we're kinda screwed

Pat Buchanan is a pig of a man, but I did read something interesting that he wrote: "If a nation's power fails to cover its commitments, its foreign policy is bankrupt. While the insolvency might not be revealed until a run on the bank, as at Pearl Harbor, it will be exposed."

He then lists all the places that we are mired in, from the Balkans to Taiwan to Antarctica (that's right, if somebody attacks the South Pole, we're in). Bottom line: the US has positioned itself to be involved in pretty much any future war, anywhere. And that's just great.

the russian man's burden

So my progress in "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" has been hindered for MONTHS, all because of one simple problem. You see, the game goes through a series of missions - finish one, run over some prostitutes, start another one. I was doing just fine, busting caps and stealing dope like nobody's business, until this one little nutcracker... you see, the mission involved dancing. Yes, that's right, as in having a sense of rhythm.

Uh-oh.

This morning, I finally persevered, and managed to hit all the buttons just right. We're on to more drive-bys!

blame uzbekistan!

Was Borat somehow involved? The mint of Kazakhstan made a spelling error while printing its own bank notes. Classy.

flying over the strip

This was by far the coolest: I took a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon, which sweet in its own right, but on the way back, the pilot flew us over the Strip.

aftermath

Apparently, many great pictures and an empty wallet weren't the only things I brought back from Vegas - I also came down with either food poisoning or the flu. Either way, I think it's my body's way of saying, "Enough with this crap already!"

Why is the Russian body not happy? Well, it could be the sheer volume of food that I consumed (the buffet at the Paris casino - yuuuuum), or it could be the endless walking from place to place, or that 10-gallon margarita (see below).

All in all though, it was totally worth it! Susan and I took in everything the city had to offer, and most of the things were offered to us at a discount (apparently, for any show/activity/event, there is a dude walking the strip with a stack of coupons). The casinos are still trying to outdo one another, and this time around we were most impressed with the nightly light show at the Wynn. Ah the excess of capitalism!

viva Las Vegas!

happy WUD!

Yesterday was the greatest holiday of the year, the World Usability Day. The UInerds, myself included, came out in droves to celebrate at the Museum of Science. We kept the format pretty much the same, only changed out a few of the presentations. As an added bonus, I checked out the "Bodies" exhibit afterwards... eh, I was expecting something much more shocking.

Oh well, sure beats being couped up in the office, let me tell ya!

And you know what else: going to Las Vegas beats all of the above ;p

Be back Sunday!

Singaporean SMS'er

I thought this article was about Jude for a second...

tamest bachelor party... ever?

Those of you who know Kenny Kwong would not be surprised to know that his bachelor party was very, very civil. Indeed, Kenny is an upstanding citizen, and behaved himself remarkably well - probably due to the fact that he drinks like a girl.

Without any pressure from me, Kenny decided to celebrate his changing marital status with a paintball game. I could only applaud his decision. Out of the dozen or so people that showed up, only Lee, his friend, and I have had any sort of paintball experience. That proved to be hilariously significant.

The first few games were pretty typical - the newbies hunkered down behind the bunkers, and Lee and I took turns hunting each other down. He flushed me out one time when my team put up a Maginot-like defense, and I nailed him when he paused to check on his CO2. One time, we played with some other kids, some as young as 10. Some of them have a lot to learn about this game... I got one right on the mask, and he did not call himself out. I shouted at him across the field - nothing. What can you do? I proceeded to systematically mark him on the mask, pants, marker, shoes - no response. The ref had to run in to pull him out.

Then, the same ref proposed a new game - defend the President. Kenny's brother, Henry, and I would be the bodyguards, and Kenny would be big P. Kenny had three lives, and also two shields to cover himself. Henry and I had unlimited lives, and one job - protecting the President. The other team of six or so could "recycle", or run back to the starting point to get another life after being marked.

Henry started off by picking up Kenny's marker and going at it Rambo-style. Keep in mind that this guy is larger than me in every dimension, so it was quite a sight. Apparently, his size also made him a good target, because he was LIT-UP continuously. For some reason, the other team did not see me, so I just kept picking them off, one by one. It was like a video game: they'd take turns running to bunkers, I'd mark them in the same sequence.

In Lee's words, "I forget how much fun this game is..."

feelin' optimistic (for about five seconds)

Go ahead: it's OK to gloat a little bit ;)

doogie!

In case you haven't heard, the guy who played Doogie Howser (Neil Patrick Harris) came out of the closet. If you've watched "Harold and Kumar", you'll find this especially surprising.

That was an awesome movie, by the way.

woohoo?

Democrats in control of the House? Rumsfeld resigning? Is it Christmas already?

In other news - watch the gas prices inch up slowly but steadily. But don't worry, they'll drop again in exactly two years.

they should make a movie out of this

Alex Zanardi is coming back to F1 after losing both of his legs in a Champ Car accident. That is balls.

the fat man speaks

In a rare moment of ingenuity, Jared Spool uttered something clever in a webcast that I was listening to. He said, "The good thing about users is that eventually they die."

Of course, at my company, it's more like "You will die before your users will retire" :(

jumbo reunion

So the boyz finally made it to Boston:

Surprisingly, we had a very civil time. Sure, there was drinking, but there was no destruction of property, rape claws, or meeting your friend's girlfriend and not remembering it the next morning. Are we getting old?

In any case, we may have gotten through only 0.05% of our agenda, but we still had a great time hanging out in Davis and Harvard Sq's, watching "Borat", and meeting up with people we haven't seen in forever and a half. It was sad to see them go, knowing that long-distance travel was required in order to see Kenny's attempts at flirting with every moving object. Oh well, such is life!

tehe

In another disappointment to Susie, it was revealed that Tom Brady is not single any more:

The crushing irony of the whole situation is that the gf is the actress who played Natasha on "Sex in the City". Now, I will never admit to watching the show, but my sources tell me that she's the one who stole "Big".

Sorry Sue, I guess you'll have to settle for me after all!