4. Flo Rida – Good Feeling

3. Fleet Foxes – Helplessness blues.

2. Lady Gaga – You and I (Thanksgiving special).

1. Kurt Vile – Baby’s arms.

Honorable mention: Macklemore – My oh my.  Brought me back to my 9 year old little league days.  Fantastic song, especially after seeing Macklemore with the Blue Scholars at the Paramount in October 2010.  But technically, this song came out in December of 2010.

Before my classes during the day, I snuck over to her apartment and dropped off some flowers and ingredients for dinner later on.  Went to class for a few hours to satisfy my voracious curiosity about about pharmacological therapies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  Of which I recalled only 5 min during my final exam, sigh.  Anyways, I then rushed home in the rain, hopped in my Jeep and picked up the lovely Kate Marie Harris.  Our first destination was Yellow Leaf in Belltown!  We sunk our teeth into butter cream topped cupcakes.  We sipped pumpkin tea.  I showed my vocabulary brilliance by beating her at bananagrams about a dozen times.

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Next, we traveled back along HWY99 to her apartment in Fremont for a home-cooked, candle-lit meal.  On the menu that night was miso-ginger salmon with steamed lemon-pepper broccoli and a brown rice/daikon seed medley.  And wine, of course, but I know next to nothing about wine, so I won’t try to describe it.

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Dinner was delicious.  If I do say so myself.  So, to celebrate this culinary achievement of mine, I slung a guitar over my shoulder and walked Kate down to the waterfront roughly underneath the Aurora bridge (it had been raining earlier in the day, so I figured the bridge would be protective).  And I also happened to have in my pocket something small and shiny (sort of).  It was there that I dialed up a coldplay song and asked her to marry me!

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To which she mumbled, “Well… yeah…” But don’t worry folks, she’s actually excited about it – we just have a lot of inside jokes that come up at the most inappropriate moments!  You might be thinking, “I don’t think I’ve seen a ring like that before.”  This is because…you have not seen a ring like that before.  It’s a raw, unpolished, conflict-free diamond from an independent jeweler in Michigan.  It’s set in a white gold, undulating bezel with a couple of accenting diamonds.

We trekked back up to her apartment and savored the moment (and I stalled for the next part of the night).  You see, earlier in the week, I had told Kate, “after we get engaged, it’d be great if we kept that private for at least a little while.. maybe the first 24 hours?  Just so we can really enjoy it fully on our own.”  I was fully aware that she wanted to spread the news as quickly and as widely as possible (not to brag), so she agreed with immense reluctance to my request (but props to her!).  In reality, she was going to get the chance to spread the news THAT NIGHT!  I secretly invited a bunch of our friends to my house in Montlake for drinks and desserts.  Thanks to Scott and Victor for helping to clean up the house beforehand.  Thanks to those who brought desserts and wine and vodka (for Kate’s favorite mixed drink, Vodka + lemonade).  Thanks to those who took photos.  Thanks to those who changed their plans that night to come out.  Thanks for a special karaoke performance!

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And finally, I showed a video filmed that morning:

…

You know, folks ask me sometimes why I look so calm.  (Laughter.)  They say, all this stuff coming at you, how come you just seem calm?  And I have a confession to make here.  There are times where I’m not so calm.  (Laughter.)  Reggie Love knows.  My wife knows.  There are times when progress seems too slow.  There are times when the words that are spoken about me hurt.  There are times when the barbs sting.  There are times when it feels like all these efforts are for naught, and change is so painfully slow in coming, and I have to confront my own doubts.

But let me tell you — during those times it’s faith that keeps me calm.  (Applause.)  It’s faith that gives me peace.  The same faith that leads a single mother to work two jobs to put a roof over her head when she has doubts.  The same faith that keeps an unemployed father to keep on submitting job applications even after he’s been rejected a hundred times.  The same faith that says to a teacher even if the first nine children she’s teaching she can’t reach, that that 10th one she’s going to be able to reach.  The same faith that breaks the silence of an earthquake’s wake with the sound of prayers and hymns sung by a Haitian community.  A faith in things not seen, in better days ahead, in Him who holds the future in the hollow of His hand.  A faith that lets us mount up on wings like eagles; lets us run and not be weary; lets us walk and not faint.

Rain Taxi

I think I’m going crazy.  But what the hell.

In other news, please consider donating to PIH, World Concern, or another organization trying restore basic needs, comfort, and sanity to Haitians in Port-au-Prince.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog

Oh, how I hope to pay as worthy a tribute to my generation in my career.

What were you doing ten years ago?

http://www.deadlyviper.org/

People are already discussing/arguing at ProfRah’s blog, so I won’t recycle talking points.  But I just wanted to ask: what happens when people use other cultures as a sales gimmick?  Oh that’s right, perhaps this (look i’m sure the waffles are great but we’re not criticizing the waffles.  same goes with deadly viper)  Or maybe this (seriously, “what up?”).  And oh yes, who can forget this (though not even a real element of chinese culture).

As Deadly Viper stresses, let’s have some integrity and grace people.  You know, the kind that doesn’t mock Asians/Asian Americans, please.