Mishmash Musings

There seems to be a lot happening around the country these days. I wish I had time to devote to all of these top stories, but I have to get back to studying here after allowing myself a 30-minute Web-surfing break.

– The story of Jaycee Dugard’s kidnapping and 18-year imprisonment is front-page news everywhere. How amazing that nobody was curious/vigilant enough to try to find out what that monster Phillip Garrido was keeping in those tents. How can you hide people like that??

– More L.A. fires causing widespread damage and destruction. Plus, Hurricane Jimena is set to hit as well. Is California ever going to get a break from bad news?

– Rich Rodriguez is making news as the Michigan football program comes under scrutiny for possible NCAA rules violations regarding workout times.

– And Disney has purchased Marvel for a reported $4 billion. Wow, sounds like a steep price — until you consider how much dough the Spider-Man, Iron Man, Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Hulk movies have made and will continue to make.

By now you’ve probably heard that 36-year-old Adam Goldstein, aka DJ AM, was found dead yesterday evening at a NY City apartment. Though no official cause has been released, the most rampant speculation is that DJ AM died of a drug overdose. Sites like TMZ are reporting that responding officers found drug paraphernalia, including a crack pipe, on the scene.

Anyway, DJ AM was the regular disc jockey at the Palms in Las Vegas. Last night, as a tribute to Adam, the hotel only lit up the letters A and M in its signs — which I think is very cool.

The photo used above was snapped by @djscene1 and posted on Twitter.

There are really only two Wii games that I have liked enough to play for hours at a time: Mario Kart and Wii Sports. Those games were so much fun that I could spend all day on them without getting bored at all! But now that I’ve unlocked every character in Mario Kart and have gotten a bunch of high scores in Wii Sports, I’m ready to move on to a new title.

I’ve heard lots of good things about Wii Sports Resort. This is the sequel to Wii Sports and features a bunch of new activities and games to compete in. It looks awesome and the reviews have mostly been stellar. You don’t even need any extra Wii accessories besides the new MotionPlus controller that comes bundled with the game, which is a plus.

The only problem is that I’m scared I’ll end up wasting a lot of time on the game when I should be studying for my grad school classes. I simply don’t have enough discipline to force myself to work instead of play.

Sigh. Maybe I should wait until the end of the first semester before buying something like this!

I’m officially a grad school student! I paid my tuition for fall semester last week, and I started classes yesterday. After reviewing the syllabi for my courses, I can see that I’ll be very busy from now until the middle of December, but I think everything will be manageable, even with work and family considerations thrown in.

Most of the work involves reading, which is no problem for me. I can always find time to sit down with a book, even if it is a dense textbook. And fortunately, unlike with undergrad courses, there’s no “busy work” associated with the readings — no inane comprehension or review questions to answer at the end of each chapter. Instead, we’re required to engage in discussions on the class message board and write a couple of papers during the term in addition to the mid-term and final. I can handle that kind of arrangement.

Anyway, I’ll be posting updates on here from time to time about how school is going, but I don’t think I’ll be overly consumed with my classes. Not yet, at least. Then again, I’ve only been through 2 days thus far!

When I was growing up, Family Ties was one of my favorite shows and Alex P. Keaton was one of my television idols. I watched this show all the time, and continued watching it in syndication all the way through high school. I have practically every episode memorized, and love them all!

One of my favorites is “Speed Trap”, which is the one where Alex convinces Mallory to borrow weight loss pills from her friend Effie. The pills give Alex a major energy boost, thus allowing him to be even more manic than before. This ep was pretty funny, and still evokes chuckles today because of the whole ’80s “just say no” vibe at the end.

Here’s a clip from the ep, where Alex is doing all kinds of crazy things with his new-found energy:

Well, after resting up for a couple of days, my runner’s knee seems to have gotten better. I was able to run four days this week, and feel really good. I’m still just walking one mile out and running back in, but I’ll build up to longer distances soon.

I even timed myself one day to see how long it took me to run a mile. I clocked in at 10:50, which is admittedly pretty slow. But just remember, I’ve only been at this for about three weeks now, and hadn’t run in nearly 20 years before that!

My goal is to get down to a 10-minute mile within a couple of weeks, and then slowly progress down to an 8-minute mile. I’m not a serious runner or anything, so there’s no need to go faster than that. I would be happy with an 8-minute mile. Let’s see how long it takes to get there!

Now I believe I’ve heard everything. I just read that the IAAF, the international regulatory body of track and field sporting events, has decided to subject a South African athlete to extensive gender tests. The athlete in question is Caster Semenya, a teenage girl who some people claim might in fact be a boy.

What’s the basis of these claims? Well, Caster is muscular, is significantly faster than other girls her age, and speaks with a “deep voice”.

Here’s what IAAF’s Nick Davies had to say about the matter:

this is a “medical issue, not an issue of cheating.” He said the “extremely complex” testing has begun. The process requires a physical medical evaluation and includes reports from a gynecologist, endocrinologist, psychologist, internal medicine specialist and gender expert.

Hmm. That seems like quite a lot to prove whether someone is a male or female. Wouldn’t it be easier and faster to, um, look at the genital region???

I just read that Prince William and longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton have “come to an understanding” about marriage and are going to tie the knot in 2011. Of course, these “reports” are mostly coming from tabloids, and the royal family has not said a thing to either confirm or deny the rumors.

William and Kate have been together for 8 years — since they were both teenage university students. They’ve mostly tried keeping out of the spotlight, of course, but paparazzi always follow them around everywhere. I haven’t paid too much attention to their relationship over the years, though, so I don’t know anything about them — except that they’ve broken up and gotten back together a couple of times.

I wonder if this royal wedding will be televised like Diana’s and Charles’s was. I’m guessing… YES!