Proverbial Manipulation

I came across a nice Chinese proverb yesterday that speaks to my desire to write thoughts down: “The palest ink is better than the strongest memory.”

“You don’t have to take off your pants to fart(fongpi)” is the other one that I know.

I don’t remember much from the Hill’s episode last night. The dramatic point centered on Heidi wanting a girl’s night out and Spencer (he’s freakin’ hilarious) purposefully showing up at the club and talking to two uggs. Spoiled kids are so manipulative at that age.

Watching this season has hit one point home for me. That is, essentially, here are a group of privileged girls with access to all these cool events and opportunities, so why doesn’t it seem like they’re having the best time of their lives. At work, in a way, they’re immune from any significant consequences from not doing a good job. The places where they work need MTV’s marketing and exposure. So why doesn’t it seem like what they do is fun? Or why doesn’t it seem like they’re having fun? Is it a gender thing? Why play into each other’s drama? Why be so offended? Why schedule and organize something called a ‘girl’s night out’?

I’m in the middle of planning a bachelor party with 20 other guys I know from either high school or college. The worlds are colliding because my high school friend is marrying a friend from college. And just from the emails back and forth, between the different groups and amongst ourselves, i’m pretty sure it’s going to be a fun one. It’ll be a great mix of people that don’t embarrass easily, some really great storytellers, and solid people all around.

The topic of fun has been coming up recently. It started with the first page of Nabokov’s Speak Memory in which he talks about the vastness of nothing before birth and the vastness of nothing after death and how this ‘life’ is but a blink, if I’m remembering this correctly. Also, a conversation with my dad recently about why he’s been asking me if I’m having fun while mom acts as though my happiness is secondary. That was a good conversation and future post material.

So I was thinking about the hills when I got two emails from my oldest friends today. In one email, C was telling me about going to K’s daughter’s baptism over the weekend and what it was like being back at the chapel where the three of us would stifle laughs the whole time growing up.

K writes a few hours later on his own with the subject line, “I have to study for the SAT,” which made me laugh. This phrase was sorta my ridiculous mantra in junior high and high school. Every time they wanted me to get in trouble with them I would tell them I had to study for the SAT. I would occasionally. Both. Get in trouble and study for the SAT.

This mantra is only one that could be born from being raised in an asian immigrant family with rabble rousers as friends. In my mind, it worked as an excuse because it was just an obscure enough concept to them and I loaded ‘SAT’ with so much meaning that they would have to accept it as a valid excuse, at least, the first few times. Hilarious.
In other going-ons, I’ve been listening to a lot of ghostface. The Wu-Tang Clan is playing at Harvard this Friday and I’m going to Boston this weekend. Hopefully, I'll get invited on stage to spit jewels on crispy microphones.

Speaking of performances, I had a performance review yesterday. There’s a bittersweet regression or a nod to kafka in a situation that has the feel of a parent-teacher conference where an administrator hands you a form with what are essentially grades and comments.