My Poor Neglected Blog

Three months since I've written anything - terrible!

If only my life were more interesting, I might have more to say. My photography blog is a bit more up to date.

A run down of the past three months:

• I started teaching at Mt. SAC, a wonderful school.
• I signed up to run the LA Marathon in March 2009.
• I am going to Obama's inauguration.

I should say more accurately that I bought a plane ticket for Baltimore in the hopes of going to Obama's inauguration. As for whether I will get a ticket to the inauguration or not - well, that's another story.

But I can dream!

New Photography Logo

I changed the look of my photography website and blog. Take a look!

I Got Soul

I love this commercial. I love this song. And yes, I went out and bought the album (Hot Fuss, by The Killers) after seeing this commercial run during the Olympics. I am just a tool of corporate America.

Baja Fish Tacos

I haven't been cooking as much as I would like - it was hard to do while I was teaching the night class. But now that I have a few weeks off before fall semester starts up, I plan on cooking up a storm.

This is a really good fish taco recipe from The Bon Appetit Cookbook. My aunt was still talking about these tacos a week later. I served the tacos along with some black beans, guacamole, and freshly made tortilla chips.
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Baja Fish Tacos

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup crema mexicana or sour cream
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 cup dark beer, room temperature (I used Negra Modelo)
• 1 3/4 pounds halibut fillets (or other firm white fish such as cod, red snapper, or orange roughy) cut into 5 x 3/4 incih strips
• 1 lime, halved crosswise
• 12 white corn tortillas
• Vegetable oil for frying
  
• 1 1/2 cups shredded red cabbage
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• Lime wedges
• Hot pepper sauce

1. Mix the mayonnaise, ketchup, and crema or sour cream in a small bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. Whisk the flour, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl. Pour in the beer, whisking until the batter is smooth. Let stand for 15 minutes.
3. Sprinkle the fish with salt and pepper. Squeeze the lime halves over each piece of fish. Let stand 15 minutes. Mix the fish into the batter.
4. Preheat the oven to 200 F. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Warm the tortillas in the skillet and wrap in foil or towels to keep warm.
5. Pour enough oil into a medium skillet to reach a depth of 1 inch. Heat the oil to 350 F. Add a few pieces of the batter-coated fish strips and fry until the batter is golden brown. Transfer the fish to a baking dish lined with paper towels and place in the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining fish strips.
6. To serve, place 2 fish strips inside each warm tortilla and top with the sauce, cabbage, tomatoes, a squeeze of lime, and a dash of hot pepper sauce.
   

Obama and Oil Drilling

Obama is starting to get on my nerve. There has been much chatter that once he wrapped up the Democratic nomination, he has moved more and more to the center. And okay, he voted for FISA, and he supported the Supreme Court's decision that overturned DC's gun ban when previously he had been in favor of said ban.

But now he's open to offshore drilling? No, no, no! The whole offshore drilling thing, the whole claim that it will lower our gas prices, is pandering. I don't think the answer to our long-term energy problems lies in oil. There's no future in oil. The future is with alternative forms of energy. And Obama talks about all that too. But ugh. Ixnay on the offshore rilling-day!

BK Heart Attack

This is just so disgusting.

Strike a Pose

I can't get enough of this video.

Euro 2008

It's too bad soccer has such a bad rep in the US. I've been watching the Euro Cup, and the best thing about it is that there's no commercials. Unlike football, where the action stops about every 10 seconds, soccer goes straight through their 45 minute halves. No breaks for commercials - darn!

It also seems that soccer teams have very many good-looking players. Basketball players are too tall, and football players are too fat. Soccer players? Just right.

So I'll be watching Spain and Russia this Sunday - may the cutest team win! (The cutest team being Spain.)

Tim Russert - Dead?

I was really shocked by the death of Tim Russert. When I turned on MSNBC to watch Hardball, and saw the headline at the bottom of the screen, I thought it was a mistake. That it was Tim Russert's father who had died, not Tim.

It was hard to watch the coverage on MSNBC because you could tell a lot of those reporters had been crying. I mean, the guy dropped dead at work. I can't imagine having to go on there air and eulogize a friend and co-worker who had just died only a few hours earlier. Really sad.

Game On

Now that Hillary's out of the race, I can like her again. I thought she gave a good speech yesterday, which almost makes up for the fact that she didn't concede sooner. I'm wondering how much she'll campaign for Obama, and how many of her supporters will come around.

I admit it, at one point I felt like I would never vote for Hillary. But McCain is a warmonger who wants to repeal Roe v. Wade. Hopefully her legion of women supporters will come around and realize how ridiculous it is to vote for someone who is against their values, just out of bitterness.

A Class Act to the Bitter End

When this whole Democratic nominee process started, I didn't like Hillary that much. She seemed fake. And that was about as far as my distaste went.

Now I just can't stand her. Or rather, I can't stand the campaign that she has run. Even at the end, instead of gracefully bowing out and admitting that Obama would be the nominee, she goes on stage last Tuesday and says that she's not going to make any decisions that night.

And then proceeds to give her list of demands. Her not-so-thinly-veiled threat to Obama? Do what I want or my millions of voters won't go to your side.

So yes, I can only imagine the heartbreak of being so close and yet coming up short. But that's the game. Even gutter fighters have to know when to quit.

Blogging Wanderlust

I like Blogger. It's easy to use. But my eye is roaming; I have my eye on WordPress. Based on a cursory glance at various blogging platforms, it seems that WordPress is more powerful and flexible than Blogger.

Lately I have become obsessed with web design. My immediate goal is to make a Project Blended website, and I am plowing through a 1000 page Dreamweaver book so that I can learn how to use this massive program.

And as I cruise the web for inspiration (The Daily Slurp, CSS Zen Garden, Best Web Gallery, Smashing Magazine), my mind has gotten to thinking about other websites. I would like to resurrect my very neglected www.soniaortega.net site, as well as design a photography website that is a better reflection of my personal style. Not a downloaded template, which is what I have now.

All this has given me a much greater appreciation for good web design. I'm hoping I can design something with a little flair and attitude, and that I don't end up with an ugly, unmitigated disaster.

Memorial Day Barbecuing

I admit it - I had meat for Memorial Day. I have been craving carne asada (among other things) and decided it was time to break out what should be my world-famous carne asada marinade. I also made guacamole, mango salsa, grilled corn, and roasted vegetables.

And no recipes.

For the carne asada I used olive oil, white vinegar, fresh-squeezed orange juice, brown sugar, cumin, oregano, coriander, and salt. I placed the meat in gallon-sized plastic bags along with the marinade, and then added orange slices, onion slices, crushed garlic cloves, and fresh cilantro.

For the guacamole - nothing fancy. Avocados, onions, serrano peppers, cilantro, lime juice, and salt. I've started adding coriander. To top it off I sprinkle with cotija cheese.

The mango salsa was a first. I used two large Roma tomatoes and three manila mangoes. Manila mangoes are the small yellow mangoes, and I think the texture and flavor is much better than the large red ones you see in most supermarkets.

I ended up with about equal parts tomaotoes and mangoes, then added some chopped onion, serrano pepper, cilantro, and plenty of fresh lime juice. Season with salt to taste. Man, was it good.

The roasted vegetables: red peppers, pasilla peppers, and onions cut into strips. Toss with salt and olive oil and stick it in a 500 degree oven until the vegetables are cooked to your liking. I like the edges to get a little brown.

And the corn - well, I kind of used a recipe. Bobby Flay's grilled corn recipe is really, really delicious. But I didn't feel like making the garlic butter. I grilled the cobs according to his directions, and then put out plain old butter with lime wedges and cotija cheese.

That was my Memorial Day!

Duh

What? You mean a Republican would lose the state of California in November! What a news flash!

Obama Would Take California in November, Times/KTLA Poll Finds

Countdown Commentary

No surprise that Keith Olbermann had plenty to say about Hillary Clinton's assassination reference. His commentary sums up everything wrong with that comment and everything that is wrong with Hillary's campaign.

The Long Shot

Why is Hillary staying in the race?

Apparently she's hoping that Obama gets shot.

After making that shocking comment, she offered a mumbling apology . . . to the Kennedy family?

Good luck getting on the VP ticket now!

On The Wilder Side

This was a Billy Wilder weekend. I'm trying to actually watch the DVD's I have, instead of settling for whatever crappy movies happen to be on cable. So I watched Double Indemnity, Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, and Sunset Boulevard.

For those of you who haven't seen any Billy Wilder films, rent thee some of his DVD's! Sunset Boulevard is one of my all-time favorite movies - I love, love, love William Holden in that film. Some Like It Hot has what is considered one of the greatest last lines of all time. And The Apartment - not your typical romantic comedy, which is why it's so wonderful.

The first film for this season's Cemetery Screenings is Wilder's Ace in the Hole. I first saw this movie at UCLA, when it was not available on DVD. Man, is that one dark movie. And yet . . . it's so funny. Best line? "I've met a lot of hard-boiled eggs in my time, but you - you're twenty minutes."

And that's why I love Wilder's work - it's dark, it's sad, it's funny, and it's just so true. I don't know if I'll make the trek out to Hollywood for the screening, but I might have to go out and buy Ace in the Hole on DVD.

What's in a Name?

For those who can't decide whether they should use Myanmar or Burma, this article will help shed light on the political implications of each name.

Finally!

Edwards to Endorse Obama

More Blended Stuff

I've added two more Blended entries to my photo blog - Adam and Annie are #3 and Mike, Candice, and Blake are #4. I've also added a gallery just for this project on my photo website. I recently purchased some books to help me learn Illustrator and Dreamweaver so that I can start working on my Project Blended website.

I'm sure that I can build a simple website on my own, but I'm not sure if I can do something really cool or complex. So I haven't ruled out the idea of collaborating with someone. But since this project is a labor of love and not generating any income, for now I will be flying solo.

Mortgage Meltdown, Demystified

So I know that the mortgage crisis has something to do with people getting loans they shouldn't have gotten, to buy houses that they couldn't afford. But I didn't really get it.

Which is why I really appreciated last week's espisode of This American Life. It's like Mortgage-Backed Securities for Dummies. It starts at the beginning and explains step by step how this all happened. Highly recommended.

China Earthquake

I woke up this morning to news of the huge earthquake in China. The earthquake's epicenter was in Sichuan Province near Chengdu, which is where I stayed when I was in China during the summer of 2006. It's strange to see pictures of the quake and have things look so familiar, even though it's happening so far away.

Papadakis Taverna

Last weekend I had dinner with a friend at Papadakis Taverna in San Pedro. We were greeted warmly at the door as soon as we walked in by one of the owners - hearty handshakes and big thank you's for joining them that evening. Large groups were in the restaurant celebrating birthdays, I suppose, which added to the jovial spirt of things. They had vegetarian entrees on the menu - of course my eye went immediately to the spanakopita. I was a very happy camper.

My friend, on the other hand, was not. She had been having a rough time at work. The restaurant was pricier than she had anticipated (which I concur with; meat entrees ran about $25 and vegetarian entrees about $16). And she had her heart set on this pasta dish made with ground beef. Except this restaurant did not use ground beef. The dish was made with ground lamb, which my friend was not interested in trying.

Our waitress was polite, but I could tell she was irritated that my dining companion would not try the dish with the ground lamb (they could not substitute ground beef). Then my friend asked for hummus - which was not on the menu and the restaurant didn't serve. Hummus, our waitress informed us, is not Greek food. It's Middle Eastern. Her irritation was growing.

Finally my friend settled on a pita pizza - pita bread topped with Greek cheeses and sausage. But she wanted everything separate: plain pita bread with the toppings on the side. I took this to mean that she wanted an unassembled pizza. Which is how I think most people would have interpreted our request.

So the food came. My spanakopita was delicious. I had a nice glass of Greek white wine. And my friend seemed to be enjoying her dinner as well. It was getting late, our waitress said she was leaving for the night. We thanked her. She left. We finished eating. And then the bill came.

There were a lot of items on that bill. What the waitress had done was charge my friend a la carte prices for each item on the pizza: the pita, the sausage dish, the cheese plate. Which totaled more than double the price of the pizza. So she called over another waiter, since ours had left for the evening, and eventually the owner came to sort things out.

Now, I just finished reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, and this man was a living embodiment of the principles in that book. He apologized profusely. He wanted to know what his restaurant had done wrong so that this mistake wouldn't happen again. He took all the a la carte items off the bill and did not charge my friend for the pizza she originally ordered. He hoped that we would come back and give them another chance.

I would definitely go back there again. The food was really good and, despite our slightly perturbed waitress, the customer service was excellent. Plus they have this flaming cheese dish that is really, really cool. Opa!
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Papadakis Taverna
301 West Sixth Street
San Pedro, CA 90731
(310) 548-1186

Mmmm . . . Peanut Butter

KCRW's Good Food is one of my favorite radio programs. It is, naturally, about food: restaurant reviews, cookbooks, chefs, cooking tips, what's in season, and other related topics. I listen faithfully every week.

I even get around to trying some of the recipes I hear on the show. I've had one recipe in particular stuck in my mind for nearly three years. Three years! I did make it back when the show first aired, but I was missing one key ingredient. Now that I've finally found it (okay, my search over the past few years has been very, very intermittent) I'm ready to give it another go.

The recipe is Peanut Butter Avalanche, from The Ultimate Peanut Butter Book by Mark Scarbrough and Bruce Weinstein. It calls for vanilla-flavored liqueur, which I finally found at Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa Mesa. My friend recommended this store to my brother (both of whom are beer obsessed) because they have this giant walk-in beer refrigerator.

I, on the other hand, was excited to find that they carried three different types of vanilla liqueur. They did carry Licor 43, which is the one suggested in the recipe, but the store employee (very friendly and helpful) who showed me the different liqueurs said that Licor 43 had other flavors with the vanilla, whereas the one I got (Das Komet) was just pure vanilla. And it was only six dollars.

And now for the recipe: this is like a liquored-up peanut butter shake. It's very, very good, but not something anyone should indulge in on a regular basis.

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Peanut Butter Avalanche
Makes 2 drinks

• 1 cup ice
• 2/3 cups vanilla ice cream
• 1/4 cup (2 ounces) vanilla-flavored liqueur, such as Licor 43
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) vodka
• 1/4 cup malted milk powder
• 1/4 cup creamy standard peanut butter
• 1/4 cup milk, preferably nonfat

Place the ingredients in the order listed in a blender; blend until smooth, making sure the ice cubes get crushed thoroughly. Pour into 2 glasses and serve at once.

The End Is Nigh

I remember when I used to think that the nomination process was completely unfair. That it was ridiculous for a few early states - Iowa, New Hampshire - to pick the nominee.

Now I'm longing for the good old days.

Well, almost. I still don't think Iowa and New Hampshire should get lavished with all this attention, but surely there must be some happy medium. If only to save the candidates from themselves: Clinton's campaign revealed that she has given six million dollars to a campaign that for the most part looks over.

I'm also getting tired of this new narrative - why won't working class white people vote for Obama? It strikes me as a bit racist.

And all that Reverend Wright coverage? Definitely racist.

The Incredible Hulk - Again

I watched The Incredible Hulk when it was a TV show. When they were just putting green paint on Lou Ferrigno. Then there was the movie Hulk with Eric Bana, which I never saw because it looked stupid.

Now there's another movie - a mere five years later - about the same freaking Hulk. That also looks stupid. With Edward Norton as the Hulk? What is that about? The lobby of the movie theater had this butt-ugly statue of the Hulk (above), which is how he looks in the new movie. The head is smaller than the feet! The people who do all this CGI animation stuff have just gotten carried away. They're too detached from reality.

I saw the trailer to the newest Incredible Hulk when I went to see Iron Man, with Robert Downey Jr. (another unlikely casting choice) as Iron Man. He did a good job, but Christian Bale he is not.

Speaking of which, we also saw the trailer for the next Batman move, The Dark Knight. Now that's a movie I'll be seeing.

Project Blended

So it's official - I purchased a domain name for my mixed race/culture/heritage photography project: www.projectblended.com. Nothing's there yet. And nothing will be there for a while. But I am toying with the idea of trying to create my own website for this project. Or at least designing it and finding someone to do the coding.

I have posted some more pictures at my other blog. I photographed two couples and a family last weekend, and am just getting through all the editing. I don't have any more sessions scheduled - I have friends, and friends of friends, who have expressed interest, but haven't made a firm commitment. Which means it is getting time to putting an ad on Craig's List. I just hope that no mixed-race ax-wielders decide to respond!

Hillary Clinton = Psycho Bunny-Boiler

Okay, so I'm no fan of Hillary. I really don't know if I will remain a registered Democrat if she steals the nomination from Obama. But comparing her to Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction? Amusing, yes. Sexist? Very. (Full disclosure: I hated that movie!)

Carbon Concerns

It's very "in" now to be concerned about the environment, as well it should be. I recently heard a commentator lament that people want to do something about the environment without actually having to "do" anything. People don't want to sacrifice. Two issues have caught my eye recently - the low-carbon diet and vampire power - which I think have doable solutions.

The idea of a low-carbon diet has been around for at least a couple of years, so I'm disappointed that I heard the phrase for the first time yesterday. But I have certainly been aware of the concept: livestock production is incredibly energy and resource intensive, and the transportation of food hundreds and thousands of miles requires a lot of dirty, polluting fuel. So, to reduce your carbons, you should reduce your consumption of meat and animal products, aim to eat locally grown produce when possible, and reduce waste (plastic water bottles, I'm looking at you!)

In California, it's possible to eat very, very local. But for people who don't live in agricultural utopias, eating food grown in North America is local enough. That means cutting down on bananas, people! I'm still working on getting my lazy bones to local farmers' markets more often.

For more information on how our food choices impact the environment, I highly recommend reading The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, by Peter Singer and Jim Mason. John Robbins has also written several books about the impact of our eating decisions, but he's a little more strident than Stringer and Mason. Although I must admit, Robbins' book Diet for a New America is what made decide to become a (wishy-washy, seafood-eating, bacon-nibbling) vegetarian. The Food Revolution is an updated version of that book.

And now - vampires! I had no idea that all the things we leave plugged in while not in use suck a lot of power. They account for 25% of our electric bill! I can look around my bedroom and see the TV, printer, computer, speakers - even when they're off, little lights that glow on the front mean they're leaking energy.

So the answer is to go around your house every night and unplug everything that you're not using.

No, wait. The answer, according to David Pogue of the New York Times, is to purchase APC's Power-Saving SurgeArrest surge protector power strip. It's designed for computers and all of their peripherals. The computer is the "master" - when it's on, your printer, speakers, etc. are on. When your computer is off or goes to sleep, power is cut to your peripheral devices. And there are separate outlets for things that you might still want to keep on all the time, like your modem.

Pretty nifty! And a little pricier than your plain old power strip, but according to Pogue the savings in your electric bill means they will pay for themselves in a year.

Pasta a la Mexicaine

I have been doing more cooking lately, sans recipes. For those of you who know how I usually cook - slavishly following recipes down to the 1/8 teaspoon - this is quite a turn of events.

Yesterday I made a pasta dish that I was actually quite happy with. I believe my father would say that I made it a hecho - just throwing together what I had on hand. The following is enough for one serving; adjust as necessary.

2 to 3 ounces pasta of your choice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 thick slice of onion, chopped
1 serrano chili, seeded and minced
2 Roma tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Dry white wine
6 to 8 large raw shrimp, peeled
Fresh lemon juice
1 to 2 tablespoons fresh cilantro
Salt
Cotija or Parmesan cheese, for garnish

1. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a skillet. When hot, sautee the garlic, onion, and serrano until fragrant. Add the chopped tomatoes and add a splash or two of white wine. Lower the heat to medium and cook for a few minutes, allowing the flavors to blend.
   
2. When the pasta water is ready, add pasta and cook according to the package directions.
3. While the pasta is cooking, add the shrimp to the sauce and cook until pink. Turn the heat off and add a squeeze or two of fresh lemon juice. Add salt to taste.
   
4. When the pasta is ready, drain it and add it to the skillet with the sauce. Toss to coat. Transfer to a serving dish, sprinkle the fresh cilantro on top, and grate some cotija or Parmesan cheese over the pasta.

I used shrimp because that's what I had in the freezer, but you chicken-eaters out there can substitute cooked chicken, or just leave out meat all together.

See My Garage - On The Internet!

I know I'm a little late to the party, but I finally discovered Google Street View. When I looked up my house, I could see inside the garage! Is this really necessary?

Of course, it is kind of cool to look at pictures of Alaska. And stare at strange people's garages. Some pictures also have people walking around, like the maps of UCLA's campus. Could I be in some Google Street View map someplace?

Weird, weird, weird.

Night of the Living Dead

I feel like I'm in a zombie movie - I keep thinking Hillary is dead, but she keeps coming back! Why??

I still believe Obama should be the nominee, but whether he will be or not seems less and less certain. Yeah, he'll end up with more pledge delegates. And he'll probably get the popular vote. But those super delegates!

I don't understand why we have this snobbery element to our elections - there's the electoral college, and then these super delegates. In school I was taught that citizens were equal when it came to elections: one person, one vote. But apparently some votes are more equal than others.

Zucchini Zeal

I bought a big pack of zucchini from Trader Joe's and am still trying to finish it off. My favorite way to eat zucchini now is in salads. I got this idea from a recipe in Food and Wine magazine.

I cut the ends off of the zucchini, peel the skin off, and then with the vegetable peeler I shave the zucchini lengthwise into long ribbons. I throw this on top of some salad greens. And you can add whatever else you have on hand; I like to add carrots cut in the same way as the zucchini. I think fennel would also taste good, or thinly sliced apples.

And I like to top it off with some goat cheese, salt and pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. Very tasty!

I also made some quesadillas with roasted zucchini and red bell pepper. I considered this dish a success because my dad, who always has something to say if he has to eat a vegetarian meal, actually said that it was good.

I cut up the red bell pepper and zucchini into thin slices, toss them with some olive oil and salt, and stick them in a 500 degree oven. You could also sautee them. Once the vegetables are cooked - I like them to get a little brown - put them in flour tortillas along with some pepper jack cheese. I like to cook my quesadillas in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil so that the tortilla gets crisp.

Finally, zucchini fritters make a great snack and are a delicious way to eat zucchini. Anything tastes good fried!

Colbert Con

When I heard that Hillary Clinton was going to be the special guest on The Colbert Report, I thought she was going to be the special guest. As in, she was going to sit down at the table with him and answer those wacky Colbert questions.

But no, she was just there to do a skit about fixing the monitor. Yawn.

I didn't know that John Edwards was going to be on the show as well, and he was hilarious. Of course they had to include Barack Obama as well, but he was on TV instead of in the studio. Not very exciting.

Lately I've been watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report pretty regularly. Along with Top Chef and Step It Up and Dance. Plus Hardball and Countdown on MSNBC. Me, watching TV shows regularly? I know my TV habits were changing when commercial jingles started getting stuck in my head.

Cross-Bloggination

I have a photography blog that is dedicated to my interest in photography and would be a marketing tool for my fledgling business, if anyone ever read it. I have already written about my Blended project on that blog - so go over there and read it!

I'm looking for people who are somehow "blended" - either mixed race people or interracial/intercultural couples and families. I took my first pictures for this project last Saturday.

If you know anyone who I can photograph, please send 'em my way! Eventually I will be putting ads out for people, but first want to start off with friends, family, and people they know.

Vacation, I Hardly Knew Ye

I'm on spring break, and it's almost over. The idea of driving out to Death Valley passed through my mind, but instead I've spent most of the week editing photos. I put an ad on Craig's List to try to get models for my portfolio. Maybe half a dozen people responded, and two people followed through and took pictures with me. I also took some pictures of friends and friends of friends over the weekend. So I have plenty of photos to keep me busy.

I'm not so thrilled about going back to school on Monday. When I'm actually in the classroom with the students, I enjoy it. But last night I dreamt that I was in a classroom even larger than the one I have at Pasadena (which is pretty darn big) and that it was packed full of students who were talking and goofing around and not listening to what I was saying or doing the activity I wanted them to do.

Typical teacher nightmare!

John McCain's Old - ha ha ha!

I'm getting tired of all the jokes about John McCain's age. They're not very interesting. Or intelligent. And I don't think it should be okay to make fun of McCain's age when it's not okay to make jokes about Hillary's gender or Barack's race.

After all, Bill Clinton seems to think that Hillary is pretty old, too.

The Departed

I've become obsessed with this movie. Not because I think Leonardo is dreamy (man, has he come a long way from that pretty boy in Titanic) but because I'm trying to figure this movie out!

I had seen bits and pieces of the movie before, so I knew how it ended. And then I caught it from the beginning one night on cable and decided to watch the whole thing.

Let me tell you, this is not the kind of movie where you can step out to get a snack, come back, and expect to know what's going on. I missed some pretty important scenes when it was on TV and I was in and out of the room.

So I watched it on DVD. Eyes glued to the screen. Beginning to end. And I think I get about 75% of the movie. Everyone is lying to somebody. But now I'm trying to figure out how people find out who's lying, and who's on their side and who's on the other guy's side. I might have to watch it a couple more times.

It's a really good movie. I usually don't care for cop/gangster movies with dead bodies everywhere, but I do love Goodfellas and I'd put The Departed right up there with it. Although Goodfellas has the better soundtrack, so it still has a slight edge in my book.

Final Four Blowouts

I just assumed North Carolina was going to beat Kansas. So it was with some shock when I saw, late in the first half, that North Carolina had only scored 12 points. They were down by 28 points - in the first half! I couldn't believe it.

So, while I do want to see Memphis lose only because they beat us, they've never won a basketball championship. Which means . . . I still want them to lose. But if they walk away with the trophy I won't be terribly upset.

Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride

I can barely stand it - three Final Four appearances in a row, three trips home empty handed.

Now there's nothing to do but hope Memphis gets the pants whooped off of them by North Carolina.

Statistics - Been There, Barely Survived That

I took an online statistics class through UCLA Extension. When I signed up for the class in late 2007, I had it in my head that I was going to go back to school for a Ph.D. in computational linguistics. I must have been smoking crack without knowing I was smoking crack, because just looking at the phrase "computational linguistics" makes my eyes cross.

After plowing through a beginning programming book, I realized that I don't think I have the right temperament (read: mental capacity) for programming. It's so tedious. My brother, who is a software programmer, would talk about programs with thousands and thousands of lines of code, and having to go through them and trying to find what's buggy. That would make me tear out my eyeballs.

But after realizing that computational anything may not be my cup of tea, I decided to take the class anyways because most likely, any Ph.D. program would require statistics. And it's one of those subjects that I've always wanted to learn, but never got around to.

So I understood the first half of the class. The rest is just a blur of really long formulas that I have no idea how to use. And somehow I got a B.

I don't plan on taking anymore online courses. I didn't feel like I was taking a class. It felt really weird to never meet my professor or classmates. And, frankly, if I'd had to take that final exam in a classroom, I would have b-o-m-b-e-d it. There doesn't seem to be as much academic integrity. My laziness got the better of me.

Whither now, Ph.D.? I'm not entirely sure I want to go back to school. I really enjoy teaching adult ed, and I don't think a doctorate would make much of a difference in that field. I don't think teacher training in adult ed requires a Ph.D., either. I haven't ruled it out - entirely - but right now a doctorate is pretty low on my scale of priorities.

My Meat Wish List

I've had meat on the mind lately. I did a little backsliding around the holidays; at a friend's house for noche buena I had a ham croquette and a nibble of pork. For my birthday party I bought some Spanish chorizo and serrano ham. I've been good since then, but I have these dark, sinister thoughts about Fatburger, Korean barbecue, and Chick-Fil-A. I also wouldn't mind a nice grilled hot dog.

The weird thing is that although I crave meat, I don't feel so good when I eat it. A few bites is okay. Any more than that, and my stomach lets me know it's unhappy. I don't get sick - nothing particularly unpleasant happens. I just feel kind of blah.

Yet when I eat mostly vegetables, I feel great. And I like vegetables; I crave salads and fresh corn. Fruit is a great snack. So you'd think my body, in all it's infinite wisdom, would tell my brain to knock it off with the meat cravings. But no. The smell of bacon brings me to my knees.

My attitude towards food is always changing. I'm at the point now of eating what makes me feel good, mentally, ethically and physically. Which means mostly vegetables, occasional seafood, some cheese here and there, and a few nibbles of meat when the urge strikes.

And sweets? That's another battle . . . .

Gonna Fly Now

Hillary Clinton has taken to comparing herself to Rocky Balboa. That she's not going to run halfway up those stairs and quit.

Okay, so she's going to run all the way to the top of the museum steps, but . . . hasn't she seen Rocky? Doesn't she know how the movie ends?