Posted 5:09 PM by Blah blah

Cool Science Software Links

I just explored some very cool science/math links. Check out:

GalaxyGoo. They have great interactive web animations and talk about using webMathematica.

ActionScript Toolbox, a great site with tutorials about Macromedia Flash's scripting language (actionscript), as applied in Flash 5 and Flash MX. Lots of cool graphics and animation here.

Robocode, from IBM alphaWorks. "Build the best. Destroy the rest. In Robocode, you'll program a robotic battletank in Java for a fight to the finish. The game is designed to help you learn Java, and have fun doing it... from a simple 10-line robot to a very sophisticated, intelligent robot that destroys the competition!" They have something called the Robocode Rumble where you enter your Java robot into battle with others' robots and compete for prize money. Robocode Help.

Sorry for the quick entries. I'm still down with flu. Grrrr. Is anyone reading this? Or did everyone leave for their hometowns already?

Posted 12:45 PM by Blah blah

From A to Zeppelin, Lord of the Rings makes its mark on pop culture
Thu Dec 19,11:19 PM ET

By ANTHONY BREZNICAN, AP Entertainment Writer

LOS ANGELES - Deep into their quest to destroy the evil One Ring, the hobbit Samwise Gamgee asks his friend Frodo if people will ever write "songs and tales" about their adventures.

The line from the new film version of author J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," is a wink to fans who already know the answer.

Over the decades, Tolkien's world of elves, wizards, monsters and magic has provided gothic inspiration for Stephen King thrillers, Led Zeppelin songs, and games and paintings while spawning countless sword-and-sorcery novel followers.

"Tolkien would be delighted by the popularity of the work, even though he might be off-put by the way some have interpreted it," said Mike Foster, a literature professor at Illinois Central College and spokesman for the Tolkien Society historical group.

For instance, "The Lord of the Rings" is regarded as an influence on some rock music of the 1970s.

Direct Tolkien references exist in Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On," "Misty Mountain Hop" and "The Battle of Evermore" and Rush's "Rivendell," which was one of the writer's elvish cities.

"Led Zeppelin would not have been to (Tolkien's) taste, but they were trying to evoke the same sort of mythic 'hammer of the gods' feeling," Foster said.

"T'was in the darkest depth of Mordor/ I met a girl so fair/ But Gollum, the evil one crept up/ And slipped away with her," read singer Robert Plant's lyrics to "Ramble On."

The line is sung from the point of view of Frodo, with the "girl" apparently representing the ring he plans to destroy. Mordor is the sinister kingdom where the ring was forged and Gollum is a crazed creature corrupted by the relic's magic.

"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, partly inspired by such tales as "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and "Beowulf," was published between 1954 and 1955 and surged in popularity during the late 1960s and 1970s.

Director Ralph Bakshi transformed the first two installments — "The Fellowship of the Rings" and "The Two Towers" — into the 1978 animated film "The Lord of the Rings," filming real actors performing the motions and then drawing over those frames to create the cartoon characters and fantasy landscapes.

The final installment, "The Return of the King," was made into a TV cartoon in 1980 by directing team Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr., who had also animated Tolkien's "The Hobbit" two years earlier.

The BBC turned out a well-regarded radio play version in 1981, with Ian Holm, who plays avuncular Bilbo in the new films, starring as Frodo. Plans for a live-action movie, however, were abandoned until the late 1990s.

After Tolkien's death in 1973, a wave of authors began competing for the attention of his fantasy fans, among them Terry Brooks with the "Sword of Shannara" series, Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" books and Dennis L. McKiernan's "Mithgar" stories.

"Tolkien just launched a whole plethora of authors into the fantasy line and I'm one of them," said McKiernan, whose latest book is a fairy-tale retelling "Once Upon a Winter's Night."

His first book, "The Silver Call," was conceived in 1977 as a fan's follow-up to the Tolkien saga, with McKiernan setting his story in the Mines of Moria after "The Lord of the Rings" characters escaped it.

"We went into negotiations with Tolkien's estate for three years and couldn't get anywhere," he said. "So my publisher said, 'Make the story your own,' and I went back and created my own world. ... But it started as an homage."

The role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons had a similar genesis, with creator Gary Gygax and friends originally playing it with Tolkien elements before creating an original magical universe when the game was marketed publicly.

In turn, Dungeons & Dragons and Tolkien have gone on to influence such video games as Gauntlet, Diablo, EverQuest, and Baldur's Gate. There are two new video games based directly on "The Lord of the Rings," one from Vivendi Universal based on the Tolkien texts and another from Electronic Arts based on the Peter Jackson movies.

Even King, the world's best-selling fantasy and horror author, has acknowledged a debt to Tolkien, saying his 1978 novel "The Stand," about a group of survivors fighting Armageddon after a worldwide plague, was an attempt to remake Middle-earth as the United States. His fantasy series "The Dark Tower," includes Tolkien references and a "Fellowship"-like adventure with monsters and magic.

Innumerable artists also have tried to capture Tolkien's words in images, notably the calendar illustrations of brothers Greg and Tim Hildebrandt and dozens of recent hand-painted sculptures by Sideshow Weta Collectibles, the special-effects company that worked on the Jackson films.

"The fascination with Tolkien is this intensely poetic, beautiful framework," said illustrator Stephen Hickman, whose Tolkien-themed works include "At the Entmoot," about the meeting of ancient, treelike creatures in "The Two Towers." "His characters became these archetypal, perfect characters that just continue to ring in the reader's imagination."

Posted 11:03 AM by Blah blah

See this funny spoof of the first LOTR movie on IFILM.com: Lord of the Rings Spoof with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jack Black. Not for kids!

The Two Towers

I saw The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers this week, and being a lifelong Tolkien geek, of course I'm very biased in favor of this stunning, incredible movie. Funny story...Line of the Geeks: Waiting for The Two Towers.

Wonder how they created those awesome computer graphics battle scenes? Check out these video interviews and explanations on the official LOTR site.

While the first movie had more character development, this one was heavy and fast-paced action. Gollum was the best CGI character I've ever seen. The actor Andy Serkis did an outstanding job voicing and physically acting as Gollum. He talks about the role.

And talk about the truckloads of meaningful looks in this movie! Frodo always looks like he's about to kiss Sam. Homo-erotica.

I read the whole Lord of the Rings when I was 13, sick in bed for two weeks with chickenpox. All of you will eventually see it. Here's a user review on Yahoo! Movies that I think captures best my view about some of the changes director Peter Jackson made to the book:

Problems with The Two Towers. (Has SPOILERS! Don't read if you haven't seen the movie yet.)

I like what one user said, that "Peter Jackson does Star Wars better than George Lucas." Many thought Lucas should get off from his complacent chair and learn from Jackson how to really create an enthralling fantasy film. After watching The Phantom Menace, I didn't want to see any more new Star Wars movies.

Posted 6:36 PM by jc

Say Hi to All2Swift!

So! I’m delighted to join Tiger Café, but am at a loss as to how to introduce myself. I sought online guidance, but Blogspot appears to have done away with RG’s archives for the moment. I’ll eke out what I may, then.

I’m a Chinese-American from Arizona, a former swimmer/rollerblader/violinist/history major who left the arid Southwest to study in soggy New England. For the chance to treat ailments of the head and neck. The schooling is done; I’ve begun my residency.

I embrace pop culture, though my friends despise it. I enjoy the disparity. I’m a romantic, a sap who can’t resist the lure of action flicks. I love Austen and Amis, but have tired of post-modern lit. I’m drawn to the inherent intimacy of human interaction. Like many others in their twenties, I’ve spent the last decade seeking the One.

And last year, I found her [his wedding pix]. [Read his sweet love story of how he met his wife. -RG]

Posted 7:18 AM by Blah blah

Our cowriter Charlie must be done with finals now. I post this recent poem by him. (I'm still smothered by the flu and fever today. If you miss Charlie's references to mythology, I've linked the names to their stories.):

I.

In a sodden night fraught with stars,
The gutters froth with leaves and oracles.

II.

Lethe is only a bottle of lager,
Thoughts become a caged feather
Devoid of wax and flight.

III.

How many moons have passed by
To become another street lamp?

Once I bowed to an orb of light
Mistaking the glow for a goddess.

IV.

So I have gone the route of Sibyl,
Hung in a jar, stripped of youth
And waiting for eternity.

Apollo gave me life
But someday I too will vanish.

V.

And what of words? I touch them
As Pygmalion touches ivory.

VI.

Against a railway station,
Charon offered Marlboro cigarettes
Beside the banks of Acheron.

VII.

I wake up
Caught between Scylla and Charybdis,
Reeling from a black eye sunrise,
Icarian poetics on my tongue.

VIII.

Love, let us be true to one another
As Philemon and Baucis,
Love, we should grow old together
Entwined as oak and linden.

The youths have their tragedies
But we will have one another.

Posted 6:04 AM by Jian Shuo

Something strange and interesting

1. Microsoft.com cannot be accessed via Great Wall Broadband Network and some China Telecom users in Shanghai. It reports the same error when Google.com is banned. However, this only affects Shanghai. This has lasted for 4 days in GWBN. I am not sure if it is the preface of the another ban or just some technical difficulties with the ISP. It is strange I can access all the other website I tried, but not this one. What happened?

2. Heavy rain today in Shanghai. There is no empty taxi on the road. I walked 1 mile in the rain and catch a crowded bus to office. Actually, the concept of taxi seems different between China and U.S - especially the eastern part. I have been to Seattle serveral times and I cannot find a taxi on the road. I need to call a taxi and wait for 15 minutes to get one. But in Shanghai, taxi is everywhere - in every street and every corner of the city. If you want to a taxi, extend your arm and a taxi will stop immediately before you - about 1/5 of all the cars on the road seems to be taxi in Shanghai. That is the reason why it is so terrible when I cannot find a taxi here.

3. Too many things to do and I struggled to complete only half of the to-do-list on my PLOG (Isaac's term = paper-log = notebook). I have to complete the second half tomorrow, since it is already deep 1:30 AM in the night. Life is tough here.

Another news for me is, today, I was interviewed by Forbes magazine. The interview is also tough because most the questions are unexpected and hard to answer. [They interviewed Jian Shuo about his work for Microsoft. He was identified as a representative of the young generation of information technology people in China. What a VIP we have here! -RG]

Posted 1:59 AM by 216443

Because it's that time of year

Have yourself, a merry little Christmas.
Let your heart be light.
From now on, our troubles will be out of sight.
Have yourself, a merry little Christmas.
Make the yuletide gay.
From now on, our troubles will be miles away.
Here we are as in olden days, happy golden days, of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us, gather here to us, once more.
Through the years we all will be together,
if the fates allow.
Hang our shining star upon the hghest bow.
And have yourself a merry little Christmas, now.


I never realized until this year that Diana Krall is singing about friends. One of the main reasons I've come to love Christmas so much is that it means I get to fly home and be with my best friends. I don't know what I did wrong at Michigan (if anything), but it doesn't seem like I've got too many close friends here. And the ones who I am close to aren't really like my friends from home. And aside from the ambiguously gay guy I've mentioned before, all of my friends from Dallas are female. At Michigan I almost exclusively hang out with males. I'm not much of a hanging out kind of person, so maybe that has something to do with it. And up until this year I've always been too involved on campus to really find time to just chill at someone's house watching tv.

I've met a lot of drinking buddies and guys I can work out with, but I haven't developed a lot of close bonds. I know practically everyone on campus, but not many really know me. I was actually afraid my 21st birthday would be a bust because I wasn't sure who I could count on to make it really fun. It turned out great, but my friends that night were mostly students I had gotten to know that year through an organization I was in. People have told me college tends to be like that, especially at a school like Michigan. Everyone is wrapped up in their own world, it's cold all the time, and the midwest tends to generate odd children. Sure, ok. But still. I love going home to my friends from high school. We have a little group that is really close because my high school was healthy and normal. We had our share of angst and drama, but it wasn't anything like I've heard about from my friends at Michigan.

So I love coming home to warmth and friendship that I can't really say I've found in Ann Arbor.

For better or for worse, Merry Christmas everyone.

Posted 9:54 PM by Macaby

Priority, My High Profile A**

Two things I've learned this past month: stress makes me angry and stress from work convinces me that I'm not cut out for the corporate world. I used to want to be a CEO, after all I have the #1 trait of a CEO: Create then delegate your creation. Meaning, I have the vision, I just want/need someone else to do all the work... I think you've met him, his name is Raven.

My program manager is not only gone for a week vacation, but she's not even my boss anymore because she's moved onto another project. Another field manager, like I are now taking on her workload. Managing people is a full time job, but now the director wants us to staff for two programs that starts the first week in January. Every time I have a meeting, This is high profile and must be priority! Then we close one subject and open another discussion on a different topic, again my director, THIS is priority, you must work on this and staff 100 stores by Friday. Yeah, Priority My High Profile A**, because it is not worth my time to be stress out over a workload that should be distributed over four people, not two.

I realize this is my time to shine... to prove to my VP and director that I can get through working on three projects and still keep my sanity. That was before we received an email from our client stating that 20% of the people they secret shopped were not where they were supposed to be. That's right, it was PRIORITY, get on the ball and call some people. Well I called and worked over 2 hours more than quitting time. I know some of you (shut up Raven) guys work 10-12+ hours a day; but I tell you what, work is for the birds. Get me out of this hell I call a cubical, because I'm ready to leave corporate america.

Have you seen Office Space (right)? The neighbor mentions that they are in Las Colinas, a suburb of Dallas, TX. The traffic on Hwy 114 in the beginning of the movie, the malnurious trees no taller than a one-story building, the cubicles, and flatness of the surrounding... that's where I work, I work in Hell called Las Colinas. I live Office Space, I am Office Space. Instead of a fax machine, a copier gives everyone nightmares. We even have a guy in the office that looks like Michael Bolton! ... he hates to be called Michael Bolton (hehe!) See why now I need to persue my creative dream of becoming a photographer? I just about had it, but Raven tries to convince me to hang out until we do move to San Francisco next year. I just don' t know how long I can take more of this "priority".

Posted 1:47 PM by Mira

10, 000 TEARS AND NONE THE RICHER

Hey guys, I’ve dug up a journal entry from years past. You guessed it, I'm not feeling inspired to write and I'm not about to force myself to write something either, at least not today. This particular journal entry was the first one written after I moved [far] away from home- a particularly traumatic experience. All things considered, I was embarrassingly vulnerable at the time and had very mixed feelings about the sordid departure as I was embarking on a new unplanned phase of my life. At the time, I was escaping attack from every which direction you could imagine. It was a period when everything fell apart and I was just trying to outrun my misfortunes...I have been with R (my current SO) for at least 3 years now. And, no, I've never taken antidpressants, nor will I ever. If you're a daddy to a sweet adorable little girl, this may enlighten you a little bit about how a daughter will break a father's heart in time and how much it hurts, though she may not express it physically - all grown up.

On a side note, prayers for Key. God bless her heart, her soul and her family.

Now indulge yourselves. I had to unlock my diary for this sucker.

Saturday Oct. 14, 2000. 5: 39 a.m.
It’s been a month, hasn’t it? And too much has happened and I feel it is a crime for me to have been so lazy.
Well, I’ve passed the initiation phase of a relationship and now I fear that I am growing more and more attached. Just today, after R left for his biweekly 5-hour drive to see his son and attend to business at the other auxiliary offices, I felt almost sad as I waved him off from our 3rd floor window. Was I getting so soft?
I meant to write about Pierre Trudeau, our beloved 15th Prime Minister, who passed this month. I had thought up such an honorable farewell poem expressing my gratitude for feeling as though I somehow belonged as a minority in what seemed to me, a whitewashed country. His vision of Canada as a leader, or my interpretation of it, seemed somewhat idyllically spanned to include me in it as one of his own. I felt a part of a nation and his warmth certainly made me believe that equity stands firm within him. I felt like he was on my side and I rooted for him, though Trudeau mania was gone before my time. Like his son Justin said in his last words at the public funeral procession in Montreal, “Rest, for you have earned your sleep.” Indeed he has. Pierre was 84? years old. I feel awful that Sarah (his illegitamite daughter) has lost her father at such a young age. I hope that his absence is replaced by a genuine surrogate parent to nurture whatever emotional anomalies she may encounter along down the road. As for the boys, they’ve got a tough act to follow and I feel for them in that respect as well. I know what a load of pressure that can be and then to be scrutinized nationally and to a lesser degree, internationally, boy, I’ll pass.
On a more selfish note, I’ve been seriously considering a doctor visit for a therapist referral. I think it may be time to be prescribed for my mental debunk. It's hearsay, but I may be suffering from a mental disease and pills really aren’t such a bad idea? So I’m a little low on seratonin, I don’t think it would hurt to give these artificial wonder drugs a try. At this point, after 3 years of non-accomplishments, I think the suggestive possibility of relying on drugs is welcome in my sanctuary. I’ve had enough of this blundering wave-it’s time for lift-off. So I’ll hide them from R. Denial shall bite me no more. So I accept the failure to make myself naturally happy and I take the pills. Go against society’s insult to popular belief that there are sad people for no real apparent reason, get artificially stimulated and move on. You can have everything and still be sad. So it is a disease. I’m mentally diseased.
On another note, my progress in *Narnia is nothing short of mediocre. I haven’t found a decent job yet since I got here and part of the reason was because of my slow adjustment to being alone and finally parent-free. I have cried in shame, guilt, relief and sadness for my far-away family many times after the telephone was hung up. It’s true I miss them, but I wouldn’t go back. It would be 10 life squares back on the board and one penalty miss a turn. Forget it, I could never catch up in this game where I feel as though I am already so many squares behind. O.k., so R and I are in a 1 bedroom, 3 floor apartment in northeast *Narnnims. Of which we occupy rooms behind door #305. (equaling 8-for the number conscious individuals like R) The significance? Who knows. We almost have a routine now, except we are still waiting on a job for me. I admit that my job search effort is not as thorough as it could be, but there are my excuses of the 'emotionally traumatic' nature. The other day I received an e-mail from my brother writing under the false name “Saint” that he suspected my father was drinking again because he had thrown out some chardonnay bottles and I broke down in front of R’s eyes. He witnessed a real “Mira” moment. Me, silently dealing with the breakdown process-first the shock and the blur of the blinking cursor, then the slow methodical reminder that someone is watching…so the suppressed display of emotions, the physical displacement to get away and be alone…then the intense torrent of 'flood thoughts’ that overtake your body and propel you on a journey to question, assess, decess, articulate, then lay blame... and finally to bow out and allow the suffering to complete the grand cathartic show. Ultimately, I paid the price and cried for my father’s self-destruction and how it hurt me that I may be the root of his descent to end mortality. He quit drinking cold turkey at a real low point after being diagnosed with diabetes; a trade-off for what he had secretly feared might have been some kind of fatal cancer. His liver was a mess. That day I sang my tenfold choir Messiahs and Hallelujahs to the heavens, my 20 years of prayers had been answered. Though he still smoked cigarettes.
In any case, I was hurt because of our tarnished relationship and how I felt responsible for his pain. It killed me that it was this way and how he was reacting to our sour result. I didn’t want it to affect him. So late night, the rented movie went ignored and I lay in bed trying to breathe from all sinuses and cavities freshly swollen shut from localized edema and fluid overflow and tried to stay head above the water that was floating my heart up to my throat within the parameters of my rib cage. I was drowning in my own remorse and I could feel the suffocation wreaking havoc on my panic button. My thumb went numb with tingles and I shook it violently in anguish. So on it went as I struggled to breathe calmly from my mouth…that chest not inflating much less deflating properly. Eventually, I fell asleep with R’s surely arm patting me from time to time…trying to laugh off the remnants of that painful ordeal. So I fake laugh with him over light jabs and fake tickles, believing still that laughter is the best medicine. Something my father anonymously taught me in his wake.
I continue on, bravely. As weak as I am, each day at a time, now getting desperate for a suitable job while R continues on with his share of stresses, as my #1 supporter and lover. God I love that man. I am in charge of mess duty. My Korean cookbook arrived in the mail yesterday and I STILL can’t cook. Keph said the other day, ‘Man Work, Man come home, Man HUNGRY’ tell me about it. My man comes home, his throat dried out, lunging for food. He’s very patient. I am very lucky.

Posted 7:44 AM by Blah blah

I'm sick today. Chris has a fever too. Someone I met this weekend must have had the flu. Damn. :(

Key's grandpa just passed away. Please send her your hugs and condolences. :(

Posted 9:13 PM by Raven

Choose a College, Choose a Life

Reposted from my journal because so many more eloquent words have been written about the past weekend already. I'm sure Raymond will write a good entry about the rest of the weekend which we essentially shared. It was great finally meeting our fearless leader and I look forward to more meetings in the future.

Great art is never produced for its own sake. It is too difficult to be worth the effort. ~George Bernard Shaw

One of the main items on the agenda this weekend in San Francisco was to visit two of the potential colleges Mona might attend to study photography. On Friday she had an appointment with the San Francisco Art Instittue and Saturday was a tour with the Art Academy of San Francisco.

As you can see from my previous journal entry I was really not too enthused about having to tag along for these interviews. I was thinking to myself: "why can't she just do this herself, its her future". However, I should have been thinking: "We need to figure this out together, its our future." At times I have relapses and forget to think in terms of "us". I know, I know that's lesson number 1 in relationship school. But I'm a man, I'm allowed mistakes occasionally.

Friday was horrendous, it was pouring down rain in San Francisco that day, the worst storm they had experienced all year. Our flights were due to arrive at the same time, about 10 am, giving us ample time to get to the interview from the airport. Mona's flight arrived on time because she left so early but my flight left an hour late because an FAA enforced delay and spent another hour circling because of the same delay. As the captain announced we were running out of fuel and would have to land one way or another he also told us he was going to land us in Oakland and we would fuel up and then land in SF. I was thinking, great I could get out of the plane and walk to SFO faster than that will happen. Thankfully, the tower squeezed us in at the last minute.

The campus at SFAI was very beautiful and the art work displayed there was superb. However I was less than impressed with the members of the faculty we met there. He was an old man, soft spoken, with a very limp hand shake and I suspected him to be gay. He asked a visibly nervous Mona a few questions and immediately passed judgement on her. When asked why she wanted to study photography, she said quite few things one of them being "I would like to make money in this field". After that the guy did nothing but try and push her off to another school! He didn't even bother to ask her more questions or explore her personality and only flipped through her portfolio out of obligation rather than with the critical eye of a professor examining a potential student.

Apparently SFAI is a very "ivy league" school that teaches art for art's sake. You go there to learn to "express" yourself. Apparently these same people that have learned to express themselves have also learned something far more valuable, how to live in this world without an income. Heaven forbid an artist should actually seek to make money off his/her work to put food on the table and a roof over their head. That was a foreign concept.

Throughout the entire interview I really want to just tell the guy how full of shit he was. He was a horrible salesman, and obviously had never lived a day in the real world. I pretty much kept my mouth shut for fear that I might initimidate him on the chance that Mona might be reading this experience differently and actually want to go to this school. It would have made my day by strangling this guy from across his desk.

However, we did learn a few things from the experience. First, different schools have different focus. Some focus on the purely fine art aspect of things (art for art's sake), while others take a more realistic approach (be creative but make a living). The former is not the kind of school I want to deal with. Secondly, he taught us that a portfolio should be presented to target a specific thing much like a resume. Mona didn't know this, she just picked 20 of her best photos covering a wide range of areas and didn't tailor it specifically for the school.

I guess I just won't ever understand these "artist" types, the world of business is too different. People like this would get chewed up and spit out on the first day of the job in my field.

On Saturday we headed out for the Art Academy of San Francisco. I liked this place much better from the very first impression. They were much more marketing oriented, the people talking to you actually wanted you to come to their school. They didn't hold some high and mighty attitude about it.

Secondly, they were very career oriented. If showing pieces in a gallery was your thing then they would teach you how to do that. If you wanted to go work for a firm or start your own business after graduation then they had resources to do that as well. Personally I think Mona fits somewhere in the middle of those two ends of the spectrum and this place would help her with both. They also took the attitude that not everyone is born with all the skills it takes to be a successful artist. Heaven forbid you should want to study art but not be born with an easel in your hand or something.

The tour was conducted very professionally, the students were very excited about what they were learning and the tour was informative. The facilities were pretty impressive and they even had bus transportation between their 20 campuses throughout the city. All in all they had their stuff together.

Since this was a tour there were a few other people along with us. I found it particularly interesting that we were the only ones asking questions. The other people there were either high school students their with their parents or people from community college. It reminded me of the time when I was going off to college and I was so exicted to get there that I just wanted to hurry the process along, damn the questions I would figure things out later. I soon realized that I would have done better to ask more questions before I jumped into college. Today I was the questioing adult wondering why the kids were not asking more questions about their future.

So we still have a decision to make. Part of that decision is whether to look at more schools or not. But at this point if I were in Mona's shoes I would be content going to the Art Academy. I most definitely would not pick SFAI. But, that is a decision that we must make together.

Posted 11:05 PM by Blah blah

Stay Tuned...

WOW, I've had such a busy and fun-filled three days (Fri-Sun) that I haven't had time to blog about it. Please stay tuned. I raced through this post and will revise it soon:

Friday: I went with my close Korean friend Jae to my dance class holiday ball. We did some waltz, then watched a FANTASTIC series of dance performances by my teacher's students. They had been working hard for twelve weeks to put on this show for us. Later Jae and I sat up talking late at Denny's, and I got home around 2 am. It's my last time seeing him as a "single" guy. He's getting married in Seoul next month!

Check out these dance PHOTOS of what they call "formations," from previous holiday balls. I'm learning intermediate salsa from this teacher. I was clapping like crazy and had SO much fun watching. Also, the formation girls were mostly very hot! More on formations.

Saturday: Went to San Francisco and met Raven and Mona for the FIRST TIME! Met Chris, and he took us, first for dim sum at the mouthwatering Hong Kong restaurant, Harbor Village, then on a really eye-opening historical tour of San Francisco Chinatown. I've lived in the Bay Area for decades and didn't know a fraction of the history Chris knew. This all took place in extremely heavy rain. At around 2 pm the streets got so drenched that on certain parts of the road they had mini-floods. Also, Chris showed us a hidden view of Coit tower. We drove to the top of the hill and walked down and up about SEVEN stories of stairs. They were narrow and sloshing with the pouring rain.

Raven and Mona are just like I imagined them. Very friendly, great to hang with, both idealistic and realistic. Very much perfect for living in San Francisco. I really look forward to meeting them again. And Chris, with his hyper energy and enthusisam, helped make the day for all of us. The man is incredibly sweet and kindhearted. I feel so lucky to know and have met all of them.

Read Raven's tale of this weekend.

At night, we went to Eric's house to see Vienna Teng perform. Not only that, a record number of online journallers showed up, some I hadn't seen for MONTHS. I was blown away. Almost everyone there had a personal website. Eric told me that he was impressed by how quickly "perfect strangers" who had never met physically would mingle and get comfy with each other. He said that usually in his home concerts, people come from various cliques and aren't as open to getting up and being friendly with the other groups.

Eric's blog about last night. You can see his pictures of us! In the group pic, I'm in the middle with my arm around Vienna. It's also Eric's birthday today!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Renaissance Man!

(I have Eric's permission.)

Raven's tale of the Vienna Teng night.

What a fantastic weekend! I will flesh out my stories later. Stay tuned!

Posted 10:27 AM by Blah blah

From Sandy: So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!

Tiger Cafe, I had fun while it lasted. Unfortunately, because of my current schedule, I am unable to write anything meaningful and insightful. I've been experiencing symptoms of relapse from my depression and as a result, everything and anything is a trigger.

They say that from your most difficult hardships come inspiration. Since my diagnosis, I've felt the most inspired when depressed and I can easily find my voice through writing. At this time however, I feel that writing is tiresome and I can only find some peace of mind through distance and time. (Prozac would be great, but I don't have that either!) So I'm taking a temporary break from Tiger Cafe.

I was looking forward to sharing some of my past experiences with everyone and with anyone who needed reassurance, comfort, etc. whatever. But the timing was a little off because I've realized I am FAR from being who I want to be. BEFORE I can start to preach, I myself need to know that I am ok.

If it's ok with Ray, I'll be back when I get my refill of happy pills and once I find closure to some personal issues...

I guess this isn't really an "adios," but more like a "see ya later." I'll be lingering and visiting periodically to say HELLO. Ha, thought you got rid of me? Well I don't think so. Tiger Cafe needs a drama queen and I'm just stepping down from my throne temporarily :)

Sandy

[Come back soon, lady! Too bad you couldn't meet me last night at Eric's. -RG]