after much computer/ftp drama.

the american version of brit-com show the office last night was a pitiful sight. i wanted to rip out my eyes like a shakespearean tragic hero. as with almost all things cultural (but few things political), britain does it better. the nbc version was almost a line-by-line imitation of the british verson, ripping off even subtle inflections and ad-libs. what's the point of ripping of a hugely popular (in england) show that closely? people should seriously just rent the bbc dvds, and i will even throw in this guarantee - if you don't like the british version 100000 times more, i'll pay the rental fee. how can you pass that up? (if you're in the new york area, i'll just loan you my dvds - seasons 1 & 2!) the actor who played the boss was simply horrible - i shudder at the thought.

have you all seen the dave letterman top ten list by poley d.? (via minnie)

oh, new york times. how you tickle me with your subway announcer speak.

As if on cue, a voice on the loudspeaker announced: "Ladies and gentlemen, because of a brflig fraptail at 116th Street, the uptown 6 train will frip deet brak croob."

pictures of walls

adieu, san frncisco.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

eventeven (4:11:35 PM): see i am motherfucking caring

Lisa Ruyter, The Girl He Left Behind

some random pics from last night in berkeley - no green beer!

quote of yesterday, courtesy of margotbot:
"Lisa, I can't stop staring at your monkey."

the pasta is dolce and gabbana
last night for my dinner party @ kimi's, i made a pasta from a recipe by dolce and gabbana that i saw in vogue a few months ago. that's just how i roll. anyways, it was a huge hit, and i will share the easy, but slightly time consuming recipe with you. the best part is that it's really filling, so you can eat it for days.

i have never been able to find annellini pasta, so i use bow-ties. there are no amounts of ingredients in the recipe, it's pretty much up to your own taste (last night i used an entire eggplant and four hardboiled eggs, 2/3 a package of peas and i'm generous with the cheeses). mix all that stuff together before layering it over the pasta.

i had to get my roommate in nyc to email me the recipe because it was on our fridge there (the recipe was with a picture of kylie minogue and stefano gabbana). here's her email:

This request is too hilarious to pass up. I have always wondered what Kylie and Stefano were doing cuddling on our fridge.

Kylie and Stefano say:

Cook a package of annelini pasta in boiling water; drain; pour into baking dish; cover with ragu sauce. Add a mix of eggplant slices salted and sauteed in olive oil, chopped salami, smashed hard-boiled eggs, peas, mozzerella and parmesan. Top with another layer of sauce and a layer of the mixture. Finish with a layer of sauce and top with bread crumbs. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove, drizzle with butter, then place
under a broiler till golden brown.

They show this dish with some $85/bottle wine. I'm sure that will be at your potluck, too, right?

good l.a. times article on the newest frontline of the gender wars.

for you top model fans
subscribe to this xanga to get hilarious episode recaps

it's nice to be home
me: "so what's up with these new clubs in the city like suede, loft 11 and suite 181?"
laurie: "all i know about them is that they're really chi-chi. you have to dress really nice...like vegas."

us weekly's editor is korean american - doesn't it all make sense now?

i went to j-school for this?
i interviewed for a paid internship here last week to be an assistant to the exec. editor for the rest of the semester. will keep you posted.

this is a long and intense story about rape in the amish communities, but it's well worth your time. even steve said it was moving.

Yes, Clarissa think, it's time for the day to be over. We throw our parties; we abandon our families to live alone in Canada; we struggle to write books that do not change the world, despite our gifts and our unstinting efforts, our most extravagant hopes. We lives our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep — it's as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us, the vast majority, are slowly devoured by some disease or, if we're very fortunate, by time itself. There's just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we've ever imagined, though everyone but children (and perhaps even they) knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more.

Heaven only knows why we love it so.

"The Hours," Michael Cunningham

favorite new catty celebrity blog

baby bok choy, how i love thee...so small yet so deliciously tasty.

back in sf for spring break: mar. 12 to mar. 21

"damn right it's bigger than yours"
i don't think anyone i went to high school with even reads this blog, but in case someone does, and you haven't gotten this link from at least 93 people by this point, here it is (some enterprising lowellite made a video of a bunch of teachers doing kelis' "milkshake").

3/11: fixed the link

gay or hairdresser?

or asian?

a cute asian dude was my hairdresser today. spent all 2.5 hours in the chair trying to figure out whether or not he was gay. being asian and a hairdresser made it hard to tell.

so we're back to short again. short is the new long!

the gates photos

New York's Chinese Schools Revival

my mom's comment on my bio in that story:

"anyway, your credits and comment about wishing you attended was interesting. but i was busy raising free spirits and there are no free spirits at any school called transfiguration school or plainview."

i think i've got the flu. first i thought it was just another cold, but this is the flu -- chills, chest pains, achyness, loss of appetite, dry cough. this sucks so hard. been sleeping a lot but not much progress.

i hate being sickly!!!!

in other news, this month celebrates the two year anniversary of my blog (aka selling out). 4,440 visitors since feb. 2003 (mostly me) -- not bad.

see philly pics

sunday brunch, philly, courtesy of owen

article of the day

how many k.fed fans do i have out there?

finished with draft 2 of the master's thesis!! huzzah!

we had a great time in philly. it was cold as a mother, but we got back to nyc just before the snow started. it was great to see old friends and make new ones. it was also great to do the shopping cart and the "pretend you have big hands" (steve's dance moves). i haven't laughed that much in two days in a long time. we had a great response to our workshop -- on our evals we got all "very goods" and "excellents." someone even said their criticism was that they wished there was more time. but i think we realized how lucky we were to go to cal and not be like one of two asians on campus. we were also lucky that we could have a progressive paper that people read. we didn't go to bed until 5 a.m. on saturday after ingesting 24 inches of sandwich between me, stevo and owen. sunday morning we went to a diner near upenn and saw keynote speaker suchin pak eating breakfast with a not so cute white dude. to suchin i say -- thank you for your show "my life, translated" because it taught me how exactly to use tape to create double eyelids. steve kept saying how old he felt, but i didn't feel old at all. i probably had more fun than the young kids anyways.

when we got back to gp, we pulled out all the stops for owen -- kimchee spam fried rice with korean beef, that korean cinammon drink, napoleon dynamite and yummy coconut sherbet. yummmmm.

oh my god this is so not a joke.

we're going to ecaasu this weekend!!!! whoo!!!! i will finally be a real asian american student. :P yay i can't wait!

yay philly cheesesteaks! yay our own hotel room! yay seeing old friends! yay afterparty!

boo master's thesis due on monday. boo to you master's!!

as i know you are all waiting with abated breath, i will soon post pictures of the gates. "whatchu know bout christo, son?"

how much do i need this?

in other valentine's related news, steve made me cry tonight. NOT from joy. little bitch.

in honor of v-day --

i love
the smell of coffee (even more than the taste)
watching the slideshows of fall/spring fashion shows online
"blind items" celeb gossip
tea from chinese cafes, with los of milk and sugar
dvds from the ny library
chai lattes (not homemade)
saying the word "pierogis"

Yesterday, President Bush released his FY 2006 federal budget — and if it's approved, our children's health may be endangered. The proposed budget requests a 25 percent increase in funding for dangerous abstinence-only programs — programs shown to be ineffective and harmful to young people.

You have the power to stop the deception.

Tell your members of Congress to say "no" to the increase in funding for abstinence-only programs and "yes" to protecting our children's health!

We have to turn this frightening trend around. Start by speaking out against this proposed increase in funding for abstinence-only programs today.

one year and counting

i think sometime last night in my lucid-strep-throat-stricken state, steve said something about me writing about our anniversary in my blog.

i think he told me not to.

instead of celebrating with spam kimchi fried rice and weed, as is most appropriate, we will be putting on our fancy pants and going to balthazar for steak frites. isn't gold the present for one-year anniversaries?

steve is my hero.

2:30 am last night, i hear a rustle-rustle-rustle.

steve found the baby mouse, created a barricade out of shoeboxes, and ferreted it out into the bathroom. it was one fast little fucker!

today i interviewed another undocumented immigrant living with HIV for my master's project. this experience was much more intense than the first interview. she was 47 years old, from malaysia, and a mother of two young sons back home. she broke down crying a few times during the interview. combined with my interview yesterday with the girl who had two abortions and was sexually assaulted by her partner, it's been a heavy week. i'm glad that i'm privileged to hear these people's stories and write about them. these stories beg to be told.

i have no love for you, whole wheat spaghetti!!

as minnie would say -- hate bubbles in my stomach for you.

yay to ming tsai for beating out bobby flay on iron chef last week. how you gonna try to make duck southwest-style? duck is inherently an asian dish.

top of the morning to everyone who reads this blog daily and i only update weekly.

i started off this weekend with an abortion. i saw this documentary called "i had an abortion" and i highly recommend it to you if it comes to your campus. it features women who had abortions telling their stories firsthand. the point is that in the debate over abortion, the voices of the men and women who it really affects get lost. it was a really great film and it covered a whole range of experiences (age, race, religion, etc). it's also part of a movement to destigmatize abortion (along with the "i had an abortion" tee shirts), which i am going to write a story on this week for class. :)
an interesting point brought up during the film was that the older women (second wave) seem to be more "i have no regrets" about it, while the younger women seem much more ambivalent about it. i like how the message of the film is that it's ok to be ambivalent about your own abortion experience and still be pro-choice. it was cool to see some dudes in the audience (the screening was at barnard), and there was some talk about a film about men's experiences with abortion. i am a little more skeptical about that b/c while it's important to be inclusive of men's experiences with this (since it's rarely discussed), i fear it might shift the focus to men too much when at this point in time i feel there can't be enough attention on women's experiences.

friday night we got blazed and made our second attempt to watch the graduate stoned. this time was successful and i love that movie! it's really great filmmaking. i wish someone had told me to watch that after i graduated from cal b/c it's really all about that post-grad malaise. damn we ate so much food. we had fries, chocolate, coke, hella munchies.

saturday i went to see the julian opie public art exhibit downtown near city hall. this was the same artist who did the blur album cover that's four boxes with each of the four band members. i also saw his exhibition in birmingham one of my first weeks there and he is really my favorite current artist.










i also ate steak cubes (yay!) and did some good shopping. everyone was out in the city b/c the weather was nice (i.e. over 30 degrees). i've been shopping at old navy lately, they've got some good stuff (that's for my critics who say i've gone bougie).

sunday "the thinking club" (me, stevo, bethany) went shopping on sixth the entire day and then ate crock pot at home. we watched chinatown last night -- it's a good film, but i already knew the ending, and i don't LOVE noir.

this is a long post, so i'm gonna wrap it up. "can you believe it's february already? what happened to january?"
------------------------------------

new obsession: everyday italian on the food network. move over rachel ray!

the daily outrage
a student in my class wrote on a questionnaire that his favorite part of journalism was getting to talk to a variety of people, from a senator one day to a dog butcher the next day.
my prof. said "dog butcher? is that like in chinatown somewhere?"

-----------------
good article on condi rice and the new black paradigm
-----------------
jingle bear?
so steve, bethany, and i spent the so-called blizzard of '05 camped out in jerry's home in south jersey. it was great. we had planned to go to hotlantic city for a day, but the snow prevented us from even going more than a mile away from the house. jerry's dad used to own a chinese restaurant, so he cooked every meal for us the entire weekend - so good!!! we had clams, fried rice, mai fun, curry, spicy tofu, the works. he even put a little green onion garnish on each dish.

jerry's house was in a rural part of jersey, very picturesque, especially in the snow. steve said he felt like he was at a ski lodge; it also felt somewhat like a bed and breakfast. we smoked a lot and played a lot of ping pong. bethany made some snickerdoodles and we had hot chocolate with evaporated milk. saturday we even played in the snow (after smoking). jerry's mom lent me a pair of white jeans to wear in the snow. yes i wore white jeans. later we played clue: the museum mystery (way more complicated than regular clue) and watched some dvds and ate brownies.

here are a few pictures.

here's me with bethany and jerry in the snow.


here's me in my white jeans.


here's when jerry picked up a huge chunk of snow, and i thought it looked like a dog/bear's head in profile. you can see it too, if you're stoned. the nose of the bear is pointing at jerry's face.



man, we were really gone.

fame!

look who's in the spectator.
i keep it real, yo.

all my friends are models

so i think many of you know that i have an uncanny knack for identifying which celebrities/famous figures people resemble. examples of my prowess: clarence/arthur the aardvark, margot/braceface from america's top model (actually bethany first identified it), corliss/that girl from phantom of the opera, steve/napoleon dynamite, etc etc.

i've got a new one. minnie and kimora lee simmons.

think i'm crazy? take a look.



yes, i'm a little obsessed with her since i saw her on her talk show this morning. check out this article on her. she was karl lagerfeld's muse at age 14!! and she's from st. louis (wtf). AND, if you read the article, it talks about how she says she's half-japanese, but if she's telling the truth about how her grandparents met, she's most likely half-korean. it's more hip to be half-japanese, i guess?

untitled


favorite of my sister's vacation pics

tip for label whores out there -- go to crossroads/buffalo exchange/your favorite used clothing store. i think around the post-christmas/new year time people clean out their closets, and there are tons of big names to be found. here's what i've bought in the past week: marc jacobs dress ($70), prada shoes ($30), marc jacobs sweater top ($20), fendi belt ($9), banana republic top ($12.50). go!!

does anyone else read this besides orlando bloom???
sad to say, but the birthday/christmas/new year season was nothing more than a consecutive series of mildly fun saturdays in december. i just couldn't get into the spirit of anything this year. i think it had to do with the fact that i ignored christmas until i arrived in sf on dec. 19, and by that time, it seemed way too late to drum up any sentimental feelings about the past year or being back at home with my family. things just didn't coalesce the way i thought they would this month. i guess that's what happens when you have expectations, as i used to preach to freesia.

so i'm a big grinch. worse, i don't even have antipathy towards the holidays. it's just a feeling of malaise, of ehh. i haven't felt this way in so long. it was nice to be home, but just nice. not fabulous, wonderful, etc. it's ironic that i'm slipping back into my cynicism when i'm back at home instead of in hardhearted nyc. i'm actually looking forward to getting back to nyc. at least there i'm too busy to think about how unhappy i am. i know i should be thinking about how grateful i should be for so many things at this time of year, but i guess i'm way too self-involved to see the glass half-full.

alright enough whining, i guess. but if i can't vent on my blog, then what is it good for?

pics taken by owen on my birthday:

STEVE YAKKED INTO MY NEIGHBOR'S GARDEN
but he says he was a pro. spam kimchi fried rice is still hella good at ramen house even though it has new owners. stupid phoogie, says laurie. i think his last name's macpainter, though. laurie is macclicky. who's his former student she wants to kill? bill! steve says: thank you, kimi! the food in the opening credits of napoleon dynamite (dy-no-mite!) correspond to the cast member. the four stages of "yeah": 1) what? 2) yeah! 3) okay! 4) yeah! kimi and ali say: all guys like thongs. king dong's dinner B for seven is not bad. going to stonestown to promenade around. the life acquatic is okaaaay, but no royal tenebaums or rushmore. steve's hair is long now. i'm crossing my fingers that it will look like orlando bloom. shleepy!!! all you're good for is stupid. me: ok, do you know what you're supposed to do with the bubble wrap? steve: yeah. pop it one by one!

cry into your christmas cake, don't know what else to do
ah, holidays.
overall it's been pretty nice to be home. the weather is GORGEOUS -- every morning i walk out of the house and say, "damn! so warm!" it's nice to feel sun again, and not have to bundle up when i go out. my friends were complaining about the cold last night, and it was like 50 degrees out. i love it!

had an extremely successful shopping day yesterday (mostly stuff for me), plus i bought some gifts off my mom and sister that they weren't going to give (and i might have regifted a few gifts :P). we went to milk on haight w/frees, ali, margotbot, kimi, braz (aka old man luxury), braz's friends, kat and rich. they had $4 champagne specials for the night, which margot and i were all about. the champagne came in these little red bull-like cans with a straw. nice. at milk they were playing a movie on the screens above the bar that was a very 80s-new york-breakdancing movie. at the end there was a chase on the subway tracks and then a fight and both of them died b/c they fell onto the third rail.

we left milk around midnight and went to mighty, this club in potrero. it's a cool club w/a good looking, mixed crowd, and damn people could dance there. ali, margot, and i all snuck in for free (kimi: "just go, go!") and so we didn't have to pay the $10 cover. it was nice to dance and i miss the sf party crowds (NOT the azn ones). i want to have my next bday there. or maybe this year's bday. it's not too late, right?

going to eugene's party at lit lounge tonight after xmas dinner w/the same crew as last night, anyone else want to join?

email of the day
angus is a bespectacled canadian thom yorke-ish fellow classmate that my roommate has a crush on.

From: Kiera
Date: Wed Dec 22, 2004 08:24:03 AM US/Eastern
To: Lisa
Subject: Re: thanks

I thought I saw Angus, but it turned out to be just a little girl with glasses carrying rolling luggage.

view from bethany and steve's apt.

california, i'm coming home

look who got the cover story this week...

i can't take my eyes off you
i went with my roommates and saw "closer" tonight.
oh my god.
it really gave me a visceral reaction. it's a movie about the relentless brutality and viciousness of love. not the vague broad concept of relationships, but actual love. it's about simultaneously loving and hating someone and yourself, about hurting those you love, and above all, how sex is the ultimate and only weapon in the game of love. it reminded me of the darkest depths of love, shining light on the shady corners of your mind where you can't trust the one you love and you can't trust yourself to do the right thing.
it's a tough movie to watch, no matter what your relationship status is. my roommate lisa walked out and said it made her feel relieved for once that she was single. i couldn't decide if i'm lucky to have someone i love or if i'm ultimately fucked because nothing ever works out happily.
the movie's point is that love is filled with anger, violence, and betrayal. that where you feel most safe is where you are most vulnerable and can experience the most pain. it's for anyone who has cheated, or been cheated on, been hurt, or hurt someone. and i know there are a lot of you out there.
i rarely get a chance to really think about love anymore. i've been hurtling along at breakneck speed for the past year (can you believe it's been a year almost?), and especially the past four months. and for the most part, it's been a string of ecstatic moments. i might have lost sight of my pessimism for the moment.
now that i consider it, sex in the movie might be a metaphor for any act that can hurt someone -- lying, hitting them, cheating, etc. it's all the same. you can give someone your else body, but it's no more or less hurtful than giving them your heart.
i used to believe that no matter how it turns out, good or bad, love is always worth the experience. the movie reminded me that the bad parts can be really bad. but i guess that's how you know it's really love.

so three of the five guys in my RW1 class complimented me on my marc jacobs shoes at our party last night. how crazy is that? and they're all straight! although, i must admit, i had my doubts at first.

one of the most frustrating things about journalism is that your power to make substantive change is so much more limited than if you did direct organizing. because stories are always so focused on what is new or recent, the bigger picture is always absent. and i'm fairly obsessed with bigger picture type stuff. for example, almost every story you'll read about chinatown in nyc is about 1) gangs 2) sanitation 3) underground economy stuff -- knockoff purses and bootleg DVDs. see a trend here? it's all related to illegal activities or breaking laws. it's 2004, and chinese neighborhoods are still shrouded in this aura of illegal activity. and it's not entirely the fault of the media -- it's also the fault of the system's inability to offer better opportunities to these people. it's like we're still in the 1860s when chinese were shut out of all other labor fields b/c of racism and only "allowed" to work in laundries. today the system shuts these people out of the economy and they are forced to do whatever they can to make it, and most of the time it's what's considered "illegal." and the whole knockoff purses and bootleg dvds brouhaha is so infuriating b/c it's so insignificant in the larger scheme of things. who is really losing out? louis vuitton? kate spade? as if the majority of people who buy fakes could even afford the real thing, so how are these huge retailers losing customers? and don't nypd have better things to do anyways? apparently not.

so i just bought a new clock radio in hopes that the radio part will better help me wake up, and i asked steve if i should program it for a music station or NPR, and he said he'd do NPR: "there's a lot of bad music out there. i mean, can you imagine how much it would suck to wake up to the strokes?"

best wipeboard post ever

"Memoirs of a Geisha Guerilla," SF Chronicle

**i highly suggest you read the entire article -- it's very good.**

Tsuchitani saw the exhibition, but is unpersuaded. "For me, it was the museum's choice of using that image and the presence it had in the visual landscape of the city," he says. "It's a loaded image in our culture -- perpetuating the imagery of the sensuous Asian woman, the Asian mystique of the East. It's constructing an idealized 'other,' and for what purpose? While the exhibit may have tried to deconstruct that image, the number of people who actually had their minds changed can't compare with the number of those impacted by that image."

almost....there.....
apparently more people read my blog than i think, so i guess i will update to satiate the masses.

so what's been new. i officially have no more real deadlines for this semester. whoo! it was hard work, i tell you.

i've been making money by temping for steve's work, so i can buy myself something nice from h&m for the holidays. :P some things will never change. it's really cold here in nyc, but some days are milder than others. no snow yet. i look forward to thursdays and sundays, when there is an outdoor sidewalk farmer's market 114th and broadway, and they sell the best hot mulled apple cider ever for only $1. mmm. yum. oh my god, dennis was right. i am bougie!!! fuck.

what else. i'm on a major soon doo boo obsession right now. i must have had it at least 5 times in the past two weeks. it's just so good and warm when it's cold out, AND it's good for you.

i've been going out a few times with the j-schoolers, and i've realized i'm not the man i used to be. a few drinks, and then i've got this headache, and i have to eat something, and then i have to pass out in my clothes on my bed at 9:30 pm. seriously! it's happened twice now. i just can't handle the alcohol like i used to. hopefully it's just a side-effect of the cold weather, and i'll be back to my carousing self in the bay area ;) whatever happened to the shit-talking-ramen-craving belligerent drunk i used to be? steve says it's cuz i'm getting old.

i guess i should say something about the people who have been teaching me and influencing my work here. after much finagling and an unbelieveable meeting with the dean, i've had the great fortune of switching to a new master's advisor. i don't want to write her name here for fear of her googling her name and finding my blog (LAME) but she's really great. she used to write the media column for the village voice, and she also used to work at the new yorker. she's really patient and helpful and supportive, unlike my old advisor. my life is so much easier now. i've also been paired with my very favorite writer from the village voice through aaja's mentor program. i can't wait to meet with her, and she's been very helpful already. i think i'm going to learn a lot from these great folks. my professor for my elective is also really great. i used to call her "yoga lady 500," but now i really respect her. so, as my advisor told me today, it seems i'm surrounding myself with the right people.

that's about it for now. i've got a ton of holiday/birthday/end of semester parties to go to in the next few weeks. whoo!

favorite quote of the night out with the j-schoolers
"hey, i'm an oppressed palestinian! .... anyways, what i really want to do is work for entertainment weekly."

iTunes picks:
"see you soon," coldplay
"this fire," franz ferdinand
"rip it up," razorlight
"turn the lights off," tweet feat. missy elliott
from a basement on a hill, elliott smith

steve's pick (and perennial favorite)
"easy (like sunday morning)" lionel richie

last weekend, steve and i actually had time to do something together that didn't involve stress, my apartment, the new york times, or koreatown. we did one of those typical new york things that we rarely get to do. we bundled up and took a walk in central park.



it was great. it was too late in the season to look at fall foliage and too late in the day to enjoy any sun, but it was lovely all the same. the ice skating rink is already up, and it was packed.



we each had the worst pretzel in the history of pretzels and an unsatisfying bag of nuts. i don't know why i always forget, but central park really has the worst food. definitely bring your own. we trekked through the horse poo-lined walkways and ended up at the plaza hotel. we were in awe of how pretty it is in there -- lots of flowers, chandeliers, and mirrors. by the way, remember that Paris movie theatre from the first episode of the fifth season of sex and the city? where carrie goes and watches a movie by herself? it's right next to the plaza, and it really does show romantic movies, but current ones.

anyways, i know people used to say that i always take pictures of things and none of people, so here is one for you.

heaven!

email of the day
from my roommate

From: Kiera
Date: Thu Nov 18, 2004 05:12:58 PM US/Eastern
To: Lisa
Subject: Re: MUTINY!

what the fuck is k-town?

message from the dean of the j-school

Someone left a Nautica jacket (tan with purple(?) collar) in the deans’ suite yesterday. Winter is coming. If you notice that you’re really cold and your shirt or blouse is blowing in the wind, ask yourself, “where is my jacket?” My assistant has the item.

Take Action!

Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (ANDA)

In spite of what the name might indicate, this legislation does not protect women seeking abortion services from discrimination. Instead, it would allow any health care provider or institution (not just religious entities) to refuse to provide, pay for, or even refer for abortion for any reason. Supporters of this bill claim this is a matter of religious freedom.

With the reelection of President Bush, the conservative right has claimed it is the moral majority in this country. But we know there is nothing moral about preventing women's access to needed health care services.

Speak out against the federal refusal clause and help women maintain access to needed medical services.

launch of my portfolio site (designed by moi) -- http://www.columbia.edu/~lwm2103
bookmark it, love it.

Tonight Get Details | Get Audio
Hourly Weather | AccuPOP™
Heavy rain mixing with snow
Low 33° F

ohmygod.

here's a pic of my rw1 class:


upper: kiera, nicole,alex, katie, lynnell, jaimal, adam, brandon, karen, gina, ivan
lower: wendy, alyssa, alisa, me, shannon, jayanthi, ben

naascon board 2004:

may, james riley, chancey, helen, steph, sam
tom, james, smiley me, bethany
rj and corliss
at usc last weekend

congrats everyone on a great job!

tell me this girl doesn't look like margot

pics from dinner with laurie and mike



at balthazar, a swanky french restaurant in soho (my mom paid for us all to go)

at ñ, a soho bar

i met with my thesis advisor last week, telling her the many many problems i've been having choosing a topic. after unleashing my woes, she looked at me and said, "are you a shy person?"

am i a shy person?

i do hate doing interviews, and i'm very sensitive about asking appropriate questions. but does my reluctance translate to being shy? laugh if you will, but she was definitely implying that i need to grow a backbone to be a better journalist. lame.

excerpt from RW1 midterm evaluation:

"Lisa is an energetic reporter, a lively writer, and a critical thinker who has managed to make some important inroads into the difficult neighborhood of Chinatown from the outset. She has made steady progress since the beginning when she was writing thinly-sourced stories that made one unchallenged point (thanks, hardboiled -- ha!). She is now ferreting out multiple sources, such as she did for a complex immigration tale surrounding ESL classes. I count on Lisa to bring a critical news sense to class discussions. ... She has an instinct for the unusual, for the unpredictable. As I alluded to above, she struggles with finding multiple sources in order to tell a full story, rather than just a piece of it. ... Needs more showing and less telling. She needs to step away from personal opinion more and enter the world of larger analysis in order to truly tap into what will distinguish her as a first-rate journalist in the weeks ahead."

WHOOOOOO!
lisa's first byline: a.k.a proof that my parents aren't wasting $50,000

I am Indie Girl Click on the picture below to read more: Take the 'What Kind of Girl Are You?' quiz at CookingToHookup.com

steven email of the day
From: "Chung, Stephen"
Date: Tue Oct 12, 2004 02:47:26 PM US/Eastern
To: Lisa
Subject: RE: A washingtonpost.com article from: ******@columbia.edu

dont forget to eat salad

annoying columbia j-school kids in the news.

steve talked me out of going to boston this weekend for the basic conference at the last minute. he convinced me by saying that if i didn't go, we would do whatever i wanted to do all weekend. so, it was a weekend of sleeping, eating, and watching tv. whooo!

my prof. used my lede as the class example (again). my roommate says that i am one of the favorites of both of our professors, which is NOT my intention at all. seriously. i'm totally the scowling girl slumping in her seat in the back. but i guess i'm not the worst writer in the class.

steve and i saw michel gondry speak last week. that was ok, it was hard to understand what he was saying.

i spent three days last week temping at steve's work (tfa) tediously making binders. but at least it's some pocket money.

laurie visited. will post pics later.

finally have a chance to catch my breath after all the deadlines earlier this week. whew.

things are really getting going at school. in addition to our bi-weekly neighborhood stories, we've started "spot news," which means we cover an event in one day's time. it's stressful stuff, esp. since this time around we had to come up with our own story ideas related to the state primary election on tuesday. i had no story idea related to the chinatown primary elections, so i was really worried, but then, as always, at the last minute i got a story tip from a source i happened to call. so i schlepped over to flushing and got a great story about problems at the polls. i've also been busy doing informational interviews with a lot of community folks, some of which have been more interesting than others. but i definitely feel like i'm getting a better sense of the neighborhood and its issues. i met with the head of nyu apa studies yesterday since he teaches a class on chinatown and the american imagination, and he was like a breath of fresh air to talk to. he really knew his stuff and was interested in how information circulates, and, what impressed me the most, said that his intro apa course was based on the feminists of color paradigm (i.e. your background -- gender, class, priveleges, etc -- has a huge impact on your experiences, which should always be taken into account when considering ideologies and groups). he also helped me piece together why the apa community scene is so much different here than in the bay.

i also got invited to go to an OCA ny chapter banquet in flushing next friday by a source. yay sources! and yay banquet food. there are a lot of big community folks being recognized there, so i'm excited, and bethany is coming with me.

i feel like i'm learning a lot of many levels every day. it's stressful when there are so many stories to write so frequently, but the process is fun. i've also gotten to know my section classmates a lot better, and i've decided i got a great section, and the majority of them are definitely cool. there isn't so much competition among us as the feeling like we're all in a sinking ship, so we should all be sympathetic and help each other when we can. it's really great. we spend a lot of time outside of class complaining about stories and commiserating about how tough things are, and i think people have put their egos aside after our first stories came back to us with all those comments! so that's the deal with school.

ok i have to run since i'm meeting with the organization i'm going to start volunteering at.

CFW in the news again!

ego-surf of the day: someone clicked to my blog by searching "drunk loud women" on MSN (scroll down).
journalism professor quote of the day: "Celibacy is ruining civilization."

weekend update (sans republicans)
lots of RNC watching -- strange obsession with the bush twins
watched bush's speech with 100 people screaming at the TV screen.
unlimited wings and beer with CFW led to belligerence in rite aid and purchases of riesen and butterscotch candy. as margot would say: MEAT.
said adieu to the margotbot with wine and cupcakes.
bought one of those granny grocery carts in chinatown. it's called a "bunny" cart.
tax-free week in nyc means more shopping. damn you beacon's closet.
saw elaine chao in chinatown at a republican event.
found out my two partners covering chinatown have asian fetish.
watched VMAs with minnie. what happened to mtv?
bethany's birthday tonight on their roof -- watch the whore get faded! :P
new song of choice: "take your mama out," by scissor sisters

email of the day

From: "Chung, Stephen"
To: Lisa W. M.
Subject: RE: tonight

yeah

we built this city on rock n roll
blogging from "GOP R Us"
first and foremost i'd like to start out with a rant about my fellow j-school students: click here for our class blog (how cute). while this might not give you the best idea of what is just so special about my class, this rant by one of them on how racism is not the number one issue facing the African American community will. you may remember him from the much beloved daily cal (does anyone know what year he graduated?). what a fucking prick. and when i say that, i mean the majority of my j-school class. what a bunch of elitist, insensitive, smarmy, ego-centric, passive-aggressive, tongue-in-cheek, self promoting WHITE LIBERALS. why don't you put down your fucking new york times and GET A CLUE. more to come on my class later.

anyways. this weekend was filled with some interesting stuff: 8 arrested for getting naked in front of madison square garden in protest of Bush's AIDS policies in South Africa. 4 arrested for rappelling down the Plaza Hotel to hang an anti-Bush banner. 264 arrested for blocking traffic during Critical Mass. haven't heard about any arrests today, but i'm sure there were many at the United for Peace and Justice rally.

thursday minnie, margot, steve, and i went to a cool bar in williamsburg called alligator lounge, where they serve a free personal sized pizza (!!!) with each drink. that night also happened to be karaoke night. lots of white people singing cheesy 80s (and 90s) music and faux rocking out -- "living on a prayer," "like a virgin," "we built this city," "say it aint so," some radiohead, "with or without you," etc. this one large white guy did a spot-on rendition of shaggy's "angel," much to the shock of all of us, esp. our resident jamaican expert, minnie.

friday after class I went to a taping of Washington Week at NYU, which was pretty cool. it reminded me of when lin and i went to see a taping of Crossfire in DC last summer. click here for a webcast. after that, i checked out an immigrant solidarity speak out thing at st. mark's church, but it hadn't really started yet, and i had to book it to 36th street to go to a briefing on rights for independent journalists held by the ny civil liberties union. that was not that helpful because i wasn't planning to go to the UFPJ rally or get arrested. BUT there was free pizza, including a cheese and broccoli one, be still my heart. that night, i went to a bar around the corner called 1020 (as in 1020 Amsterdam) with some people from my program who are cool. yes, lisa is making friends, against her will of course.




saturday margot, minnie, and i (aka CFDub) crafted some fine lookin tees and posters and went on down to the march for women's lives. we stood in the hot sun for about 4 hours and marched across the brooklyn bridge. will post pics up here when bot uploads them. apa women represent! whoo hoo. it was a very white march, very second wave. oh well.

have to run and write a pitch for a rnc-related story. more updates later.

journalism: masters degree in stalking?
some interesting things found today in our lecture on better internet surfing:
Cooking With Google: you enter what you have in your kitchen, and it will give you recipes you can use with your ingredients
Your Friends and Neighbors: Find out who they are donating to and how much
Missingmoney.com: find out if the govt. owes you or your family any money that you don't know about
nycbloggers.com: who is blogging near you (sorted by subway stop!), or at least who admits to it
kittay??

on another note, the story i wrote last week for our first reporting assignment was used as the class example yesterday! whoo-hoo. it was on how young people in chinatown feel about terrorism (they are blase). neat-o.

pics from my last night in s.f. --

twelve dollars
i think it's because we don't have any groceries to eat in, but for whatever reason, i think i've only eaten in once since i got here. this week we double dated with bethany and the (in)famous jerry at this indian place called pongal, which i've been to a few times before, and people are always saying how their indian friends say it's the best indian food in the city. steve doesn't even like indian food (he had a bad experience), and he mentioned how he wanted to go back there last week, so that says something. i've been slowly moving up in complexity in terms of the dosai i order there, and this time around i tried the onion rava masala (onions, potatoes, cilantro in a crepe) and it was very good. they all kind of taste the same, but they're all great.
afterwards we all went to this bar that our bosses at asianavenue had taken us to oh so many years ago called bar 89. if you click on the link, you'll see it's listed in the website "world's best bars," but it's known less for its drinks and ambiance than its bathrooms. anyways, it is quite sex and the city, and yes, i ordered a tartini (cranberry vodka martini) in my best sarah jessica voice (see season 2 or 3, it's in an episode where she goes to a bar with stanford), and yes, it was $12, but it was delicious (although not strong enough for me), and as i always say, why not be so new york when you're in new york?
last night we hit up this sushi place called yama, which is supposed to have the best sushi in the city, and i remembered it to be quite good last time i went. the sushi was only ok this time. afterwards we stumbled onto a bar called dove bar on macdougal and west 3rd, and it's a really cool chill little bar with deep red walls and kind of victorian-ish living room decor, a cross between alice in wonderland and the victorian punch bar. i liked that place a lot -- instead of bar nuts, they give you these spicy cheese breadsticks served in a teacup and saucer. cute. there are also a lot of seats around the tables, good for groups.

live from new york....

DOH!

itz just j a i (11:01:26 PM): if only margot and you had hooked up as well..then it woulda been a real party

xSgtMeatx (11:03:01 PM): ah well you had your chance

801 luv


801 + freesia before dream (and too many shots and free drinks)



before h20 (the new v.i.p.) (and too many creepy old men and not enough drinks). freesia looks sleepy!!

new guilty pleasure: coffee with defamer first thing in the morning after checking email
examples:

Short Ends: Demi And Ashton Are More Kabbalah Than You

--"Yeah, you heard me right, Britney. My mothafuckin' wedding is more Kabbalah than your mothafuckin' wedding. I'm taking this shit to Is-ra-el."

also: everything you wanted to know about donnie darko* *but were afraid to ask

from this week's "best of the bay" issue, written by yours truly:

Best Place to Hit On Matt Gonzalez
It's hard to find articulate, good-looking, ambitious, mysterious Ivy League men who are passionate about social justice and local politics, isn't it? Well, there's at least one in the city, and you might be able to find him haunting his neighborhood bar, Place Pigalle. The Matrix Fillmore this is not — where else would you find a humble and low-key guy than at a humble and low-key bar? The laid-back atmosphere, good music, and sparse candlelight in this beer-and-wine spot provide the perfect ambience for seduction. Plush couches in the front and back rooms conveniently allow patrons to get, ahem, more comfortable with each other. If opening lines about Gavin, eye contact, and all else fail, grab the peroxide: we've spotted him there chatting up a blond. 520 Hayes, S.F. (415) 552-2671.

Best Place to Meet the Social Justice Activist of Your Dreams
To find true love, forget eDating.com and work on a local, state, or national political campaign. These offices are teeming with new activists, especially young ones, and they're always looking for more help. Check out the presidential campaign, voter drives, and local ballot measures this fall when the get-out-the-vote efforts kick into high gear. Meet smart, passionate, and similarly minded folks at any number of campaign events — you and your politico will always have something in common. Chat up the cutie phone-banking next to you and get those digits. Get sweaty together while precinct-walking in the hills of San Francisco. Cap off your efforts by drunkenly partying with your love interest at the victory party. Get active, get motivated, and possibly get laid in the process.

Best Bar to Clown on Long Island
You don't have to be from New York City to have a superiority complex toward the isle of suburban mall outlets and seagulls, nor should a cosmopolitan city dweller like yourself be forced to imbibe something named in honor of it. Instead, drink to that bleak eyesore we call a "beach" at the Elbo Room, where the sweet Ocean Beach Iced Teas are likely to make you forget all about Long Island, crappy San Francisco beaches, and, well, just about everything else. While the bartenders tend to prepare these particular beverages with a kick so strong that one might be the magic number, the Elbo Room also considerately boasts the longest happy hour in the city, 5 to 9 p.m. nightly — ample opportunity to toast our fine city and be grateful you don't live in that other one. 647 Valencia, S.F. (415) 552-7788.

see DC pics

ten memories from my DC/NYC trip
1) "maybe if the OCA girls were a little bit HOTTER, we wouldn't have to steal their men!"
2) at tryst: me: "is $9 tip enough?"
freesia: "you already paid!!!"
3) random dude at dream who tried to dance with jaime: "who does she think she is, j-lo?"
me: "YEAHHH!!! she DOES think she's j-lo!!!"
4) margot: "salaam bombay!"
5) me, hella loudly in front of a restaurant in adams morgan: "alice, we ate here, remember? it was bad!"
6) clarence to a server's recommendation at a korean restaurant: "oh no, i don't want that."
7) overheard at the natural history museum: "you can't drink a mammal!"
8) overheard at the mall: man, to a young girl: "look over there. what's that building?"
young girl: "the white house?"
man: "no, that's the capitol."
woman: "how was she supposed to know that?"
man: "well, you learn."
9) margot, about me having a red-headed slut at dream: "yeah, drink names are pretty misogynistic."
me: "a red-headed slut could be a guy....prince harry!"
10) me: "oh 'razor bob' is the style of your haircut?? i thought it was the name of your hair stylist!"

kimi: have you heard about the rooney?
me: no
me:.......................

my playmate has been working like crazy lately, so i've been left to my own devices for most of the days.

last friday's "girl's night out" with chizu (visiting from sd for a week), freesia, and kimi was a bust when kimi brought braz and his friends, but it was still fun. jade bar is a cool spot to go and sip love potion #9s, and i hear the mojitos are really good. definitely check it out with your girlfriends, since it seems like most guys don't like the lack of seats and the fact that it's really crowded.

last saturday was day of graduation parties. we went to novato in the north bay for braz's graduation party at his aunt's house, and it was SO GORGEOUS. the weather was so hot i got a little bit of a sunburn sitting out on the deck by the pool. the food was really good -- it was a mix of pilipino food and american food, and it was catered, so they had not only beer ON TAP, but also a MARGARITA MACHINE. margarita machine + lots of sun = all gravy. apparently you can get some really good pilipino food at serra bowl in daly city; braz had some pansit from there, and it was hella good. yes, pilipino food at a bowling alley. his aunt's house was really beautiful, too. all in all very pleasant. we left early and came back to the city to go to kimi's house for her and chizu's graduation party. i could barely eat any more, but of course i had to try. :) they had these yummy wasabi flavored chips.

wednesday we all went out to see napoleon dynamite (again, for me, steve, and kimi). so funny, again!! i was laughing before the movie even started. afterwards we went to mel's on geary where we all laughed about how silly/lame we were freshman year of high school, and how freesia is trying to holler at steven. YOU KNOW YOU ARE!!!! you like puberty mustache!

last night kimi, braz, steve-o, and i went to biff and regan's for a houseparty. they live in hayes valley, and i haven't seen either of them in forever. their place is a great little san francisco apartment -- it's one of those old victorians, and they've got a breathtaking view of the downtown skyline and city hall from their back deck. so nice.

only 19 more days until i leave for nyc, and i'm going to be in DC for 8 of those. i know i'm supposed to see about 30 million people before i leave, including tiffany, peter, james, biff, and regan, and i definitely want to. so little time! kimi is graciously throwing me a going away party before i leave, time and date tba, i think it will be august 3 or 4, so save the date.

p.s. guilty pleasure summer reading -- "the nanny diaries" on audiobook, read by julia roberts

Olympics hurting struggling sportswear workers

The Olympic Games are now one month away and we need your help now to expose a dangerous hypocrisy that's taking place.

The upcoming Olympics are supposed to represent the triumph of humanity, yet the business practices of Fila and the other Official Suppliers of the Games (sportswear giants like Umbro, Puma, Asics, Lotto, Kappa and Mizuno) violate accepted international labor standards!

Click below to join Oxfam America in speaking out against this hypocrisy by sending a free message urging Fila's CEO to ensure that all Fila's workers are paid a living wage, have free access to trade unions, and enjoy safe working conditions.

http://ga0.org/campaign/play/7k38k79pjdi8d8

Ironically, the official promotional theme of next month's Olympic Games is "Celebrate Humanity," yet the workers, mostly women, in Fila's factories are being forced to work extremely long hours for poverty wages in order to produce gear and uniforms for the Olympic teams in time for the games in August. This is no way to "celebrate humanity!"

Oxfam's investigation into Fila's factories in China, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia found widespread abuses. Workers at one Chinese factory were fined $6 for each mistake they made! Others reported being forced to work until midnight without any advance warning before an export deadline. If they refused, they risked losing their jobs - jobs they needed badly to support themselves and their families.

And these workers have almost no chance to join trade unions to improve their working conditions. Factory managers can and do fire workers who join unions. Knowing this stops most workers from even thinking about trying to unionize.

Help honor the spirit of the upcoming Olympics by pressuring Fila to clean up its act. Click here to send your letter asking Fila to reform its exploitative business practices now:

http://ga0.org/campaign/play/7k38k79pjdi8d8

When you're finished, please help us spread the word by telling your friends about this campaign, and asking them to join you in making Fila play by the rules.

TAKE BACK THE WEB
everyone should drop what they're doing right now and get over to Firefox and download it. we should be applying social justice principles to all sections of our lives, and that includes the internet! plus, microsoft is evil, and firefox is just a better browser, really.

I'm gonna get a lot more visitors to the site after this

from salon.com's letters section:

When Wilder's 2-year-old was holding his Thomas the Tank Engine in the air, he was saying, "Percy," not "Pussy." "Percy" is Thomas's best friend, looks just like him, and is the favorite of most kids (as he is not quite the bootlick that Thomas is). I've known many 2-year-olds to make the same mispronunciation (including my own).

CLASSIC MARGOT-ISM
xSgtMeatx (12:42:13 PM): i kept touching his arm b/c he kept saying stuff and i was sort of hitting him to be lik, uh no you are (wayne's world, iguess). i forgot that most people aren't like wayne's wold
xSgtMeatx (12:42:15 PM): world
xSgtMeatx (12:42:25 PM): too bad

ok short update. does anyone still read this?
things have been really chill. the temp agencies haven't gotten back to me, so i've given up and have devoted my summer to plowing through columbia's suggested and required reading list. books on tape are my new best friend, since i can listen to them on my way to/from berkeley and while at the gym (yes, i'm working out again, close your mouth!). anyone recommend any good books on tape?

been seeing a lot of movies-- napoleon dynamite is so fucking funny, definitely see it, when stoned, preferrably. also saw dodgeball, which was NOT FUNNY and a waste of time and money. also fahrenheit 9/11, on the first weekend, of course. crazy ass lines to see it. it was ok, didn't blow me away like i expected. see napoleon dynamite instead! or rent roger and me.

saw giants/dodgers game a few weeks ago.
hot dog: $5
gordon biersch beer: $6
garlic fries: $6
tickets to see giants beat down the dodgers: free (thanks ali!)
watching steve chant "beat l.a.!": FUCKING PRICELESS

back to dc july 21-28. things to do:
-c-town express and greasy ass noodles and dumplings!
-party like rockstars
-h&m
-see uncle mark at the eeoc
-throw up in front of the white house, like i always wanted to! ;)

It only takes like three seconds
Urge Your Senator to Support Women Refugees!

The case of Rodi Alvarado, a Guatemalan survivor of severe domestic violence currently seeking asylum in the U.S., is pending before Attorney General John Ashcroft. On February 19, 2004, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) filed a brief urging Attorney General Ashcroft to grant asylum to Ms. Alvarado. In its brief, the DHS promises to issue regulations soon that will provide guidance in cases involving similar issues. Members of the Senate led by Senator Clinton (D-NY)and Senator Brownback (R-KS) have joined in support of regulations to govern gender-based asylum claims. Please contact your Senator and express your support for women refugees who have fled gender-based persecution such as trafficking, sexual slavery, honor killing, and domestic violence who are seeking refuge in the United States. Urge your Senator to sign the Clinton-Brownback letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft on this important issue.

To sign on, please visit
http://action.humanrightsfirst.org/campaign/senate_sign_on_gender

To learn more about this issue, see Asylum Protection News #23:
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/asylum/torchlight/newsletter/newslet_23.htm

summer is becoming really frustrating. plans are dropping left and right, and i've got nothing to do all day. no dc, no la, nothing until nyc. i'm trying to find a way out to dc before nyc, but we'll see.

i'm so comepletely distraught that i won't be able to see the pino when he visits dc, along with my 801 gals, or lin when he visits there over the fourth. i'm reminded daily of all last summer's memories because not a day goes by that i don't talk to someone from the 801/1327 crew. sigh. and i'm stuck here in berkeley...

i've been trying to find a temp job to keep me busy at least. but things are pretty dead. i miss the east coast, but i suppose i'll be getting my fill of it in august. until then, i'll try to enjoy the little things i love about the bay -- like finding new cool bars in unexpected places, spam kimchi fried rice from ramen house, falling asleep during afternoons on the couch in my living room, shopping at mars on telegraph, reading magazines for hours at barnes and noble, and watching steveo be SO SHLEEPY.