Dr. Ruth, Multi-career Superstar

Recently, on the way to work, I heard an awesome interview on NPR, with '80s celebrity / sexuality expert, Dr. Ruth Westheimer. She is still alive, still very chipper, at almost 80 years old. In this interview, I learned that as a child, she was forced to leave her parents on a Kinder-Transport train for children to escape from the Nazis. Later, she learned that her parents died in the Holocaust.

She then went on to train with the Haganah (a Jewish paramilitary organization in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine) as a sniper! And then she was a psychology professor in Paris, before she finally came to the states to study sociology and human sexuality.

Then I did a search and found that in the 80s, Dr. Ruth created a sex board game, available on Ebay of course!!!



AND she had a sex VIDEO GAME (thankfully this was the 80s, so we are spared of any explicit visuals. But perhaps there is some explicit language.)



Aside from publishing several books about sexuality, she also wrote an autobiography about her fascinating life, in which she admits that her parents basically had a shotgun wedding. And she's also made multiple appearances in skits on Conan O' Brien.

That's right, even if you're just 4'7" with a funny accent, you could become a sniper, a college professor, a sex expert, game developer, author, pop culture celebrity and comedy actor. Yeah. Try to top that!

Amazing. Dr. Ruth is my hero.

Why I heart CSI:NY

I was trying to figure out why "CSI:NY" is the only tv show I care about seeing every week anymore (unless it's a rerun). Why do I prefer this as opposed to the light-hearted fare I used to enjoy? It's not like a soap opera. There are some small storylines behind each character that continue, but they are mostly secondary to the mystery plots of each episode. As I thought about it, I realized that it's a reaction to certain things I would like more of in my life.

When I was a kid, I lacked humor & family functionality in my life, so I seeked shows that succeeded in those things, like "The Cosby Show." Nowadays, I have lots of humor in my life. I'd say my friends and coworkers are way funnier than the shows I watch on tv. I generally get along with my family, and I live by myself anyway.

So why do I love CSI:NY so much?

1. I heart NY.
Every show opens and transitions with majestic, aerial sweeping shots of the city. And they write a lot of the plots around crimes that could only occur in New York. They've used police horses in Central Park, rush hour at Grand Central Station, the subway cars, even a tiger mauling at the Bronx Zoo.

Instead of freaking me out about the potential crime in New York, seeing all the interesting sights of New York actually gets me excited to move there. (Ironically the show is mostly filmed in L.A. and faked with sets. But I like L.A. too.)

2. Forensic Science is rad!
I love the nerdiness of it all: the labs, the chemistry, the autopsies. I love how Dr. Hawkes gets all excited to explain what caused a ruptured spleen, or when the detectives discuss high-velocity blood spatter vs. gravitational droplets. Or when the medical examiners flip a coin to see who gets to process the mummified dead woman. Or when Mac and Lindsay take turns stabbing a dead pig to match the weapon to the type of wound. I love it when Danny says "epithelials" in his New Yawk accent.

In real life, I get a lot of computer geekiness on a daily basis, but I think I miss the other sciences, that are perhaps, less virtual. I think maybe the whole internet-saturated culture of the bay area has gotten to me a little bit, and so I find it very refreshing when I talk to someone like a Neurobiologist.

3. Effective people, solving problems efficiently.
It's a Bruckheimer production, so it's very formulaic. But I love it. Something horrible happens at the start of the show, and this amazing crack team of geniuses get to business figuring it out, and they always do! Even if they head down the wrong route, or run into obstacles, they have such a versatile skill set, with really awesome tools, that they manage to get it together and they ALWAYS get the bad guy by the end of the show.

I have run into my share of weirdos, idiots, and unreliable people & poor technology from time to time, which are frustratingly counterproductive. CSI is about a team of incredibly competent people, who have a lot of moral integrity, who are all focused on the same goal. The leaders (Mac & Stella) are strong and supportive, and even the rookies on the team manage to wing it through tough situations. It's a bit of a fantasy team dynamic, but it's sort of an aspirational thing to watch too.

4. Hot, geeky, heroic guys.
Not only are these guys cute, but they're super smart
(--except for Don Flack, but he has pretty eyes).
Not only are they smart but they work out.
Not only are they built, but they dress nice and have good hair
(--except when Danny gets his goatee on).
Not only do they clean up nice, but they have the tough New Yorker/ex-Marine/ex-ballplayer/doctor thing going on.
Not only are they tough, but they help each other out when one of them's having a bad day.
Not only are they sympathetic friends, but they get the bad guy and sometimes save people's lives.
Not only are they heroes, but they can crack a good pun.
Not only are they all that, but they go for smart, nice women.

I don't meet these guys in real life. But that's what I want now.

Dammit. I'll be single forever.

Should I also be concerned that this show has started to alter my train of thought? A week ago, I actually glanced over at a cop to see if he might be cute. Before watching this show, that would never have crossed my mind.

And now I start wondering about any residue that I leave under my nails and what it means, if I have too many confusing fibers lying around my house for the detectives to figure out if anyone should find me dead. And maybe I should wear nicer underwear regularly, cuz I don't want to literally be caught dead in ratty undies, especially if someone like Detective Danny Messer should find my body. I am a fairly cluttered person, and lately I've thought about tidying it up a bit better so the cops can isolate trace more meaningfully if anything should happen to me. Or maybe if anyone attacks me, I'll try to leave good clues like Detective Aiden did, when she got attacked by the scary painter dude.

Do Forensics scientists and CSI detectives think like this all day? Do they just go kind of batty? Or are they just really tidy?

This is when I switch over to watching something like "Dancing with the Stars" or "The Pussycat Dolls: Search for the Next Doll." Or get out of the house and see my friends.

What I learned from Television

I just listened to the March 16 episode of This American Life, entitled "What I Learned from Television." As usual, it was a great episode. You have to listen to it, if only to hear Ira Glass talk about his love for "The O.C." --a show I also loved (at least for the first season--Seth & Summer are the cutest couple that ever existed, as far as I'm concerned).

The episode made me want to marry someone who would sing stupid title songs to tv shows with me. It also made me think about what I learned from television, and how my relationship with it has changed over the span of my life.

As a kid, I was horribly addicted to it, and I memorized a schedule for all the shows I had to watch after school, all the way from the afternoon cartoons, through the prime-time sitcoms, and even through late-night TV.

I grew up in a very humorless, dysfunctional family, where I felt very isolated for being the only girl, for being the only one raised mostly in America, for being so much younger than everyone else (my two brothers are both about a decade older than me). So TV was my solace, where I had control of the remote, where I could laugh at good-humored jokes, see how somewhat happy families acted, get a window into other peoples' perspectives, and see how other people resolved their own dramas.

As a result, I acted like an incredible brat if anybody tried to change the channel on me. I'd yell at my brothers, "I was here first!!" And it didn't matter if I had already hogged the tv for 5+ hours. I don't know how I got away with that behavior. I think my parents were just tired by the time I came around.

Much to my dismay as an American-raised kid, my Taiwanese-American family mostly didn't understand the jokes in American sitcoms. But that's what I enjoyed the most. I giggled at "Mork 'n' Mindy", "Night Court", "The Cosby Show", "The Wonder Years," and late-night fare, like "The Johnny Carson Show" & "Arsenio Hall." Sometimes my brother, Peter, would actually run from another room to ask me what I was laughing at (which was incredibly disruptive and irritating).

The type of tv programming that I remember my whole family could sit down to, were things like James Bond movies, Superman movies, "That's Incredible," "The Sound of Music," animal documentaries, beauty pageants, "Herbie the Love Bug" movies, "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes," Bruce Lee movies, and intense dramas that I was too young to watch, like "The Killing Fields."

Also, if there was any kissing on the television, my brothers and I were quick to change the channel, for fear of Dad yelling at us. But somehow, watching a little violence was okay. And somehow it was okay for my brother Peter to watch and record Benny Hill.

Since high school, my brother Ted, aspired to be a doctor. So he liked watching "St. Elsewhere" and the occasional surgical operation show. I remember grossing out a little, and he'd say, "What!? It's just your body. It's just blood." And I'd try to buck up and watch some doctor jab someone's bloody guts with stitches and needles. Nowadays when people ask me what Ted does, I say he's an E.R. doctor. Just like the tv show, "E.R.", in Chicago!

When I was in grade school, Ted surprised me by cracking up hysterically at cartoons like "Inspector Gadget" or "Danger Mouse," which seemed pretty dumb to me. That was probably when I started to understand campy humor, like those wonderful "Airplane" movies. And on weekends, Ted sometimes got sucked into cooking shows and Bob Ross's painting instruction shows (after I was done watching Saturday Morning cartoons). He was getting all metrosexual before his time! But he didn't appreciate the family sitcoms as much as I did. He was always a cynical sort and found "The Cosby Show" to be really cheesy.

Ted later adapted more to American pop culture by the time he was in high school. And by then we got cable. So from an early age, (probably 8 or so?) I watched an excessive amount of MTV with my brothers. But Ted would scoff at pretty-boy bands like Duran Duran and say, "Oh, girls just like them cuz they think they're cute." And I'd think, "Yeah, that's stupid! I won't be like those stupid girls." (Eventually, this, coupled with the unspoken understanding that we were never to even speak of kissing, made me completely silent about the topic of boys when I was in the presence of my family. Later in life, Ted told me that my family was kind of worried that I was a lesbian!) Ted also scoffed at Michael Jackson for mostly having more dance talent than musical talent. So I developed a taste for New Wave and Alternative Rock, but secretly I enjoyed all that poppy goodness, like Paula Abdul and LL Cool J.

Ted and I also sometimes rented indie films, that nobody else in the family could appreciate. And we'd also watch Siskel & Ebert... Ted was always a good debator and he probably enjoyed that aspect more, but I liked hearing their film analyses. So I'd like to think that watching Ted's tv habits encouraged me to watch more intelligent tv and movies. He also was the one who got me started on watching shows like "Saturday Night Live." And boy, did I learn a lot of things from that show! I remember him cracking up hysterically at the skit where Mel Gibson played "Dream Gynecologist," and then he looked at me sitting there with a blank face. He said, "Do you know what a gynecologist is?" And he was kind enough to explain the joke so I could laugh too. And so began a love for SNL and more grown-up comedies, that challenged me to figure out what the punchlines were really about.

I also have fond memories of watching tv with my mom. We loved watching old Doris Day and Audrey Hepburn films. And she'd tell me how much she grew up loving movies with dashingly handsome actors like Paul Newman, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, and Rock Hudson. And we'd admire all the pretty fashion of that era. Mom was great, because even though she didn't get all the American jokes, she'd stay up to watch "Moonlighting" and Johnny Carson with me, even if I was probably too young for it.

I even remember watching the music video for "Faith," by George Michael, during which, my mom actually remarked on how some of these videos were so artistic. Yes, this is the video where George Michael is shakin' his ass in aviator glasses, a leather jacket, jeans and a guitar, on a white background, with the occasional glimpse of some lady's hot legs tapping her red heels on a jukebox. It was a mesmerizing video. Mom didn't mind as much if I saw people kissing on tv. She might have gotten a little squirmy (as did I) if something vaguely sexual happened on tv, but she never got all in a huff about it. I appreciated that she trusted me to have the maturity to handle certain shows or subjects.

By the time I got to college, I finally discovered how to have fun without the tv. I didn't need to watch it, which was really remarkable. I didn't even miss it! In fact, I preferred to do OTHER THINGS. I missed several seasons of "Seinfeld," one of the best sitcoms ever, when I was at UCLA, and I didn't even mind that much.

In the summer after sophomore year, I finally moved out of the dorms and into an apartment, with 3 lovely roommates. I got along with them great, except that we had very little in common when it came to TV. When I would have wanted to watch "Seinfeld," two of them would want to watch "Living Single." Even worse, the other roommate's favorite show was "Family Matters." I couldn't believe it. I always wondered who watched these shows, and I finally met one. But I let them watch their wacky shows and miss what I'd normally prefer to watch. I felt like a recovered tv addict. (This is also the apartment where I finally learned to enjoy the occasional Cosmo magazine, that I had looked upon so warily for years. The roommates put me to the ultimate test, though when they put Selena's "Dreaming of You" on our outgoing voicemail recording.)

Nowadays, I have Netflix and super-basic cable. That means no more MTV or even Bravo! Before last year, MTV was still my guilty pleasure on weekends. I still sort of miss shows like "Made," "Pimp My Ride," and "Next." But I feel okay without it now. Instead of sitcoms, nowadays, I love "CSI:NY" and the occasional cheesy reality show. I don't think there are any really good sitcoms anymore. That new one, "Notes from the Underbelly" seems mildly promising. I'll Netflix shows like "Entourage" or "Project Runway" for the good cable shows I'm missing, so I think now I balance a mild dose of tv with other activities in my life.

Tiny Dancer

I was feeling grumpy at work, until Mamapork sent me this video of her little 3-year old.

JT betta watch his sexyback!

A softer side of Will

If you haven't seen Stranger than Fiction, you really need to go rent it now. I enjoyed it on so many levels: the creative premise, the quality acting, the elegant visual effects, the minimalist art direction, and the indie soundtrack were all really well-crafted. And the story is surprisingly touching. I would liken it to a mix of Adaptation and Groundhog Day.



If you don't like Will Ferrell, I suggest you see him in this film. If you do like him, it's interesting to see him in a much more subtle role. And as a graphic designer who has family from Chicago, I enjoyed seeing Chicago's architecture play a part in the film.

I don't want to give too much away, but it left me with a renewed sense of possibility.

I want to get the soundtrack, but apparently it doesn't even include all the good songs in the film. Luckily, the obsessive customers who leave reviews on iTunes tracked down the song titles that aren't included:

Death or Glory - Clash
Democracy - adolescents
I Turn My Camera On - Spoon
Small Stakes - Spoon
On the Nature of Daylight - Max Richter
Rave - Marc Ferrari, Paul Taylor
The One You Always Wanted - Brian Reitzall
Horizon Variations - Max Richter
Live for Life - Francis Lai
Love You - The Free Design

At the risk of discrediting everything I said above, I will admit that I was also corny enough to have bought the song from Music & Lyrics, the very sappy but cute romantic comedy starring Drew Barrymore and Hugh Grant. (The stars really sang the songs!)

Seriously? Get it together, people.

I am losing interest in Grey's Anatomy. Watching educated people exercise poor judgement and fall into dysfunctional relationships is annoying. I am most irritated with Izzy, who falls apart and lets all her insecurities screw with other people's lives.



Despite all this, I took the "Which Grey's Anatomy character are you like" quiz (which is phrased, oddly, from a woman's point of view... cuz there are male characters on the show).

I figured I would be most like Meredith, but it said I was like Addison! --which I might be okay with, except for the part where she cheated on Dr. McDreamy, with Dr. McSteamy, which I would never do.

So of course, I re-took the test and re-answered a couple questions I wavered on. Then I was scored as a Meredith. It turns out that the differentiating factors were whether I "hang out with friends" vs. "sleep in" on my time off. Or maybe it was where I thought that motherhood is "something I want when I find the right man" or "rewarding but stressful."

Hmm. I think a clearer distinction between the two characters would have been "You'd screw up a relationship with the One you love" and "You tend to fall for nice guys who screw you over anyway."

On the other hand, it is fun to watch Chris O' Donnell and Patrick Dempsey, as they have somehow gotten incredibly more attractive in their older years. It's especially amazing for Dempsey, when you look at this old photo:



Yikes, right? I mean, seriously. That is a hideous photo. But this should give hope to all the unattractive men out there, because that guy somehow became Dr. McDreamy:



Which brings me to my #1 grooming tip to the men out there.

Much like how you like women with pretty locks of hair, women too, like touchable hair. If you are lucky enough to still have a head of hair, fix it. If you have a ratty mess of curls, you can turn it into glorious, touchable hair.

And don't do the goatee, dudes. Maybe that is just me, but I say it's not hot. Even my man, Carmine (aka Detective Danny Messer of CSI:NY), cannot rock the goatee. Goatees = not fun to kiss, and therefore not touchable. Feel the need to appear manly? There are other ways. Exercise chivalry. Effectively plan an event. Work out. Get better shoes or clothes. The goatee is NOT the answer.

If you have pin-straight (Asian) hair, get a haircut that doesn't blind us with your scalp. Or if you MUST crop it short, try the JT look, where it's more even all around (as shown by Andy Lau below), and stay away from the 80s hip-hop fade.

This is the one cropped cut that somehow retains the touchable factor, because it has a peach-fuzz effect. But this works better on guys blessed with really great facial structure, like Andy Lau, Jason Statham, or JT. Otherwise I recommend the more tousled Andy Lau/ Tony Leung look from Infernal Affairs.



I have several cousins and brothers that wear good haircuts, and so I don't know why the rest of the Asian guys out there walk around with those bad hair cuts. It totally kills your game, dudes. Work it out!

Malty-wha?

If a Maltese dog and a Poodle make a "Malty-Poo," What doese a Maltese and a Shitzu make?

A pretty darn-cute White-Asian dog.

This is the dog that TK is getting. It's very Gizmo-like.

I was planning to get some kind of Shitzu for my next dog someday. TK is such a biter.

The lowdown

Recent poopers:

• Dropping shards of glass on my foot and getting a Tetanus shot
• Dodging hookers, vagrants, suspicious puddles, druggies, grody lascivious dudes, and bumpy street construction on an injured foot on the way to the bus.
• My PowerBook G4 slowing to snail speed and Photoshop dying as I struggle to finish my last major project at work
• Difficult, disruptive coworkers (They know who they are!!)
• Getting to work on 2 hours of sleep
• Skipping dinner and going straight to bed from work exhaustion
• Running out of CSI:NY episodes on DVD
• Taxes
• Being in denial about the 800 things I have to do in the next two months

Recent delights:

Audio/Visual
• Music & Lyrics
  yes, the schmaltzy romantic comedy w/ Hugh Grant & Drew Barrymore. If anything, see it for Hugh's sendup of a washed-up 80s star. And for the ladies... it is a cute love story.
• Alright, Still
  British pop star Lily Allen's debut album: every song is so brilliant, funny, & catchy
• Fillmore Theater, San Francisco
  --where I saw Lily Allen live. Great venue, I still love Lily Allen's songs & her personality, but she could do with some more stage presence. And a bra. (Also I tried not to be disturbed by the fact that her cute bandmates were probably a decade younger than me.)
• Picasso and American Art
  I joined the Joes to browse some lovely American art that was inspired by (or ripped off from) Picasso at the SFMoMA
• Pussycat Dolls present: The Search for the Next Doll
  I'm rooting for the Melissas. More for Melissa S. The others have annoying issues.

Books
• Stitch n' Bitch Nation by Debbie Stoller
  from which I am learning to knit toddler pants with a devil tail
• Stitch 'n' Bitch Crochet: The Happy Hooker by Debbie Stoller
  from which I'm learning to crochet a cowboy hat
• Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress by Susan Jane Gilman
  a very amusing coming-of-age memoir of growing up glam in a hippie family
• Knitting Under the Influence by Claire LaZebnik
  Knitting, stupid guys, and drinks in West L.A. = Chicklit made for me.

Edibles
• Lulu's Restaurant
  South of Market, with a large, warm, open interior. I enjoyed a flight of white wine, pizza, antipasti, and butternut gnocchi with the Joes.
• Free mini-donuts
  served with chocolate dip at work!
• Eiji
  My favorite neighborhood Japanese restaurant. I shared a brilliant omakase meal here with some Bruin Design alumni.
• Little Star Pizza
  I shared a meaty deep-dish pizza with girlfriends (which put us in a good mood until we watched "The Last Kiss", the most depressing & deceptively marketed "romantic comedy" ever.)
• Xanh
  Vietnamese fusion in Mountain View, where I enjoyed various rolls, calamari, crab, and noodles with coworkers

Misc.
• Free wi-fi bus to work
  I get to catch up with other coworkers on the bus, IM (which is so magical with wi-fi), take a nap, or enjoy my Nano (thanks Tater!) while I watch cows graze on rolling green hills outside the window.
• Six degrees of Toys
  I am slowly discovering that everyone I know is toy-obsessed as well, or knows someone in the toy business.
• Saving the world.
  Well, not really, but it's a start. I can't talk about it, but you'll see.
• bacon bandages
  to cover the developing scar on my foot.
• Tokidoki jewelry, blind box toys, and baby onesies
  Little milk creatures, baby monkeys, and a smiley bullet!?!? Simone Legno is a genius.
• Project Runway Casting
  A friend from high school applied to be on the show. Go Marilyn!
• Friends that are talking about moving to NYC too.
  You know you want to. Do it, do it, doooo eeeeet!
• Being single and living solo.
  I really love not getting all neurotic about whether somebody loves me, whether someone thinks I'm attractive enough, or why he isn't making me happy. Right now my friends make me feel appreciated, I get to do whatever I want to do, I can focus any motherly instincts I have on my relatives/friends' kids, and I actually enjoy having a fat Buddha belly (except for the part where I want to fit into my cute bikinis).
  
  Frankly though, this concerns me about losing interest in men completely. Maybe someone will surprise me.
  
  Meh.

Things I'm looking forward to:

April
• Finishing taxes
• Meeting my nephew, Ian, in Chicago (omg. in a week!)
• My foot finally healing fully

May
• Uh, maybe getting my official paperwork about starting at FIT? I hope??
• Planning a summer vacation
• Finishing my last project of madness at work
• Pink Martini's new album, "Hey Eugene" (May 15)
• Unemployment, that is... FREE TIME! (May 26)
• New season of Radiolab (available on Podcast)!