everybody has the right...

I had an interesting weekend. Friday night, I saw Pan's Labyrinth with a few friends. I liked it, but I thought Children of Men was better (see this post).
Saturday I mostly slept in and cleaned up the apartment. later that night, I went to see a student production of Stephen Sondheim's Assassins on campus. it was great! I had been wanting to see it for a long time (ever since I heard Into the Woods probably (one of his other musicals)). and it didn't disappoint. it's a dark comedy about the people who have tried to kill U.S. presidents. it was an interesting take on events, some of which greatly changed the landscape of our country. never underestimate truly crazy people. they can convince themselves of anything. but, as the opening number says, it's a free country - "everybody has a right to be happy...no one can be put in jail for their dreams." we'll see. a couple of the songs have been stuck in my head since I saw it and I doubt they will subside anytime soon.
we lost our opening soccer game on Sunday, but we fought hard and I think once our team becomes a bit more cohesive as the season progresses, we'll continue to improve. go Brilliant! FC!


in other news, the new Shins CD is good, I got a free poster, and it's raining (even though it was a blissful 74 yesterday).

RENT OBC!

omg. I found the best thing ever online yesterday. someone has posted a video (of arguable quality) of a performance of the original broadway cast of RENT. this is something that I just figured I would never get to see. ever. (and no, even though the movie has six of the eight original cast members it's totally not the same thing.) so even though the video isn't great, it is still amazing to me.

(oh, and I'm going to go see it in a couple weeks! the weekend after my birthday. hooray!)

new look, new stuff

ok, so you might have noticed that I have changed the template. with the move to the new version of blogger, I have been able to update and move things around easier. you will notice that I have also updated my travelogue (which is almost finished, all but the last few days are done). another thing I have added is a widget with a feed from my google reader account of things that I think are cool. so check that out. any comments on the new look?

so a new semester has also started. I'm only taking one class, so hopefully I will be able to focus on finishing up my thesis and making some progress with my writing.

it's raining and our first soccer game of the season has been canceled. I am sad because there's no soccer (especially since last night, Jody and I rented the movie Goal! and it got us all pumped for today) but I also really like rain, so it's hard to be too upset. c'est la vie.

half-marathon!

so this past Sunday I ran the PF Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Half Marathon. yep, that's 13.1 miles. I had done one before, about four and a half years ago, but that was so long ago I had kind of forgotten how long that really is. but here's the good news: it went really well! with one caveat: I pulled a muscle around mile 6. so that made the rest of the race a bit slower and more painful than it should have been. when I finished, I felt really good (except for my leg) and not hating life (as I had during and after the previous one).
my mom, step-dad, and uncle also ran the race (and I found out later that my friend Todd ran it also) so that was kind of nice. I ran the first two miles with my uncle because I luckily ran into him before the race started. the rest of the race I was on my own, with my lovely little iPod shuffle to provide some inspiration [at one point, Ok Go came on just as I needed a bit of a boost and the image of that hilarious treadmill routine really helped]. towards the end, Jody, Hwi, Katie, Angel, and Michael were waiting for me to cheer me on to the end. :) it was great to see them and give me a final push for a strong finish.



afterwards, everyone came back to my apartment for some lunch. later, some of us headed over to Jody's and spent the rest of the day in the hot tub and watched some movies. I spent most of yesterday on the couch being really sore. today it is much better and I think I'll be able to play soccer on Thursday. so that's great! thanks everyone for your encouragement!

children of men

on Saturday Jody and I went to see the new movie "Children of Men", directed by Alfonso Cuaron. first of all, it was amazing. second of all, it was hard to watch. but not necessarily in a bad way. the movie was so intense, engrossing, and realistic that you really believed what was happening. however, this futuristic society that is imagined in the film is extremely disturbing and violent. one of the most disturbing things is that if the world was faced with this premise, that we could no longer conceive children, it would most certainly descend into some kind of chaotic world, where hope no longer seems possible.
the cinematography was absolutely amazing. there were two long shots in particular that were chilling. the lack of editing on these sequences makes you feel uncomfortable, which adds to the drama of what's happening on screen.
it was an excellent film. you should go see it (unless, of course, you're one of those people who prefer only happy fuzzy warm movies. this is not for you.)

oh, and that cover of "ruby tuesday" fits perfectly. well done on the soundtrack.

happy new year!

wow 2007 is here already. that is totally crazy. the years are just whizzing by. and we still don't have rocket packs or those cars from the Jetsons (best cartoon ever). and I guess Ray Bradbury was a bit off too since we're nowhere near being on Mars.

so yeah. I guess I'm not making any resolutions this year. I'm still working on the ones from last year and those were good, so I don't see any reason on changing them. my immediate concern is really with getting ready for the half-marathon which is in a week and a half (the 14th). I procrastinate waaayy too much and it's creeping up on me. so we'll see what happens. I am confident that I can finish it, I just don't know how painful or difficult it is going to be to do it. I think I will be able to feel good if it's easier than it was last time (both in terms of during the race and recovering afterward), which was about four and a half years ago.

the perfect christmas gift

oh, if only I had received this for Christmas instead... (hehe)

btw, I'm back in Phoenix and already back to work. *sigh* lots to do. big big meeting on the 10th that we need to prepare for. also, training for the half-marathon which is in two weeks (yikes!). oh, and I need to work on my thesis. right.

nerdy math crafts

hehe. wow this is super nerdy. I love it. I want to knit a hyperbolic plane!

merry christmas!

I hope everyone had a nice holiday. mine was surprisingly pleasant and pain-free. which is good. I got a bunch of books (one Vonnegut and some others on physics), some music, some jewelry, an audio recording device (for the interviews and other stuff I will have to do for my dissertation research), and lots of gift cards. oh, and an iPod shuffle (which is awesome - thanks Jody!). I also had lots of good food and spent some quality time with the family. the one down-side was the weather: it was quite warm - like almost 80. another typical southern california christmas and kind of hilarious when I think of other parts of the country that are snowed in. while it is nice, it also makes it hard to believe that it's winter.

something to think about

I ran across this interesting article yesterday from marketwatch.com about the wealth gap in the world. I think especially at this time of year when we're seemingly ready to just buy buy buy whatever we feel we "need", it puts up a bit of perspective at just lucky we are to be where we are.

some Christmas spirit

(and an excuse to procrastinate a little bit instead of writing a paper.)
I am starting to get into the Christmas spirit. the semester is winding down (I am currently working on my final paper for one class) and everyone is starting to talk about plans for the break. Hwi and I put up some Christmas lights in our apartment the other day, I watched Miracle on 34th street last night (the second half in color and then the first half in black and white), and I keep getting phone calls and emails asking what I want for Christmas (for the record, peace on earth and good will towards ALL people would be nice). also, today's New York Times had an article about the house that was featured in one of my favorite Christmas movies, A Christmas Story. also, for another laugh, check this parody out.

almost there...

so it's December already. how did that happen? and why did it take so long? anyway, I have about a week or so left of the semester (my one and only paper is due on Wednesday, but I have other stuff to do until probably the 15th). I am really looking forward to getting some work done on my thesis over the break. I have a presentation to do the week before classes begin again and then there's a big conference in San Diego that I'm going to towards the end of February. so that will be good. I have a lot of work still to do, but I am making tons of progress and it is going really well I think.

Thanksgiving was pretty nice last week. I drove to LA to see the fam. the driving part was not exactly the most painless it has been (going there, I ran into a ridiculous amount of traffic once I hit LA - of course). but it was good to see everybody and dinner was great. I came back just in time to go out for Lynn's birthday last week.

in other news, I really like this "new" Beatles cd, LOVE. it is from the Cirque du Soleil show and although I was hesitant at first, I am really digging it. it is a new and interesting take on some of my favorite songs. they mostly fooled around with transitions between songs and didn't screw with the actual songs too much in most cases, which I think was wise.

ucla student tasered

ok this is making me really angry. and disturbed. and worried. it's not good.
here is the link to the story from the Daily Bruin after it happened (the incident was this past tuesday). there weren't a lot of details at that time, but it still pissed me off. then I saw that someone had actually posted the video from their cellphone that they took while it was happening. after watching that, I felt kind of sick. it is a very disturbing video. you can hear him screaming and the officers yelling at him. it is not good. the students that were around were trying to get information (like their badge numbers and names) from the officers, but they threatened them with the taser instead of giving them the information.
today's LA Times had another article; the student is going to sue. there are more details in this article, especially the student's side of the story. I just hope that something good comes out of this. this is totally insane. what is going on with our country? (and the world?)

life + research = research

today's PhD Comic seemed especially relevant to how I feel about my research right now. *sigh*. for reals.
at least I like what I'm doing. and I seem to be able to get an OK amount of sleep this semester. but still. yeah.

Bill Clinton!

well I had a bit of a fun surprise today. in the middle of a meeting I get an IM from Angel saying that Bill Clinton is coming to campus today and do I want to go? well, of course, yes, I do. so we walked over to the library lawn where it was all set up. and waited. and waited. finally some of the other democrat local candidates spoke and it was nice. and then we waited some more. (I would like to mention that Angel remembered the wrong time, so that made it even longer, but oh well.) finally, Bill Clinton showed up (along with Harry Mitchell and Jim Pederson) and gave a great speech. it was great to see all of us young college-aged (or post-college-aged) students out there cheering on the democrats. only five days until the election. don't forget to vote! this is the most important thing you can do as a citizen in a democratic country - don't take it for granted.

here's a couple pictures I got from my phone. they're not too great, but here they are anyway (if you click on them to make them bigger it is easier to see him).

happy halloween!

so it's Tuesday. and it's Halloween. and I don't really feel like it's today. everyone had parties over the weekend, so that was more of the holiday for me. it was lots of fun. for my costume, I made a dress out of those blue bags from IKEA. I thought it was pretty clever, because I am obsessed with IKEA and love it to pieces, so it is sort of a crazy IKEA fan costume in some respects. everyone really liked it, which was cool. it was sort of born out of a need to do something creative and Project Runway no longer being on that drove me last wednesday night to go out and buy a sewing machine so I could construct the dress. it took a bit longer than I was expecting, but that is mostly because I got a really crappy cheap sewing machine. it works relatively well for what I paid for it, so I'm not actually complaining.

Jody dressed up as a Gumby from Monty Python's Flying Circus TV series. not many people actually knew what that meant, so he didn't get as good of a reaction as we were hoping, but I will say that he looked awesome and had the voice down and everything. for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, here's a link to a compilation of some of the finer Gumby moments from the Flying Circus.

here are pictures from the party at Katie, Angel, and Rosa's house on saturday (via my Google photo page):

Halloween 06

if you prefer Flickr, you can check out the pictures there as well: http://www.flickr.com/photos/astrogirl720/sets/

I had a weekend

well, last week was fairly crazy. not as bad as the previous week, but they are definitely keeping me busy here. at least the weather is beautiful now. sooo nice. really makes up for the insane summer.
friday evening we ended up going bowling. it was lots of fun. I hadn't been in a really long time, but somehow still managed to do well. Angel and Rosa didn't fare as well and Jody had to bowl left handed due to his shoulder injury, but he still did pretty good. anyway, it was fun. we should go again soon.
saturday, Jody taught me how to drive a manual transmission. so that was fun. I think I got the hang of it, driving around the parking lot. I think after another practice session I'll be ready for the harsh streets of Tempe. heh. I'm glad I finally learned. I had been trying for such a long time. people kept telling me they would teach me (ahem, jpg) but I never got around to it. so yay for that. it wasn't so hard.
saturday night angel tried to arrange a group outing to see tim burton's nightmare before christmas in 3D. without going into all the gory details, let's just say that the planning didn't go over so well as one person got left at home (due to some miscommunication) and we got into the movie late (angel had everyone's tickets and he was late), had to go find the 3D glasses from some clueless movie theatre employee and had to sit in the second row. ugh. but, the movie was good, so I guess that mostly makes up for it. well, that and the glasses were seriously hilarious. they made everyone look like either a bug or elton john.

sunday I slept in a bit, then got some work done. at our soccer game last night, I scored the one and only goal. so hooray for that. it felt good to win for a change. our team has a bunch of new players this season and we're trying to get used to all the new playing styles and positions and everything. I think it's starting to come together so hopefullly the rest of the season goes as well as last night's game. everyone did a great job, with the passing and defense and all that. go brilliant fc!


and in other news, here's a shout out to Jeremy Cogan, who was quoted in today's New York Times article on a fantasy Congress game. hehe.

Jesus, etc. indeed

one of my favorite blogs posted a love letter to Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot last week and I just had to share.

I am currently writing my second proposal of the week (although I'm not actually finished with the first one - final version isn't due until Friday). it's going to be a fun week! lol.

welcome to the Grand Canyon state (officially)

so, as of today I am officially no longer a Californian (as far as I am concerned). I finally went in and got my Arizona drivers license. it was ridiculously easy and didn't take very long (although I am glad I had my book to read). the thing is good until I'm like 65 years old or something crazy like that. so yeah. I'm a "zonie" or whatever. at least I won't have people looking at my CA drivers license all funny now (not only does it look fake because of all of the hologram stuff on it, but the picture I had on there was from when I first got my license when I was sixteen. so times have changed).

in other news, our soccer team is doing ok. we are trying to adjust to all of our new players and I think considering all of that, we are doing really well. we are fighting hard, but still playing fair (unlike some of the other teams in our league), and in general it is going well. we will keep getting better. :)

"but I am le tired..."

yeah I'm exhausted. I need to sleep. yesterday I had one of those all day meetings (9:30am to 5pm). luckily they gave us lunch and coffee throughout the day as needed. which I definitely needed because I only got about 3 hours of sleep the night before. totally couldn't fall asleep. soo annoying. so I figured that I would be able to sleep just fine last night. but, no, of course not. I probably got about four hours. ugh. somehow I did make it through today, though. but now it is time to sleep.

sorry about the sleep talk. it's one of the most important things in grad school, so really there's not much else to talk about. heh.

and for those of you not cool enough (or weren't around two years ago when we were quoting it everyday) to understand the title reference, here you go: http://www.endofworld.net/. enjoy!