i almost got hit by a car coming back, a pair of young ladies at a stop sign accelerated without looking. i had to brace the hood of their vehicle with my hands. the looks on their faces was worth the price of admission, the two of them screaming in unison as i laughed and ran away. i went to the coldwell banker office and grabbed a copy of the rosenoff report, the index of current properites for sale on the market. a thought's been swimming in my mind recently, the idea of taking out an equity loan on my place and using the money to buy another place for rental income. it's kind of a dream at this point, but i never thought i'd have a use for an equity loan until now, the smell of newness on this current property still fresh. it also seems very mature, the kind of thought that an adult person would have. i bumped into dennis, who pressed me about putting in a kind word at my company for one of his coworkers who's looking for a possible job change. when i got home naturally the heat was turned up (the thought of my $180 february heating bill flashed in my mind). i took a shower and waited for my ride to belmont.
we made a quick detour at a local target so i can get some detergent and hand soap before returning to belmont. i had some egg drop corn soup and some senjianbao, caught some academy red carpet coverage, a bit of the actual award ceremony. i helped my father trying to screw a cap on a drainage pipe in the basement before getting a ride back to cambridge and watching the rest of the academy awards.
lord of the rings! i had my doubts that it would win the most coveted best picture and best director awards, but after it win in every single category it was nominated in, it seems like the legitimate choice. looking back, it almost doesn't seem fair, the academy overwhelmingly supported LOTR, none of the other movies could compete with this juggernaut trilogy. 
this is perhaps one of the more conservative oscars, no real surprises, those that were favored to win won. i was kind of hoping bill murray would get the best actor nod, if he's nominated again next year they'll give it too him just because he was so deserving this year. and i also wanted johnny depp to win, but in hindsight, his chances were kind of a longshot. nothing very controversial either, tim robbins made some plea against the cycle of violence and sean penn made a crack about the lack of WMD's. 
susan sarandon almost had a wardrobe malfunction though, one of the straps to her low hanging dress was off the shoulder, and i noticed the cameraman slowly panned closer to her when she was onstage, in case something should happen. as for the fashion, my favorite dresses were worn by liv tyler (i love the choker), diane lane (her dress has a psychedelic futuristic flare to it), and shohreh aghdashloo, who looked stunning in her red dressing, out-trumping catherine zeta-jones who arrived later wearing almost the exact same thing, 
who didn't look as good as shohreh because she was latched onto some old guy named michael douglas. oh, and who can forget maria menounos, one of the cohosts of entertainment tonight, sporting a $2.5 million dress made entirely of diamonds - providing more than one reason to gawk at her ensemble. worst dress? oh, a tie between uma thurman (who is normally so classy at these events, but tonight sported something that looked like gypsy princess wear) and kelly lynch (she overdid it with the bows).
current fixation: the kowloon walled city. in the early 90's, during one summer when i was in taipei taking a language class, i remember going to the sogo department and seeing this photo book about this place in hong kong where it was just this densely packed city block, narrow streets, dark, dirty, this organic symbiosis of residential and commercial districts. i never forgot about it, and only recently have i started to think about it again.