This is too funny a video to pass up. Check out this epic breakfast experience from iwatchstuff.com. Though, as one commenter on the site pointed out, since there were no explosions or disorienting cuts, it's not a true Michael Bay homage. But, still. I laughed.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm still working on the multimedia clips, so please stay tuned. It turns out that my files are a bit too large for my hosting company, so I'm working on compressing them and doing lots of other technical things so I can share them with you. In the meantime, I've added a few more recent print updates to my portfolio. Let's keep them coming!

Hello friends! I realize there's been such a long gap between posts lately that I'm likely shouting into an abyss. But, I'll take my chances. I wanted to let you all know about the changes that will be coming to the website soon. First of all, since entering grad school, I've been experimenting quite a bit with multimedia techniques. Keep your eyes peeled in the portfolio section for a "multimedia" tab that will feature podcasts, videos and soundslides from my work at Stanford this year.

Also, I've made updates to my "about me" and resume" sections, so feel free to take a look. In the meantime, please be patient if there are technical difficulties as I've also made some changes with my hosting company. Details, details.

I look forward to chatting with you more in the coming weeks. Stanford might have stolen me away for a bit, but I'm back, baby!

This video had me in stitches. Check out "Barack Obama" in his remake of Beyonce's "Single Ladies" music video. He's got the moves!

Hey guys. I know it's been a wicked long time, but it's been a busy couple of months. I got married, started grad school, and moved. This weekend is actually the first weekend that Alex and I started to feel settled in our new lives together. We decided to celebrate with a night out with friends—the good old standard dinner and a movie bit. We had delish sushi at Ike Bana in Salinas and then headed off to see the new Bond flick.

I came into Quantum of Solace with lowered expectations. Daniel Craig so impressed me as Bond in Casino Royale, but I had heard that the second movie was too dark and brooding for its own good. Hogswash. There's no such thing. In fact, I was impressed with Craig's ability to infuse Bond with a depth previously unknown in the famed series' history. His Bond is layered, fractured, and broken, but in a mature, restrained way that's understated instead of melodramatic. When Bond is experiencing a particularly painful moment, his facial expression doesn't change. He's like an octopus in that his emotions mainfest themselves in colors: his eyes turn a more brilliant blue when he's hurt.

I'm also impressed with the new Bond's treatment of women. Yes, they are all still hot. But show me a Hollywood movie where a lead female character looks anything like your next door neighbor's wife...Regardless, Bond's relationships with women are less frivolous. Sure, he has his one-night stands (and the women, regretably, suffer on account of it). But, Craig's counter part, Olga Kurlylenko is less a sultry romantic interest and more a partner in crime. Equally obsessed with vengeance, Olga's character Camille is never quite seduced by Bond's charms. They share a kiss, but it's more because of a shared sense of relief than it is mutual attraction.

Still, Quantum of Solace isn't without its faults. Director Marc Forster directly ripped the Bourne films' erractic, motion-sickness-inspired cut techniques, and there is a vague familiarity in the chase scenes as well. In the beginning, Craig is chasing down a man over rooftops, through glass, and up a construction site. The action alone would have been exciting, but the edits were so disjointed that at one point I was sure Craig was running after two men instead of one. Forster treated all of the action scenes in the same shaky-cam way. I'm over the shaky cam. Someone needs to come up with another way to make the action feel more authentic.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie a great deal, mostly because of Craig's solid performance. I look forward to the next Bond, but wonder how they can keep it fresh. Now that he's had closure, will Craig's Bond become the same old stylish, gadget-wielding, sex-obsessed cad? I hope not.

The selection of Sarah Palin for Republican VP has aroused all sorts of conflicting feelings for members of the media, Democrats, women, and especially myself. It makes me angry, elated, nervous, and devilish all at the same time. When I first heard the news that John McCain had selected a young, female VP, I thought, "That sly son-of-a-gun." The Alaska governor, whose only national exposure up until McCain's announcement last Friday was a smokin' hot cover of Vogue, was a clear tactical, political choice aimed at carving into the still-bitter "sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits" that formerly supported Senator Hillary Clinton. Still, there was some small part of me that felt torn: I should be thrilled that for only the second time in history, a woman has been selected as VP for a party's nomination. But, instead the haphazard manner in which Palin was appointed has me feeling...dirty. As gossip about Palin gets dragged into the open, it becomes clearer and clearer that McCain didn't thoroughly vet his candidate. He chose a woman because...she's a woman.

It didn't take long for the rabid media to pounce on Palin like a piece of meat. Within a day of announcing her candidacy, stories arose of her 17-year-old daughter being five months pregnant and keeping the baby. Palin, a staunch conservative and pro-lifer, who has admitted she would fight to dissolve Roe v. Wade abortion rights, says she stands behind her daughter's decision. Now, the Perez Hilton in me is secretly smiling over the scandal. What are the odds that a conservative Republican, she of the "family values" party, would not only have a pregnant teenage daughter, but also, as fate would have it, cut funding for pregnant teens as governor of her state? Still, if I'm to take the high ground, and I should, her daughter's pregnancy really has no place in the political arena.

Palin addressed the Republican National Convention this evening, and I attempted to watch it as open-mindedly as possible. I wanted to see the substance behind the face, but sadly all I saw was snarky, bitter finger pointing. I liked her line about the only difference between hockey moms and pitbulls (answer: lipstick), but her diss on community organizers—Obama's job prior to his foray into politics—was way off. I believe she said, "Being mayor of a small town is a lot like being a community organizer...except you actually have responsibilities." Why go there? She just opened herself up to the ire of thousands of Americans whose job it is to make people's lives better.

On the whole, I'm glad I watched the speech. It gave me a chance to dislike Palin on my own, instead of pity her for the sexist, petty treatment she's received at the hands of the media (there's been a style watch and questions on her mothering skills, among other things—stories you'd never hear about male politicians on the campaign trail). I don't care that she has a special needs child or a son heading to the war in Iraq. I can't be bothered with her charisma and palatable looks. I see through those smoke screens and realize that outside the hype, she's just another right wing conservative who stands for all the things that have gotten this country into so much trouble. Hopefully, when the drama dies down, America can see it too.