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Wow, someone is even more into Xiaolin Showdown than me! Check out all the details. This is not a simplistic show when you get into it.

Thursday Already?

Truth be told, I had a panic attack on Tuesday, terrified about what the hell I was doing with no job, and the new job not going to be full-time till September, and it looking like the people I am doing freelance for are not going to be able to pay me as much as they promised. (This despite the fact that I could be unemployed with no income at all till probably the end of the year if I really had to. And September is only 2 months away.)

So I had a little meltdown. I basically stayed in the house and lost it a little bit. I goofed off online and watched a whole lot of tv. Xiaolin Showdown was very reassuring.

I guess it's another good reason I'm teaching so many classes; they force me to get out of the house and interact at least on some level with other people (yelling at sweating women on stationary bicycles, cruising the hot-hot-hot new personal trainer at the Clarendon branch).

Yesterday I went and picked up my tickets to the Sci-fi show. The seats aren't too bad; not great either. I'm having trouble finding people to go with me. Everyone seems to be out of town, most of them at weddings. Argh, all you gay people going to weddings!? (R. is going to a Mormon wedding). I know how we could get this whole marriage thing taken care of: all gay men everywhere refuse to have anything to do with weddings. Just go on strike. The industry would grind to a halt, the Bridezillas would have one enormous hissy-fit, order their politician daddies to "Let the gays marry already! I need my centerpieces!" Problem solved!

So today I'm definitely taking the laptop out to the coffee place too.

What a job

The news on NPR is all about Warren Buffett giving his billions to the Gates Foundation. The idea boggles the mind, because you can't just throw money at things. I would be obsessed with preventing corruption and people lining their pockets on the way to actually helping people who need the help.

As I think more about it, I think I would go with Warren and if I was going to give it away, have somone else handle it, because I would get all uptight otherwise.

Or else I would just become a supervillain! I'd buy my own independent island, build a palatial high-tech solar powered castle, then populate it with my own harem of gorgeous male model/ninja assassins and full of high-tech gadgets. Beyond that I better not fantasize, since the NSA is probably already reading my blog.

Work

Been emailing with my future employer and everything seems to be falling into place (crossing fingers). I'll start July 17th (woo hoo! another week of vacation! He had to wist my arm on that one... good thing I have been frugal and my cash situation is -- somewhat surprisingly -- ok) and ramp up to full time by fall. Still some details to work out, though.

I won!

Late last week I kept hearing this promo on WETA about an upcoming concert at Wolf Trap hosted by Leonard Nimoy (!), where they would play sci-fi themes and Holst's The Planets, which is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music (Jupiter still gives me a pleasant chill).

Anyway, you could win tickets by writing an essay about your favorite sci-fi character, 100 words or less, and the rules also said We will pick the winners based on meaningfulness, appeal to general public and potential for on-air readability.

So I picked Captain Janeway. And, I, um, deliberately camped it up. Really, I don't normally write like this...

"At ease, Mister Kim, before you sprain something!" This was uttered by Kathryn Janeway, Captain of the Starship Voyager, and the fourth in a line of immortal characters who were the heart of their Star Trek series. Kirk, Picard, Sisko: all were larger than life, but here was a woman at the helm, commanding a Starship. With hands on hips and hair in that famous, imperious bun, she was drill sergeant and mother hen, with a dash of Kate Hepburn thrown in. She kept her crew together and brought them home from the other side of the galaxy. Borg, beware!

Oops! I guess if you didn't read the headline, you don't know, they called me today and picked my silly essay! I get 4 tickets, and they are apparently going to read it either on air or at the concert. R. is unfortunately going to be out of town. Who else to ask?

Rain

It's been raining here for days, more than making up for a dry spell. Of course, the ground can't absorb all the rain coming so fast, so we have flooding all over the DC area. Glad I don't have to commute to work today, as part of the Beltway is shut down. Some Metro stations are closed too, but I don't think it affects the stations I'll need to get to a spin class I'm subbing today at noon.

I actually went out to brunch yesterday with Steven, Tomoko and Robert. It was at Mimi's, a nice, a place downtown that I haven't been to before.

If I start the new job when I'm asking, my vacation/recouperation is more than half over already. I feel like I haven't gotten anything done.

Today I need to finish up a project that I promised for today, go off to that class, and maybe hang out at a coffee place if the weather isn't too awful. Right now I'm waiting for the coffee to kick in before I get to work. A shower would probably feel good too; I'm one of those people who feels grubby if I don't have a shower first thing in the morning, even on weekends.

Addendum: when I typed the title to this entry, I was thinking of the song Rain by Madonna. Today at the grocery... I heard it playing on the speakers.

Sleeeepy

Back from class and very sleepy for some reason. Think I need to make some coffee.

But first, a quick post. I was thinking how Raimundo's posture looks kind of weird with his shoulders thrown way back like that, but then in the kitchen this morning, I happened to look at a picture on my calendar. Well, well. Here we have three real-life models with their shoulders all thrown back!

On an unrelated note, I came upon this bio of Tara Strong, who does Omi's voice. She's quite the experienced voice actor! (And what a sad note about the original voice of Timmy Turner.)

Fixed!

Apologies to all you readers out there who use IE for the PeeCee. Apparently one of the pictures of the hot-hot-hot Asian model was too hot for your browser, and it kept crashing it. Thanks to Chomiji for bringing it to my attention, and Enviroboi for helping to figure out the problem!

So I resaved the pics into one, and forced Photoshop to re-size it slightly. Hopefully he won't give us any more trouble. Click on the pic to make him, um, bigger. (Does anyone but me have the issue whree sometimes you click the picture and you get a page of gobbledy-gook text? Argh.)

It's all Larry's fault!

Now I'm Googling Chinese swimmers. Wu Peng!

More Xiaolin Showdown!

It occurred to me this morning... R. is Chinese and short and has kind of a round head (and a very short buzz cut) kind of like Omi. R. talks like a surfer kind of like Raimundo. Coincidence or subliminality?

Swimwear

Larry's a sweetie He said when he saw this picture he thought immediately of me. I wonder why? We agree the one on the left is the hottest, with his Michael Phelps-esque low-rise suit and mischievous face. The others all look a little too... earnest

Xiaolin Showdown!

Signs that I am watching too much Xiaolin Showdown (or I am just not getting out enough). (Raimundo is on the left; Omi is the little yellow one with the round head).

1. Raimundo has graduated from cute to hot, and he's just an abstract cartoon Brazilian boy.
2. I am talking to myself like Omi, with bad Chinese accent "This is most disturbing!" (and Omi -- like Bart Simpson -- is apparently voiced by a girl.)
3. Omi's tighty-whiteys (people keep pulling his pants down) are cute.
4. I am starting to remember the Shen-gong-wu from episode to episode. ("Orb of Tornami!" "Reversing Mirror!")
5. I am getting used to Dojo (a three-foot-long, 1500 year old Chinese dragon) having the voice of Wayne Knight, and I'm not constantly thinking of Nedry...

Weird Dreams Again

Last night I had another one of those bizarro dreams. In this case, the rest of the old Board of Directors of ICE (Pete, Bruce, Coleman, and Rick) came to my apartment (which was a fabulous penthouse, by the way) and told me they wanted to hire me back. The catch was that they wanted to hire me back not at ICE but to the place I just resigned from! It was also some kind of a trap where the company wanted to hire me only so they could fire me for some reason. They sent the guys on the board to convince me to come back (in my dream they were some sort of middle managers at this company), even though they knew about the trick and were trying to warn me. Apparently they were being forced to be there, and I was somehow contractually bound to go back. It was disturbing.

Time for bed?

Two G&T's down and I'm watching Tommy and Joseph doing Easy as Life again. I just love Tommy's dancing in this one, and I guess it reminds me of a few years back when I first came to DC and I actually went out dancing pretty often.

Then something triggered a memory further back: my first year at college. Much to the surpise of almost everyone who knew me (my mother, my father, my guidance counselor...) I got in to U.Va early admission, to the Architecture School (oh and my mother later also told me she was surprised I didn't come crying home to Pittsburgh within a week, homesick. Hah!).

Anyway, I remember one of my first excursions with my roomate Joe and his female friend Kiki (they were both from nearby Culpeper, so this area wasn't new and strange to them). We went down to the famous Corner, down Elliewood Avenue (indeed lined with huge wonderful trees) and had lunch at a place called Krishna's Kitchen. It was vegetarian and exotic to me, but fun.

Though Elliewood has gotten more built up, I am glad to see that Blue Wheel Bikes (where I bought a few bikes myself) and the immediate successor to KK, Martha's Cafe, are still there. (more C'ville pics here

I have so many memories from that first year, being on my own for the first time. The Lile-Maupin arena, all my interesting suite-mates (Mike, Louis, PJ and his Mark-Spitz roomate, Jim, Jake Savage), Oscar, first discovering RPGs. I was terrified and thrilled all the time.

Time shifting

One of the cool things about my RadioShark is that I can set it to build in a buffer. As it happens, we only have one classical music station left in the DC area (WETA having gone to almost all talk) and it is commercial. And most of those commercials are really annoying. So, once I boot up the Radioshark, I pause it for a few minutes to build in a buffer then let it go. When I hit commercials, I fast forward (just like on TiVo!) till I get back to the dj (yes that is one reason I listen to the radio some times instead of just tapping my huge classical library in iTunes; I actually like to hear the announcer talk about the music, and to even hear a little weather report once in awhile. That way I still feel a *little* connected to the real world).

NPR : Health Cuts Create Dilemma for Tennessee's Poor

Maybe I'm being petty, but this woman who says she can't afford $28 to pay for her antibiotics (because Tennessee will only pay for 5 prescription meds a month for her) has a nicer fridge than I do. I bought a cheaper fridge than that one because I thought it was a luxury I didn't need.

Oh and before you say "Oh, that poor woman needs a side-by-side with in-door water and ice dispenser because she is wheelchair-bound," in the story it says she can get out of that wheelchair when she needs to. Maybe she should get out of it a little more often and lose a little weight, then maybe she wouldn't need the incontinence meds or one of the others for her weight-related problems.

Ouch, I'm in a bitchy mood! If there's a hell, I'm on my way.

It's summer, and that means...

Gin & Tonics! I made my first-ever trip to an Arlington ABC store today (in Virginia, they sell hard likker only from state-owned stores; wine and beer is sold in groceries). I am a bit of a brand-whore, and I have to admit that I find the TonySinclair ads for Tanqueray to be hilarious, but they were having a sale on Bombay (who knew that ABC stores had sales!?) so I got that instead.

I'll have to pick up the tonic and some limes at the store later on. Back to work!

Xiaolin Showdown!

I find the theme strangely hypnotic... Here it is!

When researching it, I discovered that it was apparently written by Chris Vrenna, former member of Nine Inch Nails.

I also thought that the voice of Dojo the dragon was familiar: it's Wayne Knight, of 3rd Rock, Seinfeld and Jurassic Park fame.

Cartoons

There are two animated shows that I think are fun, and are quite different from each other. The first is Avatar: The Last Airbender, a beautiful, quasi-anime show with a long ongoing plot and complex history and characters. I wish I had the committment to watch it on a regular basis, but it's just too much work.

The other is Xiaolin Showdown, which is complete kiddie fluff. (Okay, I have a little bit of thing for Raimundo...)

I'm procrastinating!

I found some pictures of Sci-fi stars at relatively recent conventions (in case you are wondering, I was curious to see what Cirroc Lofton looks like now; when he played Jake Sisko on Deep Space Nine I thought he was a cute kid who grew up into a very handsome young man).

Well here he is. Looks like that hair kept receding, but he's still nice looking. And there's Nana Visitor (Kira) and from Earth: FInal Conflict here is Leni Parker who played the lead Taelon, Da'an. I'd never seen her without the makeup.