The Academy Awards aka the Oscars

"Me fellow Americans..." --Al Gore when accepting an Oscar for Best Documentary --"An Inconvenient Truth"

Hollywood has always been a voice of the liberal political spectrum. During the 40's and 50's when much of Hollywood was controlled by the Jewish population, there were a lot of Anti-Nazi movies and flicks (ie Three Stooges spoofs and Charlie Chaplin comedies). Several years ago, the Oscars were touted for being "The Year of African Americans" when Halle Barry and Denzel Washington won for Best Actress/Actors. Last year an Asian director, Ang Lee won Best Director for Brokeback Mountain, a film about homosexual relations.

This year was the "Year of Internationalism" with a record-breaking number of nominees from outside of the US. It was also a year for liberal America to take center stage. The show was hosted by an openly lesbian woman, Ellen DeGeneres. Melissa Etheridge wins the award for Best Song and openly thanks "her wife and 4 children." Al Gore surreptitiously sneaks back into the presidential race in what could've been the Democratic National Convention. Acceptance speeches were given in multi-languages. And the host coined it together by saying, "If not for Blacks, Jews and gays, there won't even be an Oscars."

I don't exactly agree with that but it's certainly where pop-culture is leaning towards...

ARGH!!!!!

Okay... isn't this shirt completely retarded if they switched sides?

GO GIANTS!!!

Drive by...

Good golly gobbstoppers... Just finished the E&M take-home midterm, which is worth a measly 20% of the final grade and I feel like I just survived finals week. And right when I turn in one take-home midterm...I get, yet another take-home midterm. Yeah me!

So I absolutely despise cutting class. Even if I'm not paying for it... experience has shown me that every time I miss a lecture, the professor ALWAYS, 100% guarantee, without a shadow of a doubt, give an example problem that will appear on the final. Well... I've been dodging this training session at work which occurs once a month on Wednesdays. But today, the director comes talk to me (He never, ever talks to me) and says "Hank, you gotta take this CPE training more seriously. The company is paying you to take a class and you get a 5% raise from it." So what's a man to do?? Geez.... you have principles...and you have a 5% raise. Who wins???

Kudos to the janitors!! The mystical bathroom with one, and only one, paper towel dispenser has YET to run out of paper towels on my watch. I don't know how they do it? How they keep that thing filled? They must be on hourly or bi-hourly patrol or something. I'm impressed.

I'm also impressed that last Friday, someone moved the garbage can next to the door. I laughed, thinking that Facilities will move it back. Only to see the "DO NOT RELOCATE GARBAGE CAN" sign moved WITH the can!!! Please tell me that someone read my blog and reported it up the chain of command.

愛是永不止息

Found in Mantova, Italy, a pair of 5000-6000 year old skeletal remains showed a couple embracing each other. How sweeet... So much for "Till death do us part..."

New Bathroom Jabbers

The bathroom by my office finally opened. An entire building was demolished and re-constructed before this bathroom was halfway done! If not for a vice-president moving into the area mandating this bathroom to be finished...I'll still be trekking a mile a day for my moments of relief.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
My first impression upon entering this new fortress of solitude is...."Did I walk into the Ladies' Room!?!" (No offense to the other gender that shares this planet we call, earth.) But geez louise!! I walk in there and I see 4 urinals and 9 stalls. How many stalls do men need?!?!? Why can't they maximize real estate, and stick in a few extra urinals?

STALLING
There are a few times in a week when all the stalls are full. Monday morning...after a football Sunday. You walk into the mens room and all the stalls are occupied. You can hear the crinkle of Sports section in virtually every stall... people are catching up on their football stats. Occasionally, you'll hear the crinkle of the business section...but that's because that person was already done with the Sports section.

EXTRA-LONG LUNCH HOUR
The other time the stalls are full is when the cafeteria is serving "Mexican" Food. Never fails... you can almost guarantee that around 1-1:30PM on Mexican food day... the company water bill goes waaaaaaaay high due to high amount of flushing.

So why all the stalls and lack of urinals??? I have no clue.

SAVE THE TREES
Another thing I noticed right away... there is only 1 paper towel dispenser. We're talking about the good ol' mechanical, manual paper towel dispenser. The kind you crank a lever on the right side...and out peeks a spec of brown recycled paper that almost, kinda soaks water.

In a bathroom with 9 stalls and 4 urinals with 6 sinks...we have 1 paper towel dispenser. Help me out here...did the company spend all the money on toilets...and had to cut cost on something else?? Did someone assume that men don't bother washing hands...so they won't bother drying their hands?

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL
Why do men need a full size mirror in our bathroom?? This isn't just any full size mirror...this is a complete wall!!!!! More signs that this bathroom was PROBABLY...most LIKELY...designed for the opposite sex. How about taking the mirror out and putting some more paper towel dispensers there?

IN-NO-VATION
For some unfathomable reason, other than the 1 single paper towel dispenser, we have 1 automatic hand dryer!!! Why on earth do we have 1 of each?? Other than some Rest Area restrooms in the middle of Hwy 5, who in their right minds still use hand dryers???

GOOD SMELLY THING
True story...I was in there with a friend, discussing all the short comings of the bathroom. (No, we were not discussing it while in the stalls.) I introduced him to the hand dryer. Introduce, meaning for an entire week, he thought that thing was an air freshener!

VERTICALLY CHALLENGED
When the average height of Americans are 5'10"... how on earth can anyone come up with the idea of installing the dispenser / hand dryer below waist level? Talk about being ergonomically correct, eh?

LOOK MA...NO HANDS!!
I do credit the company for moving into the 21st century. Sort've. All the toilets are now automatic flushers. The urinals flush themselves 3 seconds after you walk away. The toilets flush the moment you get up. That's right...the exact moment!!! So if you're not quick...the toilet might suck you in.

I don't know about you... but if I go #2, I have the habit of flushing the toilet first to get rid of any floaters that are undetectable by the naked eye. I want to be sure I'm starting with a clean bowl of water in case any splashing happens. (Yeah...splashing. Don't ask.) But with these new "automatic" flushers...I have no way of making the darn thing flush!! I wave my hand in front of a black dot...which I think is a sensor. I press my hand up against it, count to 5 and remove my hand. No avail. I can't force the toilet to flush. Only thing I'm left to do... sit down and bounce right back up.

CONFUSING CODES
By some California Code...we're required to have double doors and an entry way. Okay...I'm fine with it. But I have a Personal Code of drying my hands with a paper towel...and then using the paper towel to grab the door handle to open the door. But ohhhhhhhhhhhh.... the cost-cutting genius was working hard that day. Inside our bathroom, we have ONE and ONLY ONE trash can. I can do the "paper-towel-grab-handle" trick on the first door. But what about the 2nd door?

CALLED FOR TRAVELLING
Back to the "Paper-towel-grab-handle" trick for the 1st door for a moment. I guess I'm not the only one that practices this trick... and it's particulary annoying when the garbage can is about a mile away from the door. You try your best to aim and shoot...but it almost always lands on the floor. Can't bring the door to the can...bring the can to the door, right?!? NO!!!

The other day, a sign was posted by the garbage can saying:

DO NOT RELOCATE GARBAGE CAN. THANKS.

噢!

噢! 曉瑜愛妻... 我出來迎接妳, 切切尋找妳, 終於找到妳....噢!

Courtesy of CLS Photos

Sayonana-Oh...

This box of Costco Saran Wrap has followed me since my 2nd year in college till now. That's almost an entire decade!! But tonight...I finally used up the entire roll.




Like reading a good book...as you come to the last chapter, you simply refuse to read any further because you know something great is about to come to an end. My hand shook the moment I pulled out the Saran wrap and saw a yellow, gluey residue instead of the usual clear shiney gloss. I simply could not bear parting with this trustworthy piece of household decor.

We've been through thick and thin together... we've seen the best of men and the worst of mankind together... we've travelled miles and miles as a team... and today, I must bid you farewell.

Thank you for assuring me you'll always be there for me. Regardless of the weather, regardless of the situation, regardless of the environment... you let me know that I can always count on you. And as you and I both move on to a new phase in our lives... I bless you to continue bringing the happiness you once brought to me to someone else.

Sayonara Moonchi and Andrew...

Home away from home...

There I was, at the lobby coffee shop at the LAX Hilton, waiting in line for my cup of Venti drip when I saw a man and his wife. They were in their mid to late 40's. The couple looked out of place. My first thought: They must be one of the few thousand passengers stranded at LAX because one of the runways was shut down. Some international airline must've supplied them with a free night's stay at a hotel and a breakfast voucher -- trying to apologize for the inconvenience of stranding them in America for one extra day.

In the man's hand was a tray... two tiny cups of espresso and two tiny crossiants. To them, that was their comfort food. Being a few thousand miles away from home, they found a hint of safety and comfortness in the form of two pieces of bread and two cups of brown water. The couple was obviously from Europe. Perhaps Italy...or Sicily. I couldn't tell. But they had no desire for an extravagant meal. At that moment in time...they wanted nothing more than to go back home, to their little hole in the wall...to sit down, sip their cafe and enjoy their little pastry.

Standing about five feet away, I empathized the couple's brief moment of satisfaction. I saw in this couple, what Joyce and I went through the morning we came across a McDonald's in Italy that actually served an Egg McMuffin. There is no replacement for this type of comfort...for this type of hominess. Regardless of where you are...who you're with...or how much money you have...there are just those one or two things in life which you can firmly and honestly call your own. That cup of espresso...that crossiant...that brief moment in time, belonged to that man and wife.

And for a brief moment in time... I felt I was back in Europe...