time for one ping only

I'm still downloading pictures -- what? Get off my back! I shot in camera raw! It takes time -- but wanted to remark on the following topical points:

Today's Yahoo news: "Learn about worst-case scenario for swine flu." Right there on the home page. Yesterday while watching The Today Show (what a goofy name for a news program ... The Today Show ... say it slowly, it's weird, isn't it? Intensely simple) -- yesterday while watching The Today Show I got this huge journalist hankering to cut right to the chase and ask the big question:

"But do you think people are worried enough? What steps can they take to be worried more about this possible pandemic?"

Speaking of Chase and cutting to it, I missed House last night and have to wait a full week for it to show up online. This has been my process for spring term, but now that House is going mad I'm really starting to get frustrated with school. Stupit school. I'm missing the only thing worth watching on tv aside from The Dog Whisperer. But, last night I couldn't ditch out because we had our midterm and watched the first part of The Seven Samurai.

Yes, I'm a big nerd. Yes, I love that movie. Yes, I am most identified with Gorobei. But, more important, here is a sampling of what the dudes next to me said as we were leaving:

"Dude, that movie ROCKS!"
"It's totally cool."
"Dude, that's the best movie we've watched in here!"
(note: we've seen only 4, but they were Rashomon, Gate of Hell, Onibaba and Kwaidan, so they didn't suck ... well, Gate of Hell kind of sucked)

They then proceeded to loudly re-enact swordfights on leaving the building.

A most satisfying result.

Cut the chatter Red 5

I'm going to spend the day with characters from Star Wars (it's a photo assignment, so ...). In the meantime, here is the best email I've received in a long time:

Jarno Trulli is now following you on Twitter!

I know it's because I gave him 10 Euros for Abruzzo, but whatever works. Si amo. If you want to give Jarno a donation for Italy you can do so here: http://abruzzonelcuore.org/. They take PayPal and will convert dollars to Euros.

E la...

sorry

School is busy -- midterms ... will I miss them? I just don't know. Just who is Hojo Yasutoki and will I need that information at some point in the future? Maybe. But I just don't feel like studying junk. The sun is out and I just want to ride my bike. Some guy at school yesterday called me a "bike nerd" ("I like bike nerds") and I think he meant it as a compliment because I felt like I didn't quite measure up to it ("oh, no, no, not really").

So school is busy = life is boring. Go here. See this wonderful site. Report back.

Got our stuff back from the cops. It consisted of

1

red

suitcase

Dude, they even swiped the Holy Family scapulars my grandmother had given me in Vegas. They were in the suitcase pocket. What the hell...

THE COPS ARE RELEASING OUR STUFF TODAY!

Excavate National Treasure Show Chinese Culture

If you've been reading along with The Mahoney Family Blog (and if you haven't you've missed out -- it's the only way I travel anymore) you'll know that they've just come back from a tour of Australia and Hong Kong. SA Mahoney always gets me the best travel gifts. She sent me the Checkpoint Charlie chocolate (which melted last summer) and the Robert Kubica F1 shirt (which was destroyed by our dryer ... that last house was hard, hard on my valuables), but this year the travel gift beats all:

The box description is as follows:
Culture Revolution Engraving - The serious of HCG poker
Culture Revolution Engraving affects by special stage. The brand for epoch is obvious. The engraving as the topic of Chairman "Red Classical" which has great value of collections is called "Alive Curio". The poke is chosen 54 pieces of the engravings of Chinaman Mao. (no, I swear, it really says that) It shows historical cultural quintessence. For the people who experienced that period, the engraving Red Classical will be recalled their memory about those days.

Even better is the story of how they were purchased:
I bought those cards at the night market in Hong Kong. Dude, it was like this totally wacky flea market in a dicey part of town, but they had the best stuff! The best part of the whole experience was having to walk through 20 tables full of vibrators to get to the public toilets…because when you travel with a bunch of kids they have to go to the bathroom A LOT!

I loves my friends.

Cap Yer A...

Senior day at the bookstore. I now own a cap and a gown and one of them tassel things. They had these yellow stoles that you're supposed to wear and give out to a professor who made a difference, but I couldn't afford to do that for everyone so I opted out on that and the souvenir tassel, which is not like the real tassel, but like a useless second tassel:

volunteer: "You get a burgundy tassel for the ceremony and you can also buy one of these green and yellow ones as well."
me: "For?"
volunteer: "Uh, for ... whatever ... you can, you know, hang it on things."
me: "Like the rear-view mirror on my Ford Bronco? You know right over the rifle rack."
volunteer: "Uh ..."
me: "It's cool. I'd end up knocking it off during a wild drunk U-turn or something. Where do I pay for the other stuff?"

Now I just have to finish the classes and all. Shouldn't be too hard, right? D is a passing grade. That's all that matters now.

Oh yeah, and it's spring finally and I went and broke my right bike pedal AGAIN. I've waited all this time for spring (since it appears that my rain pants were stolen ... feckers -- that or I've lost them in one of my frequently occurring senior moments) and I'm still on the bus. mother-corker.

yeesh

Hey, why isn't Rob Roy on BluRay yet? It's a passable film and it was on MGM HD last night and it looked pretty good, although I didn't watch it all because I didn't want to see Eric Stoltz get killed in HD before I went to bed. (I had nightmares anyway, but, that's another story.) In fact, parts of it made me really uncomfortable -- did Eric Stoltz have to be so filthy? And Liam Neeson's hair certainly doesn't make a good transition to HD, but it was otherwise more earthy (as the cousin/roommate called it) than the dvd version and you can certainly feel the chilly cold with the details provided by HD (frosty breath from John Hurt, gray Ireland skies passing for Scotland, etc...). All I can think is that unless your movie has Jason Statham, your chances of getting a BluRay version are still pretty slim.

School is really hard, by the way. Have I mentioned? I thought the last term was supposed to be a breeze. I want a ditch day and some senior props, not a bunch of reading about shoguns and theories of Neoclassicism. Photojournalism is particuarly frustrating -- it's like typing class and I'm still looking at the keys, which is fast in the beginning and then ends up mediocre while everyone else gets faster. Here's a picture I took for the photo class. One is with a wide aperture, one is with the small aperture. You have 2 minutes. GO!

Let's see ... go to Vegas or ...

This came in my email today:

ITP CONFERENCE 2009

June 26-28, 2009

Orlando, Florida

• Want to learn about the most up-to-date information on ITP?
• Talk face-to-face with the world's top ITP doctors?
• Find out how to cope with fatigue and other lifestyle issues?
• Meet others with ITP?

I love the questioning last line: Meet others with ITP? Does that mean it's something we can opt out on?

Since we're not one of the most glamorous disorders out there (we don't have walks or telethons or anything fun like that) I'm having trouble imagining why we would have a 2-day conference on it. And will our disorder enable us to get free passes to Disneyland? Will there be a lot of macrobiotic food? It's a mystery. What if we sleep through the seminar on fatigue? But there's also one on "The Healing Power of Reiki" which a psychic told me to get into once. Although she also told me I'd be adopting a dalmatian last year.

More pictures coming to the Flickr. The first photo journalism assignment is due Thursday so yesterday was spent photoing a white toilet seat against a white background. (This is the fun class.) It led to a heated discussion with the cousin/roommate on the limits and uses of auto-exposure. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth ... so, yeah, business as usual really.

I added Flickr links. I'm so smart. It's the same pictures, sure. What am I? New?

yes.

C'est l'arte

Why are art majors stuck up? "Oh my God, I can't believe there are so many people in here who have never taken an art history class." There was sneer on her face as she said it to the student next to her, as if the field hands had dared to come into the parlor. I know my Degas from my Ingres, little missy. You want to know about Delacroix? I've read his diary. This isn't a contest, which is good for you because I could run you right down, you and your high falooteness. Besides, if the professor is open to teaching the unwashed masses, then who the hell are you? REVOLUTION! LA DEMOCRATIE! ("I told you to speak your mind, Jack, but Jesus...")

Maybe I'm just sensitive and probably still smarting over the idea of News/Editorial being on the low rung of Journalism, like magazine writing is so much better. And when did Advertising pass us up anyway? I blame Mad Men. Television culture shapes us, I know it. My high falooten theory is that television makes society, whether you watch it or not. It's the opium of the mass...oh wait. I'll come up with a new theory ... I'm just sayin', we need Lou Grant to come back on the air and save print. That's all.

Speaking of The Hunt for Red October (which I was above, not directly, but up there) the cops finally called me back about our stuff and the only thing they can confirm they have is my suitcase: "But when you come in to pick it up you can see if there's anything else of yours here." So they might have more than my suitcase, but they're not sure, but there's probably nothing, but just in case they might let us look at things, but there's probably nothing else ... dude. I just want my movies back. How hard is it to definitively say "There is nothing here with Sean Connery in it"?