renegadeRICEcracker

*yawn*

we moved into our new office, i spent the morning unpacking, went to our office's thanksgiving lunch buffet, and then wandered around unproductively for the rest of the afternoon, getting only a few hours of work done. this office (not my individual office, but the firm's) is bigger, and i am in the middle of things rather than down on a quiet floor, which has its plusses and minuses. meh. i do like the fancy swivel arm that my flat screen moniter is on.

anyway. i read linxian's blog and took her politics test. i bet she was not expecting to find that she is an even bigger liberal than i:

You are a Social Liberal (70% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (28% permissive) You are best described as a: Democrat Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

byebye

on friday our office closed early for the move, so we headed out to the westside to watch the harry potter goblet of fire. yay! some critics seem unhappy with it, but i thought it was totally fun. oh, and here are last shots of my old office.

you want to do WHAT to my eye?!?!

i went into the Maloney Vision Institute today for a lasik consultation. i decided on dr. maloney because, even though all of my coworkers go to Caster Vision, epc insisted that he was the best, and it turns out that my mom decided on him too, since he handled my grandma's cataract surgery. both of them are pretty ocd with research, so i felt the most beneficial thing for me to do was piggyback off their work. (though, to tell the truth, the real cincher was that epc said maloney gives you a valium to calm you down through the procedure.) i'd been thinking about it for a few years, so it seemed like a good time to bite the bullet and check it out. since i have to fill in my flex dollars form by tomorrow, i figured that i could go today, have them confirm that i was a candidate, and then set aside the money to do early next year.

anyway. i went in and they told me that i MIGHT NOT BE A CANDIDATE FOR LASIK!!! they said my eyes are TOO BAD. :( they apparently only go up to around -10.0, and while i thought i was around -8.0 or -8.5, she measured me at -9.0, and said that after i take my contacts out for a few days, it will probably change and i might be at -9.5 or -10.0.

what this means is that i can't do the new wavefront lasik technology, because it takes away too much tissue, which could damage the cornea. and i can probably do traditional lasik, but maybe not, because i might be at around -10.0 and have really bad astigmatism.

so instead, they were telling me that the procedure they recommend the most is verisyse, an implanted permanent contact lense that they put inside your eye, between the lens and the cornea. the little contact lens, it's NOT THAT SMALL. they make a big enough incision that you have 3-5 sutures in your eye after the procedure, and they can only do it one at a time. and they say you need to be careful not to play impact sports that might hurt your eye, because you don't want to "test the strength of the healed wound."

anyway. this verisyse thing is supposed to result in beautifully crystal clear vision, but it freaks the hell out of me, and i'm annoyed that i might not be able to get traditional lasik (and a little depressed). and now i have to go back for another consultation after taking out my contacts, and if i do want it to get done, i have to wait until 2007 if i want to use flex dollars. harumph.

rat-a-tatatat! BLAM!

the movie set across the way seems to be filming some sort of action sequence, so i've been listening to intermittent bouts of rapid fire and explosions all day. it's kind of fun.

i am all out of it and don't feel like working at all today. partially it's because work is boring and i don't want to do it, and partially it's because i'm annoyed that i have to pack up my office for our imminent office move. i don't want to do any more than i have right now because i'm trying to keep my hours up, but then feel slightly unsettled because it's not done yet. plus i hate our new office building and love love love my current office and view. goodbye hollywood sign and dodger stadium.

blah.

in other news, apparently david spade has confirmed that "whack" is back.

i got an e-mail from arnold today

this is what it said:

Thank you for emailing to express your position regarding Assembly Bill 849 (Leno). I understand the importance of this piece of legislation and the outcome it would have on our State and nation as a whole. After extensive consideration and thorough deliberation from proponents and opponents of this issue, I have decided to veto this bill.

I am proud California is a leader in recognizing and respecting domestic partnerships and the equal rights of domestic partners. I believe that lesbian and gay couples are entitled to full protection under the law and should not be discriminated against based upon their relationships. I support current domestic partnership rights and will continue to vigorously defend and enforce these rights and as such will not support a rollback of these rights.

California Family Code Section 308.5 was enacted by an initiative statute passed by the voters as Proposition 22 in 2000. Article II, section 10 of the California Constitution prohibits the Legislature from amending this initiative statute without a vote of the people. This bill does not provide for such a vote and I do not believe the Legislature can reverse an initiative approved by the people of California.

The ultimate issue regarding the constitutionality of section 308.5 and its prohibition of same-sex marriage is currently before the Court of Appeals in San Francisco and will likely be decided by the Supreme Court. If the ban of same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, this bill is not necessary. If the ban is constitutional, this bill is ineffective.

While I was not able to sign this bill in particular, I did sign legislation to extend the rights of domestic partners. Last legislative session I signed SB 1234 (Kuehl), the most comprehensive extension of domestic partner rights. This session I signed AB 1400 (Laird), which clarifies that marital status and sexual orientation are among the characteristics that are protected against discrimination by business establishments under the Unruh Civil Rights Act. I also signed AB 1586 (Koretz) which adds additional language to already existing anti-discrimination provision to clarify that State law prohibits insurance companies and health care service plans from discriminating on the basis of gender in the creation or maintenance of service contracts or the provision of benefits or coverage.

Thank you again for taking the time to voice your opinion. Taking the time to communicate your opinions and concern shows that California's people are engaged in issues that affect the well being and future of our State.

Sincerely,

Arnold Schwarzenegger

grumble. grumble grumble. but i kind of see his point with the vote thing. ugh.

a religious food experience

babs came to town last weekend! as you can imagine, this resulted in a lot of eating. it also unexpectedly involved more visits to places of religious worship than i am likely to undertake in such a short period of time. i am, however, only posting food pictures. (if you know barbara, then you know these were the only real memorable moments of the weekend anyway.)

on friday we went to the cathedral of our lady of angels. it's pretty cool -- (some of) the windows are made of panes of marble so thin that light shines through. i had never been there before, but apparently it is just a few blocks from where i work. for dinner we went to anh hong, which specializes in the vietnamese specialty, "seven courses of beef." as always, we only ordered two of the courses -- but we did manage to polish off ten plates of the two (this was between eight of us, though barbara probably ate two by herself).

on saturday we had in 'n out. mmm... in 'n out... then we bought shoes and had spicy szechuan food in monterey park. barbara ordered an intestine dish i had never tried there before -- it was kick ass.

on sunday morning, we headed out to coldwater canyon to the wat thai buddhist temple. this place is awesome. every weekend they have amazing thai food, and this time there were two stages, with performers of varying skill, and rows of booths selling cute little fake flowers/food and other useless items. barbara attempted to bargain with a vendor by pointing out that she will be in thailand in just a few weeks and can buy similar shirts for much cheaper while she's there. this did not work. but we did eat a lot of food. look at barbara double-fisting papaya salad!

that afternoon we went to see LA Phil at the disney concert hall, which i had never visited before, so that was cool. they featured a cellist who kept his bangs floppy and long so that he could look sexy and dramatic as he swayed his head back and forth while playing. afterward we went to luna park for dinner, where we shared goat cheese fondue, brisket, and their amazing mac and cheese. barbara was able to convince me that we should not order their signature s'mores fondue dessert, seeing as we were both ready to throw up.

then barbara went home and i was sad (but not for long, since i was all full and just passed out anyway). yay for the fun weekend!

HP4!!!

i should be embarrassed by how excited i am that the next harry potter movie is coming out... but i'm not. i'm just excited. a bunch of us have already bought tickets for the opening day. woo-hoo! i do find it a little disturbing how cute i think hermione is, but i comfort myself by insisting that it's not in a pedophile way. it's more like i think she's cute so if i were still in high school or junior high or whatever i would like her. if i were put in a room with her now there is no way i would want to do anything with her -- that idea actually kind of grosses me out. so that's good. besides, one of my co-workers has a big crush on harry. so that makes everything okay.

goblet of fire! woo-hoo!

it's time to try... defy-ing gra-vity...

i think i'll try... defy-ing gra-vity... (yes, the wicked soundtrack is still in my cd player...)

happy halloween! slightly belated, here are pics from halloween festivities this past weekend. mimi and i went as elphaba and galinda from wicked. we met up with ayumi and brian, who were disguised as leela and fry of futurama, and i.k. (sexy surgeon) and one of mimi's classmates (pilot fighter).

highlights of the evening included:
1) bacon-wrapped hot dogs being grilled on every corner. every corner. on one corner, there were 3 (one corner, not one intersection). crazy.

2) mimi being mistaken for a drag queen. drag queens passing us would stop and gush over how gorgeous she was, but would recoil with shock and horror when she thanked them in her clearly female voice. they would then leave abruptly.

3) mimi, in trying to convey that really, the book left out that elphaba and galinda were lesbian lovers, instead just telling people we are lovers. at one point an older guy stopped us to say how nice it was to see us together. when mimi responded, "yes, we're lovers," he just looked at us confusedly, wondering why she was discussing our sex life with him, and hurried off.

walking around weho was a lot of fun. i had underestimated how popular we would be dressed as characters from a musical while walking through a predominantly gay event. people were constantly chasing us down for pictures and telling us how many times they'd seen the musical. a few times, people near us just spontaneously erupted into song from the show. it was great. we also ran into dorothy and her friends. when they saw us, dorothy ran up to give mimi a big hug and then shot me a dirty, disinterested look. nice.

however, none of this should overshadow i.k.'s (i promised anonymity when posting pics) fabuloso appearance at my friend's halloween party:

oh, and here is my dead pumpkin. let's call him ziggy.