The Besieged

Everything sings, everything gives fruit, everything is arranged to be.
But I defend myself. I am not yet finished with myself.
Between extending and straightening up,
Between the lips that say the Word and the Word,
Is a pause, a flashing that divides and tears:
I. I am not finished with myself yet.

-Octavio Paz

Mouse and Me

  

i heart wikipedia

from the wiki on "bushisms":

Make the Pie Higher poem

"Make the Pie Higher" is a poem comprising Bushisms. Each line contains a malapropism said to have been uttered by George W. Bush. Although its origin is uncertain, it has been attributed to Washington Post political cartoonist and satirist Richard Thompson. The poem has been criticized as apocryphal. However, all but a couple of lines have been verified by the Urban Legends Reference Pages at Snopes.com as having been spoken by Bush at one point or another during his Presidency. The only line for which a primary source has not been located was "I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity."


Make the Pie Higher

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

quotes of the day

In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.
- John Adams

At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or political ideas.
- Aldous Huxley

complete and utter

DESPAIR.

My Corporate Finance final has been moved up and I can't go to Coachella and I sold my 2-day pass at a $40 loss because I deserve to pay $40 for deserting Depeche Mode and Madonna and She Wants Revenge and Seu Jorge whom I will likely never ever be able to see together in one festival again and I just want to crawl into a hole, a musicless, dark hole, and suffer there. But instead I will be in a flourescent-lit hole all weekend studying finance, which I am absolutely certain is what happens in the 18th level of hell.

the fucking greatest

 
This man, David English, is my current favorite person in the world, by virtue of him having given me a 3-day pass to the HK Sevens Rugby Tournament, resulting in one of the most fun-filled weekends of my life.

What have the rest of you done for me lately? 

and off again!

it's been a crazy month.

just got back from vegas for the weekend.

my itinerary for upcoming weekends as follows:

this weekend: mexico (puerto nuevo/rosarito), then possibly LA
weekend after that: LA for a wedding
weekend after that: COACHELLA!!!!


Okay, after all that, i will seriously buckle down and study.

and back again

majorly jetlagged. being in community property class doesn't help.

HK was amazing, as always. will post pictures as soon as i get off my lazy ass and upload them.

off to hong kong

...again! will be back april 3rd. i'll try to upload pix and regale you with intense, nail-biting stories of the international commercial arbitration competition. wish me luck!

have you ever...

woken up in the middle of the morning to go dry-heave into your toilet, and then realized in a moment of clarity that you somehow:
1) left the bar without your (brand new very expensive) digital camera,
2) went back into the bar to look for your camera and came out with no camera AND no jacket,
3) left the bar best friends with several rastafari, a pacific islander man with a long ponytail in a wheelchair, and a large and very friendly black woman whose lap you sat on for a good portion of the night?

oh. you haven't? then i guess you wouldn't understand my saturday night.

  

dreamland where are you?

i can't sleep. must have been the giant cup of coffee at 9pm. or the five cups of tea at 11pm.

since my brain shut down about three hours ago, rendering me unable to absorb any more law, i have:

* found the peruvian cultural institute's cuzco website for reservation availability on the inca trail. it's in spanish, but it's not too hard to find where the availability search engine is. looks like i may be able to book inca trail reservations less than 2 months in advance. sweet. macchu picchu...i long for thee.

* found a $97 one way flight to freeport, bahamas. the second time this week i've seen this deal. had to resist the yearning of every fiber in my being to click the "buy" button. for the one way ticket only.

* tried to hypnotize myself to sleep. twice. so please do not be surprised if i start clucking like a chicken when you say the word "point."

* cleaned out my belly button quite thoroughly. it's amazing how much lint fits in there! gross. but awe-inspiring.

* thought obsessively about my cat, Mouse. she recently learned how to play fetch, is now very insistent upon it. too cute.

i leave for hong kong in two weeks. can't wait!

don't hate him girl

this site is hilarious...but there may be tort/privacy concerns? i love it anyway.

i want!

how cool would it be to have your own wine?

been awhile

I haven't posted in awhile, as is custom when my life fills with things I would rather not write about.

Most of my waking hours are spent contemplating, writing about, discussing, or worrying over the law and its many permutations, implications and consequences. Classes are in full swing, as is the legal clinic, clerkship, and preparations for March's international commercial arbitration competition in Hong Kong. This leaves little time for me to do things like sleep, eat proper meals or find humor and joy in life.

On a more interesting note: this past weekend, I discovered that Mouse (my adorble kitten) loves to be carried around in the hobo bag I brought home from Thailand. Much amusement and cross-town kitten-toting is sure to ensue.

winter reading

So far this winter break, I have read these books:

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
A classic, and deservedly so. A very fast read. I'm working in Cat's Cradle next.

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Extremely quick read, interesting but not too substantive. I think I would have loved this book in the fourth or fifth grade. Having read Garcia-Marquez, Esquivel's book (and for that matter, any other book written in the style of magical realism) pales in comparison. But it did make me hungry.


Middlesex by Jeffrey Euginides
Definitely recommended. Multilayered, meaty literature. One of those books that makes you sigh in contentment when you finish the last page, and feel as if you had lived the lives of those characters.

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
Absolutely amazing, especially if you know where he's coming from. I love, love, love this book. It's not often one comes across a style so fresh, so different, so gripping. It just pulls you in and doesn't let go.

Edit: Too good to be true, I guess. The signs were there, and I refused to see them. Sigh. I still like this book, but I do feel a little let down.

The Flame by Gabriele D'Annunzio
Suggested only if you plan on reading it while in Venice. Otherwise, D'Annunzio's writing seems to drown in its own emotion. Hailed as "one of the greatest descriptions of Venice in the history of literature." James Joyce called this book "the most important achievement in the novel since Flaubert." I found it a little too sentimental, too fin-de-siecle (but of course that's what it's supposed to be like)...but then again, if I were in Venice reading this book while floating down a canal at summer's end, I am sure D'Annunzio's words would ring exactly true.

quote of the day

The word 'politics' is derived from the word 'poly', meaning 'many', and the word 'ticks', meaning 'blood sucking parasites'.
- Larry Hardiman

dreamland

i am in my second week of barely leaving my apartment, studying from the minute i wake (around noon) until the minute i fall asleep (around 4am) sitting up in bed with a tattered issue of The Economist, my only repreive from this hell, slipping from my fingers.

i think the stress is manifesting itself in my dreams. here are a few choice tidbits from my dreamland as of late:

- i am part of a theatre group at school that i never signed up for but am obligated to take part in anyway. i have been assigned to the clean-up crew. i decide to leave, but for some reason i have to leave bouncing on one of those huge inflatable exercise balls with the plastic handle attached to it. but my ball was only half-inflated, and i looked like an idiot bouncing/dragging all the way across the grass field.

- i have a maniacal, abusive boyfriend with a thick southern accent, who is on his way to my apartment to beat me to death. i can feel him nearing and am petrified with fear, because i know he's going to kill me.

- i am at the hospital waiting room asking the clerk how much it is to get an abortion, having cheated on my boyfriend and gotten pregnant (the guy i cheated with is not in the dream at all--i don't even know who it is). the abortion costs $1700.00, which i do not have. my entire extended family is there. i get into an argument with my dad. my stepmother is being entirely smug. all of this is incredibly embarassing, and i am sobbing.

Here's a great website for those of us who are online all the time and are sick of registering for everyhing:

bugmenot.com

Public usernames. Why didn't I ever think of that?

Turducken is here!

The monstrosity is baking nicely in its own juices...will post pictures and review later!

Today I am eating:

Turducken with creole sausage and cornbread stuffing
Sweet corn cakes
Mashed potatoes
Roasted garlic lemon potatoes
Broccoli salad
Buttered corn
Stuffing

Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
Lemon poppyseed scones
Cranberry orange scones

...and MORE!

wedding mehndi  

Two of my closest and most fabulous friends were married this weekend. Congratulations Aaruni and Pamela! 

princess 

spending most of my time reading lately--absorbing rather than purging information--so i have felt less inclined to write. short update:

-we named my kitten Mouse, and i am completely and utterly obsessed with her.
-my sister came to visit and we went to the zoo and saw koalas shit on each other.
-i took the professional responsiblity test, and left feeling unprofessional and irresponsible.
-i was too apathetic to vote yesterday.
-i bought three pairs of adorable shoes for $13.99 due to pricing error.
-they hurt my feet.

it is at once heartwarming and horrifying to suddenly realize you are at the age where all your friends and your friends' friends are getting married.