time

okay. there is a list of projects that i've been meaning to start or continue when i have time off, but i haven't touched any of it now that i actually have time off. i think i've found the problem - i'm spending WAY too much time on the internet. i've been at my computer ALL DAY today. it's excessive. so i've worked up a new plan, a kind of schedule, that will force me to limit the number of hours i get to go online each day. i've already reacquainted myself with the "off-power" function on the television when i find myself channel-surfing because there's nothing watchable. and now that YOU know i'm on this new plan, whether you care or not, self-restraint will be better enforced. isn't it funny how it works? if people know about something you've set for yourself, you stick to it better. it makes the thing more real than if it's only in your head, i guess.

coast of utopia

a couple of nights ago, b and i saw the first part of coast of utopia, the new tom stoppard trilogy. since it was opening night, we dressed up for it. just a little. it's something fun to do but only once in a while. as we were walking into the theatre, we passed by martha stewart! we saw other people who looked familiar, but we weren't sure who they were exactly. the play was brilliant - the philosophical jargon might've been over my head but i felt the same as when i would read something brilliant - there's a certain gravity and grace to it. the opening sequence of a piece of fabric billowing on the stage floor to imitate ocean waves and then sucked through a hole, leading to the first act, was breathtaking. the actors were all phenomenal. on our way to the after-party, tom stoppard actually walked with us, or rather with sarah ruhl, the writer of the play b is working on, the clean house. i saw the run of it, which had some problems in terms of performance since it was still in the working stages, but it was still fantastic. basically, we were walking in the presence of two geniuses. it was quite exhilarating and definitely humbling. it's nice to feel humble.

thanksgiving

whew. the cooking and feasting has ended. almost. leftovers. but yummy leftovers because the meal turned out quite beautifully. among the 4 of us, we had an 8-lb chicken (which my sister named the sumo-chicken), ham, apple-sausage stuffing, zucchini soup, focaccia, cornbread, collards, mac & cheese, butternut squash, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy, and, of course, pumpkin pie. i miss cooking so much since i've been in new york - my dad likes to cook as well and has been cooking dinner EVERY NIGHT since i've been here. but he couldn't come to thanksgiving, and we demanded to cook the meal anyway. i loved it. i want to cook more despite the overflow of food in our fridge. most of the foods we had last night had been my first attempt, and we were relieved that everything turned out so well. okay, so the stuffing was a little burned on the bottom, but things could been a lot worse. one person was worried about the gravy because it's an essential addition to mashed potatoes, his favorite. i was determined to make it from the pan drippings as opposed to a box, which he has never done before. at the end, there were no mishaps, and we gorged in good company. thanksgiving couldn't have been better. hope you had a wonderful holiday as well.

hunger

with thanksgiving coming up where the average american is going to nearly gorge his/herself to death (i admit i'll be one of those people because i cook delicious food), there are still a lot of people who go hungry everyday in this country, including children. as if this very situation isn't inhumane enough for one of the wealthiest countries in the world, the u.s. agricultural department has decided to rid the term 'hunger' in its recent report on americans struggling to feed themselves and their families.

the terms 'low food security' and 'very low food security' have replaced 'food insecurity without hunger' and 'food insecurity with hunger' to describe the 35 million americans who have a difficult time getting enough to eat. uh, so should we now refer to poverty as 'low financial security' and 'very low financial security'? what better way to resolve the issue of hunger than to simply throw out the word? let's also throw out 'peace' so we won't have to pursue it anymore. (but then, what else would beauty queens want more than anything else in the world? hm...)

redefining a situation doesn't get rid of it. hunger, no matter how you want to word it, exists. not that you should feed everyone this holiday but be thankful that you're not struggling with hunger.

if you want to help, contact your local charity center to locate your nearest community soup kitchen. for new yorkers, contact new york city coalition against hunger - http://www.nyccah.org/index.html.

coffee stain 1

evidence of my addiction to coffee. i love tea, don't care for sodas, but am addicted to coffee.

politics

i'm not very good at discussing politics - i don't know enough to hold a truly intelligent conversation on the subject, and i get too emotional over certain issues. but still, i feel that we're experiencing a seachange. when bush was re-elected, i felt doom, no goodness at all. a seachange holds a glimmer of hope, that goodness can happen. but i'm skeptical considering how conservative with social issues the democratics had been moving. i can only hope that they were merely doing it to win back the ignorant populace, and now that they have regained some sort of power, they will distinguish themselves once again from the republicans.

it's been a season of irony with the sex scandals revealed among the republicans. i love that they will now all go to hell, as they all claim to believe to happen to homosexuals. i do feel bad for the humiliation their families are facing for their mistakes. the importance of being earnest.

baltimore/dc

i'm spending the week in baltimore. the city has such character - there are tons of decrepit buildings and awesome murals that i'm dying to take pictures of. i want to walk around the area where i'm staying with friends and try to get these pictures before leaving. visiting new places is always such a source of inspiration.

well, except dc. we walked from georgetown into the mall today, and there was only one building i kind of wanted to take a picture of but then didn't. dc is always so grey when i'm there, and the buidlings kind of blend in with the weather. when i do see cool stuff, like boldly colored row houses, we're in the car, and i'm not yet skilled enough to get my camera set up to take pictures quickly. i was also disappointed that the national gallery didn't have a photography section. maybe that's why i was so uninspired by dc. how can the national gallery not have a photography section? i hope we just missed it, not that the gallery didn't have one. it would be too sad if the latter was the case.

but we did see this one piece composed of mussel shells glued to a square canvas. for some reason, my friend and i were both drawn to it. i loved the green paint that blotted some of the insides of the shells to give them a sense of freshness, almost invoking the smell of the ocean. also, the dark, black/grey shells in 3-dimension made me think of an industrious city - metal/steel structures that evolve into skyscrapers, dirt and grime covering surface, smoke creating a layer of grey blanket that covers the city - and the fishing industry that is threatening ocean life. the splashes of green represents to me the few trees/greenery that manage to survive in this environment, as many cities have planted trees along streets and have created small parks, and also the beautiful spots in the ocean are still untouched by the spoils of human demands. the juxtaposition of the colors and textures characterizes the struggle between nature and human creations. the irony is that human beings are nature's creations, and sometimes i think that our supposed destruction of the planet is part of nature's plan.

or it's getting late and i'm just babbling because i really need to get some sleep after a long day...

opera

b and i saw madame butterfly at the met opera last night. it was my first opera, and i loved the experience. b was only able to get standing tickets which put us about as far from the stage as possible. our standing spaces were really tight so everyone had to crowd up to their little monitors with the translations. then, about halfway through the 1st act, i almost passed out. i'm not sure if it was the crowding or if i had been a little dehydrated. i had to sit down for a while before standing back up to watch the rest of the 1st act.

during the intermission, b and i were just standing in our spots, waiting for the show to come back on. a couple came up to us and offered us their tickets. they had seats, not very far from where we were standing but seats nonetheless. i couldn't believe our luck. i wasn't sure if i would've been able to stand through the rest of the performance. they were from out of town, and one of them weren't feeling well. they were so kind in the way they approached us that i knew immediately that they weren't new yorkers. they were too chatty to be new yorkers. no offense because new yorkers can be extremely kind as well. a man standing just one person away from me on the train fainted this morning. thankfully, he came around quickly. everyone offered suggestions to let him rest and get air. a woman offered him her (unopened) bottle of water. but new yorkers won't stay around to chat. they're all in a hurry to get somewhere. these visitors took the time to ask us where we were from and talked. a new yorker would've kindly offered us the tickets and said good night.

the opera itself was stunning. the story is about as messed up as it can possibly get, loaded with social/cultural/gender complexities. the singing was incredible. the costumes were so beautiful, even from where we sat. the set was minimalist but very creative in the way the space was used. the direction was very clever. it was overall genius. i definitely want to take advantage of the cheap tickets that the new general manager has started to entice more patrons.