I saw two movies over the past week or so, The Informant and Where the Wild Things Are.

I had been looking forward to Where the Wild Things Are for about a year. Unfortunately, I thought it was awful. I never got caught up in the movie – never felt drawn into it. It just felt like a kid running around with a bunch of big puppets to me. And I thought the plot – what there was of one – was pretty lame. Didn’t really go anywhere. Which I suppose should not be very surprising since the original book they adapted for the screen was extremely short. Also, casting James Gandolfini as voice of the main wild thing was a particularly dumb move. His voice is so inextricably linked with Tony Soprano in my mind that everytime he talked I kept expecting to see Syl, Paulie Walnuts, and Christopher Moltisanti jump out from behind a tree. Boo Spike Jonze! Boo! I’d give it about a 3 out of 10.

The Informant, on the other hand, was very well done. I hadn’t heard much about it, but a friend of mine saw it and recommended it to me. Very funny and a very intelligent movie. Matt Damon plays the lead role perfectly. I really enjoyed it and it kept my attention from start to finish. Easily an 8 out of 10.

http://news.bookweb.org/7130.html

Rather than trying to argue that lower book prices are ‘harmful to consumers,” why don’t you spend your time coming up with an alternative to your doomed business model (which I strongly feel will be even more doomed once ereaders like the Kindle, Nook, etc., really gain traction in the marketplace and books become as widely pirated as movies, software, music, etc.).

Well, yes, so I did a little proposin’ and Thao did a little acceptin’ on Saturday morning – so now it’s all nice and official – the engagement part, at least. We have been planning this for a couple of months, but it took me a little while to get the ring delivered here to the U.S., etc., thus the delayed formal proposal.

We’re getting married here in Vietnam on December 26th and 27th. We’ll be having a ceremony and party out in Thao’s hometown of Long An on the 26th, and a party at the Majestic Hotel here in Saigon on the evening of the 27th. The party here will be small – 10 tables, which means only 100 people. The ceremony and party in Long An will be larger – Thao is telling me around 400 people for the party part of it, at least.

We were going to do all of the above, plus another ceremony and party in the U.S. in February. Of course that was back before Thao’s visa application was denied – so for now it will have to just be an all-Vietnam affair.

The ring I gave Thao was my paternal grandmother’s engagement ring. It’s 65-years-old and is very pretty. A different style from most rings today, I think. My mom helped me buy a new diamond to go in it and had it mounted, etc., then we had a friend of a friend bring it from the U.S. to Vietnam. Thao really likes it – I caught her sneaking looks at it on her hand all weekend when she thought I wasn’t looking. She also really likes that it was my grandmother’s.

Below are a few more photos from this weekend in Mui Ne.

A fishing boat at sunrise – just after we were engaged:

Later that day, we rented motorbikes and rode about an hour up the coast to some big white sand dunes. Here are Tim’s girlfriend, S, and Thao:

Me, slope-lopin’:

Thao and S coming on up:

Thao and I up on the dunes:

Tim and S:

My fiance:

I have to admit that it does feel a little strange to be referring to someone as my fiance. I won’t go into a long email now about how lucky I am to have found Thao, and about what a great person she is, etc., but I really am and she really is. She is all of the things I ever wanted in someone – she’s real, she’s laid back, she’s honest, she’s kind, she has a big heart, she’s upbeat and positive, she likes other people, she’s interested in trying new things, she’s good with kids, etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on. The bottom line is we have a great time together, have a great relationship, are great friends, and really love each other a lot. Whenever we do a toast we always say something to the effect of “To a long, fun, and interesting life together, and to our beautiful children.” (Don’t get the wrong idea – we don’t have any children, beautiful or otherwise, yet. We’re just being optimistic.)

But, beautiful children aside, I do think that our life together will be fun and interesting – and hopefully long as well!

I went to the campus clinic today and got checked out. Fever of 100.4f (38c). Still feeling like crap. She said I appear to have a common cold – some of the symptoms of swine flu are lacking. I am just going to take it easy and hope this goes away soon. Not a good feeling. And it better not interfere with our trip Friday.

This kind of freaks me out. My buddy, the MexiNugget, was telling me recently how the new trend in L.A. these days was “hospital crashing.” Basically people go into hospitals and pretend to be family members of a patient. After visiting hours, they hide in the room until the patient is fed and then afterwards eat whatever food the patient doesn’t eat.

I didn’t believe him, but he sent me the following photo of him “getting into his hiding position,” as he put it. I told him I thought that was a sick thing to do, but he said they always waited until after the patients had eaten – it wasn’t like they were taking food from the patients. Also, he said that the food given to the patients who were really bad off wasn’t any good anyway because it was “all pureed up,” etc., so it was only the least bad off patients whose food they were eating.

Whatever dude. Only in California. (I hope.)

I couldn’t sleep last night – feverish and coughing all night. Thankfully I did not have to teach today so I was able to chill out. Still not feeling great. I did have to run some errands today related to my work permit – which I am desperately trying to get before my current visa expires on November 2nd. (I think I can extend it further if absolutely necessary, but I really should get the work permit if possible – it’s only taken me two years to get around to doing it!)

I had to go by the U.S. consulate to get some form notarized, and then I had to go to a Vietnamese judicial building to have some other form notarized. They wouldn’t let me in the Vietnamese judicial building because I was wearing shorts! I understand if you have a court hearing or something, you probably don’t want to show up in shorts, but this was like going to the DMV or something. Just having a form notarized. Oh well, I’ll go back later this week – in a tuxedo.

Thao and I are going to the beach at Mui Ne this weekend. I’m taking Friday and Saturday off of work to do it. Not ideal timing since classes just started back up this week and I’m going to have to schedule a couple of makeup classes, but we were able to get free vouchers for two nights at the Sailing Club Mui Ne, which is a really nice resort – and this is the only weekend they’re good for, so we’re going. My friend Tim and his girlfriend are going with us. We’ll be in super chill mode.

And now very tired.

Needed some exercise. Hadn’t ridden for a few days – and got off of my diet this weekend. Drank some beer Friday night, ate Mexican food for lunch yesterday, and last night Thao and I had a very nice dinner at the Square One restaurant at the Park Hyatt hotel where she works. That’s the second time we’ve eaten there – and both times it has been extremely good.

Classes start back up tomorrow – but under my new schedule I don’t have a class until Wednesday, which is a little strange for me.

I don’t see much in the cards tonight but maybe watching a movie and going to bed early.

This will be a short week, as we are going to the beach on Friday morning, returning on Sunday.

Peace.

I’m not sure what they’ve got going on in Japan, but I like it: