May 31, 2005
Memorial Day weekend
Had a very nice memorial day weekend; Memorial day is one of the few holidays I get at Kaiser. Friday I met my parents for dinner, mainly heard alot about my mom's upcoming trip to New York to market her novel, Rashi's Daughters. Saturday Gary and I drove down to OC. While he and his friends played imaginary baseball, I went for a long bike ride along the Santa Anita trail. Spent about 2 hours and rode a loop down to the beach and then back up past Angel's Stadium - about 36 miles.
That afternoon we played Dungeon's & Dragons. Our friends Adam and Beth have come up with an ingenius plan for monster standins. See, we all have little figurines that represent our characters. But we don't have enough figurines for all the monsters we fight. So they started bringing M&M's and we would use them to hold the place of the monster. But the best part is that we eat the candy after the monster is killed. This week, since we'd be adventureing over the sea, they brought gummy fish and frogs. The giant squid that we defeated was represents by about ten gummy animals. Hmmm, what a real treat when we vanquish our enemies.
Sunday I went for a long jog, about 10 miles. The weather was perfect for it - damp and overcast. Then I met my mom for at the mall to shop for some nice clothes. We have a couple weddings coming up and I felt my closet was lacking.
Sunday evening Gary and I went out to see Star Wars III. I can't say I like it. I felt the acting was terrible, the lines either melodramatic or too flat, and much of the action seemed gimicky. It was all so contrived and artificial. But it did make me want to see the first movie, Episode IV.
Monday I slept in and then drove down to OC again for a BBQ at Mike's place. It was nice to hang out and play poker. I got real lucky and came in second place in the tournament. Overall a nice, relaxing, social weekend. Dang, why don't we get more three day weekends?
May 27, 2005
Fiction as religion
It is such an interesting and eye opening phenomenon how works of fiction can rise to such heights of popularity, that fans bascially treat it like a religion. For example I have been reading (and enjoying) an excellent analysis of Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series. What is his history, what is really going on in his head, how could he say one thing in one book and another in the next, etc. And with the final intallment of Star Wars and the series finally of Enterprise, I have also noticed alot of debates about the "real" settings, charatercs, events in these fictional universes. Gary was telling me about a website with point /counterpoint debates on the finer details in Star Trek. (right Gary?) We are all familiar with the dedicated fan at the sci-fi convention that asks a poor actor about contridictory lines in different episodes (done brilliantly in Galaxy Quest) and the response - "It's just a TV show!" Makes you wonder if the authors of the bible, or other holy books, could, would they shout down from heaven "they're just guidelines!" ( a la - Pirates of the Carribean, Curse of the Black Pearl).
May 23, 2005
Mouring becomes electra
I saw a great play with my parents this weekend, Mourning Becomes Electra at A Noise Within theater in Glendale. I was a bit worried about spending close to four hours watching a retelling of the classic greek Electra myth - Queen murders King, Prince murders Queen, Princess left standing. I get squeemish enough on relatively bland emotional matters, so I was worried. But the play was excellent. The acting was edgy and eventhough the play was so long, the plot was actually pretty fast paced. Oy, what a scheming, paranoid, messed up family.
May 17, 2005
Work - Goodbye Dr. Wallace
This week has been crazy at work. Nothing like coming back from vacation to find you working has increased exponentially. I also found out last week that the temporary geneticist who has been filling in since last month when my old supervisor was fired will be quiting. So now, in addition to having a temporary secretary for almost a year, I am supposed to have another temporary replacement supervisor. And the one upshot, moving into the other office, is a big pain. Half of my stuff is on one office - my files, phone, and fax - while my computer and books are in the other office. The rooms are a mess and I am still waiting for them to rearrange the furniture. Also, my student intern, who has been such a help during this hectic time, will be finishing her term and going on summer vacation. Ah, summer vacation - I miss it so.
May 09, 2005
Zion National Park
Last week Gary and I took a trip to Zion National Park. We enjoy camping and generally being out in nature. I'd been to Zion before as a young child - so my mother tells me, but I don't remember it. We had a great time.
Just as we are experiencing her in LA, the park has gotten record rain fall. We were told it was the wettest year on record. It even rained a few times while we were there. This also meant the river was overflowing, the plants were incredilbly green and healthy, and there were a bazillion caterpillars. You could not help smooshing a few as you walked around. We kept having to toss the fat fuzzy caterpillars out of the tent.
It reminded me alot of Yosemite, a redder Yosemite. Zion is basically a great river valley, with huge red cliff carved out on either side. There is a tram to take you around the park and quite a few tourist amenities including restaurants, gift shop, logde, movie theater, etc. The rock walls get names like "Angles Landing," "Court of the Patriarchs," and "Temple of Sinawana." We were planning to also spend a few days in Bryce National Park, but as we had heard it had snowed there for the last couple days, we decided to cut our trip short and head back to Silverlake.
