Monday, February 26, 2007

Yes, there is a Fairy Godmother

I heard ages ago, in the news, that Oprah was building a school for girls in South Africa. And I thought, well there Oprah goes again, doing her amazing goodness in the world, because she's awesome and powerful like that.

Now I am watching her "Building a Dream" show, where she shows her interviews with these little girls who are trying to get into her school. And I am a blubbering mess of tears. It is like Extreme Home Makeover, 10 times over.

It's unbelievable, the kind of hardship these little girls go through, and how they maintain the most amazing fortitude, confidence, and integrity. And they are such beautiful, bright, articulate girls. Everyone should just go an adopt a little African girl.

They are in poorest of predicaments, living in shacks, without bathrooms, without running water, in dangerous neighborhoods where men grab at them as they walk home from school, and many of them have lost parents to death or by abandonment. It's heartbreaking.

Then you see Oprah make all their dreams come true, in a over-the-top, beautifully designed, new school, with every detail overseen by Oprah. As you watch the girls get so energized and ecstatic about it, you know these girls are not just going to make it in this world, but they will be the leaders of tomorrow.

I love Oprah. I think she does some amazing, inspiring things. I can only watch her shows on occasion because I can only handle so much emotional outpouring.

There was another Oprah episode I caught about a month ago, called "Breaking Down Barriers" --where a high school conducted a full-day, cathartic exercise, called "Challenge Day," where all the kids open up about the abuses felt by high school culture (clicque / popularity dynamics / social ridicule / racism / sexism, etc.). And, of course, all the teachers and students apologize to each other and learn to respect each other much more. Again. I was bawling. Ridiculous tears.

Anyway, Oprah's gotten some criticism for spending so much on one school, making her charity work into publicity stunts, or dismissing America's kids for being unappreciative of their education, but I'd say she's done plenty more good than most other people have in the world. And I think it's okay that she's proud of her charity events. She's using her celebrity status in a good way. It brings causes, problems, and solutions to light, and it gives hope to people. Why do people have to be such haters!?

But I also wonder about the other underprivileged girls or boys, who don't have the remarkable grades, self-esteem, tenacity and strength that brought these South African girls to Oprah's attention. Who's going to help them?

Maybe Madonna should give it a shot, since she wants an African kid, anyway.

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Saturday, February 24, 2007

Why I stay in on Wednesdays

Hellooo, Danny!


Fellas, unless you have an equally fantastic build, don't try this snug tee look at home. (I'm not usually into muscly guys, but seeing this changes my mind.)

The other guys on CSI:NY aren't bad either, but Detective Danny Messer is my favorite. He rocks the lab coat and suit look, too. And don't forget the hot New Yawk accent. Whoever does his hair and wardrobe deserves a raise.

Thank you, CBS.

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Guns + Puns + Nice Pants = Winner

I know Yahoo! TV has been getting a lot of flack for their redesign, and I agree, it could use some help with its performance issues and all.

But I would just like to thank them for this photo of CSI:NY's Detective Danny Messer (played by the delectable Carmine Giovinazzo) .

I have developed a ridiculous schoolgirl crush on him. Danny is the perfect blend of hottie, nerd, street smarts, style, and New York-tough guy. And just look at them guns. Mmm.

Also, Danny likes to use puns while he's solving vicious crime scenes.

Ugh. To die for!

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Sunday, February 11, 2007

Spoo-oooky

With all this thought about wanting to believe in good fortunes, I checked my February horoscope. Sometimes I like to read horoscopes for fun, and I hadn't done this in ages.

But damn! If you read this month's Astrology Zone, it's scary-accurate for me! Check yours and see if it makes any sense to you too.

Especially striking to me was this part:
If a black cloud suddenly moves over your head (say, on February 10) take a deep breath, for it should pass fairly quickly. Being tired will only make you view the world through a far-too-dark filter, so give your body tender loving care with enough sleep and the right nutrition. While you do have a mixed outlook this month, be glad you'll always have positive planetary energy to count on, too. One way or another, have faith you'll land sunny side up!

When you realize that someone has misled you in the days near the full moon February 2 and when Saturn joins the Sun on February 10, you may be devastated.
Quite possibly, this astrologist, Susan Miller, is really good at noticing that people run into conflicts or re-evaluate their relationships just before Valentine's Day and took advantage of that, to freak out people like me.

It's just odd that she picked up on the exact date I was feeling especially glum. If she's right though, apparently I'll be taking a risk by travelling to NYC at the start of March instead of waiting for mid-March. She also advised that I shouldn't be making any announcements about plans until then either... except I sort of did make a small one to a select group of people. Does that count?

Dammit! I am born on the cusp, so maybe if I'm not a true Leo...

Meh, must get back to work...

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Left your name? Look ovah here! (Part II)

Okay, here are the last responses to "Leave me your name." You guys get accompanying photos this time, since you had to wait:

Joy:
  1. You have a magical power to unite all types of folks through '80s music and fashion. Don't Stop Believin', baby!
  2. "Xanadu," and any song by Duran Duran
  3. Cranberry & Orange (with vodka)
  4. No, I am still not dating him, and he is still cute and too young.
  5. I think you were working on 360° and came by to give me a lovely compliment on my shoes and skirt.
  6. A lovebird
  7. How have we not yet gone to the Mint together?




tatertot:
  1. Little. Yellow. Different. Better. And when I say different, I mean the part where you love Hilary Duff and have hairy arms. :D
  2. Hilary Duff movies and "LDN" by Lily Allen
  3. Strawberry Watermelon
  4. I don't think I would have had those crazy makeout dreams if you hadn't left our threesome.
  5. You were sitting in the Design department at Kerckhoff, at the Daily Bruin offices, doing page layouts, I think in a long skirt.
  6. A chinchilla. Do you know that they can jump up to five feet above their heads?
  7. How did you get to be so deceptively innocuous?



Kevin:
  1. You LIED to the moving man, just so he'd use Local!?
  2. "Sexyback" by JT (That was a good concert, huh?)
  3. Lime
  4. No one can touch the Tasmanian Devil on the dance floor.
  5. Hmm I think you were sitting in a UED Flash class.
  6. Butterfly
  7. When are you going to quit smoking?

And now, I will get back to work! Ooh, can it be? The sun is coming out? YAY.

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Saturday, February 10, 2007

The Best Fortune

I come from a fairly superstitious family, but I don't really consider myself superstitious. Surpisingly, one of my brothers, Ted, a very pragmatic emergency physician, claims that fortune cookies speak the truth. I don't think I quite believe in them as much. But maybe I like to believe them a little if they say something good.

It's like how I wish I could believe in a religion, because then I'd really believe in heaven and reincarnation and all that niceness. But I don't think I can believe in things just because they're nice. I'm not going to believe in unicorns, just because I think they are awesome. I think it's pretty much over when we die. But that doesn't stop me from enjoying the beauty and miracle of life.

Then again, sometimes I do consider the possibility of an afterlife, like when my other brother, Peter, survived a plane crash. The amazing part of that story is not just that he survived a horrific plane crash, but that when he was a baby, a fortune teller told our grandfather that Peter would be the sole survivor of a plane crash. He wasn't the sole survivor, but it was pretty darn close enough.

Peter knew about this fortune teller's prediction when he was on that plane, so even though he was frightened during the crash, it probably helped him believe that he would survive, while everyone else probably thought they would die. After this happened, it sort of made me think that maybe our parents were watching out for us from the afterlife.

Or maybe I should consider these fortunes more seriously.

Maybe eight years ago, I took a trip to Japan with my boyfriend at the time. Our relationship was already getting rather tenuous, but I decided not to worry about that until after the trip was over. But the first day we were there, he decided to bring up whether we should break up. I couldn't believe his audacity. That was pretty much reason enough to break up. So we did.

But we had to spend the rest of the week together in Japan! It was a little awkward. I basically dealt with it by making sarcastic, cutting remarks at him for the rest of the trip, and he would just laugh it off. But honestly, it was pretty upsetting to me. (Ironically, he wanted to get back together with me a year later, but that is another story.)

So we decided that for one day on the trip, the ex and I would split up to travel separately. He didn't eat fish, and I wasn't going to leave Japan without having some sushi.

On that day, I went to the Asakusa Shinto temple. They have a tradition, where you buy a fortune. You shake a box of sticks and pull out one stick, which has a number on it. You then match that number to a wall of little drawers, where you pull out a fortune. Some fortunes are bad, and some are good. If you have a good one, you keep it. If you have a bad one, you roll it up and tie it at the temple so in hopes that the spirits will take the bad luck away.

I had an English-speaking volunteer at the temple help me do this, since I couldn't read the Japanese numbers. When I handed him my stick, he read the number and said, "Ohh, I think I know this one. I think it's a good one." He pulled out the paper fortune for me and read it and said, "Yes, it's what I thought. You got the best one."

He wasn't exaggerating. It was actually titled, "No. 99, The Best Fortune":

Side B

In spite of my skepticism about fortunes, I was totally amazed. It was the assurance I needed, right when I needed it. So I thought, maybe I do believe this.

***

So yesterday, after having had a crummy week, I took this piece of paper out again. Whether it's real, or just a self-fulfilling prophecy, or just a complete delusion, it's nice to feel like I have something to look forward to.

(BTW, that ex is now married, and I'm still single. I guess I'm still waiting. Hmm.)

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When it rains, it pours.

I had a really crummy week. A whole bunch of obnoxious things kept disrupting me, including:

  1. At the office garage, I discovered someone knocked out the tail light on my Junebug, and didn't leave a note. (And please don't tell me to check with security, because something like 50 coworkers already asked me that, when I already did talk to security, which ended up being useless anyway.)

  2. My rent check got lost in the mail, resulting in a threatening note on my door.

  3. They switched mail systems at work, causing me to not get email for a whole day and rendering my email filters to be useless. And IT had no idea how to fix it.

  4. My pc laptop screen wouldn't turn on. (A coworker actually helped me fix this, so this is okay.)

  5. One of my close friends did something to offend me. Now I don't know if we can be close friends anymore.

Of course, this has all put me behind schedule at work and on my personal project. So even though I took Friday off, I ended up using the whole day catching up on work. And I'm still behind.

So I decided to let myself take it easy for a bit. It's a rainy weekend anyway, so I consoled myself with some Chardonnay, goat cheese and jam, Danny Messer (thank you, Netflix), a game of Taboo with friends, a lot of napping, doing laundry, and blogging.

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Left your name? Look ovah here!

I needed a break. So here are my responses to the first 4 commenters to the "Leave me your name" entry:

Aynne:
  1. You have the most fascinating dating stories.
  2. Hmm, I'll say... "Grosse Pointe Blank" or "Beat It"
  3. Grape
  4. I bet that damned goth trashed my hearts!
  5. Hmm, I think it was drinks at Encore for karaokeing w/ Joy
  6. A raven
  7. Were you named after Ayn Rand?

Karpar:
  1. Your stitchwork is the #12 most popular photo on my Flickr.
  2. "Lonely Rolling Star," or "Oops, I Did it Again"
  3. Black Cherry
  4. Wearing rings is the problem? As opposed to too much David-Hyde Pierce?
  5. You were a Yahoo! intern, and you asked me something about... children's books' authors or something, I think for a thesis proposal.
  6. A penguin :D
  7. Will you always love "America's Funniest Home Videos"?

Warren:
  1. Your masterful doodle of Mr. T on the Yahoo! Messenger Scribble IMV is an inspiration.
  2. "Sweet Love" by Anita Baker or "Please Don't Go Girl" by NKOTB
  3. Berry Blue
  4. WHAT??? You LET me sleep through "Sidekicks??" Nooooooooooo!
  5. I think it was your pseudo-cousin introducing me to you at URL's
  6. Hmm, Bonobo ape? (They like to play games) Or maybe a Gibbon. (They like to sing duets.)
  7. How do you stay so trim with your love of fast food?

Anita:
  1. She pities the fool who doesn't like Mr. T
  2. "Who's That Girl?" by Madonna. Or Eve, I guess.
  3. Mixed Fruit
  4. Uhh.
  5. Your comment earlier about jello wrestling.
  6. The elusive DoDo bird
  7. Who are you?

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Sunday, February 04, 2007

Whoops.

Wow. I feel like a jackass.

I guess there were people commenting on my blog, and I just didn't know it until just now, when I finally gave in to switching to the "New Blogger."

I strangely never got my comment notifications sent to my email, and then when I finally switched the "new blogger", I discovered all these comments waiting to be moderated. I don't even remember setting them to be moderated! WTF, blogger?? Or is it Google I should be annoyed with? Do I need to go find a new blog service now?

So anyway. Um, I guess I have to answer to that old "leave me your name" blog entry, but like I said, I'm busy with a certain project... so please wait until March 6 for that...

Sorry. In the meantime, let console you with the psychotically cute baby animals recently featured on Yahoo! News "Most Popular" section (--Don't click on that link unless you want to hurt your eyes by seeing a near-naked, soft-pornographic, pic of pasty Harry Potter's er, Daniel Radcliffe's pasty-white body. I am WARNING you.):




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