A Day at the Derby

The Tillamook demolition derby, that is. Because I agreed to attend the derby Saturday night, Yang agreed to spend the day at the beach with me. It is a perfect deal because, despite my moans and groans, I love the demolition derby. It is an unadulterated celebration of white trash. It is like watching a train wreck ten times over, without serious bodily injury (usually). Here are the highlights:

• Duct-taping on a neck brace before the round began
• Reading a list of sponsors (usually about five) for each car, and then proudly announcing the grand prize of $700.00.
• The respectful round of applause for the car that only made it half way to the starting line-up before it died.
• The saying on the side of the “Sponge-bob” car that read “Support are Troops.”
• The car that caught fire.
• The other car that caught fire.
• The fat, short man in a red tu-tu.
• The uninterested lady next to me reading “Psychic Self-Defense.”
• The overpriced caramel apples and elephant ears.
• The hilarious spectacle of 15 cars smashing into each other until only one car remains running.

Funny Stuff

If you haven't already, you must watch the Bush-Kerry "This Land" Spoof at Jib Jab.

Me too, me too!

After reading all the other results (here, here, and here), I couldn't resist.

Wackiness: 10/100
Rationality: 4/100
Constructiveness: 16/100
Leadership: 0/100


You are an SEDF--Sober Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you an evil genius. You are extremely focused and difficult to distract from your tasks. With luck, you have learned to channel your energies into improving your intellect, rather than destroying the weak and unsuspecting.

Your friends may find you remote and a hard nut to crack. Few of your peers know you very well--even those you have known a long time--because you have expert control of the face you put forth to the world. You prefer to observe, calculate, discern and decide. Your decisions are final, and your desire to be right is impenetrable.

You are not to be messed with. You may explode.

Take this Quiz.

Harry Potter, the Hooligan.

The CCP banned the release of Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban in an effort to strengthen the morals of Chinese children. Ten bucks says 90% of all Chinese kids, at least those living in urban areas, already own a pirated PoA DVD. Nice try, CCP.

Thanks to mugglenet for the link.

Great.

Farenheit 9/11 to become first imported documentary in China. This will just add to their collective, "unbaised" education about America.

Oh, How the Mighty Fall

I received very disturbing news yesterday. My faithful, reliable car is only worth $1300. It is worth much more than that to me. I imagine the feeling I had looking at Kelley’s blue book value for the Tracer is similar to the way I’d feel if someone told me my pet is ugly or my child is stupid. I felt so sad. After all, I have been driving that car for nine years.

I was interested in its value because it was rear-ended about a week ago. A punk kid didn’t see me stopped in the road, waiting to turn left (with my signal on, of course), and he crashed into me. We were both okay, but the Tracer was a little beat up. Thankfully the other driver was insured, and the appraiser wrote us a check for $1350 for repairs. We deposited the check because, even with the repairs, we couldn’t sell the Tracer for that much money. Yang took his blow torch and tools to the bumper and trunk last night, and the car is almost as good as before.

The Beginning of the Hijack

The New York Times reports about the investigation into the beginning of the September 11 attacks. It is a sobering read. In 1999, I was living in Beijing. In 1999, Bin Laden was planning to crash planes. Apparently, his organizational skills aren't quite as impressive as some originally believed, but he accomplished his horribly amazing plan in the end.

We're In!

We moved in over the weekend. Every room is full of boxes and unsettled furniture, but we’re in. We can take our time unpacking. Paint is on the walls and carpet on the floor. It looks fantastic. Even our furniture looks better because it is in our house.

I have a confession (now that I am done painting and don’t have to maintain a positive mental attitude): I hate painting. I don’t like it one bit. We saved loads of money, but I lost a week of my life to pain, tears, and anguish. Yang doesn’t mind painting- he is really good at it. To his credit, he did the lion’s share of the work. Nonetheless, I still don’t like it. To all of you considering painting your own house to save money: choose wisely. Unless you have Yang helping you, I would advise against it. In fact, even if you have Yang helping you, I would still advise against it.

More good news: it only took 35 minutes to commute to work! I worried it would take closer to an hour. Hooray!

Infrastructure -- The Great Satan . . .

. . . or wait, maybe it is China. They are, after all, Godless communists. The New York Times reports on the Chinese engineers and construction workers who were killed in Afghanistan by the Taliban. The Chinese were building a road.

A senior Afghan military commander in southern Afghanistan, Hajji Mir Wali, said Mullah Dadullah, one of the top Taliban commanders, recently issued orders to his fighters to strike at road builders. "His orders were: 'First, you have to kill engineers to stop the building of the roads. Second, you have to burn schools and spread out leaflets. Third, you have to put mines and attack government officials; and fourth, if you can, you have to attack American forces,' " Mr. Wali said. He said he was told of the orders by a member of the Taliban who was present at the meeting in which they were issued.

Well, I'm Back.

I have been waiting for things to slow down, and for life to return to its normal routine, before I started summer blogging. However, after almost a month of waiting, I have learned that there is no routine (and there probably won’t be for quite a while).

WORK–Work is lovely. I like my office and I like my work. That is why I returned this summer.

CHINA–Amazing! It was so nice to see my parents and to traipse around Hong Kong. The city is very impressive, but unfortunately, the food was nothing special. (It must be the British influence). The food in Beijing didn’t disappoint us–it was worth flying half way around the world to eat at our favorite Chinese restaurant. And, as always, the shopping was great. We also went to Macau. Macau was relaxed, but still exciting. Beautiful Portugese buildings dot the hills (in between the Casinos).

HOUSE–We have one! We received our keys on Saturday. Closing was a nightmare, but all’s well that ends well. We have been furiously painting ever since Saturday. Late nights every night. Poor Yang- I don’t think he has received more than three hours of sleep a night. He pulled an all-nighter last night. I left the house after 11 pm, and he was planning to work a few more hours. A few more hours turned into all night, and he is welcoming the carpet installers as I write. (And we thought law school was hard). So, here is our tentative schedule: carpet in today; finish painting doors and bathrooms tomorrow (and put all the fixtures back on the walls), and finish cleaning the new house tomorrow; pack up our apartment and move on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday; clean the apartment on Tuesday. Hooray! Last Sunday was our last day at church. I said good-bye to all our friends there (sniff).

My life has been our new house lately. I haven’t been reading the news, I haven’t turned on the television in weeks (that is a good thing), and I feel very disconnected to everything outside the move. A friend at work told me that Fantasia won American Idol days after it happened (I can’t believe I missed the finale!). My A Paper re-write and research assistant responsibilities are hanging over my head–I think I’ll have time to get to them later. I hope everything will calm down a bit in another week or two.

Cheers everyone, and thanks J for the strawberries!

American Underdog

La Toya London got voted off American Idol this week. That is so strange. She was supposed to win. America loves to rally for the underdog. If America thinks someone is going to go home, they all vote for her (*cough* Jasmine). Unfortunately, that has an unwanted side effect–a good singer goes home because everyone thought she was safe and didn’t vote for her. Jasmine is a doll, but she can’t sing very well at all. Strange–she might end up winning.

3L

I finished my second year of law school! I will enjoy the next few weeks of ignorant bliss–the time after finals but before my grades come out. (When an A in criminal law is still within the realm of possibility).

This Friday Yang and I are leaving for a vacation to Hong Kong and Beijing. I am very excited, but it is not the type of vacation I need right now. I need to go someplace warm and quiet. I would love to lounge for a week or so. But alas, lounging is not in store for us. We will tromp all over China, seeing the sights, hearing the sounds, smelling the smells, and eating the delicious food. Chinese opera is the antithesis of quiet, but I guess I’ll take Chinese opera!

B Paper is IN

I just turned in my B paper. I am going to leave it in the box this time. (I turned in for the first time last week, but took it out of the box a few hours later because I panicked. But now, I have revised it for the last time).

That leaves Business Associations (probably Monday) and Substantive Criminal Law (Thursday or Friday). The end is near.

You Mean We Don't Have Greater Bargaining Power?

The bank is working us. We are in a bidding war for the house. At least, that is what the bank is telling us. We offered our third offer (or would this be our second counter-offer?). If they don't accept, we have nothing left to give. I would be much more upset about all this if I didn't have to focus on my exams.

LOTR Parody

This parody made me laugh out loud in the library. (Laughter was very much needed at that point). I found it via TORN.

Aragorn and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.

Memo to Self...

...the sun will still shine after finals. Focus!

Ready...set...Study!

Let the games begin. Classes ended yesterday, and tests begin Wednesday (some ambitious souls may even begin testing on Monday). Ahh, finals time. You can smell the stress in the air and cut the tension in the library with a knife. Good luck everyone!

Japanese Public Opinion

Wow. I had no idea the Japanese public blamed the social workers who were held hostage in Iraq. As the New York Times reports,

"You got what you deserve!" one Japanese held up a hand-written sign at the airport where they landed. "You are Japan's shame," another wrote on the Web site of one of the hostages. They had "caused trouble" for everybody. The government, not to be outdone, announced it would bill them $6,000 for airfare

Hmm. One of the hostages was in Iraq to help the children. She got what she deserved? The government is going to bill them for the airfare? That is so harsh. Even we don’t always bill stupid, careless hikers who get stranded for the search and rescue efforts (although we should).

To the angry Japanese, the first three hostages — Nahoko Takato, 34, who started her own non-profit organization to help Iraqi street children; Soichiro Koriyama, 32, a freelance photographer; and Noriaki Imai, 18, a freelance writer also interested in the issue of depleted uranium munitions — had acted selfishly. Two others kidnapped and released in a separate incident — Junpei Yasuda, 30, a freelance journalist, and Nobutaka Watanabe, 36, a member of a pro-peace non-governmental organization — were equally guilty.

Pursuing individual goals by defying the government and causing trouble for Japan was simply unforgivable. So the single government official to praise them was, not surprisingly, an American one.

"Well, everybody should understand the risk they are taking by going into dangerous areas," said Secretary of State Colin Powell. "But if nobody was willing to take a risk, then we would never move forward. We would never move our world forward.

Amen, Colin.

Um, yeah. America is crazy.

Fantasia and La Toya in the bottom three? Jennifer voted out? I don't know what to say. Maybe I should start voting and counterbalance the massive voting power of the thirteen year olds. Nah - I don't care that much. But still, it defies all logic that John was not sent packing last night. He knows he shouldn't be there, poor kid.

And We Have a Counter

Yang and I put our mad contract reviewing skills to work today—we received a counter-offer on *the house*! We have a few minor issues to work out, but this deal may actually happen. To be continued . . .