If you're looking for a practical gift for the holidays, I highly recommend the following:

The electric kettle is amazingly covenient.  We drink a lot of hot tea at home and this product boils water very quickly.  The other product is the Arm & Hammer after-shower cleaning spray.  Since we started using this we have no mold whatsoever!  All you do is spray your tiles after every shower and walk away.  No wiping is needed, and the smell is not so strong so as to overpower your senses.  Granted, this would be a sucky Christmas present (like the time my dad gave my mom a broom for Christmas), but you can buy it for your everyday use.

I laugh in the face of economic recession.  While the rest of the world worries about the economy and how to pinch pennies, I shall spend, spend spend!  Accordingly, my wish list this year is as follows, in order of importance:

1)  West Wing Complete Series on DVD

2)  Digital Flip Mino Camcorder:

3)  Fallout 3 Computer Game:

4) Peace and joy for my fellow men and women.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

I say this every year, but I can't believe it's the holiday season already.  I've started working on my year-end best movies of 2008 list, but there are still one or two movies that haven't been released yet.  I'm particularly looking forward to:

Hachiko: A Dog's Story:

"Certainly dogs are big this fall with Disney's hit comedy, "Beverly Hills Chihuahua,"  the Nov. 21 animated entry "Bolt," and "Marley," which is Fox's Christmas entry. But none may be better than the independently made "Hachiko: A Dog's Story," a film that screened at the Crest Westwood on Sunday morning for foreign buyers attending the American Film Market. There wasn't a dry eye in the house for this beautiful and touching American remake of a Japanese film (based on an incredible true story) that stars Richard Gere and Joan Allen. It is perhaps director Lasse Hallstrom's best film since "My Life As A Dog" and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" (and yes, that includes his two best picture nominees,"The Cider House Rules" and "Chocolat")." - From latimes.com

This is based on a true story that happened in Japan, and you can actually find pictures, and an mp3 of the real Hachiko's bark on the Internet.  Here's the picture:

Gran Turino:

This is a film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.  I'm intrigued because it also stars a predominently Asian-American cast (Hmong to be exact).  Click HERE for the trailer.

In other news, we're getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Instead of cooking, we're going to buy a pre-made meal from Hyatt Hotel, with Turkey, stuffing, yams, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. My wife has volunteered to pass out turkey meals on Thanksgiving morning, so we'll see how it goes. As was the case last year, the attendees at our Thanksgiving Dinner will just be me, my wife, and my parents. All our relatives live on the mainland or in Asia.  If you happen to be in Hawaii on Thursday, just drop in!

• I voted here in Honolulu at about 5:30 p.m.  The weird thing is that the election had already been decided because of the time difference.  I felt a little silly voting when the race was already over, but I guess it's the act of voting that counts (there were also some interesting referendums here)
• Hawaii's voting ballot sucks - it wasn't electronic or even punch-hole.  We had to fill in a box with a pen(like on the SAT's, but the box was about three times as big as the little circles)
• Sarah Palin was a mistake - at first, I thought she was an interesting choice...then she opened her mouth. She said the word "maverick" every 10 seconds, she ended her sentences with "ya," and she was generally annoying.
• Obama's going to have a rough presidency because of all the problems we have right now.  He'll need to have a strong cabinet. 
• On a personal note, my wife voted for the first time since getting American citizenship!!!

How was your election experience?

Shelters Rock

This is amazing. Imagine what you can do with this technology. Of course, as someone who likes games, I'm thinking mostly in the video game context. But there are many other applications that could also benefit from this. How does one get to be so smart?

This guy is going to be filthy rich some day.

I love this guy. How do you even think of these things?

This article written by Leonard Pitts pretty much sums up how I feel about the current state of affairs in the U.S.  Here are some excerpts:

"Excuse me while I say a few words on behalf of us Fake Americans.

Not that I really think of myself as such. I mean, here in Fake America, life proceeds much as it does in Real America. We are raising our kids and paying our taxes, trying to keep up with the dishes in the sink, going to the movies now and then. In fact, if you didn't know better, you'd never realize our America was Fake.

But envoys of Real America keep insisting that it is. As in Sarah Palin, who declared at a recent rally in North Carolina what a joy it was to be in one of the ''pro-American'' parts of America. And Nancy Pfotenhauer, a top aide to Sen. John McCain, who recently proclaimed his popularity in the ''real Virginia,'' i.e., everything south of the state's Democratic-leaning Washington, D.C., suburbs, the area McCain's brother, Joe, calls ''communist country.'' Meantime, North Carolina Rep. Robin Hayes told a crowd ''liberals hate real Americans that work and achieve and believe in God.'' He has denied the comment.

***

As near as I can tell, you are a Fake American if you live in a big city. Or on the coasts (Gulf Coast excepted). Or shop at any store ritzier than Wal-Mart. Or worship at a mosque. Or hold a college degree (Bible colleges excepted). Or -- most important of all -- espouse any ideology that is not hard-core social conservatism.

It's ridiculous that this needs saying, but: Fake Americans are Americans. And if we disagree with so-called Real Americans politically, our passion is nevertheless rooted in the same place theirs is. Love of country.

Many Real Americans won't believe that. For them, love of country and social conservatism are inextricably linked, one and the same. Me, I don't care for the straitjacket of ideology, preferring the freedom to accept or reject ideas on their merits. So when social conservatives championed, say, individual accountability and responsible fatherhood, I was happy to join them. But that was back when I knew what conservative meant.

Years later, I find that I no longer do, if I ever did.

***

But cultural chauvinism on the one hand doesn't excuse hatemongering on the other. In their headlong, ends-justifies-the-means pursuit of victory, some conservatives have forgotten, betrayed and sacrificed the ideals that supposedly defined them, one of the most important of which was simply this: decency. As I said, I don't know who they are anymore. But you know what's worse? Apparently, they don't either."

This has been an exciting election season, but I think I'll be glad when it's all over.

Quoted below is part of a great article written by Barbara Presnell about what pets mean to us: