re(min)iscence

Slitherin' Bill

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:22:00 +0000

This is the film I made my senior year at the 'Herst. I showed it at my film class's final exhibition, and I'm finally posting it up after much neglect! I would say it's still in its rough cut stages, though i haven't really touched it since... I think I have 3 hours of footage of him in total, and I'd like to do something more extensive with it.

If you've lived, worked, or gone to school in Amherst, you might have seen Bill around. You can often find him in Rao's Coffee, though I didn't see him when I went up to Amherst to visit some friends last Sunday. Sometimes, he'd get paranoid when he'd see me and think I was out to get him, working for the CIA still filming his every move long after I've finished making this video. But that's okay, because he always came around in the end. He endearingly called me Minnie.

slitherin' bill

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Apologies for the poor visual and audio quality. It's not me, it's myspace.

A few notes about Bill:
- He may or may not be schizophrenic.
- He really is passionate about the town of Amherst and the environment. He often goes to the Town Hall meetings which I used to film for ACTV last year and is an active participant in discussions (no matter how unintelligible he might actually be).
- Rumor had it that he was homeless yet secretly really well-off with an estate to his name. Truth (at least in part) is that his father was actually a physics professor at Princeton, I'm not sure how wealthy. Bill currently lives in a subsidized apartment complex in the town.
- This last point may be my own conjecture, but perhaps evident to others. He's sort of a casualty of the '60s and '70s hippie-counterculture movement.

I have other films too that I really should try to upload.

If I had it my way, I would make documentary films forever, about outsiders, outsider artists, homeless people, people whose stories haven't been heard, really everyone... And experimental films too. Or like, "Man v. Wild." Discovery Channel, please hire me?

I mean, I'm realistic. I've already ruled out cinematography. After all, I'm short and small (read: weak and female) and can't quite carry 50 lbs for extended periods of time. shiiit

Sites I Like

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:19:00 +0000

If you've known me for a while, you know I like drawing cartoons and reading the comics. Here are some webcomics I like that I'd like to introduce you to, if you haven't heard of them already. The humor may not suit all, but I likey.

Toothpaste for Dinner

The Perry Bible Fellowship

Achewood

The Office II

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:49:00 +0000

It seems that now's the time of the year to hand in resignations. Quite a number of people I know are dropping like flies from their current positions. I myself gave notice today - for late May. And unlike some who, disgruntled with their jobs, feel triumphant or satisfaction over such a proactive choice, it wasn't easy for me. I liked my job fairly well, and actually wish I'd thought to start a job like this sooner. The timing wasn't right, really - I was late by about a year (which strangely happens to me quite often in a lot of different aspects of my life - perhaps I'm simply a perpetual 'late-bloomer').

But now, I'm faced with this wanderlust, so strong in its desire, egging me to explore beyond the country's boundaries, that I just can't get myself to stay, even as much as I love New York. I just have that urge and need to travel right now, to fulfill this accomplishment.

The time I have now left in the States is less than 3 months.

The Office

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 03:40:00 +0000

Donna, the sweetest yet most garrulous of the secretaries (picture slightly heavy-set but cute face, long hair, perky voice, probably hot back in the day - she's about forty-something now), passed by my office at approximately 2 pm today as I was swimming through a gulf of papers, deeply immersed in a massive bout of "document management." She stopped by to chat about her friends and dates, as were her loquacious tendencies.

"You know, I haven't seen some of my friends in years!"
"That sucks..."
"But you know how you can keep up with your friends?"
"Hmm. How?"
"Die young."
"....." My eyebrows raised.
"Die young. They'll awwlll come to your funeral, you'll have so many people at your funeral."
"....." Still raised.
"Ya know, I went to a funeral yesterday? I saw some friends I hadn't seen in fifteen years!"
"...hm" Furrowed brow.
"He was only fifty, ya know? And awwllll these people came."
"But.. you could.. live a long happy life also..."
"Yeah, but no one's gonna come to my funeral. No one's gonna come when i'm ninety and old. But that's okay." She turned around chuckling and left for the copy room, leaving me puzzled and mildly disturbed.

One Step Closer!

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 23:31:00 +0000

So this evening, I am one step closer to getting on my way to Korea!!! (Though this isn't without almost getting an ulcer worrying about it all day.) The news is that my landlord is allowing me to break my lease, and he's cool with my roommate and I finding a replacement to take over my room. Phew! What a relief. I was real concerned he wouldn't let me, as he's not the most easy-going person.

But now, I can buy my flight outta here! There is much to do beforehand in preparation for what is essentially a "move" out of the country. As much as I'll miss the city (and I know I'm going to be missing the best and my favorite time of the year to be here - the summer; in fact, I'll be missing out on a lot of things, like oh, the myriad free concerts, a huge music festival I wanted to go to called the All Points West Music Festival, and other such things like Bonnaroo down south), I know it'll all be here when I get back stateside, though I'll have to wait a while for the next summer to roll around. I mean, this is my home base essentially, as the rents are also essentially living outside of the country. (A lot of essentially's.) So I WILL be back, perhaps as soon as the late fall, and maybe by then, I'll be able to get my life in order and find a "career" or apply to grad school. Meanwhile, you know, Thailand and Vietnam are developing a thousand times a second, so they're not always going to stay the same if I miss this opportunity and finally go in, say, five or ten years time.

I'm excited. This is exciting. I'm excited that this is really happening. It's going to be a trip.

Yes, America is getting dumber.

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:57:00 +0000

Wait... It always was.

A review of Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason by the Times about America's anti-intellectual culture.

Huge generalization coming up, but as generalizations are often derived from broad logic, reason and truth, I will use one: We Americans are too self-absorbed and self-centered to care about the world. It's just to easy to lead a modest, contented, middle-class existence with food, shelter and clothing oblivious to the fact that one is standing on a revolving celestial body of the universe surrounded by entities other than oneself. It's a lifestyle of the carefree. Education isn't too big of a priority. It's food (lots of it), clothing (boastful consumerism) and shelter (big houses galore) - simple things. Sure, these things are important, of course. But if one achieves in acquiring these goals, that's satisfaction enough, it seems. There's plenty of opportunity to uproot in this country as well, should something go wrong, as property and land economy is abundant - after all, those Dutch and British settlers didn't move out of England and the Netherlands for nothing.

Naturally, this isn't true of everyone. But I feel this is the overall sentiment of middle America.

Some Verbal Vomit

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 02:36:00 +0000

1. An update on my travel plans: I think, I am hoping, that it's really going to happen for real. (A lot of it depends on my being able to successfully terminate the lease to my apartment. Wish me luck.) If this conditional is favorably accomplished, then I will most likely head to Korea for the summer to teach the SATs to rich prep school kids and hopefully accrue enormous funds so that I can travel generously in the months afterwards, yay. (Key words here being luck, hoping, hopefully and yay.)

2. Interesting article: doubting free will may lead to more cheating. The summary can be found in the Times. They primarily focused on schoolwork cheating. It would be interesting, if not a little base, if people started using this theory to explain cheating in relationship. Which sounds better - biology made me do it, or the thought of lack of free will made me do it? Hmph.

3. Speaking of relationships, on Valentine's day, I was going to recount that story that I'd mentioned in the last paragraph of my second ever blog post. But I decided against being super emo on V-day, and there was a lot percolating through my head anyway that day. So that story will, yet again, have to wait another day - although the longer I wait, the more nebulous the details get...

4. I have to talk about MGMT. It's like my absolute favorite band right now. I like their creative style, harking back on the 70s and 80s glam rock, acid rock, and post-punk. If I were a guy right now, I would say that they are real "sick." Or "ill." What's most surprising of all is that they are these two guys from Wesleyan who just casually started making music and fooling around with tunes their freshmen year, became big on campus, are now relatively huge on the indie scene, are now signed by Columbia Records, and were recently on tour with Of Montreal. You can read more about them here and check out reviews of their recent album Oracular Spectacular here.

They also have this really cool site and myspace page. AND they have a freakin awesome new music video that is an INTERACTIVE video game music video that they had their Wesleyan friends make themselves. How outrageous is that?! A screenshot of it can be found here as well as their other videos. My only gripe with them is that they aren't as spectacular live in concert... I don't know what it is. I saw them live about 8 or 9 months ago, got there late, and so only caught a glimpse of them. But even still, they didn't sound stellar. Random side note, one of them looks ridiculously young! I couldn't stop gawking at how underaged he looked.

Anyway, here is the music video for their celebrated hit "Time to Pretend." Slightly better quality can be found on YouTube or go to their own site.

5. and least important. Does the Apple store only hire hipster?

See what I mean? Verbal vomit.

Presidential Fun Facts!

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 01:03:00 +0000

Some trivia time! So the upcoming election is a milestone as we all know it. Hillary could become the first female president in the nation's history. And alternatively, Obama could become the first black president. But oh, what about McCain?

McCain could become the shortest president in American history since the year 1900. That's right! We haven't had a president this short who got elected since more than a century ago. In fact, no president's been under 5'9" since - McCain himself is 5'7". How's that for some history-making?! Even Hillary's an inch and a half taller than him.

Historically speaking - at least within the last century and within the era of televised campaigning, the taller candidate has almost always won. Welllll, generally. It's not a proven fact, really. But it's broadly seen that way. And actually, in most instances when the shorter candidate had won the general election, the taller candidate won the popular vote.

Also, if you recall in the last presidential campaign, some of the media outlets were known to have enlarged Bush's image or heightened his podium in debates in order to make the two candidates seem of equal height - when really, Kerry had 5 inches on Dubya.

It's suffice to say that I hope the myth holds true - that the taller candidate will win this year.

Obama Potomac Primaries Victory

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:59:00 +0000

Though I wasn't surprised that my current and newest state of residence New York went to Hillary, I was thrown off by Barak losing Massachusetts, my home of the last five years. But fortuitously, he came right back to carry the Potomac region - D.C., Virginia, and Maryland, my true home state.

Incidentally, I'm eating UTZ "The Crab Chip" Potato Chips with Chesapeake Bay Crab Seasoning. ;) I miss D.C. and Maryland.

Now, Obama's victory speech (This is just part 1. You should watch all 3 parts):

You know what I like about Barak Obama? That he isn't afraid to talk shit about Bush and Cheney, the fucked up state of the country that they put us in, the war, and the terrorism excuse they use for every other bogus political agenda they have. And thank you, someone (Obama in this speech) finally mentions Afghanistan and the state we put its people in - it's like no one even remember that there's still a WAR going on there - HELLLLOOO??! Don't even get me started on the innocent prisoners.

As far as the VP candidate, I wouldn't mind seeing former Virginia governor and future senatorial prospect Mark Warner take that reign.

The Juno backlash and the backlash backlash

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:17:00 +0000

Dana Stevens of Slate.com sums up the contention behind the questionable admirability of "Juno." More on this later (I know, I've been postponing writing a substantive update, but these things take time! For now, I just wanted to post the link). Meanwhile, gotta get back to work.

Waiting for Mr. Right vs. Settling for Mr. OK

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:52:00 +0000

I couldn't disagree with Lori Gottlieb of The Atlantic more.

Thoughts to come on this.

Who's more electable against McCain?

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:05:00 +0000

Obama, it seems for now. Of the 14 traditional "red states" that Bush won in 2004, Obama won nine of them.

Here's what Nicholas Kristof says:

When pollsters offer voters hypothetical matchups, Mr. Obama does better than Mrs. Clinton against Mr. McCain. For example, a Cook Political Report poll of registered voters released this week found Mr. McCain beats Mrs. Clinton, 45 percent to 41 percent. But Mr. Obama beats Mr. McCain, 45 percent to 43 percent. The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll found similar results.
Mr. Obama also has the highest approval rating of any major candidate among independents, 62 percent, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll. He also has unusually low negatives, which gives him upside potential.
Mr. Obama does surprisingly well among evangelical Christians, an important constituency in swing states. For example, Relevant magazine, which caters to young evangelicals, asked its readers: “Who would Jesus vote for?” Mr. Obama was the winner and came out 27 percentage points ahead of Mrs. Clinton.

(The above is a frightening question.)

Evidently, polling and psychology research seems to indicate that there's more sexism than racism in this nation, though I personally can't say I agree.

But Kristoff theorizes:

[My] hunch is that a conservative woman like Margaret Thatcher may have a better chance of being elected than a feminist with a distinguished record of standing up for women’s rights. For the same reason, Mr. Obama probably has a better chance than a black candidate who emerged from the civil rights movement.

Media bias surrounding celebrities

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:52:00 +0000

So okay, I know this isn't new news anymore. But I can't help but comment on Heath Ledgers' death, not so much the actual manner in which he died but the media bias I suspect surrounding it. Now, I know he was a well-respected actor and I very much admired him as well - both for his good looks and his reputable work. Undoubtedly, in a fairly short period of time, he transformed himself from being a mere teenage heartthrob to a laudable performer. And perhaps this is the reason why, but the news outlets seem rather timid to label his death an "overdose," whereas they have been quick to judge and label other similar deaths of high-profile stars in that way.

The latest from the New York Times reported with a headliner that read "Medical Examiner Rules Ledger’s Death Accidental":

The actor Heath Ledger died accidentally “from the abuse of prescription medications” — specifically, six kinds of painkillers, sleeping pills and anti-anxiety drugs — a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner said on Wednesday.

If it sounds pretty objective, it does. But if you've been following this story since the initially reporting of his death, I thought the media (or perhaps, the sources and people close to the actor who've been feeding the media information) was generally hush-hush about it all, quick to say it may have been a natural death, and seemed to deny any presence of drugs in his life (though it's since been revealed Ledger did do drugs and may have had a problem).

You could call it a bias marked by favoritism and reverence for the young actor. I'm not saying he doesn't deserve the respect or honoring of his life, but it seems a little unfair to other celebrities who've died in similar manners and were "sent off" with a difference approach. Sure, the omission of one word "overdose" might not mean much, and the article did use the term "abuse." But matters of diction are important to me. Additionally, the report were keen to point out that no individual drug was used in excess, which, in reality, shouldn't discount the fact that the combination of all of the drugs in his system was indeed excessive. I think it's significant and says something, at the very least, about the New York Times' dealing with the story.

I guess you could argue that this was a bias simply chosen by the Times, as the AP and Reuters both did acknowledge Ledger's death as an overdose. But I haven't checked out enough other media outlets to be sure...

And perhaps still, I might simply be overanalyzing...

Feist

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:54:00 +0000

I'm sure you've all heard the song '1 2 3 4' by Feist by now - its claim to fame being the ipod nano commercial. Many months later, I'm still seduced. Check out the music video, it's quite charming. The choreography - just awesome.

Stewart Made Conan Made Colbert Made Huckabee

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:52:00 +0000

I lack the ability to vote in the primary election today. But I also lack cable, and lacked TV altogether until I revived it from its couple months' sleep just over the weekend. So I've only recently realized what I've been missing out on on the hilarious and sprightly The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien, which are ever so good even with the writer's strike going on.

In brief, a jocular feud has ensued between Conan, Stephen, and Jon. Their quarrel regards who "made" Mike Huckabee. Initially, Colbert made the claim, sending off a chain reaction on the others' shows...

Take a look at what came of it all:

But beyond the fact that it's given me a few good mirthful laughs, I'm also delighted to know that all of these artists are working together to produce some great comedy.

The latest on this saga took place just yesterday:

Post-show ass kicking:

Oh, I love Colbert. And Jon Stewart. And Conan O'Brien.

Update (11:10 pm): I'm a little disappointed Obama didn't carry Massachusetts... I've been leaning more towards him over the last week or so. He's more likely to beat McCain in the general election than Clinton.

Universal Health Care Coverage or... Not

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:13:00 +0000

Along the same vein as a fellow blogger and friend's post, here is another look at the differences between Clinton and Obama's health care plan.

Paul Krugman of the New York Times evaluates:

Both plans require that private insurers offer policies to everyone, regardless of medical history. Both also allow people to buy into government-offered insurance instead.

And both plans seek to make insurance affordable to lower-income Americans. The Clinton plan is, however, more explicit about affordability, promising to limit insurance costs as a percentage of family income. And it also seems to include more funds for subsidies.

But the big difference is mandates: the Clinton plan requires that everyone have insurance; the Obama plan doesn’t.

Mr. Obama claims that people will buy insurance if it becomes affordable. Unfortunately, the evidence says otherwise.

After all, we already have programs that make health insurance free or very cheap to many low-income Americans, without requiring that they sign up. And many of those eligible fail, for whatever reason, to enroll.

An Obama-type plan would also face the problem of healthy people who decide to take their chances or don’t sign up until they develop medical problems, thereby raising premiums for everyone else. Mr. Obama, contradicting his earlier assertions that affordability is the only bar to coverage, is now talking about penalizing those who delay signing up — but it’s not clear how this would work.

And how big is the difference?

Jonathan Gruber of M.I.T., one of America’s leading health care economists, does in a new paper.

Mr. Gruber finds that a plan without mandates, broadly resembling the Obama plan, would cover 23 million of those currently uninsured, at a taxpayer cost of $102 billion per year. An otherwise identical plan with mandates would cover 45 million of the uninsured — essentially everyone — at a taxpayer cost of $124 billion. Over all, the Obama-type plan would cost $4,400 per newly insured person, the Clinton-type plan only $2,700.

That doesn’t look like a trivial difference to me. One plan achieves more or less universal coverage; the other, although it costs more than 80 percent as much, covers only about half of those currently uninsured... As with any economic analysis, Mr. Gruber’s results are only as good as his model. But they’re consistent with the results of other analyses, such as a 2003 study, commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that compared health reform plans and found that mandates made a big difference both to success in covering the uninsured and to cost-effectiveness.

There's more. Worth reading the rest of the article. This is one of the campaign issues that is near and dear to me.

Some Major Linkage Time...

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:44:00 +0000

First, an amazingly awesome and uproarious clip. If only I could be so cool at my own wedding...

Next, another knee-slapper admirably starring Michael Cera parodying Aleksey Vayner's video resume to Goldman Sachs. If you haven't heard of him, you should read this Times article from about a year ago.

Speaking of Michael Cera, you all should check out his online television series, Clark and Michael. I love him.

Be Not Afraid

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:34:00 +0000

I like Michelle Obama.

New Plates, New License, But Unable to Vote in the Primaries!

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:36:00 +0000

So Maryland and I are no longer... I official gave up my residency on Saturday. My car and Maryland are no longer either - it's taken up with New York for an, as yet, undetermined period of time. It was a sad moment actually, the changing of the plates. Maryland and I may have had a love-hate relationship, but it's always had (and will always have) a part of my heart.

In all of this mayhem and the currently haphazard state of my life, I, very regrettably, didn't think to submit my NY state voter registration form until a couple of weeks ago. But mind you, if I may so defend myself, their website didn't clearly state the deadline for submission. So I gave them a call some few weeks ago for clarification, and much to my dismay, I acted exactly a week too late! SO. All of you NY residents out there, please vote. Please vote because we now know for certain that there'll be one less vote, though not without great agitation, and not from carelessness or indolence (well, maybe a little), but because the legal-political system of the state of New York doesn't keep a fully informative webpage for its citizens. I think I know who I'd vote for, should I have the opportunity still... I think I'd side with the Clintstones, though I would be equally satisfied if Obamarama took the primary home.

Future plans

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:11:00 +0000

So I guess I didn't update as substantially as I would have liked to over the weekend.

One thing I will announce right now is that I have some grand plans planned ahead. Over on the right of this page on my blogroll and links list, I've added two new web address. One is the blog The Lost Girls, and another is the site BootsnAll.com. They are both travel sites. Now, what does this all mean. Enter drumrolls, please...

Come September, I am planning on an excursion around the world!

Preliminary plans include WWOOFing somewhere in western Europe for a couple of weeks - possibly England, Ireland, France or Germany (if you don't know what WWOOF is, you should definitely look it up), traveling all over western and southern Europe, flying to India, then traveling all around Southeast Asia, possibly volunteering at an AIDS clinic in Cambodia, skipping over to Australia, then coming back. Admittedly, it's going to be a huge undertaking. But I've really wanted to do something like this so badly for a really long time. I think I can do it. Also, for any of you out there who've done any sort of traveling whatsoever (extensive or not) and have any advice at all for me, please do tell!

This is part of the reason why I haven't been able to update as frequently lately. Not only have I been busy in most aspects of my life, but rather than reading the news or other sites of interest I normally visit per diem when I have any free time at all to read these days, I've been obsessively researching ideas for my travels abroad. Anyway, I had to get it out there.

The Side Effects of This War

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:20:00 +0000

... Or rather simply the effects of it on the homefront.

Yet another horrific consequence to the invasion was documented in the NYTimes. Read on.

Did anyone else think Juno was a little bigoted?

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 03:11:00 +0000

Three racial stereotypes were reinforce in the film.

The nerdy Asian girl wearing glasses, the nerdy, scrawny Indian boy wearing glasses, and the uptight Indian radiologist. Ummm... did they really have to do that? Really, like, why?? Was that really necessary? For an "indie" flic, I would've thought that they would've tried something different for once.

Otherwise, I suppose I enjoyed it. A little contrived in parts if you ask me, but I suppose if you don't focus too much how unrealistic parts of the plot and the characters were, all in all, it was pretty funny.

A "Quickie"

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 00:34:00 +0000

No, not in that sense.

A quick update before I leave to see Juno. I haven't forgotten about the blog. In fact, it's actually been quite the opposite. There are so, so many ideas and thoughts going through my head AND so many things to do and read in my non-virtual life that I haven't had the time to write all of these ideas and thoughts down satisfactorily. Plus, I miss buttenz. Yeah.

Also, all I've been doing outside of work, chores, and some minimal play is read up on traveling. Blogs about traveling, ticket booking sites, the works... Yeah, I have a grand plan. It's called Min's 8 month plan. Basically, to hastily sum up, I am planning on traveling the world this coming fall. So to prepare, I'll have to save and make a shitload of money from now thru the summer to get this to happen. Yesterday, I had my half-year review at work, and the boss took me off guard by asking me if I'll stay past June. I said I wasn't sure... AJ whom I share my office with and who has similar sentiments about the job and similar plans post-June was more straight-up about it and said he would probably leave... After he told me that, I was wondering to myself why I went around the bush.. I think it was mostly because I just really wasn't expecting her to ask me this so soon... But I'll have to tell her by mid-February.

Anyway, I will update substantially when I get back - it'll probably veer more towards updates about my life than current events or politics, though I have been superficially following the news. Really, I haven't even been afforded time at work to read the Times as thoroughly as I would normally like. Will also update on why that is as well... Some interesting cases at work have come up.

celebrity sighting

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 02:41:00 +0000

My mom saw Paris Hilton in the islands. Apparently, she's fugly. Nothing special.

what a night

noreply@blogger.com (mk) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:54:00 +0000

oh my gosh... what an interesting night. so i went to saturday nights at the met, when the museum turns into a pseudo-bar and we sat with a woman who we didn't talk to until 5 minutes before the met closed. she was an artist who was exactly the type of person i sort of fantasized about becoming, except hopefullly, i'll have more money, a steadier vocation, and just be better off/more successful in general. well, so i guess i don't really want to be her, but i do like the idea of being an artist. she was in her 50s and just moved to new york from holland, after she broke up with her boyfriend from a year and a half for whom she moved to holland. she's having a hard time finding a job even as an administrative assistant because she's supposedly overqualified at her age... she was actually sort of jealous of my job, which made me a little sad. anyway, we talked about the arts for a while, and she gave me good advice about travelling... she gave me her card as well, and hopefully, i'll see her art somewhere in the city.

then, just now, i took a cab because i was lazy about going back home. i got in, and immediately, the cab driver started asking me if i believe in jesus christ. i said i didn't really know, and i asked him if he was muslim. he said yes, and started talking to me about the quran. i said i didn't know much about it, except that i'd taken a semester of arabic, to which he responded by saying that the language wasn't as important as the religion itself. i needed to learn the religion he said. he said jesus christ was a prophet just as moses and abraham were, but that islam was the true religion. i asked him all sorts of questions, and he said you will go to hell if you don't believe in islam... anyway, it was hard to follow him as he went on. i asked him questions about israel and judaism but basically, he just kept saying i needed to follow islam to not go to hell. and then, as i was getting out of the cab, he gave me a book entitled "towards understanding islam." he said i should study it. i asked him in all seriousness which mosque i should try to go to and he told me there's one by my work. then, he said, "do you have the quran? i will give you the quran." i was kind of flattered. it seemed like his own copy. he put the book to his head, right on his forehead, and gave me a few words of wisdom. "first, never touch the quran when you're hands are dirty. second, never touch the quran when you are drinking. never touch the quran when you are smoking. never put the quran on the floor. never touch the quran when you are doing bad things." finally, he said, "i will only tell you this and no one else, but never touch the quran when you are having sexual intercourse with your husband." i sorta laughed and said i didn't have a husband, but he was really serious. and i intend to keep to his word. anyway, now, i own a translation of the quran. ironic. i don't even own the bible.

i love personal stories. i love learning about other people's lives. i love biographies. i want to become a biographer, a documentary biographer. it just might happen. who knows.