For fear of descending into a full post on the pure evil of American Idol (graven idol? false idol?), it will suffice for me to say just this ... how freakin' stupid do you have to be to compete in a nationally-televised, hugely popular show, making it through the first few rounds and shooting your mouth off all the while, guaranteeing you lots of airtime ... but all the while you're fully aware that there a multiple arrest warrants out for you on forgery and fraud charges? Do you think, hmmm just maybe, there might be a remote possibility that one of the, oh i don't know, three or four Idol viewers might be in a career like, say, law enforcement? What kind of self-righteous nutjobs are they getting on AI these days?

Anyway, i plan to use the phrase "my spirit has been broken" as much as possible now.

In other trashy TV news, the big explosion at the Red Cross Mardi Gras benefit in Pine Valley has generated a host of opportunities for me to further ridicule Veronica's favorite soap All My Children. It drives me nuts that no one in this town has the common sense to just end an argument. Or for that matter, move somewhere where people aren't insane or stupid. These people exist to spawn conflict. My current favorite plotline is the Other Sister-esque star-crossed romance between Lily the idiot savant (emphasis on idiot) and Jonathan the brain damaged former psycho turned loveable simpleton ("they cut my hair ... my head ... they took bad out of my head! Bad tumor gone, it made me bad ... i'm good now!"). Every time he speaks i revisit the episode of the Venture Brothers with the Fantastic Four spoof, featuring the retarded Thing look-alike Ned: "bad man make Cody cry hurt!"

On to topics i don't have to be so guilty about. Valentine's dinner at MacArthur Park was lovely, filet mignon for me and rosemary chicken for Veronica, and a heart-shaped chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. I'm spending my time at work devising schemes to increase my lab's budget and get some more students and postdocs here. The ideas for projects are coming thick and fast now, but i just don't have the manpower to execute them. Worse, my first postdoc Lan will be returning to China in April after a good two year stay at Stanford. He's done some great work, and will be tough to replace.