Jia Lin’s Weblog

What did I read last night

In the past issue (July 14 & 21) of The New Yorker, A Chinese Blogger in New York is introduced in “talk of town”. Unfortunately, it is not me, no matter how much I wish my little blog could be paid attention to someday. Simon Song, a former journalist for XinHua New Agency, now is an intern in New York Daily News. He uses “off-kilter English” along with example of his photography to chronicle his encounter with the city “full of surprise and wonders”, and he transform “our (New-Yorkers’) more mundane comings and goings into exotic objects of anthropology”. It is the first time I ever saw an article in The New Yorker featureing weblog, and I’m so glad its solo protagonist is a Chinese native, regardless the fact that I frowned a little bit when I read about sentence like “he was in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989″ before mentioning his blog entry on “attending an anti-police rally at City Hall Park”. Well, the touch of political spice makes me a little doubted about the motive for singling out this Chinese blogger.

Another article in the same issue recounts a Pop conference titled �Skip a Beat: Rewriting the story of popular music� in Seattle. How do you like the scene with a herd of eggheads, from discipline like history, philosophy, anthropology etc, consult seriously about subject like � Interrogating Bruce Springsteen�s butt (as seen on the cover of Born in the U.S.A)�, �lo-fi ideology of nineties indie rock�, �trailblazing transsexual punk of Wayne/Jayne country�, or �does Justin Timberlake really write Cry me a River by himself�? To me, it reveals a puzzle dom that is faced by social science: we are apt to making simple things complex, looking in vain for sanity in irrational things, and most of time cheers of significant findings are shrugged off with a snort of �who cares?� Nonetheless, there is one theory that catches my attention: MP3, a music consuming form �with no images attached-no videos, no TV appearances, not even album jackets�, rejuvenate the notion about a world of �purely musical�, that proposed by Eduar Hanslick, a 19th century Vinnese Critic.

Not another scary movie

We decided that we are estranged from our Chinese peers too long, so we went for a dinner party last night. Most of the conversation is surrounding job market, gossip about CSE Depts. as always. There was an exception that night: a story told by a hapless couple freaked us all out:

In April, when checking their banking account on line, the wife found their registered home phone number was changed and she could not changed it back, she thought it was just a system error.

In May, an officemate of the wife got a suspicious phone call and the caller claimed to call from a credit card company to confirm the wife�s employment status. The vigilant officemate asked the man to send an official letter, which did not came for ever.

In June, the husband got a phone call from a credit card company asking if they change their address to Florida. It was until then they sensed something wrong, and they check their credit report on line: Gasted! There were 23 credit cards they never applied, with balance of $40,000. However, minimum payment had been made for several months.

Then they called all these credit card company and cancelled all cards; the second day, one of the cards called again asking if they re-open the account�then start the Tom and Jerry game: they have to call the 23 credit cards again and add a password for re-open. For several weeks, the wife did nothing but making phone calls to credit card companies and credit report bureaus.

It is not scary if the story just ends here. Soon the couple started to receive, from both home and offices, strange phone calls, including one screaming at them and commanded them to reopen those credit accounts, otherwise �we are coming to visit you�. So they had to deal with police officer now, and one day they were visited by two �extremely friendly� FBI agents who provides them no solution but spiritual support.

Those crazy calls are still coming in almost everyday. They stop picking up phones and install Caller ID and recorder. Most of calls were from Florida. Callers have unusual accents, such as pronouncing �L� as �H�. When told one day that they would be �visited� on the Independence Day, our poor friends ran out of town to Boston for a week. When they came back, they really received a message from their �old friend� in the answering machine. The Caller ID shows the phone call was from Buffalo area!

And the story is not over yet. One afternoon when the husband went to their bank, the representative mentioned casually that they had changed their address to Florida for him this morning. The husband went pale and checked the recent transaction. Thank God, the money was all there. However, there was a withdrawal request weeks ago from New York City, but it did not go through since the signature didn�t fit. As remedy, the desperate couple hasted to place the security check to top level: no money could be withdrawn from any ATMs, nor any other branch of the bank. Now, they only drove to one designated bank branch every week to get some cash from one designated bank representative. Of course, no credit cards whatsoever.

The husband got a teaching Job in Georgia and leaving soon. The frail wife had to move out of their home and find a hidden place to finish her degree, while she was alone in this city.

When Bin and I left the party for home, the first thing we did was to call and close14 of our credit card accounts. We decided never to apply any new card and stick to our remaining 11 cards.

Why not?

An article from Newsweek talks about the beauty parlors and spas today has targeted preteens. There are two photos with text; a girl of 11 or 12 year old gets makeover in a beauty salon and proudly looked into the mirror. The fact of young girls of 12, 13, or 14 from rich families being frequent customers to these luxurious treatments makes me more jealous than surprised. More than twice older, I�ve never enjoyed spa, manicures, pedicures, acne-fighting facials, scalp massage, or body exfoliation. The only professional make-up I received was for my wedding ceremony back home, and I ended up in a hospital to receive anti-biotic injection at midnight, since I was allergic to their pricey powder.
Time has changed; I don�t want to make moral judgment should a girl should be exposed to material luxuriousness in early teens. But I believe it is a good thing to promote the economy, especially under current dreadful situation. Expansion of consumer to preteens definitely brings bigger market, and loyal customers of lifetime. The job opportunity that promised by the President will be increasing without touch of the taxpayer�s money. And certainly the needs for cosmetic products, spa apparels and Jacuzzi for little girls can, to some degree, promote the manufacture industry. Then we need more medical expert for teenagers� skin care, acne treatment, and facial skin damaged by applying makeover of too early. Hey, there should be handbook, videotape, CD on �how to lead a healthy (decent, fabulous, beautiful�whatever) life as a pre-teenager� stuff. Wow, what a huge industry will be emerging! And all women will lock fabulous through lifetime. The revolution can start from the rich spoiled kids, and then diffuse to all social layers, with the market competition and everyone can afford it in the end. Hey, Who doesn�t want to look fabulous, to live like a princess? Wanna cultivating a consumer with better taste? You�d better start it when they are young.

Ph.D candidate

I passed my oral preliminary exam yesterday, and one more step closer to my Ph.D degree. It was tough, tougher than I expected. I rewarded myself a long sleep till noon. The dream is very rewarding: I went back to Paris!

Ruled by the rich

Though I never doubt the truth on the slogan above, I’m still shocked after reading this research about political donation and legislation votes.

Become a Twin Peaks fan

Borrow the first season of Twin Peaks from public library after watching the movie Fire walk with me. Then I realized I watch them in wrong order: the movie replayed how the murder happens, while the TV records how the case is investigated. Well, now I have to watch the investigation while knowing who the murderer is. But it still keeps me watching attentively, for its weird characters and quant milieu. Well, actually, the TV show is far less as spooky as the movie, since, I guess, the latter is directed by David Lynch, who only did the screenplay for the TV. The way the story was laid out in the TV has a strong sense of day-time soap opera, you know, those long, blank stare accompanied by tempting background music(and the theme song! perfect conflation of jazz, new age and soap opera). But you can still glean some David Lynch form time to time: the red-room dream, the bird (same as in �blue velvet�), talking log, mysterious smirking and apperception all of sudden�And Kyle MacLachlan (he often reminds me some extraterrestrial life, )
I love the �Tibet� scene, which is the coolest whodunit analysis I�ve every seen. Bearing in mind that the series is a creation of early 1990s in TV networks, you could not but feel sorry for the loss of idiosyncrasy, style, wit and profoundity in today’s popular shows after more than one decade.

The ending of the first season is really driving me crazy, because I could not find the second season from any public library around. Maybe the DVD collection has not been released yet.

Yesterday when I organized our album, I found a photo I took for Bin somewhere in the way we drove from Spokane to Seattle, and it creep me out: the mountain behind him, I believe, is the famous “Twin Peak”, as shown at start of every show.

The affair is so french.

What’s in my purse?

I’ve seen many movies and sitcoms make fun of woman’s purse, which is like magician’s box that contain numerous unexpected items. I happen to have one of those boxes. Different from Magicians, I, maybe together with other women, can never grasp the right item I need at the first, or several attempts.

Since I decided to carry my new digital camera with me everyday, I decide to organize (in vain) my purse so to give a comfortable room for my new pal. And that’s when I come to realize how many things my small purse is capable of holding:

my huge wallet with more than 30 cards (credit, bank, shopping, libraries, license, ID, insurance, name cards)
my frame glasses case, my sunglasses case, and my contact lens case ( I could not wear contact whole day, I could not recognize any person walking by without glasses, and I will ugly squint my eyes in sunlight without sunglasses)
pens (two blueprint, one black print, one pencil, two highlighters) and a rubber eraser
planner notebook and address book
bottle water (8 fl oz)
one lipstick and one lip balm
one save pin
two bandages
one bottle of �tiger balm� (one of those oriental all-purpose lotion)
one Star-buck teabag (I always buy two and keep one)
one zip disc (so I can work in all computers)
two post-its (one bubble pink, one yellow)
serveral hair bands (I pull down my hair for good looks, then I have to pull it up for working; and I keep losing them)
one candy (maybe a souvenir from a dinning-out long time ago)
huge key chains, with 7 keys, 4 shopping cards, and Bin�s picture frame)
my cell phone and earphone (I could never reach it every time before it stops ringing! sorry my friends who call me)

My awesome purse! My poor purse�

I believe most of men have huge pant pockets so they don’t carry any bag whenever they go out (going to office may be a little different). However, the stuff in my bag might still need every pocket of a Titan’s pants and jacket.

So why woman has to bring lots of things with her while Men can sashay around with free hands and sholders? Sense of security? or women are really born fussy? My friend Jennifer, who use to carry something like a sports bag around every day had a very good reason: “God, I don’t know what I’m going to need!” I used to laugh, now I realize how true it is.

a new pal

I will bring you wherever I go. This is my solemn promise to my little friend.

Hmm, now I’m thinking about upgrade to blogger pro, so I can post my digital photos to spice up the text.

Counting

Which movies did I watch more than 7 times?

Roman Holiday
Out of Africa
Age of Innocence
Shawshank redemption

Which movies did I watch more than 5 times?
Breakfast at Tiffany
Four weddings and a funeral
The firm
The professional
Die hard (first one)
Sense and sensibility
Dangerous liaison
A streetcar named desire

Which movies did I watch more than 3 times?
quills, gladiator (like Phoenix not Russel), The fugitive, interview with vampire, Notting hill, A room with a view, A few good man, American beauty, The witness, Sleepy hollow, speed, LA confidencial, Matrix (the first episode please!), Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump, Pretty woman, Shrek, Point of no return, Face off, The mask,

Which movies did I watch twice?
(Too many)
Spellbound, Con air, wild at heart, Amilie, Briget Jones’ Diary, Pulp fiction, Unbearable lightness of life, Bullet over Broadway, Anne Hall, overboard, Housekeeper, Chicago, High fidelity, American Beauty, Perfect murder, Almoust famous, Bourne Idendity, Memento, Exorcist, roadtip, evolution, Love letter.

What movies did I watch once but would like to watch again?
Pirates of Caribbean (it is so hilarious!)
The pianist
stock, lock and two smoking barrels
Frida
Moholland drive

Findings:
I had less and less patience with new movies- look, the movies I watched again and again are so old! And even I think very hard, ver few new movies come into my mind that I like to take a second look.

I do like action movies! I thought I’m quite against violence. I was wrong.

Although thriller is my favorite genre, but it is not very possible I will watch the same movie second time.

What is good drama? lovers are seperated by fate. If they end up being together, I will not watch them more than 7 times