But there IS good news

• California's new greenhouse gas policy

• Email to me from the British Consulate in LA:
  

  "Your application has been approved and the visa has been issued.
  This is an automated message - do not respond to this email address as incoming mail is not answered. If you need to reply telephone the office dealing with your application, quoting your reference number."

• I have been breathing through my nose since yesterday! That was not true on Tuesday. I guess it's a nice reminder of those little things we take for granted.
  

- posted by k @ 1:52 PM

 
The most fun you can have on TV right now
Bill Moyers on Faith and Reason. Who knew? I saw part of him talking to Salman Rushdie, and tonight I'm watching him interview Mary Gordon, and I have to say I am really enjoying the program. I don't agree with all of what she says, but I do agree strongly with part of it and I have the intuition that some people who have been typecast as red-staters will have the same feeling (though probably not to the same parts) so it demonstrates Gordon's own statement about the dangers of either/or thinking. Anyway, I like it. For a second I wondered if it wasn't a pledge drive since the show is so engaging and relevant, unlike most of what's on TV. I wish everybody could watch it.
- posted by k @ 9:32 PM

 
Tag Back!
Here is cut-and-pasted jk's superior Family Clock Time Change:

Family clock time change

CA (PDT)	MI (EDT)	UK (DST)	India
J,A,&H	J	P	S
1:00am	4:00am	9:00am	1:30pm
2:00am	5:00am	10:00am	2:30pm
3:00am	6:00am	11:00am	3:30pm
4:00am	7:00am	12:noon	4:30pm
5:00am	8:00am	1:00pm	5:30pm
6:00am	9:00am	2:00pm	6:30pm
7:00am	10:00am	3:00pm	7:30pm
8:00am	11:00am	4:00pm	8:30pm
9:00am	12:noon	5:00pm	9:30pm
10:00am	1:00pm	6:00pm	10:30pm
11:00am	2:00pm	7:00pm	11:30pm
12:noon	3:00pm	8:00pm	12:30am
1:00pm	4:00pm	9:00pm	1:30am
2:00pm	5:00pm	10:00pm	2:30am
3:00pm	6:00pm	11:00pm	3:30am
4:00pm	7:00pm	12:midnight	4:30am
5:00pm	8:00pm	1:00am	5:30am
6:00pm	9:00pm	2:00am	6:30am
7:00pm	10:00pm	3:00am	7:30am
8:00pm	11:00pm	4:00am	8:30am
9:00pm	12:00am	5:00am	9:30am
10:00pm	1:00am	6:00am	10:30am
11:00pm	2:00am	7:00am	11:30am
12:midnight	3:00am	8:00am	12:30pm

Perhaps on Sunday morning/afternoon/evening we could have a conference call!
- posted by k @ 4:21 PM

 
Latest News from the Napping Frontier
(I thought "War on Napping" might be too strong).

1. Bright Idea: Sunlight Curbs Afternoon Drowsiness

2. Daytime sleepiness in older adults: Do naps help or hurt?
- posted by k @ 4:18 PM

 
Friday 5pm--Poppin' Fresh (Culture) time!

• I am at least intrigued by "Idlewild" and would like to see it, all you smirkers aside. Another attempt to revive the movie musical--given my personal mission statement I think I'm obligated. What says Mr. BG?

• Last night's repeat of the Simpsons featured Nelson Munz singing the actual opening 4-5 lines of "Papa, Can You Hear Me?" from Yentl. This was surprising because it's more likely that Simpsons writers will cut off a song after fewer lines or write a sound-alike to avoid copyright issues. But my point is, would you have truly appreciated that moment if you didn't know those were the actual lines? If you hadn't seen Yentl? 4 times?

• Edward Tufte (thank goodness I saw this story, because I could not for the life of me remember his name) has a new book out, which reminds me that I would very much like to read one of his other books or attend his seminar.

• Evidence that Corinne Bailey Rae was an indie artist co-opted by $tarbuk$: When she played SF, it was at the Cafe du Nord, not some big stadium thing. So there. *$ co-opts plenty of perfectly decent (if somewhat middlebrow) artists, but it seems to me that this happens after the artist's reputation has been established. It's like when you see a commercial with a Beatles ("Taxman" for some tax service firm), Stones, Iggy Pop ("Lust for Life"--for a family cruise) song; the problem is not with the artist or the song, but rather who's using it for what (whether based on the artist's reputation, or in Iggy Pop's case, in spite of it).

• Finally, before they start playing it at Starbucks so I have to start pretending I don't like it, I want to say that I really liked the Raconteurs' "Steady As She Goes" the first time I heard it on the radio and am continuing to enjoy it now that it's every other song on the radio. I hadn't thought I would like this group. I will have to see if I like anything else on their album.
  

- posted by k @ 5:43 PM

 
Special "Be Like Nani" Edition

• Exhibit A: "Research says...Embrace Your Inner Bacteria!" For those of us who grew up with the influences of naturecure, of course, this is just what we always knew. But now research says so! (just like it said turmeric was an anti-inflammatory)

• Exhibit B: "Research says... Tea 'healthier' drink than water!" (thanks to jk for the story, and the inspiration to make a table, below)
  

- posted by k @ 4:59 PM

 
Handy conversion table for time zones.
Bold=awake time.

CA (PST)	UK (GMT)
1:00am	9:00am
2:00am	10:00am
3:00am	11:00am
4:00am	12:noon
5:00am	1:00pm
6:00am	2:00pm
7:00am	3:00pm
8:00am	4:00pm
9:00am	5:00pm
10:00am	6:00pm
11:00am	7:00pm
12:noon	8:00pm
1:00pm	9:00pm
2:00pm	10:00pm
3:00pm	11:00pm
4:00pm	12:midnight
5:00pm	1:00am
6:00pm	2:00am
7:00pm	3:00am
8:00pm	4:00am
9:00pm	5:00am
10:00pm	6:00am
11:00pm	7:00am
12:midnight	8:00am

So, surprisingly, if it is between 6am and 2pm in California, it is ok to call me if I'm in England. If I had seen this chart before I applied I'm not sure I would have.
- posted by k @ 4:21 PM

 
Things I learned on Monday

• You can get passport photos at Long's or Kinko's/FedEx. And there is one of each in my building.

• While I was waiting for my photos to be developed at Long's, I happened to flip through U.S. News & World Report's issue on grad school rankings, which was largely not helpful to me. But they did have rankings for Ed schools, and of course Harvard (the only Ed school I'm thinking of applying to, but also my #1 pick most days) is #1. And do you know what their mean GRE scores are? (are you ready?...you might want to sit down) Verbal: 649, Math: 699. (out of 800, remember) WTF????? Why don't those people get a life and go be engineers or rocket scientists or something? How am I supposed to compete with that? OTOH, I think because of all the math tutoring I've been doing, now is probably the best time for me to re-take the GRE. Except I don't have time.

• I started working out again. Not running, b/c it's been cold outside in the morning, but a new cardio kickboxing DVD. It's pretty good and has everything I liked about CKB when I went to the gym. The instructor gets an A, but the producer gets a C. The only problems are that it's going to take me a little practice to get co-ordinated enough to keep up, and that you have to fast forward (not skip tracks) to get to the cool down if you only want to do one of the two workouts.
  

- posted by k @ 2:00 PM

 
I need a haircut
My "avatar" has been updated to reflect this fact.

• Saw The Devil Wears Prada last night at the Parkway. It was fun and the pizza was good, and the tickets were only $5. I have a handful of thoughts on the movie, which you may or may not ever find out.

• I also need to get a passport photo taken. But where?

• Seeing The Joy Luck Club tomorrow night in Old Oakland for free. Should be fun. We saw The Station Agent there last year.
  

• I also need to buy jeans. Old Navy, you better have some decent denim colors in the size and shape that I like.

• This is where I will be living next year (i.e. starting in September). The contract is for the whole year, so I can't do my plan to move into an apartment with a gay man and cat (cat doesn't have to be gay), but I will still look for one (of each) to hang out with.

• I thought I had something interesting to share, but I guess not.
  

- posted by k @ 2:17 PM

 
New Star Trek movie in '08
[Paramount] which has also produced and distributed all 10 Trek movies from 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture to 2002's bomb Star Trek: Nemesis, has signed a $22.5 million deal with Lost creator J.J. Abrams to pilot the 11th installment for release sometime in 2008.

Abrams told TV Guide in an interview last week that he and screenwriting partners Robert Orci and Alex Kurtxmann are already deep into development on the new Star Trek, which will take the series back to its roots with a prequel focusing on the early days of Kirk and Spock.

"We have an incredible beginning of a really dramatic story, and it very much honors the canon of Star Trek. On the other hand, it won't be like anything you've seen before," the Mission: Impossible 3 helmer told the magazine. "I think we have an incredible story, but we've sort of promised each other we wouldn't talk about the specifics yet. But I can say that we're actively working on it, we're in the middle of breaking the story, and it's coming along great."


Star Trek officially hits the big 4-0 next month. The original series debuted Sept. 8, 1966 on NBC.

-----------

Speaking of boldly going, I have purchased a ticket to London. Yarrgh. So there. I haven't read Tristram Shandy. I'll have to put it on my list.
- posted by k @ 3:10 PM

 
Should we blog about current events? Um, no.


But you know who should run for President? Al Gore. Of course; we all knew that. But you know who should be his running mate? What about McCain? Or even Giuliani for that matter?
The reason I thought about it is someone on All Things Considered said there are really 3 parties in America and one of them is the Lieberman-McCain party. Personally I would love to see Russ Feingold on the ticket, but now is a time for pragmatism. Oh, I know! Al Gore and Ricky Bobby. Yeah. That's it.

Copier's beeping. Gotta go.
- posted by k @ 1:26 PM

 
My blog am literarical!
w00t!
- posted by k @ 9:35 AM

 
As it turns out
I was at the airport with a slight delay Friday night, so I bought a book. What I ended up with was Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which was somewhere on my list (though not, as you can see below, on the impending 4). I was pretty happy to find it, especially in a compact, light paperback at $7.99. I am about 100 pages in, and it's pretty good. The material in the footnotes is interesting and enriching, but sometimes having to break to the footnotes and come back is irritating. Everyone says it's slow to start, but I don't think it's too bad so far. I do wonder if the affected-faux old-writing style is "dumbed down"--i.e. would I be cruising through Austen, Bronte, Dickens with the same speed and degree of comprehension? If so, then I do believe I should move those folks up on my list (to be followed closely by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky).
- posted by k @ 1:11 PM

 
I'm shocked--SHOCKED--that no one has asked about my stir fry.
Well, I'll spare you my continued journey from "Wow, England!" to "Will my girlfriend be awake when I try to call her? What will we do on weekends without each other?" and back again, and instead provide the following links (from semi-interesting to most cool):

• I think the next 4 novels I want to read are (in no order):

1. Infinite Jest, Wallace
   
2. Lolita, Nabukov
3. The Night Listener, Maupin
4. Everyman, Roth

• The British Council has some stories from US students who studied in the UK. A surprising number of them seem to have been from Berkeley, I do not know why.

• WXPN (home of World Cafe, which Jaya turned me on to back on WNIJ) continues to rock out! Did you know that on Friday afternoons they have Funky Friday, which is just what it sounds like, only better? I'm learning so much. Anyway, now they have extended their coolness to this new website, which has all kinds of features such as podcasts, multiple streaming channels, etc. It even has a cool name. I like it!

• Did you ever say to yourself "Gee, Robin Williams is in a new movie, but apparently he's playing it straight...I wonder if Terry Gross is interviewing him this week?" and then it was TRUE? And on top of that, it's everything I hoped for in that scenario: he gives straight-up answers about his life and work, but remains milk-out-the-nose hilarious. I especially enjoyed a) his comments on Ann Coulter and b)hearing more about his San Francisco connections (and that he considers both Oliver Sacks and Armistead Maupin buddies). Here it is. Bon appetite!
  

- posted by k @ 1:48 PM

 
Quick!--While my slurping, whistling office mate is on lunch!

• Hmm. Articles. Except I feel compelled to comment on them but never find the time.

• Sent my deposit and Admissions Reply form, so it looks like I'm going now. Started an online visa application with British General Consulate. Apparently they have an office in SF

• What was I going to say? I can't remember. What is everyone having for lunch today?

• Ahh, yes. I remember. So this carrot I just ate a faint surprisingly spicy flavor, like I might expect in a turnip. I rather liked it.

• And in more important news, about twenty minutes ago I had an inexplicable interest in cole slaw. Not a craving, but a "hmm, I could really go for some cole slaw." You know, one of those.

• So when you buy a package of seitan or "wheat gluten meat substitute" it tells you to simmer it thoroughly, which I assumed made sense because soy meats can easily dry out during the cooking process and are easy to over cook. But last week I went out on a limb and grilled some seitan with vegetables (to eat in pitas with tzatziki..mmm) and it turned out great! It browned up appealingly and didn't get too dry or chewy or anything. So tonight I think I'm going to try browning it to throw in a stir-fry.

• It occurs to me that for people with celiac disease, a food made out of wheat gluten probably feels like an unnecessary slap in the face, like salads with bacon do to me sometimes.

• Okay, I should get back to work. It's been real. Maybe someday I will have time to tell you about the important things, like my amazing trip to Chicago for the 7th Gay Games, or seeing Rent live last week, or Dadi's passing, or how I feel knowing I'm moving to another country in 6 weeks and leaving everyone I care about here (especially someone I live with), and yet how it's exciting to finally be getting into my field. But I probably won't have time. But I'll let you know how the stir-fry goes if you ask.
  

- posted by k @ 12:34 PM