i am xenu.

okay, this is just too good not to be blogged about. so this whole scientology thing has been bugging me a little so i wanted to try to find out what it was all about. first, i went the scientology.org website and just got so bored with their fluffy bullshit. i did learn about thetans and about how we don't have spirits; rather we are spirits who have bodies. anyway, it's all really very boring. i just wanted to know about the aliens.

so i found xenu.com which is a website devoted to fighting against the church of scientology and boy do they have lots of interesting info (okay, so i realize i'm biased, but whatever). my absolute favorite part of the whole website is this essay by bob minton that describes the core belief of scientology. however, you can only learn about this once you've reached the level of OT III (OT = operating thetan). reading this information beforehand may cause you to become ill (specifically, you would get pneumonia) and possibly die. i'm not being sarcastic, this is what they actually believe.

so, okay, here goes: so 75 million years ago, there was an evil galactic overlord named xenu. he was responsible for all 76 planets in this sector of the galaxy, including earth (formerly known as teegeeack). all of his planets were overpopulated so he came up with a plan to freeze all these aliens and then dump them on earth - sorry, teegeeack - and trap them there. these alien spirits were then taken to huge multiplex cinemas that xenu had built beforehand and were forced to watch 3-d movies in which they were all implanted with a false reality (the reality that we know today). these movies also helped control all the alien spirits so that they wouldn't cause trouble for xenu again. during these films, many false pictures and stories were implanted into these spirits, which resulted in the spirits believing in all the things that control mankind on earth today, including religion. so, today on earth, all of these alien spirits have attached themselves to our bodies and are the root cause of the false reality that everyone except for the top level scientologists experiences. it is the job of all scientologists to remove this false reality from the world by auditing each and every space alien spirit and human on earth. and what about xenu, you ask? well, the loyal officers of the marcab confederation finally discovered how evil Xenu was and overthrew him. he is now locked away in a mountain on one of the planets and kept in by a force-field powered by an eternal battery.

all right, so did you get all that? i swear to you all that i did not make that up. go here to see a copy of l. ron hubbard's first page of this historic work (in his own handwriting!). and if you think it sounds like a really bad sci-fi novel, well, think about who it came from - l. ron hubbard, who is, in fact, a really bad sci-fi novelist. plus, brooke shields recently responded to tom cruise's criticism of her use of paxil to treat her depression. i don't think she's a particularly good actress but i love her so much for saying, and i quote, "tom cruise's comments are irresponsible and dangerous. tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them." at first, i thought she was referring to war of the worlds with the aliens comment but now i'm pretty sure that she's talking about both his new movie and his so-called religion. and that makes me love her. and now i regret not taking a picture of the scientology celebrity centre that we walked right by in new york. even better, i should've taken a picture with an alien mask on while holding up a sign reading, "i am xenu."

so, anyway, there you have it. you've gotta read the essay to get better details about how xenu froze the aliens and how he actually did a tax audit on all of his planets and what his spaceships look like. oh, plus, they calculated that each person on earth has approximately 2,200 alien spirits stuck to them (which, of course, causes you to be constrained by xenu's false reality). i think my favorite part is how xenu built movie theaters to brainwash all the alien spirits. awesome. i'm so glad i googled scientology. all of this makes me look at people like john travolta, tom cruise, kelly preston, and lisa marie presley just a little differently. especially tom cruise. i can't take his anti-psychology statements seriously now knowing that he believes in xenu, the galactic overlord. i mean, there's nothing wrong with believing in aliens (i'd like to believe we're not alone in the galaxy), but this whole story about frozen alien spirits and whatnot is just a little much, no?

oh, and sorry to any of you who get pneumonia and die from reading this blog.

new york pics.

to see all my new york pics, click here.

to see all of deb's new york pics, click here.

once chi's pics go up, you can see them here.

and soon i'll create an album full of select photos that we all took for my yahoo photo album so it doesn't feel left out.

flying over the clouds.  

bye new york. 

the view of manhattan from the staten island ferry. 

the statue of liberty. 

deb, me, chi, and mar eating gelato in little italy. 

it's the mtv building! 

times square. cup o noodle and beer, anyone? that's real steam coming out of the top! 

view from the top of the empire state building (un-zoomed). uh...don't fall down.  

but where's trump?! 

sea. setting for garden state and sex and the city.  

i heart new york.

but i so do not heart their crappy weather last week. although, to be fair, it was a freak cold/rain spell and it only lasted monday thru wednesday, but still. to make up for it, new york decided to give us fleet week. so eveywhere we went (seriously, everywhere), we saw sailors. hee. yum! anyway, on with the blog!

monday, may 23 / tuesday may 24

jet blue is awesome. but red eye flights suck. our flight was at 955 pm so we got to new york at 610 am est. yay. but jet blue planes have little television sets on the back of every chair and all of them have direct tv. free headphones, too. the only thing you would have to pay for is the in-flight movie if you wanted to (elektra or because of winn dixie). so five hours of free cable! weee. i can't remember what i watched. i think i fell asleep for maybe half an hour, but that was it. their snacks were pretty good too. anyway, we got to jfk at 6 am, met up with chi, and headed over to rob's (chi's friend) place. he was an incredibly nice host and had air beds and blankets and pillows and towels. we took a nap for a bit then went out and bought some random things from walgreens.

then it was off to central park for some sightseeing. it was pretty nice. would've been a lot nicer in sunlight. oh well. after wandering around for a bit, we headed to the subway to get a seven day metrocard. hopped on the subway (makes you appreciate the cleanliness of bart so much) and went off to union square to meet up with diana. i think we stopped at grand central station on the way too. it was quite...grand. yeah. so we met up with diana and her new bf (enoch, so cute and so nice) and they took us to SEA which is the restaurant that zach braff worked at in garden state and, apparently, also the restaurant RAW that samantha met smith at in sex and the city. it's actually a thai restaurant (not vietnamese, like in garden state. hee.) and it had really yummy food. the bathrooms were...interesting. hmm. i've noticed that a lot of restaurant bathrooms in nyc aren't really public. they're more like private stalls with one main sink outside. it's weird. i don't get it. anyway, after dinner, we went to serendipity for dessert. i'm so sad that i couldn't finish my chocolate blackout cake and even sadder that i forgot about it and left half of it in rob's fridge when we left on wednesday. so i guess today turned out to be our movie restaurant day. dinner at sea and dessert at serendipity!

wednesday, may 25

on wednesday, we went to the metropolitan museum of art. just saying that makes me want to read "from the mixed up files of mrs. basil e. frankweiler" all over again. oh, and on our way to the met, we got completely sidetracked by this puppy store. they had the absolute cutest puppies you have ever seen in the display windows. and the only thing cuter than puppies are puppies that are sleeping. we walked inside and saw more puppies and some kittens. ohmygod. just...my head exploded from the adorableness of it all. anyway, we eventually got to the met and it's yoooooge. i'm so glad i brought my running shoes. we saw lots! they had monet, manet, degas, rodin, renoir, picasso, and more! the weapons and armor exhibit was pretty cool. a lot of the knights' armor had this little pouch that hung out of its crotch so that the knights could go pee more easily. i don't know why i never thought about that but it's so convenient! although, at the same time, that leaves the knight's little lieutenant unprotected and...ouch. anyway. we basically spent the entire afternoon at the met (about four hours or so) and were extremely exhausted by the time we got back to the apartment. we took a nap and i woke up just before the two hour season finale of lost started. ohmygod, they kidnapped walt!! and what's in that hatch?! where does it lead to?? what's going on?! so good. we ordered take out and stayed in for the rest of the night because it was too cold outside and we were really tired.

thursday, may 26

did quite a few things on thursday. first, we packed up all our stuff and headed over to herald square hotel to stay for the next two nights. david and i managed to hail a taxi in the rain. yay! i hailed a taxi in new york! for some reason, that was one of the things i wanted to do. i spotted the taxi dropping some woman off and david and i hailed it. woo hoo! anyway, we drove down fifth avenue to get to our hotel and it was like a shopaholic's dream. sigh. ooh, and stopped right in front of trump tower too! i love the apprentice (another guilty pleasure) so i took a couple pictures of it. too bad we couldn't see trump, george, or carolyn. i so would've jumped out of the taxi and ran over to them. anyway, our hotel room was pretty nice. a bit expensive but that's cuz we booked it so late. otherwise, i think it would've been a nice budget hotel. so...if anyone's planning a trip to nyc any time soon, i would recommend herald square hotel.

so, we got there, dumped our stuff, and then walked to the empire state building since it was so close. we must've waited in like, five different (looong) lines to get to the top. and the price for admission was $14! sheesh. too bad the weather was pure crap though. it was just awful. rainy and windy so it was hard to take pictures and keep my camera dry and my hood on. but i think i got some good shots. i would've appreciated it so much more if the weather had been nicer. or, at the very least, not raining. after that, we had a quick lunch at mcdonalds, and then went over to the piers to catch a ferry to the statue of liberty. unfortunately, we got there too late and missed the last ferry. so we wound up walking around wall street instead. and i felt like such a bummy, shleppy tourist with all these businesspeople walking around in their sharp suits and whatnot. oh well. got to see the new york stock exchange and ground zero. posed like a fob with david in front of nyse. after that, we went back to our hotel to rest a little.

then it was off to times square at night! totally vegas-like. bright lights everywhere. it was actually quite warm because of all the lights and the people and the buildings. wandered around and took pictures and bought souvenir "i heart ny" shirts. although, i threw mine in the wash yesterday and the red on the heart started to come off. but it was a cheap shirt, so...yeah. anyway, we had dinner at this italian restaurant called tony's. definitely my favorite place to eat in ny out of all the places that we had eaten. we had fettucine and veal saltimbocca. the veal was so very yummy. and it was reasonably priced as well. so, there's another recommendation for anyone going to nyc anytime soon. tony's in times square.

after dinner, we went back to the hotel to change and met up with margaret and her new boytoy dave at luca's lounge. it was pretty chill. had some sex on the beach (hee) and waited for rob and his friends to show up. they came, had a drink, and the bar hopping began. next, it was off to some small karaoke bar that was too crowded to fit all of us. BUT. we got to see the asian cingular guy who apparently works there. he's the guy that asks all these five questions "how many players on a basketball field? do you have change for a five? how many bars do you have?" he tried to get us seats and i swear, i just couldn't stop staring at him. it was the worst case of "ohmygod, you look REALLY familiar" that i've ever had. and when we left the bar, i finally remembered where i'd seen him. he was also in two weeks notice with sandra bullock and hugh grant. he was in that one scene where sandra bullock is interviewing for a new job and everyone keeps turning her down because hugh grant had been calling ahead and telling everyone to turn her down. the cingular guy is the last guy to interview her and when he turns her down, she angrily asks, "when did he call you?" and he laughs and says, "he never called" and then she snarls, "WHEN?!" and he meekly replies, "an hour ago." and, don't think i'm a stalker or obssessed or anything (okay, so maybe i am), but i looked him up on imdb.com and his name is tim kang and he's from san francisco! and he was also on law and order and third watch. so it's totally him!! so we got to see a quasi-pseudo-semi celebrity. hee.

okay okay, sidetrack over. we stayed at that bar for like, two minutes, then headed down to another one. had a shot of...something. soka? suka? i don't know. it was unpleasant. went downstairs to dance but...there was no one really dancing so...yeah. stayed for a little bit then went to another place called souk or something. that place was pretty cool. it had three floors and each floor played a different type of music. unfortunately, i almost didn't get in because the bouncers outside spent so long staring at my driver's license thinking it was weird because my photo is on the right hand side and for some weird stupid reason, they've never seen a driver's license with the photo on the right hand side. there must've been four or five guys outside and they all passed it around to look at it. idiots. anyway, the music and dancing was fun. i thought it was a pretty good place to drink and dance and the music was actually danceable and NOT hip hop for a change. so...there's yet another recommendation. although i don't really remember what it was called. souk? soux? whatever. we stayed out pretty late and didn't get back to our hotel until around 4 or something. sufficed to say, we woke up pretty late the next day.

friday, may 27

we all woke up late, got ready, and met mar in chinatown for a late lunch at joe's shanghai. yum. their noodles were good. wandered around chinatown a bit and then chinatown became little italy so we wandered around there a bit too. had some tasty gelato. and then we did some shopping in soho. went into this big (cheap) jewelry store where, i swear, the only thing running through my head was, "oooh! shiny!!" i got a couple necklaces and this really cute ring with fake diamonds all around it. when i went home, i showed to to mike and asked him how much he thought it was and he said $150. but it was only $7! hah! okay okay, he's a boy, but still. anyway, after soho, mar took us to her favorite place in new york - washington square park. it was pretty nice and cute. we sat around for a bit and then went back to her apartment. we chilled for a while and then went to some moroccan restaurant for dinner with rob and his friends. they had a belly dancer there! she was pretty good. i wish i could dance like that. sigh. anyway, we were pretty tired from walking around all day, so after dinner, we went back to our hotel and just chilled until mar had to leave to meet up with some other friends. aww...bye mar! we'll miss you, you crazy yale law student, you.

saturday, may 28

we got up early on saturday so that we could catch the staten island ferry. of course, it only went to staten island so we passed by the statue of liberty. it was still somewhat far off but it was nice that we got to see it. because i would've felt incomplete if i had gone to ny but didn't get to see the statue of liberty. afterwards, we met up with diana and enoch for lunch at this korean place in k town. and then it was back to our hotel to wait for the taxi to the airport. we all totally konked out in the taxi. the driver had to wake us up to ask us which terminal. waited around for a bit, said goobye to chi, and then walked to our gate. deb and david got searched again (they had been searched at san jose international, too. hee). the flight back was just as nice as the flight there but even nicer because it wasn't red eye. watched a lot of tv. i think i must've watched like two or three episodes of law and order: svu but i kept dozing on and off during those eps. actually, the flight left almost an hour late, but we somehow made up the time and got to san jose only about ten minutes late.

and hurrah, this blog is finished! i'll post up some pics on this blog and then work on a webshots account for the rest of them since it's quite a bit. i wound up taking exactly 200 pictures. not all of them will go on webshots, of course, but a good chunk of them will.

tom cruise sucks.

from imdb.com...

Cruise Launches War on Psychiatrists

Tom Cruise has declared a public war on psychiatrists because he fears the "pseudo-science" has led to a drug-fuelled crisis for today's children. The movie hunk was diagnosed as dyslexic when he was just seven, and doctors suggested he should take drugs to control his learning problems. Memories of that part of his childhood fuelled Cruise to seek alternative ways of overcoming his dyslexia - a problem that led him to the Church of Scientology's educational programs. Becoming a scientologist in 1984 made the actor look closely at the controversial religion's anti-psychiatry stance, and he has since become a firm believer that the science and the medicating of children is wrong. Speaking exclusively to US news show Access Hollywood as part of a week-long special about his scientology beliefs, the movie hunk declares, "I'm going right after psychiatry and these false labels and this pseudo-science. I was diagnosed as dyslexic; I had a lot of energy as a child. They wanted to put me on drugs... Never did; my mother said no, absolutely not, no way and I'm thankful. Had I been put on those drugs, I never would be here today... I never would have had the career that I'm having. Am I making people aware of it by discussing it openly and saying what a fraud psychiatry is? You bet I am. I feel a responsibility because I care..." The actor also maintains that poor results in education in America can be blamed on mind-altering drugs that are given to children. He adds, "SAT (exam) scores have gone right down the toilet. The parents are blaming the teachers, the teachers are blaming the parents and the psychs are putting everyone on drugs."

yeah... when did tom cruise turn into a raving cultish freak? leah brought this up on her blog too, but i felt compelled to join her in ranting about him. he claims that brooke shields didn't need paxil to cure her post-natal depression. all she needed were vitamins. vitamins! i mean, c'mon, that's just so stupid, it's funny. so how would he suggest we treat schizophrenia? with mineral water? oh, and apparently low SAT scores have nothing to do with the fact that the government doesn't contribute enough to education; it's just all the bad psychiatrists' fault. is this guy serious? blaming low SAT scores on psychiatry? i suppose gangs and teenage sex and STDs are psychiatry's fault as well. he's worse than madonna with her kabbalah. or even mel gibson with his catholicism. and at least those two are real religions. yeah, i went there; i said it. scientology is such a crock. even the name of the "religion" is a misnomer. science? what science? turn off dr. phil and read a fucking psychology journal you close-minded prick. actually, as much as i loathe dr. phil, i would love to see him kick tom cruise's shrimpy ass.

you know, i kind of have the same opinion of him as i do with britney spears. i think her music is catchy and fun to listen to (total guilty pleasure) but i personally think she's a skanky trashy whore. same with tom cruise. makes good movies but is a total ignorant asshole. but what gets me the most is that he's making all these public statements about psychiatry and making these ridiculous claims about it being a "pseudo science" when, guess what, he's just a fucking actor. keep your day job, loser. also, i feel like the actual stance of "anti-psychiatry" is just a little bit ridiculous. it's like being "anti-physics" or "anti-chemistry." i don't believe in physics! we don't need gravity or momentum! all we need are vitamins!!

oh, and does anyone else notice that his wives and girlfriends are getting younger? tom cruise has issues. run, katie, run!! nicole and penelope got away. you still have a chance! he's one step away from becoming a cult leader. don't look directly at his smile. it'll blind and fool you.

okay, [/rant]. i'll blog about my awesome week in ny and post up pictures soon!

oh, ps: incidentally, while we were in new york, we walked by the scientology celebrity centre on our way to...somewhere (i forget where). kinda says a lot about this "religion," doesn't it?