Huh?

A while back, I ranted about the fact that MAC Cosmetics had a Barbie line, and what kind of message that could possibly send to women. Recently, I was walking down the street past Debenhams, and saw the new face of MAC:
I could possibly see some of the allure of looking like Barbie. But a drag queen? Is that really the effect the average woman wants from her makeup?

Some of the Persiles is actually kind of interesting.

Efetos vemos en la naturaleza de quien ignoramos las causas, adormécense o entorpécense a uno los dientes de ver cortar con un cuchillo un paño; tiembla tal vez un hombre de un ratón, y yo le he visto temblar de ver cortar un rábano, y a otro he visto levantarse de una mesa de respeto por ver poner unas aceitunas. Si se pregunta la causa, no hay saber decirla, y los que más piensan que aciertan a decilla, es decir que las estrellas tienen cierta antipatía con la complesión de aquel hombre, que le inclina o mueve a hacer aquellas acciones, temores y espantos, viendo las cosas sobredichas y otras semejantes que a cada paso vemos.

(Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda, book 2, chapter 5)

Six Degrees of Separation, Presidential Edition

So it turns out I'm pretty closely linked with President-elect Obama. His chairman-designate of the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Paul Volcker, went to the London School of Economics with Leroy Dunn, my dad's next door neighbor growing up. In fact, Volcker was the one who introduced Leroy to his wife, Gaby.

I'm telling you, it's a small world.

Me -> Gaby and Leroy -> Paul Volcker -> Obama. Awesome!

More thoughts on flying

• Why the hell does it cost $500 for an upgrade on US Airways? Their Envoy class isn't that much nicer than some airlines' economy class.
• In books and movies someone always gets upgraded at the discretion of the flight attendants. I wish that would happen to me.
• I did, however, get to have three seats to myself. I put up the armrests and slept across all of them, which was great.
• I am probably one of the only people who says things like, "Yes, I owe a fee for that." My local airport doesn't do international flights (except to Canada and the Caribbean, but airlines always put them in the same category as US flights), so when I was checking my luggage all the way through to Heathrow (I was connecting in Philadelphia), the flight attendant wasn't sure if she was supposed to charge me for my overweight bag. I said yes. My theory is that I want my bags to be checked and tagged properly so they don't get lost anywhere!
• I really like Philadelphia airport. It's very clean and nice and has good air. I know the "good air" part sounds weird, but it's important when you have to spend 22 hours traveling.
• My new fun activity is buying day passes for the lounges. The US Airways lounges aren't all that exciting (it turns out there's an even specialer lounge for first class passengers), but they're nice and quiet and the seats are comfortable. It's a good place to wait when you have a four hour layover.
• The problem is, though, you have to keep an eye out for where your gate is. If your gate is far from the club, you have to leave kind of early. And with the goal to keep everything quiet in the club for people who are trying to work/relax, they never announce anything.
• The lounge for Virgin Atlantic looks amazing. They have a spa!!!!!
• I hate the smell of airplanes. They all smell the same, and it's gross.
• The in-flight magazines in the seat pockets in front of me had obviously gotten wet at some point. I do not want to know why.
• This was one of those flights where they had one screen for the whole cabin, rather than individual screens behind the seats. And the film they showed was "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." Why would they show a movie like that, that had gory scenes just as we were eating?
  
• Why do people push up so close to each other when trying to get off the plane? It won't make you get off any faster, as you can't walk through me. As we were trying to get off the plane, a woman had her little girl practically on top of me. I was worried because I wanted to get my carry-on down, and I didn't want to hit her in the head.
• A girl fainted as we were trying to get off. I think that's the toughest part - you're standing up for the first time in hours, it's warm and crowded, and you're stuck there.
• It was the first time ever that both of my bags showed up on the belt at the same time. Luggage went very quickly, as it was a very empty flight. Sweet!
• For years I've been using my laptop backpack as my carry-on. I was getting tired of it, as it gets very bulky and heavy very fast. So this year, for Christmas I asked for a rolling backpack, and I got one. It's basically a carry-on suitcase, but it has straps that unzip from the back and a removable daypack on the front. It was amazingly useful. I recommend that everyone get one!
• Back in Ox and very tired. But I need to do some shopping, so I should go do that now.

Year In Review

Happy New Year, folks! 2008 was a decent year, better than 2007, and I feel like 2009 will just keep getting better. A lot of folks have been posting a sort of "year in review," and I thought I would follow suit, as a lot of things happened in 2008. (I wish I jumped on the Project 365 Bandwagon, but I didn't have anything picture-worthy the first few days.)

The big event of 2008 was my sister Kelly's wedding. I (she, all of us) never imagined how much preparation actually goes into a wedding. It's hard for our family to keep a guest list small, as we have 21 aunts and uncles and 22 cousins, and many of those cousins are reaching the spouse/significant other plus kids phase. And even if you tell yourself, "It's my wedding and I'll do what I want," you have to think about things that will please other people, like who gets to be in the wedding, who will read, which dress will be the most flattering for everyone, when people can be available for a shower/bachelorette party, and whether people will last outside in the heat without passing out. We had a fantastic time, and everyone was really pleased with the final results. You can check out photos here and a clip of the wedding video here (best viewed in Internet Explorer). I couldn't really afford to get them a wedding present (as I had flown home two extra times for wedding-related stuff and had to fork over $400 to get my dress rush-ordered), so my present to them was the pro Flickr account. I figured that everyone has digital cameras these days, so why not have a way for everyone to share their photos?

2008 was also a bigger travel year for me. In addition to extra flights home for the wedding, I also made two great trips: in April I visited my friend Chrissie in San Francisco, and in July/August I went to Spain with Justin and Enrique. I also enjoyed my first flight in International Business Class, thanks to my dad's frequent flyer miles, and got to add two new countries to my totals (even though it was only for two hours each): Portugal, which is just over the border from where Enrique lives; and the Netherlands, which was my stopover on my last flight to London. I'm actually building up a good "visited states" count due to my stopovers, having been through airports in San Diego, Detroit, Chicago, Washington DC and Philadelphia.

It gets harder as the years goes on in Oxford, as I have to say goodbye to good friends. Chung finished his DPhil and returned to Hong Kong, Enrique got a job in London, Teresa moved to DC and Ralf went home to Germany, among other people. But it's also nice as I continue to make new friends. I'm also getting in touch with people from high school, as this past year was our 10-year reunion. I couldn't make it, but it's been nice to see who's doing what these days.

The research seems to be improving. I'm aiming for a chapter a term, and my supervisor has been giving me positive feedback, so it looks good.

I have no idea what 2009 brings (except for many, many weddings in the summer), but I've got a good feeling about it.

Hope everyone's year has gotten off to a good start!