void of existence

It has been one year. My wedding day was the happiest day of my life. I used to hear that statement a lot, but after I experienced it, the feeling is totally indescribable. Words just cannot say enough. Of course, a big thank you to everyone who made it happened.

In this past year, a lot of happy moments and some unhappy ones. But overall, I am happy 90% of the time.

Xavier came earlier than expected and is growing bigger everyday.

We missed Noodlez birthday this year. She is getting fat. I should bring her out for walks more often, but the environment that I am surrounded by at this time is just not conducive for it.

I did not catch the whole series, but I sure watched a lot of them during its re-run. A friend of mine loved it. In memories of my friend and salute to this Golden Girl.
—-
Golden Girls’ star Bea Arthur dies at 86 By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer Lynn Elber, Ap Television Writer – Sat Apr 25, 7:32 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Beatrice Arthur, the tall, deep-voiced actress whose razor-sharp delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star in the hit shows “Maude” and “The Golden Girls” and who won a Tony Award for the musical “Mame,” died Saturday. She was 86.

Arthur died peacefully at her Los Angeles home with her family at her side, family spokesman Dan Watt said. She had cancer, Watt said, declining to give details.

“She was a brilliant and witty woman,” said Watt, who was Arthur’s personal assistant for six years. “Bea will always have a special place in my heart.”

Arthur first appeared in the landmark comedy series “All in the Family” as Edith Bunker’s outspoken, liberal cousin, Maude Finley. She proved a perfect foil for blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker (Carroll O’Connor), and their blistering exchanges were so entertaining that producer Norman Lear fashioned Arthur’s own series.

In a 2008 interview with The Associated Press, Arthur said she was lucky to be discovered by TV after a long stage career, recalling with bemusement CBS executives asking about the new “girl.”

“I was already 50 years old. I had done so much off-Broadway, on Broadway, but they said, `Who is that girl? Let’s give her her own series,’” Arthur said.

“Maude” scored with television viewers immediately on its CBS debut in September 1972, and Arthur won an Emmy Award for the role in 1977.

The comedy flowed from Maude’s efforts to cast off the traditional restraints that women faced, but the series often had a serious base. Her husband Walter (Bill Macy) became an alcoholic, and she underwent an abortion, which drew a torrent of viewer protests. Maude became a standard bearer for the growing feminist movement in America.

The ratings of “Maude” in the early years approached those of its parent, “All in the Family,” but by 1977 the audience started to dwindle. A major format change was planned, but in early 1978 Arthur announced she was quitting the show.

“It’s been absolutely glorious; I’ve loved every minute of it,” she said. “But it’s been six years, and I think it’s time to leave.”

“Golden Girls” (1985-1992) was another groundbreaking comedy, finding surprising success in a television market increasingly skewed toward a younger, product-buying audience.

The series concerned three retirees — Arthur, Betty White and Rue McClanahan — and the mother of Arthur’s character, Estelle Getty, who lived together in a Miami apartment. In contrast to the violent “Miami Vice,” the comedy was nicknamed “Miami Nice.”

As Dorothy Zbornak, Arthur seemed as caustic and domineering as Maude. She was unconcerned about the similarity of the two roles. “Look — I’m 5-feet-9, I have a deep voice and I have a way with a line,” she told an interviewer. “What can I do about it? I can’t stay home waiting for something different. I think it’s a total waste of energy worrying about typecasting.”

The interplay among the four women and their relations with men fueled the comedy, and the show amassed a big audience and 10 Emmys, including two as best comedy series and individual awards for each of the stars.

McClanahan said Arthur felt constrained by the show during its later years and in 1992 she announced she was leaving “Golden Girls.”

“Bea liked to be the star of the show, she didn’t really like to do that ensemble playing,” McClanahan said.

McClanahan first worked with Arthur on “Maude,” playing her best friend, Vivian. The women quickly became close friends in real life. McClanahan recalled Arthur as a kind and caring person with a no-nonsense edge.

The three other stars returned in “The Golden Palace,” but it lasted only one season.

Arthur was born Bernice Frankel in New York City in 1922. When she was 11, her family moved to Cambridge, Md., where her father opened a clothing store. At 12 she had grown to full height, and she dreamed of being a petite blond movie star like June Allyson. There was one advantage of being tall and deep-voiced: She was chosen for the male roles in school plays.

Bernice — she hated the name and adopted her mother’s nickname of Bea — overcame shyness about her size by winning over her classmates with wisecracks. She was elected the wittiest girl in her class. After two years at a junior college in Virginia, she earned a degree as a medical lab technician, but she “loathed” doing lab work at a hospital.

Acting held more appeal, and she enrolled in a drama course at the New School of Social Research in New York City. To support herself, she sang in a night spot that required her to push drinks on customers.

During this time she had a brief marriage that provided her stage name of Beatrice Arthur. In 1950, she married again, to Broadway actor and future Tony-winning director Gene Saks.

After a few years in off-Broadway and stock company plays and television dramas, Arthur’s career gathered momentum with her role as Lucy Brown in the 1955 production of “The Threepenny Opera.”

In 2008, when Arthur was inducted in the TV Academy Hall of Fame, Arthur pointed to the role as the highlight of her long career.

“A lot of that had to do with the fact that I felt, `Ah, yes, I belong here,’” Arthur said.

More plays and musicals followed, and she also sang in nightclubs and played small roles in TV comedy shows.

Then, in 1964, Harold Prince cast her as Yente the Matchmaker in the original company of “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Arthur’s biggest Broadway triumph came in 1966 as Vera Charles, Angela Lansbury’s acerbic friend in the musical “Mame,” directed by Saks. Richard Watts of the New York Post called her performance “a portrait in acid of a savagely witty, cynical and serpent-tongued woman.”

She won the Tony as best supporting actress and repeated the role in the unsuccessful film version that also was directed by Saks, starring Lucille Ball as Mame. Arthur would play a variation of Vera Charles in “Maude” and “The Golden Girls.”

“There was no one else like Bea,” said “Mame” composer Jerry Herman. “She would make us laugh during `Mame’ rehearsals with a look or with a word. She didn’t need dialogue. I don’t know if I can say that about any other person I ever worked with.”

In 1983, Arthur attempted another series, “Amanda’s,” an Americanized version of John Cleese’s hilarious “Fawlty Towers.” She was cast as owner of a small seaside hotel with a staff of eccentrics. It lasted a mere nine episodes.

Between series, Arthur remained active in films and theater. Among the movies: “That Kind of Woman” (1959), “Lovers and Other Strangers” (1970), Mel Brooks’ “The History of the World: Part I” (1981), “For Better or Worse” (1995).

The plays included Woody Allen’s “The Floating Light Bulb” and “The Bermuda Avenue Triangle,” written by and costarring Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna. During 2001 and 2002 she toured the country in a one-woman show of songs and stories, “… And Then There’s Bea.”

Arthur and Saks divorced in 1978 after 28 years. They had two sons, Matthew and Daniel. In his long career, Saks won Tonys for “I Love My Wife,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs” and “Biloxi Blues.” One of his Tony nominations was for “Mame.”

In 1999, Arthur told an interviewer of the three influences in her career: “Sid Caesar taught me the outrageous; (method acting guru) Lee Strasberg taught me what I call reality; and (‘Threepenny Opera’ star) Lotte Lenya, whom I adored, taught me economy.”

In recent years, Arthur made guest appearances on shows including “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Malcolm in the Middle.” She was chairwoman of the Art Attack Foundation, a non-profit performing arts scholarship organization.

Arthur is survived by her sons and two granddaughters. No funeral services are planned.

I skipped part 3, coz I was involved minimally. Part 4 is informing the successful candidate and rejecting all the others.

Nothing much to highlight of the process itself except for one nut case.

She started sms-ing my boss about how I bad mouth him, gave misleading information about the job, lied about the salary, etc etc. She claimed to be a mild person. Good in relations with customers and colleagues. All in all, she decided that I am a ‘dieased minded pink head bastard’. I guess I am where she is concerned. So she is really upset that she didnt get the job and she thought it was because of me.

Firstly, what the hell is a ‘pink head’? Secondly, for this candidate and a few others, I even helped them re-format their resume so that its more presentable. Thirdly, her failure is because she was late and she over-qualified herself during the second interview. We wanted an admin staff, not a Head of Sales. Lastly, I thought office politics is played after you started work in that office? Is this some sort of advance office politics only for people in the top 1.5 percentile?

*Edited: I think I am starting to figure out what ‘Pink Head’ is.

Anyone, who reads the main local newspaper, cannot have missed the drama serials that is going on with this women group.

Basically, I want to say that this is embarrassing to have a following of this drama over the past few weeks. It even headlined the front page a couple of time.

Other than being good entertainment, I could not understand why is the papers putting so much emphasis on it. Even politicians and local major banks are jumping on the comments of this issue. The newspaper even went as far as to print an article that explained why they are covering this so extensively.

Well, all I have to say that it is a good joke. Please move on. There is nothing to see there. Any foreigners picking up the newspaper to read this will be going like ‘huh?’ and think that this association must be a major lobby group in SG.

Oh..the other drama on the monk. Thats the other better joke as well.

Move on!

An interesting article.

By JENNIFER QUINN, Associated Press Writer Jennifer Quinn, Associated Press Writer – Tue Apr 21, 6:17 pm ET
HATFIELD, England – In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place. European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.

“The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the ‘habitable zone,’” said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland.

An American expert called the discovery of the tiny planet “extraordinary.”

Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of Earth — while previous planets found outside our solar system are closer to the size of massive Jupiter, which NASA says could swallow more than 1,000 Earths.

Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life. Still, Mayor said its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth is a “good example that we are progressing in the detection of Earth-like planets.”

Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the “habitable zone” — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet’s surface, Mayor said.

He spoke at a news conference Tuesday at the University of Hertfordshire during the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science.

Gliese 581 d is probably too large to be made only of rocky material, fellow astronomer and team member Stephane Udry said, adding it was possible the planet had a “large and deep” ocean.

“It is the first serious ‘water-world’ candidate,” Udry said.

Mayor’s main planet-hunting competitor, Geoff Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, praised the find of Gliese 581 e as “the most exciting discovery” so far of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system.

“This discovery is absolutely extraordinary,” Marcy told The Associated Press by e-mail, calling the discoveries a significant step in the search for Earth-like planets.

While Gliese 581 e is too hot for life “it shows that nature makes such small planets, probably in large numbers,” Marcy commented. “Surely the galaxy contains tens of billions of planets like the small, Earth-mass one announced here.”

Nearly 350 planets have been found outside our solar system, but so far nearly every one of them was found to be extremely unlikely to harbor life.

Most were too close or too far from their sun, making them too hot or too cold for life. Others were too big and likely to be uninhabitable gas giants like Jupiter. Those that are too small are highly difficult to detect in the first place.

Both Gliese 581 d and Gliese 581 e are located in constellation Libra and orbit around Gliese 581.

Like other planets circling that star — scientists have discovered four so far — Gliese 581 e was found using the European Southern Observatory’s telescope in La Silla, Chile.

The telescope has a special instrument which splits light to find wobbles in different wavelengths. Those wobbles can reveal the existence of other worlds.

“It is great work and shows the potential of this detection method,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

___

Associated Press Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report from Washington.

Are you connected?

There is an article in the newspaper over the weekend about how silly Facebook, also known as FB, is. The author felt that she does not need any more friends, etc.

Well, I find FB to be a very useful tool. Before FB, there are many attempts of such networking sites. Friendster came to mind first.

There are many reasons for choosing FB. To me, its stable and it has a lot of addon software. Not that I encourage people adding any of the addon. I agreed with some bros who said that they are wondering how people find so much time filling out questionaire and surveys on FB. Well, if you do not like those, just ignore them.

Back on why am I even on FB. Well, for one thing, its about keeping up with people. There are probably people that I do not like listed as ‘Friends’ there. But like the Art of War said, keep your enemies close to you. Maybe thats from some other works. Anyways, we probably do not have the time to follow up with everyone we know. FB provides a platform to stay updated to them and allow sharing of photos.

If you have not sign yourself up to FB, I can tell you how much time it has saved me from people asking me for the photos of my baby. My answer to them is ‘Get a FB account, the photos are all there.’

I met one of my business contacts last week for some work issues. I have not seen her for over 2 years as there has not been any reason to do so since there is no business dealing.

She said that I seem to have changed. I do not think so. I still feel the same and I still handle things as they are in my own opinion.

Her views on things remain the same. She is divorced with a child. She feel that she is an expired item where relationship is concerned. Especially since she has to take care of her aged folks and a young one. I told her that it is a very sad view of life and she should lighten up. She would probably be an ideal wife since she will be busy frequently and the guy will be given a lot of free time. Then she added that she wanted someone to be able to help her out as well.

In a way, it is contradicting. But I just cannot agree with her view on herself. Yes, being through a soured relationship can be bad. But one should not give up just because she has one bad experience. There are a lot of guys out there (these days) that will still be able to accept someone in the same situation as her. I know of 2 friends who got married to ladies with kids from their previous relationship. They are living happily now and managed to find a balance between their past and their current relationships.

Who does not have a past to begin with? The biggest obstacle to a heavy past is ourselves. If we continue to carry the ‘baggage’ as dead weight, then we will probably just be thinking of ourselves as unworthy. Being forgiving of ourselves is a necessity to grant ourselves a happy future. We all make mistakes.

Then again, some people are just happy to be unhappy. They like the self suffering/punishing state that they put themselves in.

The problem with modernization is that some people think that they are 18 year old when they are reaching 30. In life, we need upgrades and changes. I do not feel that I am being any different now. But apparently, through my decisions and actions, I am being viewed that I have changed. The main thing is that while I am happy for being who I am, I need to continue to upgrade my surrounding (physical, emotion and mental). We need to give assurances to the people around us. Sometimes, these assurances come in the form of action. Not just a verbal assurance that things will be good as it is. If you have a friend who is in a relationship and the partner of this relationship just refuses to move it to the next step, what would you think of the partner? You will probably think that they are not serious. They are not willing to commit.

Future is never a certainty. If it is, I will probably strike a lottery since I will know what the winning numbers will be.

Here’s one video of a not so original concept. I have come across the ideas elsewhere. There is a whole article about this video today in the newspaper. But it is a good video.

Well, my computer just came down with a flu. It caught a virus and was spamming out emails at 500/minute. Did you know that if you really did try to send 500 emails per minute, your mail server would probably reject all the emails or shut down your access. So now I am sitting behind a much older computer, 7 year old to be exact. It should be retired some time ago, but my boss, who is a self proclaimed tech savvy person, thinks that all computer can be used til its kingdom comes and they cross over to Cybertron heaven. So no retirement for this computer til its motherboard burn out.

I have been trying to update a couple of simple programs. Like this browser that I am using right now and some chat programs. Sound simple enough, right? Well, it crashed about 2.33333333333 times on average per installation/update.

My home computer isn’t much better. But I am waiting to move to my new home before I get a new computer. There is not enough space as it is in my aunt’s place as it is. Painful… its old too. I believe in retirement. Let it run some simple programs…nothing too taxing.

Well, it almost 6 months now for X to be in the world. He has developed some strong opinions about things around him. For one, he doesnt like to be laughed at. We have proven it time and again. If you laugh at him, he will cry. So no laughing in front of him.

The little guy is starting to sing a lot too. Wonder what is he talking about.

Here’s the latest video of him trying to balance and catch his toes.

Here’s a salute to the European Magazine Editors.