The Smell, The Smell!!!

Recently I have been battling this weird moldy, soapy smell in my apartment because I just couldn't stand it anymore and it's getting into my clothes. I got my landlord to remove the carpet in the living room because the smell emanated from the foam underneath the carpet. After the removal and two days of opening windows and fanning, the apartment doesn't smell that bad anymore. However, my clothes still have that smell!!

After throwing all my clothes in the dryers with some Downy fabric softener and drying them for almost 15 minutes, the smell is still there!! Except now, my clothes smell worse because they also smell like Downy. I'm not sure what the next step should be. Taking them to a dry cleaner? I have also begun to sniff myself, my clothes and the wall constantly because I'm obsessed with this smell and I need to get rid of it!! This is driving me nuts!!

Bizarre Moment

At one point tonight, I was eating a Cuban sandwich at a neighborhood Caribbean restaurant while watching an unsurprisingly bad show on the Sci-Fi Channel on the TV in the restaurant, where all the customers spoke Spanish. There was an ad for "Tremor: The Series." And I thought CBS has some terrible shows. I mean, the Sci-Fi Channel is basically a nerd magnet since all the shows are targeted towards those stereotypical Star Trek/anime/Fantasy geeks. In other words, it's the channel for virgins by virgins.

Classic IM session

[01:54:36] benzenamine: it's rebecca romijn-stamos
[01:54:40] benzenamine: gotta see her, right?
[01:54:57] gfunknation: i don't know, i don't think she's that hot
[01:55:04] gfunknation: maybe nice body
[01:55:10] benzenamine: yeah
[01:55:11] gfunknation: but definitely average face
[01:55:15] benzenamine: would rather it be katie holmes
[01:55:18] benzenamine: or nicole kidman
[01:55:49] benzenamine: oh wait
[01:55:52] benzenamine: HEIDI KLUM
[01:56:24] gfunknation: i would have said famke janssen 10 years ago
[01:56:41] benzenamine: whatever
[01:56:43] benzenamine: what
[01:56:44] benzenamine: ever
[01:56:50] benzenamine: what
[01:56:52] benzenamine: EVER
[01:57:01] gfunknation: you are a tool
[01:57:06] gfunknation: you
[01:57:07] gfunknation: are
[01:57:08] gfunknation: a
[01:57:08] gfunknation: t
[01:57:09] gfunknation: o
[01:57:10] gfunknation: o
[01:57:10] gfunknation: l
[01:57:50] benzenamine: 'night, tool
[01:58:05] gfunknation: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005AL7U/qid=1037354240/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/002-5388532-3239225?v=glance&s=home-garden&n=507846
[01:58:08] gfunknation: that's what you are
[01:58:22] gfunknation: except you ain't made of no stainless steel bitch!

Musings on the War

You know the military is invincible when:

* It can actually give a deadline that's accurate to the hour to the enemy before it starts the war
* It allows journalists from all over the world to "embed" in different units and transmit live battle conditions via satellite
* In two days of war, more soldiers in the military have died in accidents than in combat (16 vs. 2)
* The number of soldiers killed in combat is so small that each soldier gets his own headline in the news
* It encourages and expects enemy surrenders
* There are people from your own country that travel to the hostile territory to serve as human shields, hoping to level the playing field

Ads

On the ESPN scoreboard page, I've noticed that there is a huge banner ad for the Marines. In the past two days I've seen several different versions, all for the Marines. Hmm, I wonder if this is just a coincidence or if ESPN is trying to support the "troops."

Dead People on the Way Home

Everyday I walk past a funeral home on the way to and from work. Interestingly, I have never seen a funeral wagon or van parked in the parking lot. After watching too much Six Feet Under, I'm kinda curious as to what this place looks like inside. I also wonder what the owners are like. This funeral home sounds like a family-run business since it's called Walsh-Isabella & Son. If I sneak in maybe I will meet some dead people who can dispense some sagely advice to me, like in Six Feet Under. Maybe I can even steal a feet. Who knows?

I Need More Headphones

I can't stand this repetitive radio music at work anymore!! I keep on forgetting to bring my headphones to work and have to suffer through yet more repetitions of T.A.T.U., 50 Cent, Ja Rule. If only Apple will come out with the new iPod's already!!! After I get a new iPod I need to evaluate the earphones and see if I need to shell out some extra bucks to get these babies.

Warped Conversation

gfunknation (4:36:40 PM): oh man, i can't wait to get home today and see that my carpet is finally removed
gfunknation (4:36:46 PM): because my tie smells like my carpet!!
gfunknation (4:36:54 PM): as does the rest of me
A4agarwal (4:37:01 PM):hahahahahahahahahahahaha
A4agarwal (4:37:07 PM): maybe your carpet smells like you
gfunknation (4:37:16 PM): that's a very disturbing thought

More Madness!!

So far I'm 3 out of 3 with my Yahoo picks, including such shocking upsets as #9 Gonzaga over #8 Cincy. Take that Cindy!! :-)

The Real Madness Begins!! Well, sort of

Ok, I will take Madness on the court over Madness in the Gulf any time baby!! I filled out two brackets this time, one on Yahoo, the other on ESPN. Unfortunately, I can't put a direct link to the EPSN bracket because it requires my password, as if it's that important. Brief overview of EPSN bracket: It will be Kentucky vs Ariz and Stanford vs Syracuse. Kentucky will snatch the title away from Stanford 69-63. You can check out the Yahoo bracket for yourself.

Cindy and Tolu, read it and weep!!

No MP3's for you!!!

Well, it seems like I just found another asshole politician from Texas. John Carter, a Congressman from Texas, believes that some college students should be prosecuted as felons and thrown in jail for three years to deter other college kids from downloading MP3's. What a jerk.

Thought Police

I have never been a big fan of the Dixie Chicks, or country music for that matter. However, I do admire lead singer Natalie Maines for speaking out against Bush: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas." Now their trailer trash fans in the US are burning their CD's, radio stations around the country have boycotted their songs, and Maines was forced to apologize for expressing her opinion. Even more absurd, a Republican South Carolina House member has introduced a resolution to force them to perform a free concert for troops. AND IT PASSED!!!! What kind of fascist country am I living in right now? These musicians are being punished for exercising their first amendment rights!! I would like to see how these nazi Republicans plan to enforce their resolution.

For me this little incident means two things: 1.) I will never set a foot into that backward dump of a state South Carolina if I can help it; 2.) I may just give the Dixie Chicks' new CD a try.

Yet More Reasons to Love Six Feet Under

"I know stealing a foot is pretty weird, but living in a house where a foot is available to be stolen is weird too."

Eulogies for an electrocuted porn star: "Viv can fuck like a force of nature."

Job-Hunting Tips from The Onion

An exerpt:

"If you attended Harvard, Yale, or another prestigious Ivy League institution, don't bother noting this on your resume. Or even creating a resume at all. Just have one of the other assholes from your school get you a job."

Check it out.

Whew

A few months ago, I was tempted by those sketchy cable-stealing converters selling on Ebay for around $15 because I didn't want to pay $50 a month for cable. Of course, they all looked too good to be true, so in the end I decided against buying one. Looks like my intuition is not too bad. These things do work, but you will eventually get caught and have to pay some hefty bills, according to this article.

An Observation

Lately, I am seeing more and more cops in the subway. Every 10 seconds or so I see a group of 4 or 5 cops either walking around or standing near the trains. It's totally understandable given the constant threats of terrorism, but I'm beginning to wonder if there will be an increase in street crimes. I'm assuming these police officers are being pulled off the streets but I have heard of no reports of mass police hirings. In fact, it is likely that many police officers will be forced into early retirement or be laid off as a result of budget cuts, according to the Times. I hope I'm just being paranoid.

Quote of the Day

"I said if nobody else will do it, I'll do it. ... I'm 64, and I'm pretty well wiped out anyway. It's a way to go out in a blaze of glory. They said, 'You're not really qualified to do it.' I said, 'Why not?' You just have to hold the microphone and say, 'The bombs are falling.'"

-- beleaguered AOL Time Warner shareholder TED TURNER, speaking at a Manhattan media forum, saying he offered to fly to Baghdad to cover the war for CNN.

More on the Chicken Hawks

Here's a brief list of chicken hawks and their lame excuses for not serving in war:

* GW Bush: Served in the Texas National Guard, jumping ahead of the 18-month waitlist despite a low test score (25).
* Dick Cheney: Graduate school deferment
* Tom Delay: College deferment
* Jack Kemp: Played in the NFL
* Trent Lott: Cheerleading in college
* Dan Quayle: Reserves
* Kenneth Starr: Psoriasis
* Rush Limbaugh: ingrown hair follicle, aka anal cyst
* Pat Buchanan: Bad knees

For the complete list, check out The Official Chickenhawk Database.

Outcries of a Liberal

Ok, today I'm just going to ramble and vent so the following paragraphs are totally disjointed. Read at your own peril.

* The Daily Show With Jon Stewart on COMEDY CENTRAL is currently the single gutsiest and most insightful political news program on the air, against a backdrop of right-wing extremists such as Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, who have basically dominated the airwaves. I am often surprised at how relevant and brilliant The Daily Show has become in light of current events.

* Celebrities such as Martin Sheen and Janeane Garofalo are speaking out against the war on behalf of those of us who oppose it, RATHER THAN THE OFFICIALS WE ELECTED. Why aren't they speaking out for their constitutents? You know, the hundreds of thousands of people who marched in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, etc., against the war and who voted them into office and whom they were suppose to represent?

* The major Democratic presidential candidates have basically decided to roll over and appease the Republican-controlled White House, House of Representatives and the Senate. "We will support our soldiers once the war starts," they declare. How about working to prevent the war from happening in the first place so these soldiers, including my friend Jocelynn, won't have to face biochemical weapons? To hear them vacillating and cowering makes me long for the days of Senator Paul Wellstone, you know, the guy who had a conscience AND a spine. I am almost certain that Senator Wellstone is rolling in his coffin right now.

* I have now come to the conclusion that I have vastly underestimated the ignorance of my fellow Americans. While debating the necessity of the war with a college-educated coworker, he actually said, "I trust whatever the president tells me because the President of the United States will never lie." Evidently, he has never heard of Watergate or "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Everyday on the train, I see people reading that piece of sensational, hawkish rag known as the New York Post, which shares its owner with FOX News, a sensational, hawkish conservative mouthpiece.

* I don't know about you guys but I have a bad feeling about the United States being led by an inarticulate, stubborn, provincial simpleton who has lived a sheltered life of privilege and usurped the presidency through his family's political connections (from Katherine Harris to Jeb Bush to Antonin Scalia to Clarence Thomas) into a costly and bloody war (for the Iraq civilians) Last night when I was watching Bush reading off his little "we have a big cock and we don't give a shit about what everyone else thinks" speech from the teleprompter, I noticed that there was absolutey nothing behind those beady little eyes. If his head is a hotel then his eyes must be a vacancy sign. Here comes the village idiot that had just met with his "coalition of willing" (Jon Stewart: "President Bush met with his 'coalition of the willing,' everyone else just call them Britain and Spain.") for an hour to decide on a foregone conclusion. This is the guy who offered Turkey a $10+ billion bribe package just so we could use their military bases, when thousands of people are laid off everyday, our children are stuck in overcrowded, decrepit, failing public schools, and our economy is in the shitter. For a reminder of just how bad the job market is, I recommend fuckthatjob.com. Flanked by his fellow chicken hawks, Bush expects hundreds of thousands of his fellow Americans to sacrifice for his country when all he ever did was having a jolly good ol' time frolicking in the Texas National Guard, you know, protecting our borders against potential invasions by Mexico.

Tech Support Frustrations

Having served a year as a Branner RCC as well as many years as the family techie, I can totally empathize with the author of this great article on Slashdot. Teaching my dad how to copy a VCD or do channel auto-tuning on our new TV is like trying to make a full-court shot upside down. Trying to translate nonsensical tech words like "Desktop" or "Dialog Box" into Chinese just makes it an even more frustrating experience. Sometimes I wish I can VNC (software that allows one to remotely control another computer) to their computer and just do what my parents need to have done instead of spending an hour trying to explain to them what to do over the phone.

The thing that's worse than the frustration of it all is the guilt I feel afterwards. I feel like such an asshole for being impatient with the parents. I was so much more patient and understanding when I was taking care of clueless freshmen, why can't I be nicer to my own parents? I think part of the reason is that I have no idea if what they are doing on the computer is what I'm actually telling them to do. Also, sometimes I don't even know if we have the same goals in mind. I feel like I have almost no control in this whole process, whereas in Branner I can just go to some kid's computer and fiddle around with it until it worked.

Good Weather!!

On Saturday on my way back from doing laundry, I actually got confused as I pushed my cart towards the intersection near my apartment. For some reason, I thought I was in the wrong block.You know why? Because I have never seen my neighborhood in sunny, 60-degree weather! For the past month it's been covered by snow, or else it looks really gloomy because of incessant raining. I've gotten so used to the rotten weather that I forgot what my apt should look like.

Right now it's sunny and 62 degrees, just perfect for the St. Patrick's Day Parade that will pass our building. I even brought my camera to take pictures. If only I can find a free web hosting company that will store all my pics :-(

Radio Sucks

As usual, I woke up this morning to the noise pumped out of my alarm radio. I have heard about a lot of moronic, tasteless radio stunts being performed these days to attract more listeners, but the one on Z100 this morning was among the worst I've ever heard. Basically, these idiot DJ's bought the "Rolls Royce" of adult diapers and were planning to actually give it a "test drive." One of the retards was going to wear the diaper, drink lots of coffee and pee in it. Then they will try to see if it smells or leaks. I'm thankful that I didn't have to listen to the rest of it since I wasn't in the office yet where the girl sitting near me always has her radio on that station. Whatever happened to good taste?

Today is also the first day that I'm bringing my headphones and CD's to work so that I don't have to put up with listening to Justin Timberlake 5 times a day. Take that Clear Channel, you whoreface of a global media conglomerate.

Scary NYC rent

I got this message through the alum mailing list. Here are some excerpts:

"Spacious bedroom available in 2-bedroom apartment...

Description: Building is high rise, doorman, free gym in building, apt on
27th floor (very nice views of Madison Square Park). Apt has good sized
living room/dining room, open kitchen, 2 balconies, wood floors and 2
bathrooms (one per room). Available room has 2 walls of windows with nice
views and lots of light, walk-in closet, bathroom outside room (not shared)
and is very spacious and unique.

Rent: $1900 per month per person"

WTF!?!?!?!!!

Thanks to Netflix again, I was finally able to watch something that I have wanted to see for quite a while now: the show "Twin Peaks," a series by David Lynch. I have wanted to see "Twin Peaks" ever since I saw "Mulholland Dr.," one of my all-time favorite movies now. Tonight, I finally watched the first two episodes of season one of "Twin Peaks." All I can say is what the fuck did I just watch? I feel like a chimp watching "Citizen Kane."

I have no clue what was going on because the pilot episode was not included on the DVD as a result of some weird copyright issue between the studios, or something like that. Basically, I missed the first hour of what is already an inscrutable mystery TV show. All I saw of the pilot episode was a brief "previously on Twin Peaks" segment that had some cut scenes explaining the death of Laura Palmer and some people in prison. That was it.

The more I watched, the more confused I became. Every 5 minutes, a new character is introduced. Some characters are played by actors that actually resemble each other. Every character is really weird and screwed up and mysterious. There was a dancing midget, a lady who talks to a log, a one-armed man, a woman with an eye-patch who is obsessed with making a noiseless curtain tracker, a trucker drug dealer, and a whole bunch of other weirdos. And everyone is having an affair!!

The two episodes that I saw were really bizarre, but kind of intriguing. I'm not sure if I should get the other parts of season one now because I don't know if I will be able to make any sense of it all even if I do watch all the episodes.

UPDATE: I had a really bizarre dream last night which involved a plan from Mom to behead me by pitching a baseball to me. I don't think I want to see more "Twin Peaks" now.

Welcome Cindy to Blogland!!

Woohoo! Cindy has started her own blog, too! I have now converted two people, Cindy and Tolu, into blogging. If only I get can referral fees :-)

Killer Flu?

This epidemic kind of puts a damper on my plan to travel to China this summer. I hope I won't bring back some killer disease and have to be quarantined, like those people in that movie "Outbreak."