I've done my work to get a job

This entire past week I've been at the damn computer screen resizing, reformatting, exporting maps, and touching up a bunch of my work from the past year. It's a tedious and tiring process, but as of this minute I am done!

Welcome to portfolio production 101, ladies and gentlemen.



The entire purpose of the portfolio is to impress people you don't know and will likely never even meet. You have to carefully choose your layout and template according to the types of places you are applying to. It's all about selling yourself, and boy, I see myself as just a couple weeks from being moved to the markdown pile. I'm doing this all not for permanent work, but for a mere internship that probably pays piddle-squat. Still, I continue to plod on...

Now I move on to my Computer Applications in Environmental Design midterm, which I was supposed to have started last week. It is due in three days and I have piddle-squat done for it. I put finding summer work before my grade in this class. We will see how that pans out next week.

Movies I watched while performing the portfolio assembly tasks:

The Princess Bride
Match Point
An Inconvenient Truth

I wine, I dine.

This week, despite my aversion to streaks of eating out, I have dined at some rather amazing eating places. Here is the low down. Portland is a gem when it comes to the dining life. There is no restaurant tax, so that saves you about 10% right off the top. The food prices at nice places, however, is about the same you'd pay anywhere in San Francisco.

Genoa, SE Belmont. Legendary establishment in Portland, since probably before I was born.

Andina, Pearl District on Glisan. A new flashy Nuevo-Peruvian Andean cuisine place. It was nice, if a bit too clean and sterile. Good service from a red headed white dude who attempted to use a Latino accent in his menu pronun-cia-ciones.

Alberta Street Oyster Bar & Grill, NE Alberta near Wilshire Park. Haven't eaten here YET, but I will have by 800pm PST.

A Kia will do me in.

While in Portland this week I am driving a Budget rental car, a Kia Spectra. At first, I thought the car was fine (even nice), but after tonight I have decided the car wants to ruin me somehow.

Problem one began on a rainy evening with family members in the car impatient to get to the restaurant we had 7:30 reservations for. I couldn't get the damn car out of park. The button on the shifter would not fricking BUDGE, no matter how I tried. I tried all the things you are thinking - having the e-brake on/off, putting pressure on the foot break while trying to disengage, turning it on and off and trying again, hitting the dash, etc. Nothing worked and we ended up having to leave the car and taking someone else's. Everyone got wet changing cars and were crabby for the whole ride over to Genoa.

Later I discovered that the only way to get it out of park is to have your damn foot FULLY down on the foot break as hard as possible. It's the only way the button will budge out of park. So I felt a little dumb, but I was willing to give the Kia another try. Tonight, however, was the last damn straw. My whole life almost was obliterated into a million pieces on a very busy road.

It began as I was leaving (another) restaurant. I used the key lock button to open the car, put my foot fully on the break, disengaged it out of park, and began rolling toward home. As soon as I get on the freeway, I notice in my rearview that the fucking trunk door is rising. The trunk is now OPEN and I am on the FREEWAY and my LAPTOP is laying on top of the baggage quite UNSECURED!!!!

If it has fallen out of the trunk, what will I do without this laptop? It's like thinking what you might do without basic bodilly functions you take for granted everyday. You really don't ever want to consider that this MIGHT happen. And most likely, you have done zilch to prepare for such a thing to happen (I recently bought an external backup drive, but I haven't yet put ANYTHING on it, so that doesn't really cut the mustard now does it?).

I belted out a couple Kia-themed expletives and looked for a place to pull over on 26. The layout of this freeway, you might want to know, is NOT a place anyone should EVER pull over if they can possibly avoid it. People die all the time doing the exact same thing I was about to do, which was to exit the Kia and inspect the trunk's contents, resecure it, and be on my way.

You may have gathered that the laptop was still in there when I got out of the car. You are correct, but I swear it was only in there by the pittying grace of God.

I will now only put junk and garbage in that jerry rigged trunk. For God sake, the thing opens up without any notice. What kind of trunk is that?

Maple

These were produced for my plants identification class. Today we had our midterm, which involved a long walk and identifying 30 plants by their scientific and common names. Sadly, Acer palmatum was not part of the selected plant palette.

Update on the rodent: He's been quiet as a, well, mouse. No evidence suggests he is either dead or alive, though.

Mouse

There is a tiny mouse living on the other side of the apartment in Garrett's room. Pedro and Garrett almost caught it in a likewise tiny trap the other night, but it managed to escape after both of them surrounded it in Garrett's room.

I hope to God that thing doesn't migrate over on my turf.

Paper topic change

I recently found this note attached to the sheet I have posted outside my desk for office hours. It is hilarious that she acknowledges slackerhood in a note. I feel like that might be something you mention verbally, but should never make a written record of. Kids...

*************************************************

Hi Rachel -

I've only gotten some sources but haven't organized them in a way that I could present them to you for help. Can I email you with questions tomorrow or Wednesday?

Sorry I'm such a slacker. I'll see ya in class.

Thanks a lot,
May*


*named changed to remain anonymous

Plug

Here is a link to my latest assignment for Computer Applications in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning.

Returned to service

Today the evil cast unit was removed. The experience was not something I want to remember. A vibrating saw is used to get it off and they cut right down to your arm. Supposedly, the saw cannot break skin, but all other indicators told me this was the real deal. And I was afraid and would have preferred scissors.



The scratches and red spots are places where the cast was bothering me and where I itched it with the handle of a plastic fork.

Black babies, shoeboxes

This disturbing black baby was encountered at 1820 Harmon Street today. We went there to interview an artist. I sat opposite the little guy and he was creeping me out. This picture doesn't convey his sinister smirk very well.


Malus floribunda, Japanese Flowering Crabapple


Strelitzia reginae, Bird of Paradise


Fun with shoeboxes...

ATV and Sunset Magazine living

Here I am busting around the Sierra Foothills in a sweet all terrain vehicle! Note that I am NOT wearing a safety restraint. Also note that the ATV is actually stationary.




We were on a 47 acre plot of land in the Sierras this Sunday. We took a hike through the manzanita groves.


We ate dinner under this loggia thingy. It was all illuminated by candles in a very Martha Stewart-esque fashion.

Beer and broccoli

I just had an interesting dinner of goji berries, steamed broccoli and carrots, and one Anchor Steam Beer. I feel a little bloated by all these dinner ingredients. Hopefully this will pass soon enough because I have to FTP my GIS (Geographic Information Systems) assigment before the clock strikes 12.

Beer is delicious at school. Second only to bourbon.

My cast is beginning to turn to graveyard dust and is falling apart. I might turn this mother out in a day or two or if I get drunk enough, which ever comes first. My appointment for official removal is Thursday, but that is just hella long off.

Headed to Portland this Friday to surprise my mother at her 60th birthday party. I am supposed to show up at a bowling alley unannounced. I got an Evite from my step dad...apparently the crew is going to Red Robin before bowling to consume vast quantities of calories. At least it won't break the bank. I will hopefully be eating something very delicious and not prepared in a fry daddy.

Another milestone this week: I successfully lectured for 8-10 minutes in front of my LA 130 class. I talked about the landscapes of Mexican Architect Luis Barragan. It went pretty well, partly because I actually prepared and practiced my talk, making sure there was consistency between the verbal presentation and the slides. Today I helped with the midterm exam review session where I spouted off some facts and observations with great ease, surprisingly.

Who have you lectured lately?

Smell

Today I noticed that my cast now officially smells like feet. I thought that since it is a waterproof cast that I would never be bothered with this problem. However, technology is just that, it is not perfect. The cast has been retaining water more and more. It is usually semi-damp in there.

Typing on my computer today, I noticed that it smelled fainly like feet. Immediately, I assumed it was the guy across the studio divider from me. He is Australian and tends to walk around with his feet exposed, so I just blamed the smell on him. I mean, after all, he is Australian. These people come from a lineage of pirates and thieves tossed away by the Crown - it's likely they have poor hygiene, too.

Happy to have found the culprit, I rested my chin on my casted palm and noticed the smell suddenly grew in intensity. I put my nose down in there and really gagged. I can't wait to get this petrie dish off of me. Yuckos.

The Bomb, Survival and YOU.

Today I was in our environmental design library looking for a book with pictures and diagrams on tree houses and yurt-like structures. In the same shelf, an old book caught my eye. Turns out it's a genuine real-deal artifact from the Cold War. I love this stuff! Remember the turtle and "Duck and Cover"?

Published in 1954, the book speaks of quite a different world than we find ourselves in today:

Model student

I am considering copyrighting this...

Limb update

My left wrist is still rightly broken. It's been approximately three weeks since my fall. Cast: adequate condition, takes longer to dry lately than it did last week.

Many x-rays have been taken...two in the last two weeks and another one when I first broke it. Doctor assures me healing process is going fine. When I asked him whether it was ok that the cast is getting loose, he replied something like, "Well, casts don't really secure the limb that well, anyway, so don't worry. They really just are there to remind you to be careful with it." Hmm.

I should be doing push ups in no time, right?

I need to get back to my diagramming...

Yes, that would be mine. Thank you.

I arrived home tonight around 1:42 a.m., arms full of groceries from Safeway, and happened upon a little discovery. Clumsilly ascending the steps to my personal deck entrance, I noticed something very familiar draped over the railing.

Yes, that would be my black bra right there. It's outside. In the parking area. Hung over the stair railing. For me to happen upon it.



Hmm.

Well, I guess I am impressed that someone in this apartment community figured out it was mine. That was nice of them, I think.

This week's plants

This is called Michelia doltsopa - Michelia


Chaenomeles cvs. - Flowering Quince


Phormium tenax - New Zealand Flax


Corylus avellana 'Contorta'- Harry Lauder's Walking Stick

Proper search

You can install greasemonkey to add script that makes your Google search page look a bit different...ala Ray and Roast Beef!

Snap shot

Last night, I managed to get tickets to a sold out Camera Obscura show at Bimbo's in SF. The band performed very well and mentioned they liked the 70 degree temperatures in the city that day.


Tracy Anne Campbell, courtesey of Woody's blackberry-phone-computer-camera-all-in-one-office-apparatus.

Hamburger

This evening, while crossing the street in the pouring rain, I was stopped by a woman in a large late model Cadillac who wanted to know where she could buy a quality hamburger.

I had no umbrella, had a cast on my arm, and was literally getting soaked by the second, but this lady had no qualms about stopping me in the middle of the street to ask where she could get her grill on. I told her the places she could go in matter of a few seconds, but then she wanted directions. Oddly, I was patient with her and told her the location of the Smokehouse, at Telegraph and Woolsey. Then I gave her a backup alternative - Jack in the Box - just south of Alcatraz.

People that are so demanding for hamburger information astound me.


I really don't think the burger I sent this lady after looked anything like this...

Casted

This is my current inconvenience, possibly lasting for the next 5 weeks.

Bought, enjoyed

Breakage

Fact 1:

The wrist is a complex joint that you use to accomplish an infinite amount of activities each day.

Fact 2:

Breaking your wrist will suddenly make you half as fast at doing everything. Washing your hair takes about 10 minutes, drying off about the same. Typing is labored and strenuous, if typing can ever be considered strenuous. In public places, you are conscientious about your enormous immobilized arm bumping into strangers. And your clothes do not fit.


I have a fracture on the radius where it meets the wrist bones.

Basswood model of Los Clubes, Cuadra San Cristobal, Mexico City by Luis Barragan. The site is a combination residence and horse paddock with accompanying horse-scaled swimming pool used to train thoroughbreds.

We have some big deadlines this week, this model included. The final will include pieces of cut up loofah sponge along the walls to mimic climbing vegetation. Believe it or not, this model cost about $150 to build.


Analytique to supplement the model.

Plants, funeral, woodshop, ethics

Thursday was a whirlwind of highly diverse occurances and events.

First, starting at 8:30am, I had three hours of class for plants identification. We learned about 8 shrubs and 3 trees. It is still very much winter based on the temperatures we experienced during our field walk. When is it going to finally rain so we can get closer to spring?


This is called Rhus ovata, or Sugar Bush.


This is called Schinus molle, or California Pepper Tree.

Next, at 12:30pm, I went to the funeral of a great woman who happened to suddenly pass away last week. She had been the graduate assistant and resident mom for all graduate students in city planning for the last 20 years. The funeral was held in a modest church in Richmond, CA. The church was jammed packed to the rafters, mostly students and people from Berkeley. It was amazing to see how many people's lives Kaye had impacted in her role as both administrator and confidant. As an example of how wide Kaye's reach was within the University, I recognized someone there who I would have never guessed knew Kaye - a man who drives the night door-to-door shuttle for students needing rides home between 9pm and 3am. This guy happens to drive me home 2-3 nights a week; never for one minute I expected we knew anyone in common. I saw him at Kaye's funeral today. Students who graduated 10 years ago came all the way from Los Angeles to pay their respects. It was astounding.

I returned to school and from 6-9pm I attended an architecture woodshop orientation. I learned to cut things with the band saw, radial saw, table saw, panel saw, drill press, and spindle saw. It was a very strange thing to do after having just returned from a funeral.

Now I am doing the GSI teaching ethics course online. I am taking a break between the sections on student disability accomodation and sexual harrassment.

All at once it has been a very odd and touching day.

Alter ego

Today I created a much-inferior web site in order to fulfill requirements for my LA 132 course, Computer Applications in Environmental Design.

Don't get too excited, this site is pretty much a snoozer. Hopefully, as the term progresses, I will have some interesting images of environmental analysis for your viewing pleasure.

In other news, my studio is very busy figuring out how to build some models. It is our first real non-cardboard scaled model, so we are a bit frightened. Tomorrow I will do the wood shop orientation and will soon be ready to saw, plane and sand things.

People line up for this shit

This morning, around 10:45 a.m. I found myself across town near the intersection of University and Shattuck. I had gone on a run and needed to buy something at the art supply store along the way. At this particular intersection is a McDonald's. It's kind of a grungy McDonald's....the outside facade of the structure is shabby and it's on a very busy corner where a lot of street people tend to congregate. However, it is always busy in there and serves a purpose to feed and provide bathrooms for customers in Berkeley.

This morning, the place was a madhouse. I noticed the mayhem from outside on the sidewalk no less. There must have been 30 people in line! I immediately wondered what the hell must be going on. It's not like McDonald's is new or anything. Did someone fall from a heart attack? Did someone start a fight? What could the draw be?

Then I saw a poster in the window which read:

"Filet-O-Fish $1.00 Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays"

Wow! All these people were there for a damn greasy fish sandwich. I really couldn't believe it. You'd think people in Berkeley wouldn't be such suckers for this kind of ridiculous advertising scheme. In my eyes, it's not even that great of a deal. First, you have to eat the Filet-O-Fish which is probably not too healthy or even filling. Second, to get in on the special you have to go inside the McDonald's and wait in line for 20 minutes while everyone else orders the same damn sandwich. Third, quality (if such a term applies) is likely to suffer: because the demand for the FOF is sky high these three days of the week it is likely that production standards fall along the wayside. Filets get forgotten in the fry daddy, some get dropped on the floor, lettuce is sparse, tartar sauce is forgotten, and sandwiches are hastilly crumpled up in their signature blue wax paper.

All that for $1.00.

Day one, spring semester 07

Day one back in the saddle and things are already off to a fast start.

Depending on how I play my cards this week, I might only have to take three courses this term on top of being a Graduate Student Instructor for an introductory landscape architecture course. Right now I am in four courses plus the teaching gig and things look extremely tight.

Let's hope the dealer gives me a good hand on Friday allowing me to finagle one or two course wavers and get something called "blank" credits. Sounds like a scheme to me - I'm in all the way. Blank credits are essentially a professor's ability to say you took an individually designed course to fulfill a requirement when in actuality you do squat. Blank credits sound downright suspicious, but they are needed in certain situations like one I currently find myself in. Here's to the nuances of higher education.

Tomorrow is the first day I assist in the teaching of a course at Berkeley. I have to operate a slide projector (two actually, side by side). I have never done this but I had a class last term in which this apparatus was used. I have a good sense for the rhythm of the operation. Hopefully this will be enough to get me through without really screwing up.

All the Mexico photos

This is me on top of the Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan. This is a pre-Aztec city abandoned mysteriously in 750 AD.


In the same position from left to right is our professor Walter Hood and classmates Elizabeth and Sara.


At five o'clock the Mexican flag at Zocalo Square is lowered with the help of about 200 military personnel. Overkill?


Yummies for the tummies at a place called Pasteleria Ideal near Zocalo. You enter the store, grab an enormous tray and a pair of metal tongs and get to business!


Right after coming out of the pasteleria, we saw a curious truck at the stop light...


A good portion of the trip was spent trying to get people to let us into the homes designed by Mexican architect/landscape architect Luis Barragan. Here is one of the homes he designed in the El Pedregal subdivision. El Pedregal was the first occaision Barragan entered into the speculative real estate biz....apparently a success, too. This house was an amazingly intact example of his modernist design (exterior and interior) from the period 1945-1950.


This is the musical amphitheater-grotto of Chapultepec Park. There are interesting benches to lounge on while you listen to a strange selection of music play from mounted speakers. Mexican park police hang out in here, so it's safe. When we got there I think Vivaldi was playing, but soon was interrupted by what I can guess were Mexican show tunes.


Here I am at Luis Barragan's Los Torres de Satelite, or the Satellite Towers. These things are located in the middle of a freeway median. The towers were meant to be a visual gateway to the growing subdivisions of Mexico City in the mid-1950s. It was very polluted despite the sky looking so clear. Stinky!!!


Worm's eye of the towers.


This is the library at the Universidad Nacional Autonomous de Mexico. The entire campus uses a variety of modernist styles embedded with cultural markers, such as this mosaic tiled main library building.


We went to a famous lava flow on the campus of UNAM. Artists built a large ring of concrete right triangles around it.


Me and my shadow...

Being sick in DF

I ate a bad taco or something last night and ended up getting sick at a Luche Libre (Mexican masked wrestling) event. As a result, I missed the group trip to Coyoacan today. I got up around 1:00 pm, and managed to drag myself to Coyaocan to look at the weekend market. It was kind of a waste of time because I ended up leaving after an hour due to still feeling sick. Now I am back at the hotel watching Fox News.

So the day has not noticably improved.

Otherwise, the trip has been awesome. I will try to get photos up soon.

Besos,
Miss E

Happy belated, Alyssa

Alyssa joined the 29 crowd this past Saturday! Hope it was a fun one. I'll eat a celebratory taco for you in DF.

Me get on plane, me go see pretty things

My flight to DF boards at 7:40 am tomorrow. It's 9:39 pm and, of course, I have yet to pack.

Packing has got to be the most boring things ever. I do this everytime, I resist packing for trips. At least I am well fed and rested. One time I had to pack for a month away in SE Asia having not slept for 3 days. The flight left at 10am. I waited until 2:30 am to begin packing. It wasn't fun, it was no picnic.

We have a very loose itinerary proposed by our professor. Here are some images from the Interweb of some of those things we will visit.

This is our hotel, the Maria Cristina. We are located near the U.S. Embassy. Good thing?

Here is something called Los Torres de Satelite. Translation: The Satelite Towers. Built by Luis Barragan, one of Mexico's most prolific modernist architects.

The floating canal gardens of Xochimilco promise us wide-eyed landscape architects-in-training untold sights and wonders.

The urban "Grasshopper" Chapultepec Park houses the world famous Anthropogy Museum.

We will experience the immense demonstration of power and space at Zocalo Square, the heart of the city.

The trip will culminate with a visit to the past at Teotihuacan's Aztec ruins.

Photos will be posted at earliest convenience, but most likely not until week after next.

Vaya con Dios, amigos!

Raquel

Movie count

The last few days while I have been at home sorting and organizing paperwork has been filled watching some movies and films.

Here is the list:

Cool Hand Luke (1967) Paul Newman
My Architect( 2003)
A Prairie Home Companion (2006) Meryll Streep
Kinsey(2004) Liam Neeson

Cool Hand Luke is an interesting prison genre film and I recognized quite a few faces in it, including a young George Kennedy and Dennis Hopper. I'm rather intrigued with the films of the late 1960s, and hope to see a couple more before the end of the week.

I was a tad disappointed by A Prairie Home Companion. I am an AVID listener of the weekend radio program and I kind of anticipated it to highlight and discuss the comedic genius of the series - but no such luck at all. The movie is essentially a behind the scenes look at the cast of the program who are reminiscing about their last 20 years together. There is a weird sub-story going on about a woman in a white trench coat who happens to be a ghost...I found that kind of silly. I shall stick to the radio series...

My favorite movie of all these is My Architect, the story of the life of architect Louis Kahn as told by his distant son. What a fascinating film. In my landscape architecture history course, we learned a little a teeny bit about Kahn in his work on the Salk Institute. The son tells the story through a carefully chosen melange of mixed recovered video of Kahn at work, pictures, drawings, and by methodically visiting each of Kahn's commissioned structures and interviews with family and professional associates. You learn about the very torn man that Kahn was, and at the same time you learn why he was so important to so many people around the world completely outside of his personal sphere.

Purchase

At midnight, I made this purchase. This item will hopefully resolve the problem I have been having with my testy bicycle tires. Soon enough, I will be on the road whizzing by all you car bound schmucks.

New Year's Even

A few things:

1. I have to have a gum graft on one of my lower central incisors next time I am home. My addiction to brushing my teeth has taken a toll. My mother suggested I do this and also said she would set up an appointment for me.

I wonder if this means she will also volunteer to arrange payment for such a procedure?

2. My auto repair shop still hasn't called me back. I fear that the Fox has been looted during its 12 day and nights stay in the bowels of West Berkeley, and the employees are hesitant to share the sad news with me.

3. There are many errands and chores to run the day after returning from 12 days away from home.

4. Looking back on 2006, I don't have any glaring regrets, but I do wish I would have been a little more bold with the designs I did for school. I think 2007 will be a year of remarkable boldness.

He's gone

Saddam is gone. I don't really know if this is good news or not.

Trip concludes

Tonight is the last night I am in Portland.

My brother Matt is having a show at 7pm at some coffee/bar place. Matt's music is sounding really superb these days. He was upstairs practicing for tonight's performance last night when my friend Alexa came to pick me up. She thought it was the radio or cd player going. Even when rehearsing, Matt is impressing people.

Yesterday's luncheon went very well, a great time. It is nice to have new friends to visit when I visit Stumptown. It is even more convenient when they live near my sister's new place.

My step dad Bruce got a wide screen computer monitor for Christmas. But it isn't one of those cool Apple display units. Rather, it is a Samsung. I have no idea why my step dad needs this thing. I guess it might be useful for him when he has large spreadsheets open in Excel. I am not so impressed with the product. The screen basically stretches your view, so previously rounded features, such as words, come out all pixelated and long. I think the screen is actually supposed to be used for HDTV.

Update from Karmakanix. The Fox is still undriveable. The expansion the shop was doing this week apparently prevented them from squeezing in the repair of my vehicle. I hope it will be ready on Monday. They've had my car since 12/20.

Four things. Wait, five!

1. The smoking allowed in bars law in Portland must be changed. The last two nights I've come home and my hair smells. Normally it smells wonderful, but now it smells rather awful.

2. I used a Foreman Grill today. Do those even sell anymore? I was just cooking vegetables on it.

3. Visiting Pier One Imports the day after Christmas with your mother, who is on a mission for the last of the marked down red glass water goblets in existence, is a recipe for a meltdown on the daughter's end.

4. Lunch on Thursday with some guy I've been trying to meet up with for nearly one year. Persistance pays off? Hrmmm.

5. I forgot probably the BEST of the upcoming musical acts on its way through the Bay Area very, very soon. What a dolt I am. Anyway, it's gonna be a pretty amazing show, I hope.

Who: Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
When: January 5, 2007
Where: Bimbo's 365 Club
Whadda it cost me?: $20

Live tunes

Jan. 6, 2007, Sat, The Devil Makes Three, The Independent
Jan. 24, 2007, Wed, Pirate Radio, The Makeout Room
Jan. 30, 2007, Tues, Deerhoof, The Great American Music Hall
Feb. 4, 2007, Sunday, Ray's Vast Basement, The Makeout Room
Mar. 2, 2007, Friday, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, The Great American Music Hall
Mar. 3, 2007, Sat, Clinic, The Independent
Mar. 7-8, 2007, Wed & Thu, The Mountain Goats, The Independent
Mar. 9, 2007, The Mountain Goats, Bottom of the Hill

P.S. Merry Christmas. My family is watching Talledega Nights and I snuck upstairs to see what secrets of music the internet held...

Bob Sagat would make this a little more tolerable

Tonight, Christmas Eve, is the first night I've stayed at my parents' house since I arrived in Portland on Thursday. They live in Murrayhill, a subdivision in Beaverton, Oregon. Murrayhill is a virtual outpost in terms of being located near things, places, people or amenities I like to visit. The place has a nice view, I guess, and enjoys the benefits of existing within a homogenous community (low crime and neat yards).

Tonight I volunteered to make my parents dinner. The materials were already purchased. All that was required of me was to slice and cook the stuff. The dinner was stir fry, and like the neighborhood, the meal was sterile and predictable.

During the meal my parents turned on "AFV", which is a version of the series Bob Sagat used to host in the 1990s, "America's Funniest Home Videos." I thought it was a joke that we were watching it, but I soon realized that my parents actually adore this program. At one point, they were laughing and pointing at the TV monitor when someone sitting down on a bench made it collapse. I wish I was kidding about this.

Anyway, the host of this program isn't half as dynamic as Bob Sagat, who despite his reputation of being "America's Favorite Dad" possesses a certain brand of vulgar humor that makes him admirable.



Finally, after many long minutes of agony, AFV ended. Now my mother is watching Ocean's Eleven. So the cycle of madness and bad TV continues...

Oh, yesterday I saw "For Your Consideration", the newest Christopher Guest feature film. While it's no "Best in Show" it's quite good and worth at least a cost of a matinee ticket.

Flash back

This is my mother in 1972.