"i can't believe there are so many good looking girls here..."

- aileen, referring to winston-salem, nc (and no, not sarcastically)

WSJ posted an article today about how Iraqis were not happy about Bush's visit since he didn't visit them but only the troops. Here are some quotes:

"We cannot consider Bush's arrival at Baghdad International Airport yesterday as a visit to Iraq," said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. "He did not meet with ordinary Iraqis. Bush was only trying to boost the morale of his troops."

"He visited Iraq for the sake of the Americans, not the Iraqis. He didn't come to see how we are doing," Muzher Abd Hanush, 54 years old, said in his barbershop. "To come, say hello and leave -- what good does that do?"


so freaking ungrateful. upsetting.

weird dream last night. for some reason i dreamt that i was on the women's field hockey team. women as in female? yes. female. i don't think i was a girl, but i knew that i was playing on the team... and that i almost got kicked off because i was late for practice. i was on my way to the locker room when i was woken up by a phone call. i'm really hoping that my dream was about me being a guy pretending to be a girl, just so i could get to see the women's locker room. that's the only justification i could think of... which really doesn't help.

Awful Plastic Surgery

funny stuff.

dave posted a great question. is online dating a good thing or a bad thing... there are so many pros and cons to each, but ultimately, will it lead to a society where people are more separated or more together?

from espn.com on today's Chargers game against the Bengals:

"Look what [the Cinncinnati Bengals] are doing now; they're 5-5 and beat the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs," Tomlinson added. Now there's a new team everyone is laughing at and picking on. We could easily become that team."

too late LaDanian... too late.

aileen's comment today... "i'm really not smart... just surrounded by stupid people!"

this whole deal about paris hilton is absurd. i only found out about it in the past two days through my friends and aileen who looks at stupid websites, like msn.com, all day long... (sidenote: in this instance, i'm glad i don't watch tv). paris is a heiress to a fortune, and sure she's a celeb, but is she "model quality?" no way. so many of my friends think she's hot and whatever, but they are forgetting one key aspect of a person when judging solely on looks: the face.



sorry, but paris is a butterface.

introducing dave's blog.

what a very interesting article... not sure if i'd be happy with it or not.

ESPN.com - NBA - Slams and Dunks: Kobe ... a Clipper?

aileen is too cute:

Bork15: who are you talking to?
Neelia39: i ain't talkin to no one yo!

i'll tell you what business school is good for. it's for understanding those IBM Business Solutions commercials that are targeted towards businesses. you know, those "that's one-degree of separation" kinda things. yes, i know what the heck they are talking about now.

great article.

Confessions of a Car Salesman

two takeaways from the talk today from the CEO of SmithBarney.

1) "hope is not a strategy" and "nobody ever got to the top by procrastination."

2) she's really bad at being a mom, so she hired two nannys.


i think the first takeaway is great. aileen asked about "hope for the best, expect the worst," which i totally already live by. i think they are two different things, but i'll have to think about it later. no time!!!!

also, the ceo, sallie krawcheck, is probably the best looking ceo out there... for a ceo, like anna kournikova for tennis. and i can't believe she's only 39. what a woman.

aileen is the greatest...
another exclusive aileen post!

my thoughts on Matrix Revolutions:

- during the battle scene in the dome in Zion, the machines are fighting with machines (the sentinels) and the humans are fighting with machines (the robot-like things)..just seemed a little ironic.. and why, in a society that is unimaginably advanced, are machine guns still used anyway? oh, and why weren't the people in the robots shielded at all.. seemed a bit dumb..

- during Trinity’s death scene, I didn’t feel any sadness for Trinity or Neo. I realized that I didn’t really care about any of the characters.. and I usually get pretty emotionally involved with the characters in a movie.. in fact, I was thinking, along with everyone else, “just die already!”

- of course, the special effects were amazing, but we’ve seen them before in the first and second movies. and nothing in Revolutions compared to the car chase scene in Reloaded.

- overall, I think that the first movie inspired us to imagine that astonishing philosophical revelations would be made, and the trilogy just wasn’t able to live up to those anticipations.

now that pj finally updated his blog i can write about my matrix thoughts as well. aileen, you have to write it now too. :)

SPOILERS
i totally agree with eric's analysis that neo was like the messiah, becoming agent smith(a sinner) to eradicate the smiths (sin) in the world. well... you know what i mean.

the reason why the oracle, token indian girl, and seraph came back was because they were programs and not people. when you infect a program, it still remains because it has to be physically deleted. that's why only the programs survived. i guess they were "cleansed."

the final battle scene was one of the best battle scenes ever. it looked superb even in the hoky theater i was in... the theater totally sucked compared to what is in the SF bay area.

what annoyed me the most:
- the little indian girl. her purpose was to show that machines have human-like characteristics and have feelings, such as love. but please... i think she was in there because every minority group was in the movie except indians, so they had to put a family in. she was definitely cute, but redundant.

- monica belucci, or more like, lack of monica belucci. geez, she's so good looking.

about trinity's final scene. yes, definitely drawn out and i was saying under my breath, "just die already!" however, i guess if you think about it, it's sad that neo was blind when she died. i think that would suck, not being able to see the one you love when she's dying right in front of you.

i wish there was another fight scene involving the twins from reloaded again. i loved that part.

so when i left the theater, the first thing that came into my head was, "you're kidding me. you're ending it now?" the second thing was, "man, this movie just made LOTR seem so much better already."

end spoiler

final thoughts: i think the script looked good on paper... but the w-brothers don't know how to make a movie based on the idea of love... and they probably needed to spend more time on making this a great movie instead of all the marketing hype with the video game and animatrix. it definitely shows.

econ final over. i can sleep in peace now. oh wait, i have to read an entire book and do a write up by wednesday. oh wait, i have anohter final next friday... oh wait, i have 3 cases due next week... oh wait, i have 3 speakers coming this week... oh wait, i have homework to do... lord, come back now.

in the meantime, i went all out today for my final. i brought burger king before the test and bought a 6-pack of mountain dew. the reason? i was so tired this morning since i slept late last night, i had to get a good start with a jolt of caffeine. halfway through the test, i was getting more tired than usual... i looked at the bottle, and it was CAFFEINE FREE diet mountain dew. that really got me scared... scared enough to get me awake and finish the test.

on a related note, it's about freakin time that SD did something right... in football at least. putting doug flutie at the helm... i mean, what took them so long?! 42 points in a game, defeating the vikings... please, it's about time.

padres get new uniforms
are you freakin kidding me? padres are getting more and more pathetic. can you maybe get at least a winning season before getting a new look? no? 75 wins? maybe?

"I like the big 'D.' I hope that stands for defense," manager Bruce Bochy said.

I think big D stands for "Dumb."

Great article from WSJ yesterday.

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Deadbeat France

Not only has Old Europe refused to ante up for Iraq's reconstruction, France and Germany in particular have been resisting calls for a radical write-off of the country's crushing debts. The two countries were major financial backers of Saddam's war machine. While lenient repayment terms may be considered, they have suggested, they're intent on getting the bulk of their money back.

Well, if the French are going to be sticklers, we think it's time they be reminded of their outstanding debt to the United States. No, we're not talking about the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who gave their lives in two world wars so that France might be free. We're talking about a monetary debt -- one that hasn't been serviced since Herbert Hoover was President.

During and after World War I, the U.S. extended a substantial amount of credit to its European allies. In 1922, the U.S. and 15 European countries agreed on a total indebtedness of about $11.5 billion -- slightly more than $4 billion for France. Payments were made until 1931, mostly from German war reparations. Then the Depression led Hoover to declare a one-year moratorium, and by 1934 all but two of the countries defaulted. As of last December, according to the U.S. Treasury, principal and interest due on the French debt amounted to about $11.8 billion, or about twice what France may be owed by Iraq.

If France is going to make America's mission in Iraq more difficult by insisting on Saddam's debt, maybe we should insist on France finally repaying us.

Updated November 4, 2003

the halloween party was an absolute blast. it probably goes in my top 3 list of best parties i've ever been to. so i think the top 3 goes like this:

1) new year's party of 2002 at my place in san francisco
2) berkeley AAF party in 2002 at my place
3) JD/MBA halloween party at Brew-ha-ha's (local redneck bar).

the party was an absolute blast, and i guess i'm really boring because i was one of the very few who actually didn't dress up. it was a really crazy party where everyone was having the time of their lives ... i guess it made me realize that i really missed out in college (undergrad). good thing, too.

pics will be posted if anyone wants to see them.