we are a nation of irrational idiots.

file organizer.

ah, yes. the democratic national convention. fancy speeches in a frenzied environment filled with stretched and twisted 'truths'. all i've heard lately is how great obama is, how great his speech was and how he's going to change this country. blah blah blah. i didn't see his speech, but i read it. read and actually thought about it rather than let the energy of the event and everyone's unnatural loving adoration affect my judgment. it was a great speech, very well written, and i'm sure, very well performed. however, some of the things he said just seemed a little too far-fetched, so i decided to go to factcheck.org and it verified my suspicions about his speech.

don't get me wrong, this is politics and both sides play the game this way. but i just wish people would take him off the damn pedestal he's on and realize that he's a politician just like all the rest.

K-K-Kuo!

baseball signed by hong-chih kuo.

whoa! turns out my parents have a baseball signed my hong-chih kuo, a dodgers pitcher from taiwan!! and it's been two feet from my bedroom, for years! who knew.

swept.

green mesh.

my life has been pleasantly uneventful as of late. i am thoroughly enjoying it.

crashing in a crowded room.

backstage at the academy is... february 2006.

there was a new employees meeting with jeffrey katzenberg the other morning. there were about thirty or forty of us in the theatre and he sort of just talked to us about the state of the studio and its various projects and undertakings. and then he allowed us to ask him questions. he was surprisingly candid about everything and very un-CEO-of-a-studio-like.

as for the new the academy is.. album fast times at barrington high, it's definitely a good, solid album. i haven't listened to it enough to have developed a decisive opinion on it, but there are definitely a few things i can say for sure. first off, this is their third album, their first two being almost here and santi. almost here is quite possibly one of my favorite albums ever - every song is in my iTunes top 25 played list. i was not a huge fan of santi initially - it was nothing like i expected - and it took a lot of time before it grew on me - it was kind of all over the place but i understand that they were experimenting and testing their limits. fast times is what i would have expected to be their sophomore album to sound like - lyrically it is much closer to almost here, and musically it is less confused (for lack of a better word) and much more cohesive.

why did the peacock cross the road?

tiny frogs at the philadelphia zoo.

i almost ran over a peacock that was running across baldwin avenue on my drive home today. i'm starting to think the peacocks in arcadia are really more of an infestation than anything.

new album from the academy is..., fast times at barrington high, is downloading on my hard drive as i type. thoughts to come tomorrow.

don't go full retard.

mcdonald's kung fu panda mantis toy.

dodgers v. brewers game on friday night - dodgers won! an amazing and exciting game all around, except for the girls sitting next to me whose laughs were ear-piercing.

lunched at urth caffe with tannis on saturday, caught up on the two most recent episodes of psych, watched some olympics and had dinner with dan at the little door - a very yummy french moroccan place in bev hills. also, watched tropic thunder with dan and ben - omg, it was freaking hilarious, and i don't even like ben stiller. i haven't laughed so hard in a long time, and it somehow managed to keep getting funnier. they also don't tell you about the star-studded cast beforehand either. i definitely want to go watch it again.

let it begin, let it begin!!

my diploma!

took the morning off work to go to siggraph over at the LA convention center. all i had was the free basic pass so i just wandered the exhibition floor and got free swag - a deck of bolt cards from disney and a wall-e poster from pixar. in the art and design galleries there was an entire architecture section that was awesome.. there were models from som, kpf, zaha, foster, etc. even an installation from penndesign.

lost in translation.

spiderwebs in the dreamworks parking lot.

it seems the campus is over-populated with spiders these days. they're freaking everywhere. ugh.

big big big news! my diploma came today!! it says:

VNIVERSITAS PENNSYLVANIENSIS

OMNIBVS HAS LITTERAS LECTVRIS SALVTEM DICIT

Cum academiis antiquus mos sit scientiis litterisve
humanioribus excultos titulo iusto condecorare
nos igitur auctoritate Curatorum nobis commissa

JENNIFER JUN-NING PAN

ob studia a Professoribus approbata ad gradum

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN ENGINEERING

admisimus eique omnia iura honores privilegia ad hunc
gradum pertinentia libenter concessimus
Cuius rei testimonio nomina nostra die mensis
Maii XIX Anno Salutis MMVIII et Vniversitatis
conditae CCLXVIII Philadelphiae subscripsimus

yes, it is in latin - which is awesome, in my humble opinion. translated:

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
GREETINGS TO ALL WHO MAY READ THESE LETTERS
whereas it is the ancient custom of academics to honor
with a proper title those who are distinguished in sciences or arts,
therefore by the authority of the Trustees committed to us,
following approval of his/her studies by the Faculty,
we have admitted jennifer jun-ning pan
to the degree of bachelor of science in engineering
and to him/her we have freely granted all rights, honors and privileges
pertaining to this degree.
In testimony of which we have appended our names at philadelphia
on the nineteenth day of the month of may in the year of grace 2008
and in the 268th year of the university.


woohoo!

oh, hmm, that's interesting. let me go get my mentor.

yay, baseball!

so, up until now, all the stuff i've done at work has been development with the occassional set up type stuff. it's mostly because i'm in the lighting department and since we're so early on in production i really don't have many artists to support. however, this week i've actually had to troubleshoot some stuff (and by troubleshoot, i mean run to rob or tj and ask for their help). it's kind of crazy and nerve-racking for me, but i like it and definitely think it's the best way to learn the ins and outs of how stuff really works.

the "mannywood" t-shirts dan and i made arrived today - they look freakin' awesome. can't wait to wear them at the dodgers v brewers game this coming friday, and see if manny will take the extra-large one we made for him.

think cure?

it's siggraph week so pretty much all of my meetings have been canceled and things are pretty quiet. woohoo! more time to get shit done.

went to the dodgers v. phillies game tonight after work. oddly, the normal think blue sign has been remade to say think cure. hmmm.. was a good time, and despite slipping a bit at the end, the dodgers managed to keep hold of their win. i heart jeff kent. and manny. and russell martin.

what's cookin'?

lincoln memorial, washingtonDC.

theodore is in town for a bit, so we met up on saturday and lunched at toast and did some shopping at the grove. two pseudo celebrity sightings this weekend! first, jim parsons (who i saw a couple weekends ago at a car wash on melrose) was at toast. then later, at the grove, i spotted joshua, the winner of SYTYCD this season. what fun. another major discovery at the grove was 1liter water - in case you didn't know, i have an obsession with bottles, so i was very excited to find this.

had dinner saturday night with dan at tasca, a spanish tapas and wine bar. we had the arancini (fried mushroom risotto balls), boquerones (anchovy, egg, and tomato on a crostini), ceviche, cheese and cured meat plate, and a couple other things i can't recall at the moment. it was all so very yummy - i would definitely recommend it. we also discovered a new sunday breakfast spot (well, technically i've been there once before a long time ago) on wilshire called amandine. best french toast ever.

yea, i work in the entertainment industry.

view through a windshield - on the 134, i think.

whoa! i just had my biggest celebrity sighting yet! right after i got my weekly chai latte from the starbucks we have on-site at dreamworks, will smith and his wife walk in.. crazy! i've had such exciting coffee breaks this week.

untrained, my ass.

no freaking idea.

tonight was the finale of so you think you can dance. i'm so sad katee didn't win. but joshua won, and i can live with that decision. weeeeee - i can't wait for the tour in october!!

i'm lovin' it.

a tree by the canals in venice, ca.

i'm still working on figuring out what format i want for photos, i think this is a good one. hmm.

highlight du jour: while i was walking to the commissary to get coffee this afternoon, i passed by one of the private dining rooms just as two people with several large boxes were walking out. they were filled with mcdonald's kung fu panda toys, and they were putting them out for people to just take, so i managed to snag all eight. woohoo!

red thread / photo blog?

fancy stitching.

i'm going to bite off rob's blog and start posting the occasional picture here just for shits and giggles. i took this photo this past weekend in santa monica - i love when shirts have a distinctively different colored stitching. it's all in the details.

THINK BLUE!!!

so the big news here in los angeles is that the dodgers have acquired manny ramirez!! as far as i can recall, the dodgers haven't had a superstar since piazza and nomo way back in the day. friday night's game sold out within a matter of hours once the trade was announced and people have just been going crazy over it. danG and i went to the sunday afternoon game and it was absolutely amazing. well, first of all, it was blisteringly hot and so we had to get up every few innings to go stand back in the shade. also, ken jenkins from scrubs was sitting behind us, so that was cool. but really, the highlight of the game was the game itself. pretty much every game i've gone to the past couple years has been pretty low key, very few hits and even fewer runs, but the game was actually exciting. the whole stadium would stand up and go crazy every time manny was up, and the entire team just seemed to be playing a little harder (uh, russell martin scoring from first on a double!?! - that shit would never have happened before). so, yaaayyyyy manny!

weekend highlights / summary..
friday : dinner at palmeri (brentwood)
saturday : tour of the venice canals, the mummy
sunday : dodgers v diamondbacks! dinner at c&o's.