Harry Potter, Part 2
Ok, so I finished reading the latest Harry Potter book this past weekend. I must say, I think JK Rowling's writing style has changed. This book was a much faster read than I thought it would be. It's definitely shorter than The Order of the Phoenix, which is one of my favorites in the series. One of my friends thinks that she's borrowing a lot from The Lord of The Rings and Star Wars (ie. Death Eaters = Nazgul and Wizard's betrayal = Anakin betraying Jedi Council or Senator Palaptine's deception, etc).
Yes, so a main character that has been with the series since the beginning has died. It's not hard to tell who it's going to be once your half way through the book. I'm still holding out hope that somehow this character will be brought back in the final installment of the series, but just like the death of Padme (the nightmares Anakin had) fueled Anakin's desire to go to the "dark side", the death of this character will no doubt fuel Harry's desire to kill Voldemort once and for all.
Flip Flops at the White House (no, not John Kerry)
So this week Northwestern University's national championship women's lacrosse team was invited to the White House to meet the president. When they took a picture with the president, four women in the front row were wearing flip flops! Flip flops are perfectly fine for the beach, but what were they thinking wearing them to the White House to meet the President?! Now mind you we only saw four women in the front row wearing them, there could have been more standing in the rows behind them. Have we as a nation become so casual that flip flops are acceptable footwear to meet the President? If you were invited to the White House to meet the President (no matter who s/he happens to be) would you wear flip flops?
Personally I think flip flops are ok for the beach or weekends when it's more relaxed, but what really annoys me is when people wear flip flops to work. There happens to be two ladies who work in my building who love to wear flip flops, especially during the summer. They are probably not the only ones, but the reason I point them out is I can hear them walking down the hall from a mile away because of the annoying flip-flop sound that flip flops make. Thank goodness last year there was a memo to everyone to wear appropriate warm weather attire to the workplace, which does not include flip flops. Since then, the flip flop noise pollution in my area of the building has decreased.
By the way, in some cultures the feet are considered the dirtiest part of the body. So I don't quite understand why people like to show off their feet so much, and I don't care how well manicured your feet and toe nails are!
Yosemite
So over the weekend I went to Yosemite with a few of my co-workers. This has become an annual tradition for us. We were even at Yosemite around the same dates last year. Boy did it feel great to get away from the Bay Area heat wave. Friday it was a cool 67 degrees in Tuolomne Meadows. Since we've had so much rain and snow this year due to El Nino, not only is the water level nice and high in the middle of summer, but there are still patches of snow in Yosemite and five campgrounds have been closed because they still have around five feet of snow! This year we stayed at Crane Flat, which was a definite improvement over Tamarak Flat from last year. There was actually running water and toilets, but no showers...I guess you can't have everything when you're car camping. =)
So those of us who made it to Yosemite around noon on Friday decided to hike to Elizabeth Lake. We were warned that the mosquitoes were out in force and they must have smelled my sweet, sweet blood coming from a mile away, since they pretty much ate me alive. Those persistent buggers got me right through my clothes! In the end, the view was definitely worth it. I'm so glad that there is still snow on the peaks at Yosemite, it makes everything look more beautiful.
So this year, instead of tackling Half Dome again, we decided to hike North Dome. Now, I know some of you are probably thinking to yourselves, 'What? North Dome, where is that?' I had never heard of North Dome until one of my co-workers suggested we hike to it, and at first I didn't know what to think.
Would anything be as good as hiking Half Dome? It definitely wouldn't be as strenuous since it's half the distance to Half Dome and it won't take as long either. I didn't realize what a great view of Half Dome and the Yosemite Valley that you get from North Dome. Since it's not as high as Half Dome you can get a great view of the valley below on one side, and the other side you also have a good view of the face of Half Dome. If you have binoculars you can even see people walking around the top of Half Dome.
So many people from around the world come to Yosemite just to climb Half Dome, I wonder how many of those people return or stay to explore the rest of Yosemite? There is a lot more to Yosemite than Half Dome, and I look forward to exploring the rest of the it in the years to come!
Harry Potter
Ok, so the next installment of the Harry Potter series drops this Saturday. I can't believe how many people have already pre-ordered their copy or are going to line up at midnight to get their hands on one. I don't think any other book, movie, or cd has ever had this much anticipation. I've been reading articles all week about copies accidentally being sold before the official release date or emails accidentally being sent to customers that the delivery of their copy may be delayed. How does this kind of stuff just "accidentally" happen?
Anyway, I hope this next book is as good or better than the last one. =)
It's a Mammoth!
Wow, so it has been determined that the bones that were found near the Guadalupe River in San Jose are actual mammoth bones. Isn't that crazy? I know these types of bones are commonly found in the Los Angeles area, but to have some up here in Northern California is pretty cool if you ask me. Makes you kind of wonder what else is hiding beneath the ground that we walk on.
Summer TV
Wow, so this summer's tv programming has been the best that I can remember. Ok, so it's all reality shows, but this year they are actually pretty interesting and fun to watch. I think I've watched more tv this summer than I normally do during the regular tv season!
So, last night I caught this new show on CBS called
Rock Star: INXS and it was really fun to watch. I had been hearing for a while that a network was trying to develop an American Idol-like show where they search for a rock star, but I don't think it ever really happened. Or if it did, I missed it. But anyway, so the rock band INXS is searching for a new lead singer and they search all over the world (ok, so most of the contestants are from the US) and find 15 people that they've brought to LA who are all going to compete for this position.
Unlike American Idol, we were thankfully spared of going through all the footage of the tone deaf William Hung wannabees. So last night all 15 contestants performed with a band in the Mayan Theater and it was awesome. They sang some of the greatest rock music that we've all grown up listening to. There were quite a few stand outs and some who I felt, "what the hell were they thinking picking that song" or "what the hell are they doing up there," but overall they were all quite good. It's going to be a tough decision for INXS, so it will be interesting to see who gets chosen, but they have already eliminated one person...who will be next?
Poker
Ok, so this whole poker thing that's swept the nation is kind of scary now. Before I thought it was just limited to a few friends and my cousins, but every gathering I went to this past weekend everyone was like let's play poker. What gives? Don't people know that gambling is not a good thing?
Baseball and Softball out of the 2012 Olympics
Man, waking up this morning and seeing the news ticker at the bottom of the screen that said Baseball and Softball were out of the 2012 Olympics was not a good thing. I know baseball here in the states has been marred by the steroids scandal, but that's no reason to eliminate it from the Olympics. I mean, they just barely got into them in the last decade. Also, did you know that softball is the only all female sport in the Olympics?
Anyway, this Sports Illustrated
article has some good information about the history of Baseball and Softball in the Olympics.
John O'Hurley was robbed
I thought John O'Hurley and Charlotte Jorgensen was the "couple to beat." They seemed like a sure thing since their Quickstep during week three, but just like how London was chosen as the host city for the 2012 Olympics over Paris, Kelly Monaco and Alec Mazo pulled the rug out from under us and became the champions of
Dancing With The Stars.
It really sucked having to watch a different couple get knocked out every week. I'm sure if Trista or Evander were allowed to stay in the competition for the full 6 weeks then we would have been able to see them improve like Kelly improved. Perhaps they should have kept each couple in the competition for the full six weeks and then combine all the scores from each week to determine the overall winner. I think that would have been more fair. But you can definitely tell the stars were having a lot of fun and they really worked hard and improved the whole time they were on the show, not just Kelly. I noticed Joey's latin frame was so much better compared to week one. And you can definitely tell that John O'Hurley lost a lot of weight.
I think the real winner of the show is Ballroom Dancing itself. Hopefully this show has generated enough interest for people to get out and learn ballroom. As many of you know I am an avid ballroom dancer, although not so much now since I can't find any decent leads to dance with, but hopefully that will change. So I wonder which celebrities will be chosen for Season 2...hehe, I can't wait!
Georgia on my mind
Ok, so over the long 4th of July weekend I flew to Atlanta, Georgia with my family for my cousin Jeannie's wedding (from my dad's side of the family). I haven't seen my aunt, uncle, and cousins since probably around 1997 when they came out to San Francisco and paid us a visit. My how my cousins have grown.
Jeannie works at NCR and Cindy and Tim are still in school at Georgia State. Tim told me that they have a Hope Scholarship program in Georgia where if you maintain a B average throughout high school and college, all your tuition if you go to a public college in Georgia will be covered. So basically all you have to pay for is your books. I think this is to encourage students to stay in Georgia as well as continue their education. Too bad they don't have something like that in California. Although with our current budget crisis I don't think there would be a way to do that without increasing either taxes, tuition or both.
Anyway, so this was my first time visiting Georgia. The weather is so completely different from California. It rains in the afternoon, and I mean it really pours. Thunder, lightning and pouring rain. Not to mention it's hot and muggy, much like many Asian countries, which is probably why my uncle chose to go to school in Georgia. On the plus side though, Georgia has a lot of greenery. Everything is very lush, not dry and brown like in California. Every other street in Norcross has Peachtree in it's name, so it gets very confusing.
Other things I noticed is that gas is a lot cheaper than in California (duh!). The cheapest I saw when I was in Georgia was $2.12 compared to our $2.39 when I left, which is now up to $2.49 since I got back. Not only is gas cheaper in Georgia, but so are the houses. And you get so much more house for a lot less than what you would pay for a condo in California. Take for example my cousin Jeannie's house which is about 10 years old and she only paid $240,000 for it and it has 4 bedrooms. You can't get anything in California for that price. In California a house that size would easily be $1 million or more.
In Atlanta there isn't a high concentration of Asians, actually there are very few. Their "Chinatown" is only a small strip mall. On the other hand, there are a lot of African Americans in Georgia. They all seem very friendly and somewhat well educated, perhaps this is due to the religious nature of the south. I wouldn't have thought of this, but there is also a large spanish speaking population in Georgia as well. I think it might even be larger than the asian population.
They are definitely more conservative in the south. You don't see all the outrageous skin bearing outfits like you see in California. Everything is very clean. No litter or graffiti anywhere. Little or no tricked out cars, saggy pants, colored hair, tattoos, piercings or swearing. People actually slow down and drive with caution when it rains. Few establishments serve alcohol on Sundays or are even open. And I'm sure a lot of you already knew this, but southerners really like their fried food. Lots of fried chicken, fish, and shrimp. Even fried
ochra and fried batter that they call "
hush puppies." I was told that a shopping cart is called a "buggy" and any kind of soft drink is called "coke."
So while I was there, we checked out the "Underground," Coca-Cola World, CNN, and Centennial Olympic Park. We also took their MARTA rail system, which is kind of like BART, but much cleaner, nicer, and cheaper!
On a side note, my cousin Cindy and a friend of hers took my bro and I to a Karoke bar the last night we were in Georgia, and I must say the Vietnamese people at the bar really took the Karoke seriously as if they were trying out for Vietnamese Idol or something! Even though I couldn't understand what they were singing since it was in Vietnamese, they were good!
