A few weeks ago, as I sat around procrastinating from my usual procrastinations, I tried google-stalking an old friend of mine from elementary school.  To label him as just "an old friend" is misleading, since we were best friends (I'm too old and too grouchy to use the term "BFF") from 3rd to 5th grade.  He is one of the pivotal people in my life responsible for my chameleon-esque integration into American society.  Had I, armed with only a cursory knowledge of the English alphabet, not met him on that fateful first day of school in 3rd grade, I would probably be a very different person right now - blasting around in a riced out Civic, blonde bangs covering my eyes, listening to korean pop.  Hey, an Accord with clear corners, short black hair, and a smattering of the korean classics (H.O.T.!) is quite an improvement...  Shut up, who asked you?! 

Anyway, I digress.

Previous attempts at locating Eric (that's his name) have failed miserably, since the only entry I found was a computer programmer in San Jose and I was fairly certain Eric didn't go out west and become a fat tub-of-lard.  Fortunately, this time around, I was successful.  The means through which he was located by google, however, were rather surprising to me.

www.walkaboutamerica.org

A non-profit organization dedicated to promoting cancer awareness in America, whose president walked from North Carolina to San Francisco (yes, walked) over 200+ days, raised over $20,000 for cancer research, and wrote/published a book detailing the experiences of his journey.  Did I mention the president's name is Eric?  What a coincidence!

After finding Eric's contact information, we exchanged a few emails.  You know, the usual "how have you been" kind of emails.  The amusing thing came when I asked him what he's been up to these last 15 or so years.  Eric wrote a long paragraph telling me about what he did after college, working in Europe, Las Vegas, then China, then starting this organization, walking across America, writing a (soon to be two) book(s), going on awareness promotional tours on college campuses nationwide, and generally being the type of person we only hear about on shows like Oprah, not that I watch such shows.  When he asked me what I've been up to, here's what I wrote back in response to the question, verbatim:

"Went to Stanford for undergraduate, did very little studying there, and graduated with a biology major.  Took a year off and worked at U. Maryland hospital up in Baltimore, and have been in med school up here for the last 3 years."

Here's a particularly relevant Simpsons quote to clarify what I'm trying to say here:

 
Comic Book Guy: "But, Aquaman, you cannot marry a woman without gills. You're from two different worlds!  ...Oh, I've wasted my life."

And now that I've wasted another 30 min of my life on Xanga, I think I'll go play some video games.  That or dye my hair blonde.

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Since there has already been a Simpsons quote in this entry, I will not end with another quote.  The Simpsons-quote-to-entry ratio must remain 1 to 1 to maintain balance in the universe.  Instead, I will end with a quick rant. 

Is it just me or are people saying "having said that" a little too much lately?  Sports commentators, politicians, business consultants, doctors, they all love using that transitional phrase.  Can't people just use the word "but?"  "Having said that" is just another way of padding everyday speech with useless fluff to make themselves sound smarter or hide the fact they're flip-flopping on an issue.  For example:

"I think blah blah blah is a great candidate because he is experienced, intelligent, and will speak out for underserved populations.  Having said that, I think he is a complete douchebag shouldn't be elected."

or

"The issues involve a complex array of integrated proactive synergistic relationships.  Having said that, the cromulence of the status quo embiggens us to fully comprehend the nature of the problem."