the women of 24

There are a lot of reasons why I'm utterly obsessed with 24. I especially appreciate the fact that all of the main female leads on 24 are both strong and feminine characters. Unlike so many other TV shows, 24 assumes that the viewer is at least moderately intelligent (average IQ) and not just breathing.

The female leads that I really liked were Teri and Nina. Although I don't particularly like Kate, Kim, Dina, Sherry, and Audrey, they've all got backbones of steel. I'm ambivalent about Michelle and Chloe. It doesn't matter if these women have ever shot a gun (most have). They are the best at their jobs, or they have moments where they go above and beyond. Sure, sometimes they need rescuing, but these women never become the helpless damsel in distress.

There aren't that many women on the show (compared to men), and while some of the men are portrayed as weak, the women are never so. Part of the reason probably stems from the fact that they have to act in scenes with Jack, and he would probably shoot someone for incompetence.

I like the fact that all of these women are competent and many are as good if not better than their male counterparts (Michelle and Chloe). It's something to have your best computer programmer be a woman and something again to have your lead agent as a female who goes into a hot zone infected with biological weapons without protection in order to take control of the situation. It's also amazing for a mother to allow herself to be raped in order so that her daughter would be spared.

The scenes that I really enjoyed were those where the girls went out into the field and their husbands, fathers, whatever protested...but they went anyway and no one could stop them. Michelle and Kim basically told Tony and Jack: Look, this is my job. I'm the most qualified person, and I'm going to do it whether you like it or not, so deal with it and focus. In season 3, I had so much more respect for Michelle than for Tony becuase she was the one who kept her head many times while he let his emotions take over. She made the right decisions (Has Michelle ever been wrong?) and he didn't.

I've also watched extensive interviews with most of the cast and crew. I was surprised by how intelligent and eloquent the actors and actresses really were and how well they fielded the questions (I don't think they received the questions beforehand). There are a few people who seem ill at ease (Kiefer Sutherland, Carlos Bernard (Tony Almeida), and Mary-Lynn (Chloe)) when they're in an interview, but the rest were great and they all take everything very very seriously. It's fun to watch these amazingly witty and funny people put on a poker face on the show.

24 - Obviously

I really disliked Season 4. I don't know why except that it suddenly felt a lot more impersonal (I know, I know. It's a TV show) and convoluted. The story just felt loose.

Part of the problem is that there is 'another family'. This time, it was a nice and cuddly terrorist extremist family. Similar to the focus on the Warner family in Season 2 (also a season that I didn't particularly enjoy), it felt out of place and not as satisfying as the rest of the story. Season 1 started, continued, and ended with action, which gets people hooked and establishes authenticity for the characters. Suddenly, there's a nice family sitting at a table whom you know nothing about, which is also stupid.

I don't know whether or not I've watched too many of these shows, but certain parts of season 4 seemed utterly predictable to me. Season 4 also seemed bloodier than past seasons (if that's possible, or maybe I'm reaching my saturation level). The season just felt heavy and not that inspirational. I never thought that I'd say this, but this season missed Kim Bauer. While she's extremely annoying over 90% of the time, she brings lightness to the show that just isn't there in the midst a group of stern, harsh middle aged and almost middle aged men and women trying to save the day and who are literally breathing the word gravitas.

I don't like the fact that Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler are still running around at CTU in this season. The producers shouldn't have listened to the fan boards and should just have killed them off at the end of season 3. For some reason, I've never found Tony's character appealing or interesting. For all of his dark and brooding looks, he comes off as relatively insipid.

Michelle has potential, but the acting is more or less inconsistent. There are times when she looks uberfeminine, then she takes over and shoots people. Pick one and stick to it. Yes, yes...the love story is cute, but wouldn't it be cuter if they had died in each other's arms 24 hours ago? However, I do like the fact that Michelle is given the same difficult decision that Tony was given last season and actually makes the right choice.

I also don't like the whole Jack/Audrey pairing. Except for the crying, she seems cold and businesslike. And when he's cold and businesslike (all of the damn time), that makes for a vey icy relationship. OK. I understand that he likes strong women, but Teri and Kate and even Nina seemed better suited for him than Audrey because they actually reminded him that they were female.

For all of its importance, I don't really remember the storyline too well, and I don't know how I feel about the ending. One problem is that I just hated the entire Chinese consulate twist. It seemed so irrelevant and stupid. It seemed even stupider that they would decide to kill Jack. It seems very unlikely to me that an invasion of a foreign consulate would be on the same page or even more serious than the possible meltdown of over a hundred nuclear reactors. I know I'm supposed to suspend disbelief, but I can only do it if the story's really good or if it's not blatantly stupid.

Thankfully, Season 3 was amazing and my favorite season to date (I haven't finished Season 5 yet). It reminded me of a better paced Season 1. From the very beginning, this season was bewitching. We find out that Jack has a heroin problem (some extremely talented acting on his part). Unfortunately, it makes heroin looks good (like every other TV show and movie awash in drugs). The only inconsistency is that his heroin problem completely disappeared in the latter half of the season.

It's always good to have Nina Myers on hand and good to have her die before she wears out her welcome. I'm not the greatest fan of Chase. Too young and too earnest. I really liked Kim this season. Instead of having her customary bouts of stupidity, she really grew up. It's always amusing (and well done in this case) to reflect some of the parent off the child. It was obvious in this season that she was Jack's child, that she had an overinflated sense of honor and duty (just like him), and that she was more than capable of defending herself (racking up a body count). I especially liked the part when she was going on assignment with Jack in the helicopter and he told her that when they were in the field, she had to listen to him. You see Jack in the dual role of father/commander, which is very intriguing. The only part of Tony and Michelle's relationship that I like is the fact that they have to work together and to deal with the same command issues as before.

I skipped over the Sherry Palmer parts, but they looked decent and better than her role in the first season and Ann's role in the second. I'm also glad that she's no longer with us. Saunders was an amazing villan (probably only equaled by Marwan). The story flowed well this season, with the hotel episodes being especially good. I only started to like Michelle when she went to the hotel and afterwards. There were just more good scenes in this season than any of the others with the exception of season one. However, season one was like a roller coaster while this one felt much more enjoyable, like a nice 80 mph drive through the countryside.

looking back at behavioral economics

I went to a seminar on Thursday about CEO compensation and how it has increased by 500% from 1980 to today. The only reason why I went was because my old 14.13 professor came from Boston to deliver the seminar. I was curious to as how I would feel. Would I suddenly see him and be transported back to his class? I have a vision of myself staggering out of bed at 8:45, frantically throwing on clothing, brushing my teeth, and barely making it to my 9AM class in E51-147. Sitting in the front row next to Amy and Julia and trying desperately to stay awake. The required trip to ABP after class in the two and a half hour break between 14.13 and 15.437. The routine cheese, egg, and sausage (or bacon) toasted bagel. Watermelon for Amy. Oatmeal for Julia. Large peach iced tea for me.

As expected, the professor didn't recognize me at all, and I felt nothing when I saw him standing at the lecturn yet again. There was just a lot of nothing. He looked the same as always, neatly dressed, the grin, the intense stare from under the dark eyebrows. He did seem more nervous than usual, drinking simultaneously from a nalgene bottle and a Dasani at the same time. The paper itself had much less math than I had expected (Generally not a good sign), and he tried to finish instead of fielding questions more professionally, which is very bad for a seminar.

A slight digression here. The seminar is almost like a trial (except that people are generally on your side, even when they seek to humiliate you by asking questions that you can't answer). The worst thing that could possible happen is if you're twenty minutes into your presentation and no one has asked a question. It means that your paper sucks beyond belief. Generally, the questions start, and they don't stop. Every miniscule point (if it's not strong enough) gets picked apart. Most assumptions are just massacred, and questions are raised about the main points as well. Nervewracking would be a minor term. It's literally a trial by fire. A good seminar is one where everyone tries to cream the speaker and the speaker manages to answer questions sufficiently and to show some humility at the same time.

This professor simply addressed most questions with the statement that it would be addressed in a later slide. He supressed questions three times and repeatedly stated that he had to get through his presentation. This is totally acceptable if he were teaching an undergraduate class (Maybe he was confused), but less so when presenting to his peers. Ah well. Not that it matters to me anymore.

stand by me

Yesterday night, I was watching random episodes of NCIS and decided to watch Stand by Me as well. Surprisingly, I liked the movie, despite the fact that it was about a bunch of twelve year olds on the search for a dead body. The acting was pretty amazing, considering how young they were. It amused me to no end to see Jerry O'Connell as the overweight, slow, and sniveling kid whom everyone picks on. River Phoenix was amazing as well.

Although the movie feels awkward at times (there's no way in hell that twelve year old boys are that introspective), it was really enjoyable despite the relative lack of violence and gore. Somehow, the boys in the movie seemed more innocent back compared to pre-teens of today. Life seems simpler. More crisp. More real.

It's obvious that the major reason why I watched this movie was because you-know-who was in it. I'm not trying to go through all of his films because some of them really suck, but Ace Merrill was pretty good in this film being the neighborhood bully (Something that Kiefer Sutherland had seemingly perfected in his youth). My favorite line follows from when he listens patiently to two of the other guys in his group of losers, and says softly, "Okay... okay... you've stated your position clearly, now I'm gonna state mine: GET IN THE FUCKING CAR, NOW!" Talk about real leadership qualities.

the mysteries of couture

Obviously I'm procrastinating and not doing my probability and statistics homework...so I decided to look at couture instead. All following images are from www.style.com.Exhibit A is from Valentino. Snakes, anyone? I do believe that is a real snake on her head, and I'm not sure what it has to do with fashion whatsoever except that I'm freaked out just by looking at the poor model. I hope she got paid something extra to have a snake wrapped around her head, not to mention some free shampoo to get the snake feeling out of her hair.

Exhibit B is from Christian Dior's 2004 Spring show. I'm not sure what to say except that I know the exact probability that I'll ever see one of those designs ever again. All fashion designers, not to mention Queen Elizabeth, must be rolling around in their graves. These dresses make sweatpants, suspender straps, and other items look positively sexy. I know! If aliens ever invaded, we can greet them with these women who look like they came from a 17th century royal tea party gone wrong, and they'll be so scared that they'll immediately abandon any plans of universe domination.

I finally figured out what couture is...a combination of fear factor, the circus, and the secret defense weapon that the pentagon has been working on all of these years.

math-impaired

Life sucks for the math impaired when you're in finance. New projects to date: Relearning implicit differentiation, figuring out which way signs go in an equation, and learning how to prove things.

Today I was working with three other guys in my department in the computer lab. I don't know why, but I just feel like I have something to prove. Having never worked with these people before, it's almost like I'm testing the waters. I think I came out of today having given the impression that while I'm not completely brain dead, I'm definitely proof-impaired.

I really don't know. I've never been one of those people to get a problem set and just crank through the whole thing for hours and hours at a time. I have never looked at a problem and stared at it for hours (apparently this is more common then I thought). Now, it feels dumb asking for help, especially since I don't really know the people in my program very well and it's just a stupid perception thing. I really should get over this fear of being perceived as (god-forbid!) unintelligent and just ask for help (though I'm not sure that this is something that guys do either).

It's definitely different to go through the day interacting with primarily all guys and occaisonally the other girl in my program. The guys in my program are surprisingly funny and nice (so far). I think I have this metastable status that wavers between being one of the guys and some strange and foreign entity. I just sit there and laugh when they hit on undergrads and feel some misguided sense of superiority. Anyway, time to get some sleep, wake up early, and tackle order relations and countable sets before meeting at 10:30AM.

squareheadbuttface

Brownie points to whoever can identify said person:

X: You, my dear, can call me whatever you like.
Y: Really? Anything?
X: ok, ok, I meant anything within reason.
X: No reason to call me sqareheadbuttface or something.
Y: what?
X: I was poking fun at myself.
X: My chin is shaped like a butt.
Y: ???????????????????
X: It is a little. There's a crease in the middle.
Y: What?
X: So when I squish my chin
Y: Um...
X: It looks like a buttcrack.

the wonderful brain

While perusing mytube, I found an artsy questionnaire used in an interview and proceeded to try it out on some of my friends. Pain...lots of pain.

Here are the questions and my responses:

• What's your favorite word?
• numinous. duh.
  
• What's your least favorite word?
• c***
• What turns you on?
• integrity
• What turns you off?
• arrogance
• What's your favorite sound or noise?
• water running
• What's your least favorite sound or noise?
• chalk scraping across a blackboard
• If you had to choose a profession other than your own, what would it be?
• it's pretty obvious
• What profession would you never ever choose?
• lawyer

Here's another set of responses:

What's your favorite word?
A: word for what?
A: ion think i have one
A: ok ill go with moop

What's your least favorite word?
A: y would i have such strong feelings about words???
A: i never did like the supercalafragilisticespialadotious word

What turns you on?
A: like on or onnnnn
A: ion understand these questions
A: so on as in sexual or on as in u like it a lot
Me: you're supposed to answer spontaneously
A: like the first thing to pop into my head when u asked it?
A: well monkies came to mind
A: but ionno y
Me: I give up
A: nooooo
A: i wanna know my fortune!!!
Me: it's just random questions
A: so what doya get at the end of it?
A: a wish?
A: aww thats crappy

What turns you off?
A: what?!?!
A: this is so confusing

and on and on...It was painful. Person B didn't fare much better...

What's your favorite word?
B: inarticulatable is a good word
B: as is schreuengthed
Me: what?
B: it's the longest one syllable word in english
Me: what does it mean?
B: nothing
B: it doesn't really exist
Me: I'm confused
B: it's a dumb word i made up a long time ago
B: cuz i needed a really long one syllable word

What turns you on?
B: hm?
B: i dunno

What turns you off?
B: hm -- murderous ax-wielding lunatics?

What's your favorite sound or noise?
B: plink.

What's your favorite curse word?
B: swounds!
B: it's from shakespaear's time
Me: oh dear god

If you were standing before the gates of heaven, what would God say to you?
B: you really should look both ways before crossing the street, you know

If you had to choose a profession other than your own, what would it be?
B: Media mogul

What profession would you never ever choose?
B: Toilet cleaner

one hundred days of solitude

I haven't had a personal life lately. Looking back at college (I know, it's only been three months since graduation), it might actually have been a really good part of my life. I miss the people a lot. Over the past month, the only person I've talked to on a regular basis is me, and that's not very healthy. Talking to myself is fine and dandy. I have lots of things to say, but it's slightly difficult to expand my horizons when there's only one viewpoint.

There've been people that I've met here, but I haven't been able to discern a strong connection (ok, so Rome wasn't built in a day). I feel like I'm past acquaintances but not quite to the friend stage yet. Maybe it's harder because 95% of the people that I interact with now are guys. It's harder for me to pick up guy vibes.

Following are random thoughts about Philly.
Things I enjoy about Philly:
- Cost of living compared to Boston...almost nonexistent
- Pretty campus
- Food truck that sells fruit salad
- More than 10 food trucks on campus

Things I don't enjoy about Philly:
- It's dirty
- It's more dangerous to walk here during the daytime than in Boston at night
- It's got multiple personalities (neighborhoods)