For those who maintain that the Stanford mascot (a tree) is silly, I give you this picture, taken by Chris. After that, there can be no doubt that yes, the tree is incredibly silly.
Anyway. I had another nice weekend, dampened only by the gray skies and the threat of soggy weather. I saw Million Dollar Baby on Friday night with Melanie, Nick, Curt and Sara. Becca, Jen, Gavin, Cari and Lisa joined us for dinner afterwards. It’s hard to describe the movie without giving away what happens, and to know the entire plot in advance would definitely take away some of the film’s impact. I’ll just say that it is well-written, well-acted, and powerful. It is realistic to the point of making the viewer uncomfortable, and while that sounds like a negative, in this case it works. When I went to bed on Friday night, I was still thinking about it. So, it was excellent, and I now understand why it’s been nominated for so many awards. I haven’t seen all the nomined flicks, but Hilary Swank is definitely deserving of her Best Actress nomination, and maybe a win.
Rich and I ran the Mardi Gras Beach Run 5K on Saturday morning in Galveston, but it turned out to more more like 4.5K. It was the first time I’d run since the marathon, and Rich is slowly getting back into it (the 4.5 miles he ran with me at the marathon is the farthest he’s gone in a while), so we were taking it pretty slow. We passed mile 1 in a little over 11:00, and then passed mile 2 under 19:00. Wha…?!? Yeah, we’d sped up, but we did not reel off a sub-8:00 mile. We finished in 29:34 for my second fastest “5K” ever. 29:34 would be an average of 9:32/mile, and we were definitely not running that fast. So, mile 1 was correct in relation to the start line, and mile 2 was correct in relation to the finish line. But the turnaround point, located between miles 1 and 2, was obviously miscalculated, or mismarked.
While leaving the race, I happened to look down a side street and to my surprise, saw the Wienermobile!!! “Ohmygod, STOP THE CAR!” I shouted at Rich. Once he recovered from the shock, he circled the block so that I could get my picture taken with the Wienermobile. Sadly, the drivers were nowhere to be seen, so I couldn’t ask to see inside or anything. But it was awesome. No one else seems to be nearly as excited about my seeing the Wienermobile except for my mom, who, when I called home and described it as “seeing a flash of orange and yellow, guess what it was” immediately answered “the Wienermobile!”, and my sister, who also shares my amusement and remembers fondly the time we were at my grandmother’s and laughed so hard we almost suffocated after seeing a Wienermobile commercial on TV.
My family rocks.
Saturday afternoon, Rich, Nacho, Katie, Fred, Becca and I headed to the Grand Chapiteau in the parking lot at Reliant Stadium to see Cirque du Soleil. Their Varekai show is in town, and it was amazing, as usual. The was the show that had its development chronicled in a Bravo series that I watched a few years ago, so it was neat to see the acts that I remember seeing on TV. Cirque du Soleil continuously amazes me with the incredible physical things people can do. The performers make things that I know must be horribly difficult look so easy, and so smooth and fluid. After the show, we had a great dinner at Star Pizza. Mmm.
Yesterday I had to spend a couple hours in the afternoon working on my paper, because the extended abstract is due today. The paper is for the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Controls conference to be held in August in San Francisco, so I really hope that 1) the paper gets accepted and 2) I can get the travel money to go and present it.
Last night my women’s team played our final soccer game of the season (the next season starts in March, so we don’t have too long of a break). We lost the game, and I didn’t have a great night, but oh well. Afterwards, we all went out and had Mexican food to celebrate the season. I had a great time. When my old women’s team dissolved, I was afraid that I wouldn’t find another team, or one that I could contribute as much to, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. I love my new team. Sure, we still lose a lot, but we win every once in a while, and they are so much more fun to play with.
Which reminds me of one of Stanford’s more disgusting traditions – being one of the dozens of people to kiss the tree at Moonlight on the Quad. I *did not* join in on that one. Yuck! What a great way to spread oral herpes and various other diseases.
The question isn’t whether she was the best actress this year — the question is “Is Hillary Swank the same calibre of actor as other 2 Oscar winners?” I would be very surprised if she won.
-cg
See, that’s the dumb thing about the Oscars. They should be about who was best that year, plain and simple. I think it’s unfair to compare to previous years, even though it’s always done.
It’s not any different than baseball — it’s not a question of whether the Rocket is the best pitcher — it’s whether he’s worthy of being called “the pitcher to win the most Cy Young awards ever”. It’s always the case with annual awards.
The Stanford tree is THE STUPIDEST THING EVER. This picture made me slightly homicidal the first time I saw it. My senseless rage is contained now.
If it has to be a tree, at least they could come up with a dignified tree. Lips that big do not belong on a tree. Ever.
the weinermobile rocks!