Odds and Ends

Nothing annoys me more than those God awful Old Navy ads, but I can't get enough of that new one with Lil' Kim. The way she says "You are in the hood now, baby" is so mind-blowingly cute and incredibly seductive. Every time I see that commercial, I want to watch it again. And again. And again... I've always loved Eve's sassy attitude, but now I think I've found a new hip hop honey. I definitely prefer Lil' Kim's little ditty in the Old Navy commercial to some of her earlier works.

While rummaging through the bag of schwags I got at tonight's Big Brother/Big Sister 100th Anniversary party, I found a slick piece of promotional material illustrating the Olympics being held in NYC in 2012. The NYC/NJ map on the back side of the poster shows where all of the sporting events will supposedly be held. There's Weightlifting at the Javits Convention Center in Manhattan, Artistic Gymnastics & Trampoline at Madison Square Garden, Basketball at the Continental Airlines Arena in Jersey (I would think that MSG would be the perfect place, but I guess Olympic basketball must not have the same draw as gymnastics), and Athletics (track & field, etc.), Opening & Closing ceremonies at the proposed Olympic Stadium that will be built in Midtown west Manhattan. Because of the miniscule size of my Manhattan east apartment, I'm pretty surprised to find out that there's still space for a stadium on this island. The organizers also decided to host Shooting at the Pelham Bay Shooting Center in, appropriately enough, the Bronx. I'm sure more shooting is just what the good people in the Bronx need.

Because it's that time of the year again, I'm beginning to see more and more Zales diamond commercials, one of which showed a woman tackling her husband out of joy because of the diamond he gave to her. Then the narrator says some bullshit like "A diamond from Zales means two things, it's of the highest quality and she will love you for it." No you crooks, it means there will be less money for Junior's college fund, but the guy will get laid tonight, which I guess isn't a bad trade off after all.

Two nights ago at the annual department Christmas party, I asked the bartender for a drink. While waiting for my drink, I overheard one of the servers asking (actually now I think about it, it was more like bantering) the bartender, "Is he old enough to drink? He looks like a kid." I whipped out my driver's license to prove that I was of legal age and we all had a nice little laugh. It was one of the few times I got carded while trying to get a drink in a NYC bar.

The other day during lunch, Phil asked me about my worst experience while working at my company. After I told him about my odor problem with the old apartment, he revealed to me that he has almost no sense of smell and had gotten into trouble before for wearing sweaty smelly clothes at work. Later when he was over at my place, I had to use the restroom. After I came out, I had an epiphany: "Dude, I can fart every 5 minutes around you and you wouldn't even notice!" For some reason I found this uproariously funny. Phil replied in mock indignation, "I can't believe you would take advantage of my unfortunate disability!"

Update On Kerry's F-Bomb

From Plastic:

Why Isn't It Vulgar to have a White House whose big three are Bush, Dick and Colin?

Quote Of The Day

From AP via Salon:

When asked in the interview about the success of rival candidate Howard Dean, whose anti-war message has resounded with supporters, Kerry responded: "When I voted for the war, I voted for what I thought was best for the country. Did I expect Howard Dean to go off to the left and say, 'I'm against everything?' Sure. Did I expect George Bush to f--- it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did."

Death All Around

Lately there has been way too much death around me. First, there was my aunt who passed away only a couple of weeks before I arrived in China in September. Then a security guard killed himself inside the UN, which is a mere two-minute walk away from my apartment (incidentally, a girl that I met at a Stanford alum event who works at the UN said that she remembers the guy as a normal, cheerful guy and didn't suspect a thing).

Today, I attended the funeral of a guy from my company who worked in the department that my development team supported (note to self: try not to watch a horror movie about girl seeing dead people the night before attending a funeral). The man had a massive heart attack at the ripe old age of 38. Although I only met the guy once -- on my gay barhopping adventure -- we did have a brief discussion about gay marriage. He was, in his brother's words, "short, fat, bald, gay and Jewish" and seemed like a really nice person, which is why I dragged my nappy head out of bed at 10 this morning to pay my respect at his funeral. As I sat listening to his siblings' eulogies, I did not shed tears like many others who apparently knew him much better. I did however feel a sense of sadness and regret after I heard about how wonderful, kind, caring, and loving he was. I wish I had known him better. While I scanned the packed room, I also wondered how many people would come to my funeral and what they would say about me if I were to die today from, say, a Chinese food overdose.

Maybe I should take a break from Six Feet Under.