Beethoven was a Playah! :
Funny webpage I came across - His theory was that Beethoven was a mack-daddy.
Back home now.

Boy am I tired, but glad to be back with the family. The plane ride for once was smooth. I got on the plane, it took off on time, landed on time, and I got off the plane. This is , by an order of magnitude, better than getting to the airport, waiting for 4 hours, flying to chicago, getting snowed in, waiting another 4 hours ... you get the picture.

I am really tired - had a rough night last night and couldn't get to sleep. Today I had to park my car at my friend Jeff's apartment out in Tyson's Corner, and then had to hike for half an hour back to the Metro station to get back. Did some essential research in the library, and then did some panic last minute clean-up-the-apartment-and-pack-for-3-week-trip. Was mostly successful, I think i packed everything I needed, I cleaned all the dishes and didn't leave any food out / cleared the fridge of anything that might go bad. Stupid thing was, I forgot to take out the trash. Of everything to forget. Anyways, I only left 30 min later than I should have, and didn't miss my flight. Thanks, Amy for getting there on time and standing in line for me! As an aside, Amy just got her hair dyed, and I think she feels really bad about it, but I think Amy is a beautiful girl - her changed hair color doesn't really change her overall looks much, but she looks great as ever. I kinda like the red streaks.

...[running out of batteries on my laptop - will finish later]...

I slept in this morning - the first time in a long time, and I'm still tired. I think I'm becoming dependent on coffee. Had Steve and Jenny over last night for dinner. I cooked some slightly bland but otherwise good fried rice. Then afterwards Amy and I went out to Tysons Corner to hang out and to laugh at Jeff's antics.

Some random internet stuff for you:

Get Fuzzy is a funny comic strip. It's drawn by a Zumbye Alumn. Here, Satchel reflects my sentiments exactly - I love cheese!

And here is an article that pisses me off. The (environmentally and traffic friendly) trend of ride-sharing is aparently pissing Ford off because people don't wear their cars down as fast, and consequently they can't sell as many cars. They're complaining to congress that it's a bad thing, and they're asking for a law to make it illegal to drive with more than 1 person in a car (!!?!). Guess who's also testifying? Exxon Mobil. This is one of the many reasons that business should get the hell out of politics. [Addendum: Amy graciously pointed out to me that this is a PARODY article. Doh!]

First, God forbid that this should be interpreted as a solicitation for gifts (a la the Webcam whores* out there). Instead, this is an unambigous hint-drop to those who were planning on getting me stuff this holiday season (you know who you are), and for those who were not planning, to get a glimps of my personality based on my tastes and prefrences (that's a econ term for you econ-nerds out there. For bonus points, see if you can derive my utility function). Also, as a caveat, trying to avoid participation in the materialistic culture, I really don't want anything. I would be just as happy if I didn't recieve anything, but my family and gift-giving inclined friends just loved me all the same, but if you must bend to tradition, and spend money, might as well spend it on something that will maximize my utility:

1. Digital camera. I love taking pictures indescriminately. Unfortuanatly, I also lose cameras indescriminately. My last camera, I left in a cab in Hong Kong, rushing to a wedding. I'd like to replace it. I'm looking for something that puts out good quality, but is very compact, so that I can take it around wherever. I figure that I'll save my high-quality picture taking for my SLR. Here are some cool ones: here , and here .

2. Climbing gear. Climbing has become my on-and-off again physical hobby, much like TKD was back in college. I'm trying to be more diligent in sticking with it despite a lack of free time, especially since I'm no longer living somewhere flat. There's quite a bit of outdoor climbing here in the DC area, and I'd like to take advantage of it, but it requires some gear: like a rope, an ATC, and two or three carbeeners.

3. MP3 Adapter for my Clie. Proven by Amy that an MP3 Player is a winner, it would be cool to listen to music on the run.

4. A new wallet. Mine was lost two weeks ago :(

5. Running Shoes. I have a pair of New Balance sneakers that look nice that I bought in HK, but I think they're more of the "look good around town" type rather than "lets run a 10K" type of shoes. Asics makes good quality running shoes that seem reasonably priced. This seems like a cool shoe, but I'd probably have to try it on, and there's probably a much cheaper priced one at the store.

6. Warcraft III. I'm not usually a gamer. Actually, I am very decidedly not a gamer, but every now and then computer games are fun. Warcraft III is the next in a series of a game that I used to really like.

7. Books: The Rise to Globalism. This is actually a book that I read recently for my American Foreign Policy exam, but it's a great reference book to have about modern American history.

8. Poet's ruffle shirt

Wow. This is hot!

More to be added later...

---

* A Webcam whore is a recent internet phenomenum out there where middle-class preteen girls put up websites, blogs, and a webcam, and deliberately attract a following of (presumably) middle-aged sexually repressed/deprived males who become fans and then eventually benefactors. What happens is that these pre-teen girls will put up Amazon wishlists, or take direct Pay-pal donations in exchange for "showing a bit of skin" or "bringing their friends over". In effect, they are selling sex for material goods or money. It's sick, dangerous and detrimental to the girl, and a negative effect of the internet revolution.
Whew - I'm done with school for this semester... Actually I was done as of 5pm yesterday (6 hours of exams! all essays, all writing) - but I've been too uptight, trying to unwind - it's funny how stress is residual. Anyways, the end of school went well. The exams were difficult, but I think it was _okay_. After my last exam, we went out for drinks with my Asia IR prof. He's a retired foreign service stud. He spent the whole time recounting stories. This guy was amazing - he started off in Taiwan in the early 60's, worked at the Saigon Embassy during the Tet offensive (10 Vietcong breached the outer wall of the Embassy Compound while he was there (though not in the Embassy itself)). Then he went to Japan, Norway, Hong Kong (right after Tiananmen). Anyways, it was cool to hear old war stories.

Today was my still-stressed-out-trying-to-unwind day. It didn't help that the weather outside sucked, and I had to drive through it and do the looking-for-parking battle. I finally finished my driving school thing (as part of my agreement where they would drop the reckless driving charges). Otherwise, the rest of my afternoon was spent grocery shopping and trying to cook a nice meal for amy (she's been stressed out too). Unfortunately, my food turned out really bad (with me, it's a shot in the dark). I hate it when that happens.

Tonight, we went to some random party out in the Virginia boondocks (i.e. Tyson's corner). It was a party thrown by the former roommate of our friend Jeff - very tenuous connection, but we all had fun.

Tomorrow is Ice Skating day. Whee!