you know i'm sick when...

... I don't feel like shopping. Worse yet, I'm already shopping, find something tremendously cute and ON SALE, and can't muster the energy to stand in line and pay for them.

You wanna hear the clincher? I'm talking about SHOES.

Damn Chinese food.

beer in a jar

Last night, Miriam came over to have some leftover Indian food after teaching. Eric was home early - a rarity - so we had some great coversation with overchewy naan (doesn't reheat well), creamy veggie korma, and the always amazing butter chicken from Great India Restaurant. Over the course of the evening, Eric used the words "boob" "tits" "breasts" and "rack" (not the bike kind) a total of 37 times.

ePoop also decided that it was time to get rid of the beer he'd been keeping in a jar for the last two weeks. Apparently, when they went up to Tahoe, there was such a huge keg of beer that they couldn't finish it. So he took some home. In a jar.



I like beer, but even I don't like beer THAT much.

an easter weekend with good friends

I spent a mellow Easter weekend catching up with my good friends. Which was great, because its probably the first Easter I didn't spend with at least my mother.

On Saturday, after my usual jaunt to gym, pilates and dance, I collapsed on the couch in pain. Fortunately, Michelle rescued me from lethargia by dragging me out for a mani and pedi. We just went around the corner, and both got French toes and nails. I'm starting to like the French manicures, but it just looks weird on my toes.

I went to Easter services with Gerardo and Norell. After mass, we picked up Alex and headed to Q's for some - you guessed it! - meat. We were absolutely starving, so gourmet brunchy food totally hit the spot. I got the corned beef hash with poached eggs, Gerardo ordered a bacon-swiss burger, and both Alex and Norell got benedicts. I thought the meal was decent, but not the greasy best I was hoping for. For that, you gotta just suck it up and go to Denny's.

It started pouring while we were eating, so we piled back into my little car and drove to Gerardo's. There, we went through the various GMAT materials that we had, and came up with a tentative study schedule. By the time I got home, the sky was a dark indigo, and it was pouring bullets. Neither Michelle nor I felt much like leaving our homes and heading over to the Funkanometry dance class, so I just stayed in and watched Desperate Housewives.

good friday, good food

My Easter meat-festivities continued on Friday night, when Laura, Isidro and Martha headed to Espetus Churrascaria, a fabulous Brazilian BBQ in Hayes Valley.

When I arrived at 9:30, my friends were already waiting for me at the bar. Laura and Isidro were just a teensy weensy tipsy (ha!) since they had gotten there a good 30 minutes earlier, and made friends with the sangria. They must have looked hungry, because the bartender brought them some meat samples to tide them over until our table was ready.



We were seated, made a half-hearted trip to the salad bar, and then settled in for our meat-filled dinner. And when I say that its meat-filled, I ain't exagerating. You pay a fixed price, and basically have access to all-you-can-eat-meat. They bring around 14 different kinds of roasted meats on a grilling skewer, and cut you off slices right at your table.

The one thing that we definitely preferred were the more rare meats - the well done ones were just a tad too much. However, overall, it was an incredible reintroduction to meat. By the end of the meal, none of us could move, much less fit into my Mini!

Rating: 4 out of 5 cowbrains

the end of a journey

After many, many hours over a period of 2 months of trying to connect my camera to my computer, I finally found a solution!

[2.15.05] After my Valentine's Day dinner with Martha, I tried connecting my camera to my new laptop for the first time. No dice. Decided that I really didn't need pictures on my blog anyhow.

[2.21.05] Tried posting pictures online for some furniture that I was selling on Craigslist. Ran into the same issue as before. Upon some research, I found that there was a known issue with Win XP recognizing Canon PowerShot S-line cameras.

[2.21.05] Followed instructions on Microsoft's KB site to try and get my camera recognized. Several times. It still didn't work.

At first, it would recognize my device ("USB Hardware detected") but not the driver. Reinstalled the driver and rebooted my computer. Then, it would recognize that I plugged a USB device in, but not that there was hardware attached to it.

I then tried to add the camera manually to the list of imaging devices. It didn't show up on the list of devices, even after I installed the driver - again. I then tried to manually select the driver, but it wouldn't select the file, even though it recognized it.

I gave up.

[3.26.05] I decided to complete avoid the whole Win XP issue (I tried again several times between Feb and Mar) and upload my files on Heather's Mac. Unfortunately, her OS X had crashed, and iPhoto doesn't come on OS 9. So I tried installing the driver for the computer directly from Canon's site, which, incidentally is the most unhelpful place I've ever been to.

Driver downloaded, installed, computer rebooted - great. The Finder gives me a message that "Image Browser software is missing." Why it is missing, I don't know. I didn't even realize that Image Browser was a separate app from the driver. So I unistall the driver, reinstall the driver, also add the Canon plug in to the Photoshop app folder, as well as all of the camera extensions into the Extensions folder.

When I plug it in, it just doesn't do anything. No Image Browser software missing message this time.

I try to find Image Browser via Google, but all I get are upgrades to Image Browser - in Italian! The Canon site only has the upgrade, not the actually program - presumably because it is included in the original .sit file. Well, its not. I even went so far as to install the upgrade, but of course it can't upgrade software that doesn't exist.

At this point, I'm on the verge of giving up, but I do one more thing: I call Nathan. And he says, "Duh, why don't you just buy a USB compact flash card reader?" Duh.

[3.27.05] I head over to Fry's (which I HATE HATE HATE and am only going to out of sheer desperation) and pick up a USB CF reader for a mere $12.99. Wonderful, great. The first time I plug it in with my flash card, it opens it up, takes me to a folder called DCIM/110Canon. Still good. Images are there - even better. Except for the fact that I can't read the images! They are jpeg files, but they're not readable by Windows Picture Viewer, Photoshop, Ofoto software, or IE.

I ping Nathan again:

serena: HELP!
nathan: wha?
serena: i got the cf reader thingy
nathan: but...
serena: but it only gives me pictures that i can't read!
nathan: what file are you in?
serena: DCIM > 110Canon
nathan: hmmm...
serena: totally bizarre but i think i solved my problem
nathan: ?
serena: i started clicking around
serena: and found my pictures
serena: they're in the nikon folder
nathan: wtf?

"WTF" pretty much sums up my entire experience. But now, its finally working - that's all I care about! So look for some back-dated posts for this weekend coming up soon. For now, I've got to go and put my head through a wall.

happy easter

OK, I freely admit that I stole this from Jamie, but its too funny (and bunny) not to poach.



Happy Easter, all!

the sorry state of dating (yawn)

I've decided that text messaging is the new email - in other words, the new chickensh*t way of hitting on someone you like. In fact, its even worse/better, because you don't need to construct a coherent sentence, spell, or even have a real thought.

I've been getting random text messages from guys who are interested, but know I'm not into them. What happened to the good old days of coming by and stalking?? I guess in a way I'm grateful, because I don't need to screen calls or make small talk.

I find this new method of evasive stalking highly ineffective. Which I guess is ok, since, according to today's news, Americans are too tired to have sex anyways.

*Yawn* I need a nap.

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

I just looked. I didn't want to, but I promised myself I wouldn't cheat anymore. 1 lb of bacon is FIFTY FIVE POINTS. Yes, you heard me right. FIFTY FIVE POINTS.

40 days and 40 nights

Today, Lent officially ended, and I celebrated by eating 1.5 lbs of bacon for dinner.

For years, I had thought that Lent ended on Easter Sunday, but yesterday, I actually thought to check, and it ends on Holy Thursday. Miraculously, Miriam didn't have to teach tonight, so we were actually able to have a meal when (a) neither of us weren't exhausted; (b) we weren't trying to fit each other in to our own crazy schedules and (c) it wasn't 10pm at night.

We went back to Korea House, where they have this mysterious pork dish that Miriam was determined to get. The last time we went there, they told us that we could only order two portions of it, not one. ?!?!? This time, we managed to convince us to give us a portion of that, and some kalbi as well.

It turned out that this mysterious pork was essentially Korean bacon. After about 8 pieces, I finally found the flavor combo I liked, and that was the beginning of the end. When we first got the plate, we were like, there's no way we could eat all of it. Well, 1.5 lbs later, we can say we lied.

I ... FEEL ... REALLY ... GROSS.

I have bacon coming out of my skin, my pores, even my eyes. I need to shower... right now. Many times.

musings on red lake

I know its not often that I put up any serious thoughts on my blog, but, like many people, I've been following the coverage of the Red Lake school shootings earlier this week. Today, in particular, I was listening to a radio segment on NPR about how schools can help identify potential shooters, and prevent these massacres from breaking out. By far and away, the consensus by the "experts" were that there should be much more outreach for children - not only the troubled ones who might potentially commit such acts, but also their peers that might report it before it happens.

I'm not disagreeing with these so-called experts, but the thing that struck me the most was the expectation of everyone for the school faculty to be able to either reach out or counsel these children. How do they expect guidance counselors, teachers, school psychologists, and the like, to be able to do that, when they are not offering the compensation that would attract the best and brightest? Now, you all know that I'm hardly a bleeding-heard liberal, but one thing that has always been appalling to me is the low, low salaries of teachers in the US. I know, because once upon a time, I wanted to be a history professor. But ultimately, the hard life and the compensation turned me towards industry, and I know post-docs who are having the same internal struggles right now.

The low compensation of teachers is not only about money and standard of living - its a clear sign of how much we do not value our educators out there. Being a teacher is incredibly rewarding, but with the number of childhood traumas and social issues out there - divorce is on the rise, broken families are the norm, adolescent depression and violence - its also a very tough call. My classmates from Penn, who took teaching jobs in NYC at $36,000/year, all got burnt out and went to non-profits - non-profits! who hardly pay more! The only schools that can afford to pay teachers a smidge more are private schools and and elite, rich surburbias a la Wisteria Lane. And, for the most part, those families have enough money for counseling, or, at the very least, health care.

In Asian countries, teachers are highly respected. And I don't mean just professors with a PhD from Stanford, I mean elementary school teachers. We do not call them by their names in Chinese; in Japan, they add "-san" to the end of their name, as a sign of respect. This is indicative of the very different values of the two cultures. I don't know how much they get paid in Asia, but their social status more than compensates.

At-risk youth have always been my particular hot button - not only do we sponsor several charities that service these youth (Covenant House, Lincoln Child Center), but some of you know my teenage stepsister is an at-risk youth herself. I'm not saying that she's right or justified in doing ANY of the things that she has done, but I can tell you from personal experience that they way they deal with troublemakers who clearly have mental and emotional issues is to punish, punish, punish. Mary sees a psychiatrist AND a social worker, and they are barely getting through. Not only is adolescent psychology a difficult and complicated field, but in many parts of the country, the people who actually hold these jobs are dissatisfied authority freaks who use their position to crush down the children they supposedly serve, rather than having the time, patience or insight to help them. When a psychologist says, "There's no cure, [your sister] is a hopeless case," that's just not right. Isn't it their job to have faith in the young? To not give up?

So... with the low salary of educators, and the defeatist attitude of adolescent psychology specialists, I ask you, how can you ask these people to reach out to prevent massive violence borne of emotional destruction when they can barely care enough to help kids graduate from high school? Until we value our educators more, until we have more insight into the psychology of children, and until we can recruit more passionate people, I would say that the hope of prevention comes only from fear of other attacks, rather than any good intentions.

after-flow

Wow, I thought I was in pain yesterday. But a hard workout + a night of partying = one very painful wakeup call for me this morning.

FLOW went fabulously last night. We didn't expect anything less, considering the lineup that we had. However, it was really nice to see it pull together. Honestly, I was kind of nervous because I wasn't panicking before the party. I couldn't figure out if it was because we'd done it so many times, because everything was good to go, or if it was because a club party is just cake compared to the dance show.

As it turned out, it was all of the above. Club Six remains one of the hottest clubs in SF - and I do mean that literally! It was a sauna downstairs. Luckily, the music upstairs was just as good as the headliners downstairs - 4am really busted out some fun tunes, and Compression is always amazing. Even Toph One said he wouldn't blame me if I decided to stay upstairs and listen to Corey and Jamal, rather than hear him spin.

We did have some fine entertainment in way of a spontaneous b-boy dance contest in the basement, and a Lady-of-the-Dance wannabe trying to outshine the rest of us. But all in all, no brawls, no hassles, no pissed off people, no drama. That's a first for an 09:Babies event! On top of which, we raised over $1,000 for Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, and brought in just shy of 400 peeps to the party.



After the party, Miriam, James and I headed over to Sparky's, where I scarfed down a veggie burger. Yum. I woke up at about 2:00 this afternoon, completely not able to move. But a quick jaunt to Sunset Sauna totally solved that issue. I cooked in the sauna for 1/2 hour before gettting a 1/2 hour massage, and felt good enough afterwards to jump on the elliptical trainer! Not only is it right across the street from me, but also very reasonably priced - only $50 for the whole she-bang.

Sometimes, I really love my neighborhood.

ouch.

"Pain feels so much better than guilt."
- New Balance ad, 2002

Its official: slobby, weenie Serena is gone. I don't know what the hell has been up with me for the last year or so, but gone are the days of not working out because I'm "tired". Of being afraid to push my limits. Of "taking it slow". That kind of attitude keeps one forever squishy.

I woke up this am, went to Pilates, hit the elliptical, and then went to dance for 1.5 hours. I can't move my left leg anymore, and I spent about an hour lying half-conscious in the hallway. But damn, does it feel good to be back.

new beginnings, redux

"I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer."
- Colette, The Last of Cheri, 1926

"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. "
- Anonymous

Its time.

new beginnings. sort of.

I don't know if its the onset of Spring, my new car, or yet another new haircut, but I have started my diet and exercise efforts with renewed vigor. After being sick last week, I spent a 1/2 hour last night on my elliptical trainer, and then another 20 minutes with some free weights. Ohhhh, it feels good to be working out again :-)

Of course, I then totally blew it by chomping down some poppers with Miriam. I check on Weight Watchers today, and they are 4 points EACH!!! Just to put that in perspective for you, my daily points allowance is 20.

I'm gonna have to eat rabbit food and work out every single day this week if I want to drink at FLOW on Saturday night.

introducing minibun

Everyone - say hello to my new car, the MiniBun!

She's SO CUTE!!! I'm going to get little Mini Milanos and mini bottles of water and keep them in there for guests.

just another manic sunday

Despite what the Bible says, Sunday was not a day of rest.

In the morning, we all got dolled up for Miriam's Bday Brunch. I picked Miriam and Paul up in my new Mini, and headed off to Town's End Cafe. We were the sorriest lot of people you'd ever seen: every other person there was sick. However, the food was fabulous - I had a wonderful Portabella Mushroom Benedict, with a side of potato-carrot pancakes - and waiter was ridiculously cute. Besides, it was nice to finally meet a lot of Mi's good friends.

After a short jaunt to the Relax the Back store, I rushed home to prepare for our Spring Potluck Party. To celebrate the imminent arrival of spring, our new furniture, and our Hello Kitty doormat, we invited 25 of our closest friends over. There was more bread than you can ever imagine, Eric-safe pesto, and some very strange going ons.

We don't really know what's going on here, but apparently Megan feels the need to capture her boyfriend being violated.

Fernando is a seal, and a very odd boy.

I told Adrienne that if she belches at the door, we'll let her in to Club Six for free.

Leave us alone! We're sick!

Despite my ear infection, and nearly passing out in the middle of my living room at 8, it was definitely more fun than my Kaplan class.

slip 'n slide

Today, I said goodbye to my little Jetta, and picked up my even littler Mini Cooper. Steve, the new owner, is super nice - he dropped me off at the dealer and even hung out there until the car was ready. I got in, and went to pick up Fernando for a real day trip out to Lake Del Valle to enjoy the weather.

Unfortunately, though, Saturday's weather was just not as nice as it had been the rest of the week. A mere day before, temperatures were up in the mid-80's in San Francisco (!!!). It was only about 68, although the sun was shining.

We stayed at the gorgeous lake for a couple of hours, munching on Quizno's subs while enjoying the tranquility of the water. There were lots of families playing and bbq'ing, and it made me miss my own mommy and my sweet little Bennie. Finally, the clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped, and we ran for cover.

On the way back, we decided to head in to the world's biggest strip mall. Who knew that it would be so much fun? We spent a couple of hours at Border's, just perusing books, and then headed over to Cold Stone Creamery for some gluttonous ice cream treats. Just as we were about to leave, we saw the most excellent thing: a blow up slide!

It was only $3 for 10 minutes, so I dragged Fernando on the slide with the 5 year olds. It was AWESOME - seriously the most fun I've had in years! Sometimes, I wish I were a kid again.

Reinvigorated, we got a slice of pizza, chowed it down, and headed home.

its like swimming without swimming!

Less than a month after I recovered from my horrid flu, I'm sick again with a middle ear infection. Yucky! Gross! I feel like I'm constantly under water (infer from that what you will). The really strange thing about it is that I actually hear better out of my left ear now than I usually do.

I do like having a legitimate excuse to be a stark, raving idiot. Case in point, my exchange with the sales woman at Bella Bridesmaid, as I was getting fitted for my dress:

Saleswoman: Lift your arms up please.
Serena: Oh no! I don't think I shaved! Can you do this with your eyes closed?

But, I swear, we are getting close to picking a bridesmaid dressfor Daysun's wedding. I never thought an experience could be so painful. Daysun's already cried hysterically more than once on this - she has spent more time on our dresses than her own! We finally had to take the process away from her - we're just going to give her our top three choices and call it a day.

BTW, Thread really needs to get either better models or better photographs of their dresses. Anything that looks horrid on the website usually ends up looking pretty damn cute on us. I mean, what is up with the boobs on this chick?

yeah, i know i'm 12...

... but I can't help it. I crack up every time I see this link on Friendster:

http://www.friendster.com/friends.php?statpos=myfriendsbottom

I do like (most of) my friend's bottom. Besides, this is coming from a girl who bought a 59 cent bag of rubber bands with a $100 bill the other day.

Oh, and hey - you guys are coming to :: FLOW :: , right?

We got Vinroc, Zeph, Toph One, and some of my favorite DJ boys - fflood, Wiggy (of course), and Jamal and Corey of Compression. PLUS - we also hooked up with Smocha, a super-cool female DJ (its about f-ing time) and got about 200 bags of lube, condoms, Brush Ups, and aspirin to hand out. Hopefully, some of us will get lucky...

this is why i bought my own elliptical trainer

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/lax/58338673.html

And if you think its just some guy making it up to make "The Best of Craigslist"...

wiggy: i can kinda relate with this guy... but not to that EXTREME
wiggy: i saw some guy drying his nuts off with the hand dryer at 24hr
serena: ew
serena: lol
serena: omg
wiggy: i TOTALLY wanted to say WTF are you doing!?!?!??!
wiggy: then the dryer stopped
wiggy: and he hit start again
wiggy: i was like HOW wet can they BE! JESUS!
serena: wrong! stop!

Poor Wiggins. I'm so glad I'm not a guy.

i miss brawling

Exactly one week after the BnB ticket debacle(s), I've decided that I miss brawling and so am trying to incite one over my car. I'm selling it tomorrow, since my MINI isn't going to be ready until next week :-( I've got three people coming at the same time to see it, all of which said that they're bringing cash in case they like it.

I can't imagine anyone fighting over my car, but hey - anything I can do to get some action in my life, I'll do.

On a side note, I've decided that I'm going to miss my little Jetta. As much as I complain about her these days, she's really served me well, and I love her. She's my first car, I hope to find her a good home.

i'm in love

I *LOVE* my elliptical trainer. Being able to work out at home, while watching Desperate Housewives or 24 on TiVo, then jumping into the shower and my jammies... I'm not sure life can get any better than this! Especially these days, with the rain and the complete lack of time in my complete lack of life.

i have finally mastered the art of email

We sent out our March newsletter blast today, and I think I've finally mastered the art of email! At least, I haven't gotten any of the hate mail that usually follows a blast ;-)

With our domain comes this nifty mailing list manager feature, so I don't have to copy and past 1,000 emails into 10 separate messages. No weird names in the subject line, no emails going out 3 times... I love technology sometimes.

yuck

I just ate something totally gross, yet strangely compelling - well, for the first three bites at least. A garlic danish. Only Chinese people could think of something like that. Yeah, I know - how dumb was I to buy it to begin with?

the stupidlog

I should start a blog just for all the stupid things I do. Case in point:

Putting all my wet clothes in the dryer and running it overnight. Or rather, not running it over night. Then going downstairs to the garage in my underwear, finding a lot of wet clothes, and hiding behind the washing machine in fear that someone will see me.

Lathering up my legs for shaving in the shower, then realizing that the razor is actually in my room. I almost killed myself stumbling out of the shower.

goodbye to the good life!

I knew it had to end some time... After sitting on my butt, taking it easy at work for the last 5 months or so, I've finally been hit with responsibilities again. Grrr. No more showing up at 10, leaving at 5 for me!

Not that I haven't been busy or anything. Stuff with the production group and the show have been keeping me plenty occupied! But work has been... relaxed. I was reveling in the fact that I was finally just a team member again, rather than in a position of responsibility. But we just reorged our department, courtesy of our new CTO, and in doing so, lost a head. All of her projects are now mine.

And, mind you, there's virtually no transition period. We were told this on Thursday, went in to meet our new manager on Friday, and as of today, I get to handle all her stuff. Argh. I guess I need to earn that little MINI after all...

Well, at least they waited until the show was over.