For some reason unknown to me, I decided to re-arrange my desktop at 5 in the morning. In my current delusional state, I think it looks pretty swell, so I took a screenshot of it. Mmmm... geeky fun. Click to enlarge!

I have two consecutive midterms approaching T-minus 4.5 hours. Why in the name of the DEVIL am I still awake playing around with my BLOODY DESKTOP?! Speaking of the devil, have you guys seen The Exorcist? I just saw it last night and it's hands down the most disturbing and horrific film I've ever seen. Highly recommended to scare the living feces out of you.

Looking for a place to blow a wad of money? Look no further than 360° Restaurant and Lounge, a penthouse diner/bar in Hollywood. A few of us celebrated a friend's birthday this weekend there, and it was oozing with poshness. 360 is located at no less than 19 stories up at the top of a tower at Sunset and Vine, complete with valet parking, live jazz performance during dinner, and a 360 degrees skyscraper view of the city, hence its namesake. Of course, you get what you pay for, and in the case of our small group, we racked up over two hundred dollars in the meal alone. Holy shiitake is right.

I can't deny I felt rather out of place there. That's where all the high class Beverly Hills people and Hollywood celebrities mingle. Heather Graham had her birthday party at 360, as did Rene Zellweger. It has also hosted That 70's Show's premiere party and the Democratic Convention 2000 party. Phew, heavy stuff. I enjoyed the experience, though. After all, despite "The Damage" (actual wordings on the check handed to us after dinner), you only live once.

Speaking of birthdays, there already has been a couple, with a ton more coming up within our clique of friends. I guess this is the season to give birth or something, which means late summer / early fall is the season to get laid. Heh heh. Ahem, anyways. The core audience of Rice World is under 25, with some of us (including me) still hanging on to the teens. Twenty years may seem a long time, but as my new Song of the Week reminds us, life is still waiting.

To wrap up this update are these links of the day, which pays homage to the currently spreading like wildfire stickman kung fu phenomenon:

Whew. I never knew that much money even existed in the world! Highlights for those waiting for the link to load up:

#1.)	Robson Walton, son of the founder of Wal-Mart.
#2.)	Bill Gates, ousted after three straight years at #1.
#3.)	Larry Ellison, Oracle CEO. Oracle = Internet solutions company.
#5.)	Warren Buffett. No idea what he does. Investments?
#6.)	Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft. Owner of the Trailblazers.
#15.)	Steve Ballmer, current CEO of Microsoft.
#25.)	Michael Dell, overtook Compaq as #1 OEM this year.
#28.)	Li Ka-shing, highest ranked Asian (Hong Kong). =P
#33.)	Gordon Moore, founder of Intel.
#44.)	Rockefeller family, still rich despite inflations since John D.'s days.
#45.)	Ted Turner, cable media mogul of TNT, TBS, CNN, etc.

You'd think they'd be able to solve world poverty with their wealth alone. Then again, what's Capitalism without a wide chasm between the rich and the poor? By the way, the U.S. to U.K. currency exchange rate on Yahoo! is 1:1.443. Basically, a U.K. pound (Ł) is $1.44 dollars. I only mention this because The Sunday Times is United Kingdom based.

NBA playoffs in about a week, and I can't wait, baby! Heh. How 'bout my Dick Vitale impression, eh? Anyways, playoff positions have just about solidified, so it's time for me to bust out my picks for the championship. Will the Lakers repeat? Can the Blazers rebound from their less-than-stellar play as of late? Are the Kings for real? And how 'bout them Bucks from the East?

First off, the East will be won by either Milwaukee or Philadelphia. Period. Those two teams are the only TWO with 50 wins or more in the East. Compare that to the West, in which ALL but two teams have 50 wins or more. The West is more tricky. We can rule out Minnesota because of their inconsistency on defense. Portland will probably win at least one series simply because of their incredible depth. I'm favoring San Antonio and the Lakers to go the furthest, because of their hot play lately and their playoff experience. The dark horse is Dallas. They've got game, but haven't made the post-season in ages.

Sooo... my guess is the Bucks win the East, the Spurs to squeak by in the West, and then subsequently dominate Milwaukee in the finals. The Bucks will win the East because they match up well against the Sixers. Mutombo is a non-factor for Philly because the Bucks rely mostly on penetration and dish. San Antonio will win the West because the twin towers are playing just as well, if not better, than the year they went all the way. There is simply no team to match up against them. Plus, with Derek Anderson emerging as the third option, I just can't see them losing 3 or 4 games to any team.

And how 'bout them Clippers? Doubling their win total from last season, and extending the contract of Odom, Maggette, and McInnis for a couple more years. Now, all they need is owner Donald Sterling to keel over and die from choking on the dinner he's eating tomorrow night to make a serious run next year. =P

"Further and further away from me, I don't know where you are.
You were just a shooting star.
I say Christine..."

Wow, I haven't posted a Song of the Week in over 2 months. Talk about long overdue. I'm fairly certain none of you guys will have heard of this edition's artist, but I'm also fairly certain you'll like it if you check it out.

In case a few of you were away on a field trip to Mars, a U.S. spy plane flying over international airspace near China crashed into a Chinese fighter jet a few days ago. The jet along with its pilot are missing and presumed dead, while the U.S. plane made an emergency landing in China. The Beijing government wasn't happy in losing their fighter jet (couldn't care less about the pilot, I assume, since their population is in the billions), so they're holding the 24-member crew of the U.S. spy plane hostage until they get an apology from Washington. The U.S. ain't happy that China's holding American citizens hostage, so stubbornly refuses to apologize.

Hm... sounds like a job for.... the U.S. Navy SEAL's! Okay, anyways, a little too much Counter-Strike for me.

In all seriousness, this is such a petty little squabble between two of the world's greater countries. The Chinese are like, "Hey, you broke my plane, say sorry or else I won't give you back yours!" (They hold the crews hostage). And the U.S. are like, "What?? I didn't break your ugly plane. Give me back mines, fooker." (They demand the return of the plane and crew). Then China goes, "No!! Apologize, dammit." (They demand an apology). So the U.S. retaliates, "Okay, fine. I'm sorry.... that your pilot was STUPID enough to run into our plane!!" (Bush refuses to apologize, but sends his "regret").

Geez! You'd think grown men would be able to better negotiate. This is looking like a playground brawl of words. We're missing the most important aspect of this entire situation, which are the hostages. They've got friends and family anxiously awaiting their return, and all the U.S. has to do is say "I'm sorry." Goodness, how hard is that? Give the macho P.R. stuff a rest and give China the apology they want. If they still don't relent, then we can nuke them back to the Stone Age.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a China sympathizer. Hell, I'm Taiwanese, and nobody in the world hates China more than us. Still, I'm speaking on the side of logic here. This is like the headbutting of two immature kids. Let's be the bigger man here so to speak and just apologize. The crew will be released back to their loved ones, and then the world will see how petty China is. A win-win situation in my book.

"Directed by "Jean-Marie Gaubert, and starring Christina Applegate, Jean Reno and Christian Clavier, "Just Visiting" follows a nobleman and his servant from the 12th Century who wind up in modern-day Chicago due to a wizard’s potion gone awry."

Congrats to Duke for kicking ass throughout the NCAA tournament. Poor UCLA was in the wrong bracket and got ran over by the Blue Devils in the Sweet 16. To think of it, they disposed of three out of the four Pac-10 teams that made it into the Sweet 16, capping it off with Arizona at the championship. Props to Coach K for his third championship!