I Don't Know Where This is Going...

"Our Song"

2009-05-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

I'm house sitting right now. More importantly, I'm cat sitting.

It's stressful for these little guys, as they just had to move to a brand new house and not even a week in, their mommy leaves for a two week trip to China.

One thing that keeps them company when the peoples are away is that their mommy likes to keep the radio or music on so they're not always alone. I've had the iPod on for them to listen.

Their mommy and I kind of have "our song" which makes me think of her when I hear it, and makes her think of me when she hears it.

This song came up not long ago, and when I started singing along with the song, I had kitties run to me and meowing. Maybe they know it's our song, and makes them miss their mommy.

Either way, I think it's the most adorable thing ever!

My heart asplode.

Grace Lee Boggs:

2009-04-29T14:43:00.001-07:00

"A revolution involves making an evolutionary/revolutionary leap toward becoming more socially responsible and more self-critical human beings."

i am never without it

2009-04-24T18:07:00.000-07:00

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

~e.e. cummings

I used to have this memorized. The movie In Her Shoes features it, and it makes me like that movie that much more.

The Cool Thing about Long Hair

2009-04-16T16:05:00.000-07:00

I grew up a tomboy with a mom who grew up a tomboy as well. My mom used to have long hair, but I never knew her to have it my entire life. My mom didn't really want me or my sister to have long hair, which, as a tomboy, I kind of wanted.

That sounds backwards, but besides being able to rock the sideways ponytail every now and again, I wanted long hair so that I can imitate the thing tomboy girls did in the movies and TV shows and pretended they're boys by hiding their long hair in their hat, and then the boys would let her (disguised as a him) play with them, until she gets in a scuffle with another boy and her hat comes off and it's revealed, *GASP* SHE'S A GIRL!

I don't know...I guess at an early age, I was keen on a good bamboozle.

Now that I'm all grown up, I can do whatever I want to with my hair, oftentimes to my mama's dismay. Even though I've had longer hair a few times in the past, I now dawns on me I can do what I've wanted to do for years.

First, there's nothing...

...Now there is!

The Best Thing I've Written All Year

2009-03-25T01:31:00.001-07:00

I originally wrote it on Facebook for my friend. I will repost to share with the world.

Ready?

If you were ever to become a pop star, your sophomore album should be called EVAloution.

The end.

Please pay me the big bux now. KTHANXBAI.

Another Chapter in My Life Over.

2009-03-24T18:59:00.001-07:00

I love happy endings.
http://novelconcepts.co.uk/FlashElementTD/

I ranked #2 in the past 30 minutes, with 13 (of 20) lives left.

Now I need to get my hands on an iPhone/Pod Touch and defeat TapDefense, and I can forever purge myself from the tower defense genre FOREVER!

...or at least a year.

Sometimes, I Eat Good Things.

2009-03-10T13:33:00.000-07:00

My work had a Board meeting last night and I got to take home some uneaten vegetarian bibimbap made with soybean spouts and the regular bibimbap fixins. Hungry, I decided to add a fried egg to the mix to make it that much more awesome.

Here's the egg

The bibimbap, steaming and ready to go...

The plethora of banchan...would you say I have a plethora?

The egg topping the bibimbap, with the banchan at bay...

HERE is the final product, with the yolk nice and runny mixed in with the banchan.

My tummy is happy.

Smellme

2009-03-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

Smelling like the sun is, for the most part, not a pleasant smell.

Usually, when it's your own smell like the sun, combined with cool breezes and some salt breezed in your hair, it smells awesome.

Hold You in My Arms...I Just Wanted to Hold

2009-03-05T11:58:00.000-08:00

Working in a place where they don't pay for parking is a bummer, and I'm cheap and poor enough to not want to have to pay for parking, so I go to great lengths not to.

Having to move my car from an area that starts street sweeping to another place for the last hour and a half I have at work seems like nonsense, but at least I get a minute out of the office (even when I can't afford to do so), and other moments of wonderful happen upon me.

As I was approaching my car, I passed by a car lot with an attendant, who had his radio blasting pretty loud. And for that, I was happy and it made my day, and really should have slowed my pace as it was playing this:

Muse, play and save the world, but at least save my sanity.

Good Day, Sunshine

2009-03-01T06:27:00.000-08:00

Greeting the morning meeting up with the sun as the day breaks on the 10 Freeway makes me like the 10 a little more now.

I can kick myself for this, but I never actually made the effort I should have to get myself up and out early enough to see the sun rise on the East Coast.

Perhaps that's what I should set as a goal for myself by next year: Find some awesome peak and watch the sunrise atop it. The two that come to mind is Mt. Fuji and that one big volcano on Maui. Or maybe do it somewhere over the water on the East Coast.

The past 36 hours have been very remarkable.

Number 9, Number 9...

2009-02-25T08:32:00.000-08:00

In 2006 I actually made the effort to go to the theatres to watch all the nominated animated shorts for the Academy Awards (Sadly, I haven't since due to the fact I essentially lost my movie buddy that year). We would have seen the live-action shorts, but in the interest of time, we had to skip it. Either way, the selection of nominated shorts were really great that year.

Of course, the one I thought that won (I won't mention by name, but it's easy to look up) nabbed the prize probably mostly based on pure sentiment and not at all by artistic merit. There were two in particular that I fancied most, and "9" by Shane Acker was definitely one of the standouts.

Of course, having an affinity for post-apocalyptic and/or distopian worlds doesn't help my being partial to this short, but I do think the animation is great and the story is really interesting.

Shortly after watching it, I found out that Tim Burton was working on a full-length version of the movie. I was very skeptical. As much as I like Tim Burton, his laying hands on already-created projects didn't fare well in my eyes (Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory nee Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory). I thought the short was great at telling its tale; I did not see how a high production value and extended running time could do anything but water it down.

And then when I finally managed to watch Coraline in 3D this weekend, I was treated to see the trailer for this project (and in 3D, no less):

Most of my skepticism has subsided, but it remains to be seen if this full-length maintains the same spirit (pun not intended) as the original, and if possible, takes it to another level. Voices? We'll see.

Either way, September is a very long time to wait for this movie. I can't wait to watch it!

JAH

2009-02-05T23:09:00.000-08:00

She was going to teach me Italian. I could have learned Hebrew if I wanted to as well (and I did).

Beauty Movement

2009-02-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

I already love Fleet Foxes. I really want to see them live.

Their album is great, and I really like their song, "White Winter Hymnal"

As good as it is already, an LA-based acappella group made a hauntingly beautiful cover of it that can bring me to tears: Sonos

You will have to click on "White Winter Hymnal" on the player to hear it, though their "Oh What a World" is cute, too. Their "Everything in its Right Place" is also solid and good, but I've heard it one too many times, though I do not think I can ever tire of WWH with them singing it at all. It makes it a bit more difficult to hear the original sometimes; they have such different feels to it.

Excuse me while I shed a tear to hear it again. I am happy to be around and have the facilities to be able to appreciate this kind of beauty. If Sonos wants to arrange acappella versions of the whole Fleet Foxes album, I would buy it in an instant and listen to it constantly, crying the whole time, haunted by their voices and harmonies while thinking that even though there is so much pain and ugliness in our world today, there is music like this.

And once I manage to recover from my lotus eaters-like state from their siren ways, I'd probably go out and try as hard as I might to make my own beauty out in the world.

Lazy.

2009-01-15T23:26:00.001-08:00

Whenever I read or talk about the life and accomplishments of great people like Isadora Duncan, I always feel like the laziest person who hasn't done anything worth my salt in my sad, short life.

I better get crackin'...I'll be hitting 30 with nothing to show for it.

Unus Vieo pro Annus

2009-01-10T19:39:00.000-08:00

I wish I could better look back, but I would like to think that I've made and am still making progress.

If One or Two Wasn't Enough...

2009-01-07T13:55:00.000-08:00

I'm writing in yet another blog.

It's a project blog called Project: Elbow Squeak.

I teamed up with another friend of mine after several discussions around the new year and getting to work on things we've been putting off for a while. We figured that if we have a sounding board to vent any frustrations should they come, or to show off a job well done, we have a place for it. It can also track our progress to see how a particular project is coming along.

What's also neat is that I'm now a part of Ravelry.com, a knitting and crocheting social networking site, and it has some really awesome features. One can keep track of the needles and hook one has, the various books logged, bookmarks to patterns and projects others have made, as well as a page devoted to projects. The site can link to one's blog and Flickr account, which makes things MUCH easier to upload pictures of projects and notes on progress. I have this new blog linked to my profile, and I'll be able to post blog entries to any particular project there.

Again, I have no plans on ending or deleting this blog; this is just to show what little of a life that I have, I am able to work on projects, pretend I have adventures and have silly thoughts enough to distribute them all into three separate blogs.

YAY!

Rethinking Resolutions

2009-01-05T11:18:00.000-08:00

After watching the Lakers' last two games, I'm kind of at odds on whether I should rethink my resolution.

I love the Lakers, and I like the Clippers, and I still would LOVE to see a game live (my next chance is THIS month on the 21st), but I did not take into account a very important factor.

Free Jack in the Box tacos whenever the Lakers win a game and keep their opponents stay under 100 points.

Friday's game was pretty good, and the Lakers had a pretty comfortable game at the end of the game, but I was surprised when Utah made an easy basket that was too little, too late, and the crowd let out a big sigh of disappointment. I asked why, and that's when I was told of this promotion.

Last night was fun, because the Lakers had the game in the refrigerator, and the crowd stayed in their seats and chanted, "WE WANT TACOS!" and their request was granted. Some spectators kept chanting it outside during the postgame report.

As much as I like both teams, I also like free tacos. I'd be happy if either team won, but I'd be sad if the Clippers were to lose at the expense of hundreds of people to get free tacos. I'd be even sadder to see people chanting for tacos against the Clippers, too. That would make for a not-so-great resolution.

BUT THEN...
This is only for Lakers home games. I guess I just have to make sure I go to the two remaining games where they're playing at Clippers (though they play in the same space). That way, it's also bit cheaper.

Oh...that's this month. I don't think I could afford the tickets at this point if they're still available...

...back to the drawing board... :C

That's What Friends are For

2009-01-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

Today is my old best friend's birthday. We haven't spoke in forever: last time I saw him was the night before I left for Hawaii back in February. It's interesting to see how things change in such a short period of time.

I thought to send him birthday greetings all the same, so I thought to send him a safe and marginally happy birthday ecard.

Of course, this is me doing that, so when I filled out the card, I made it out so that the sender was him and the recipient was him. So now he's going to get the confirmation that he sent his card to me, as well as the confirmation that I invariably signed him up for the site's newsletter.

In the end, it was a great way to get back in touch with this person who was once played a big part in my life. Whether he replies or not, at least he knows that not much has changed with me!

Me Love It Long Time

2009-01-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

I've been stung by the tunes of The Bird and the Bee. It also doesn't help this song is totally on point with its sound:

It's kind of like when I had this thing with falling in love with soundtracks to movies Gwyneth Paltrow...I didn't necessarily like the movies, but for some reason, movies with her in it compiled a pretty arrangement of songs!

Now it's me and The Bird and the Bee. From second hand experiences and my own impression, they may not be the best to see live, but I think the production of their songs are great, and I'm happy I got their albums for Christmas and am looking forward to hearing more of the new stuff.

While I'm at it, I'm also sharing this cover I fell in love with this version and later discovered it was them who did it:

My Official Resoultion for 2009!

2008-12-31T08:12:00.001-08:00

Watch the Lakers play the Clippers. This season, preferably.

Retrospect and Possible New Year's Resolutions.

2008-12-30T01:22:00.000-08:00

2008 was a doozy. It was the year of the Rat.
It was also the year of rejection for me. I seriously have never been rejected so hard so many times in my life before. It's quite a contrast from 10 years ago when I felt like I could do anything, having never been rejected from anything in my life.

But this year had some pretty awesome moments.
Like...
Seeing a red panda in person for the first time.
Admitting to myself (and others) how I've been depriving myself of the things I love doing most.
Realizing I have a lot more to offer to this world and I've been holding back.
Acknowledging those who stand by me and love me in each person's own way.
LEAVING THE US AGAIN AND RETURNING TO GERMAN-SPEAKING COUNTRIES
Made a great effort to get myself out of toxic situations and relationships.
Being able to talk and dream about things and ideas with brilliant and inspiring people.
Making a greater effort in doing the things I believe in and support.
Standing up for myself more.
Fitting back into my favorite pair of jeans before they broke (unrelated to fit of lack of it thereof - it actually fit me perfectly before it busted).
Fully realizing how easily peoples' moods around me greatly affect me, and that I need to avoid those who are negative, and surround myself with those who are positive.

I'll take that. Though I'll be happy to see the end of this year as I look forward to this new one.

I'd like to read more.
I'd like to create more.
I'd like to make a greater effort to utilize and learn the digital darkroom.
I'd like to truly appreciate digital photography for what it has to offer.
I'd like to write more.
I want to be greener.
I want to be healthier.
I want to run in my park.
I want to be more active in the communities/causes I support.
I want to be more efficient with my time.
I want to run a marathon.
I want to work with my hands.
I want to take more used coffee grounds from Starbucks and use them.
I want to save money so I can go places.
I should use my Disney points I've saved up and use the miles I've earned (maybe).
I want to get my bike fix and actually use it.
I should make a better effort cooking again.
I still want to spend an entire night not sleeping and spending that time with people.
I want to reconnect with those who love and inspire me, and maintain connection with the ones I am connected to.
I need to be more patient.
I have to be better to myself.
I need some fine wine and...need to be nicer
I need to fall in love with music again.
I need to obsess over more things and use that to inspire me.
I need to go to the Huntington more.
I want to talk to people.
I want to be more personable.

It's a much bigger bite than I can chew, but I guess I can see how far I can get. I've got a few days, right?

NYE

2008-12-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

The LA Times printed an article on Sunday's Image section that features a Champagne glass, a TiVo remote, and an eye mask, asking, "What are you doing for New Year's Eve?" and how it is such a loaded question.

Because it is.

I called a friend one year who was leaving for Berlin for an indefinite amount of time to hang out and to see what she was doing for NYE. "NOTHING!" She declared, "I fucking HATE New Year's Eve. It's not a holiday!"

...and essentially, it's not.

But what's the big deal about doing something for the new year?

I haven't had the most exciting track record for NYE goings-on, which is interesting, having grown up in the San Gabriel Valley, home of the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game on New Year's Day. Though I haven't seen the parade in person (which I do hope to finally do one year), for many, many years (until I stopped living in a house with a consistent TV signal), I would always make sure to be (mostly) awake for the live, commercial-free telecast of the parade on Channel 5. If anything, that would be the extent of my New Year's celebration/tradition.

This year, for some reason, I've been approached and asked what about this year? How will I welcome 2009? This year has been a particularly interesting one - for the past I don't know how many years, all even-numbered years have been good ones, when the odd-numbered ones haven't been so great. 2008 was filled with a lot of bad and good, perhaps teetering more on the bad, and it seems that such was the case for many, many people (and countries, and companies, etc.), and I definitely got the brunt of some pretty stinky things happening in my life.

With that said, how do I say goodbye to a not-well-served year, and to welcome in what I would hope to be a much better one?

If I had my druthers, I would wish to literally be nowhere, and do nothing...but I guess that would be impossible.

There are places and things that I could be and doing, but I almost want to be fair to all of them and NOT participate in any, and if I were on the right side of the country, it would be cool to be one of the first people in the continental US to see the first sunrise of the year. I'd rather not make a big deal of it, but I also feel dumb making an effort to not make a big deal of it, because you essentially are making a big deal of it (kind of like those who are SOOOOooo anti-Valentine's Day).

So where that that put me? I haven't committed to anything yet, and I'm glad those who know me know not to pressure me into a decision. I may very well manage to get myself a Thermos of good hot chocolate and a good lookout point and see the clock strike 12 over the city and just chill there until the crazies clear the road. Who knows?

Sometimes, I'm a Girly Girl with an Obsession.

2008-12-23T23:11:00.001-08:00

My Camera Necklace!!!
Originally uploaded by chromie

This picture is now my primary Yelp picture, I posted it to my Flickr, I put it on my Facebook profile wall and now I'm blogging about it. I might as well log onto MySpace for the second time this month just to upload this picture and use this as my default pic, too.

I just really love this necklace.

What's funny is the fact that I'm not really into accessories. I take that back. I LOVE accessories, but being as indecisive as I am, it's better I don't have as much as a selection, because I never can figure out what to wear. Also, I tend to wear one thing constantly and rarely change accessories, like changing out my eyelets for my ears or wearing a different ring(s) on the same finger. With the exception of the month of May, I practically wore the same pendant every day through my entire college career. Also, I'm not the biggest fan of gold-colored things, but I don't mind it with this necklace (though I have to say - if it were silver-colored, it would be a little more accurately colored).

What's funnier is that with all the writing I've been doing, and all these conversations and ideas I've been bouncing off other creative and supportive people, I've been thinking about how taking pictures really isn't such a big thing to me. It was never my first true love. If anything, it's perhaps one of the latest things I've discovered I really like doing after crocheting and sewing. So why is it that when I get things like a necklace with a camera pendant or I see the specs for a brand new Nikon or when I walk by a store display of awesome cameras, I stop, stare and geek out as I weep? Or how I get angry looking at an amazing photograph, I think, "Damn it of all damns! Why wasn't I there to see and photograph that?!?!"

I suppose that's a good ol' healthy obsession for ya.

Another Email Entry

2008-12-17T13:59:00.001-08:00

I've come to the realization that I do have a lot of ideas and things I'd like to write. When I was driving home last night, I had this random thought of things that could replace the phrase "Bite off more than you can chew," but after a myriad of other thoughts between then and my being home to a keyboard, it was gone forever.

Now that I mentioned that, I will wake up in a cold sweat one night remembering it, but with this cold weather, I'm sure that I'll be too apathetic to actually commit it to the outside my brain realm.

There are also times when I get jazzed to write about something, only to lose steam on the idea and just drop it completely.

And perhaps what's kind of sad (because the quality of them have gone down as of late) is that when I REALLY feel like writing, but really don't have the energy or inspiration to write about anything else, I'll write a Yelp review.

I'm Clingy.

2008-12-14T22:57:00.000-08:00

Sure, there are much more interesting and substantial things I could be writing on either this blog or my other blog. I would like to rant about how I never EVER want to use a sanitary napkin again and explain in semi-detail as to why, how kind of frustrating it is on several levels that MOCA, as much as I love the place, basically got a Get Out of Jail FREE! card with the Broad "bailout," my ode to pop-up foil, or even the awesome weekend helping out at a really great event. But I won't do anything of the sort. Instead, I shall write a meme.

Some time ago, the City Elf tagged me to do one entitled, 7 Things About Me You'd Not Likely Guess. I'm actually at #6 now, which is pretty good, although my follow-through is a bit slow.

It's not very obvious that I do this but come to think of it, it makes sense. I'm not really one to want many earthly possessions, but when I want something, I really really want something. More often than not, I don't get it, but when I do, I love it. I REALLY love it. Those things that I really REALLY love I wind up taking with me everywhere for a good amount of time until I realize that sometimes it's not to logistically sensible to do so.

I don't do this exclusively with things I've been pining for, but when someone gives me something that I wind up falling in love with, the same thing applies. I become like a little kid with a brand new toy, and the new item and myself are virtually inseparable.

Kind of like when I got my first Lomo LC-A. I paid a pretty penny for that one, as I bought it new and overpriced at Samy's, but I was in a bit of a rough spot and on a Good Friday, I decided to use my day off and take the trip to the Mid-Wilshire area through traffic just to get this camera. But when I got it, I LOOOOVED it. I loved the smell of it. I loved the way the switch moved when I switched the cover from the lens and the viewfinder on and off. I loved every little thing about it. I slept with it under my pillow. It was always in my purse. It was beside me when eating a meal. If course, I was taking lots of pictures with it and took pictures of everything for the first...oh, month (that also cost a pretty penny with the film + development), but it was just a wonderful time.

Most recently, I got a popcorn maker for my birthday. I LOOVED that thing. I kept it in my car to make sure I was always able to make popcorn whenever I wanted. I took it to my friends' house to I can make popcorn for them. I offered to bring it to parties I went so I can make popcorn for others. Though it didn't stay under my bed, I did keep it in my room next to my bed for those first few weeks with it...I loved it.

Now I got a Christmas present early from my sister, and I've wanted to take it with me everywhere I go. The most I've done for work is keep it in the car, because I know that if I took it in with me, I'd surely look through it all day and dream about making books.

It's probably I didn't wind up buying anything for myself this weekend at the event. I'm sure that no matter what it be, whether a new wallet (I DIDN'T buy...) or a piece of art, I'd want to bring it with me just so I can marvel at its awesomeness, and with this rain, toting a piece of art wouldn't have been too cool...

My Friends Love Me(....?)

2008-12-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

A conversation in an elevator going from the 13th floor to the ground level.

Me: ...and I'm really happy to have seen my friend there!
F1: [pouts] Why do you have to have other friends?
Me: We went to college together!
F2: But she's not as close to you as we are.
Me: True, but she knew me before I met you guys.
F1: So?
Me: We've danced together!
F1: SO?
Me: We've probably been naked together.
F1: Oh.
F2: Now I'm jealous.

...and I love my friends.

...Is it Just Me?

2008-12-10T08:53:00.000-08:00

...or does the term "car czar" make you think of a Pokemon?

WOO HOO!

2008-12-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

	1256

21

lab.drwicked.com

What I wrote is not going to be published, as it's a mess. But I think the pending doom at my fingertips is a very good motivator for me, and knowing that I may be "punished" at any moment. I'm not really thinking about editing myself, and I'm just allowing myself to write. I am too scared to actually see what the consequences are for not writing, and it may be good to aspire to not ever experience it firsthand.

Since I spent some time writing this, I will have to put off a proper entry that I wanted to write here, for I think it definitely would make for a wonderful entry in my adventure blog, I think it's more of a personal thing, and should I actually wind up writing about it, I don't think it will be a loaded as it would be should I post it in my personal blog.

In other news, I have been thinking about posting more to this blog, but I've come to realize that I have no desire to really talk about my personal happenings as much anymore. A lot of the entries, if not all, on the other blog are based on first hand experiences, and is a little window as to what I've been doing in my life, but obviously is not a full account of what I've been up to. I think I like that. Who wants to hear the piddly details of me little life, anyway? At least what I do want to write here next will be informative and mildly entertaining for the stranger sort.

Just Listen to Jesus

2008-12-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

...and if not him, COME ON, NPH IS RIGHT!!!!

Karaoke Wishlist

2008-11-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

I will love any karaoke setlist forever and ever and go there all the time if they carry this gem of a song:

"This is Many Shades of Black" by the Raconteurs. This is my current karaoke dream song.

Granted, I won't have the advantage of Jack White shredding on the solo, but since the first time I heard this song and its hooky chorus, I've loved this song for its...what is it? I just love songs that sound like this.

And after hearing Adele's cover of this song (though she sings it in a lower key), I'm convinced that I can do a decent job singing it.

Who do You Love?

2008-11-12T07:14:00.000-08:00

Although SNL's skit making fun of him was pretty funny (and unnecessarily long), Keith Olbermann is on the mark more often than not, and eloquently conveys the same sentiment I share on the passing of CA's Proposition 8. Except, of course, I can't do it as well as he.

Magic Mac

2008-11-10T10:18:00.001-08:00

This is another email entry, as I'm minimizing my webpage visits at my new work.

I as previously mentioned, I am at my freezing office at my new job, on this pretty swanky Apple computer. Though the carriage features in word processing have its setbacks, I'm really loving typing on this keyboard, which is a step better than the action of a notebook keyboard, and the CPU itself is one of those computers where the whole system is all contained in the monitor...including the camera at the top of the monitor.

If I have some time to myself and I wind up figuring it out, I may be following suit as another friend who is now kept company at work with a brand-new sexxxay computer with camera as well, and we can either stalk each others' productivity silent movie style, or make silly little videos that can feature this little stuffed mouse that's on the desk right now.

Oh, the future looks bright and fun!

I guess I should also officially mention on this blog that yes, after 4 actual days of unemployment, I now have another job, working at another performance company that's nonprofit, based in LA. They've got a similar budget as my old work, but I have one additional co-worker and have PEOPLE to talk to!

More on that later, I guess.

JUS DO EET!

2008-11-08T16:10:00.001-08:00

moar funny pictures

TESTING THE WATERS!

2008-11-07T12:08:00.000-08:00

I'm testing the waters and am writing in a new blog! It's called Ad Adventurum

I've teamed up with the very awesome Frank, and we are combining our Wonder Twin powers for this blog on ADVENTURE! The exciting application of verbs! Wishing we're more exciting people!

I will still be posting more personal matters on this blog, but I will also be posting on a regular basis on this new blog, where I'm posting every Friday and alternating Wednesdays for the time being.

As we're kind of lazy and will likely get tired of reading just the others' entries, we are excited at the opportunity of finding guest writers who would like to share their adventures on our new blog. Please let either one of us know, and we'd love to have you contributing as well!

I Happened upon This

2008-10-29T08:58:00.001-07:00

My Yahoo! horoscope for today:

Just because you said goodbye to someone doesn't mean that they still can't inspire or affect your future in a positive way. You take them with you wherever you go, and they will always be a part of you. So try to switch from sadness to gratitude that you ever got to know them in the first place! Your feelings are important to honor, but you cannot let them control your goals in life. Use your head today and start moving again, in a new direction.

Interesting, especially considering what I discovered yesterday.

This is funny that I ran into this, as it seems to encapsulate a lot of what's been going on with me for the entire year practically.

Heaven is a Place on Earth.

2008-10-26T03:05:00.000-07:00

...and it's not that far from my house.

CARNITAS MICHOACAN!

It's wise to listen to the Mexican (sorry, Mexican-Americans, he has the leg up on y'all) when he tells you that the al pastor is good that night. When he says so, just to for it.

I'm dead tired but all I wish is for this burrito (of which I just took an amazing bite of a nice, large, crispy slice of the meat in my mouth to feed my happy tumms) to last forever because it's probably the best tasting thing I remember eating in a long, long, long, long time.

No, I'm not exaggerating and I'm not drunk (yeah, I'm not).

This is good stuff, and if it wouldn't make a mess or cause me to break out, I'd sleep with this thing right next to my face to just take in its amazingness.

Who Makes the Clown Laugh?

2008-10-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

One can argue that John Cleeese is one funny guy. He's great. But one must wonder, what makes brilliantly funny people laugh? Is it easy? Would it be difficult to crack a smile? Is there such a thing as comedy snobbery?

I don't know, but either way, apparently American Politics is a big joke to those from across the Pond:

...then again, it's a joke for a lot of people here.

...hopefully, the joke won't be on us in a few weeks.

I Quit My Job.

2008-10-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

I'm out!

My two weeks are already ticking away, and I don't have a permanent job lined up. Scary? Yes. Sane? I hope this move will be.

Perhaps the more concerning part of this move is the fact that I have this trip to Germany in practically a month, which will make it difficult for me to find another within this time frame as well as trying to finance it with not a guaranteed source of income in sight.

...I have been asked if I would consider working part time after my two weeks is up (November), which I may do, but I've also signed up at a temp agency and may be able to get some work in that way.

Either way, I am completely burned out on all this job searching that I've been doing for the past several months, and I'm in this strange place where I'm either semi-desperate to apply for a job or very, very picky on minute details of the job description. At the very least, I've broadened my job search to include positions where I'd be very happy doing, rather than just applying for the jobs I know I could do. It's too bad my main passions are pretty competitive and/or not well-paying. Bummer.

If I had my way, I'd be able to support myself and my current bum of a lifestyle (like scrounging up for Germany) taking pictures, writing a bunch of junk, and feeding miniature donkeys as my bread and butter.

PS - If anyone knows anyone or any place that's hiring, particularly if they're okay with me being gone for 5 official workdays next month, drop me a line.

Sometimes, I Find Myself REALLY Cheesy.

2008-10-17T22:43:00.000-07:00

I just read my first entry of this ever-lasting meme, Seven hings About Me You'd Not Likely Guess. It's not that I'm not aware of it, but sometimes, it just takes me by surprise as to how utterly cheese I can be.

For my #5, I can demonstrate that I have class.

Even more special is the fact that I am sharing something that I have just (as in, earlier today while stuck in traffic going home) realized myself, and only one person knows about it other than myself so far. Unfortunately, that one person is one of my three remaining readers, so this entry is lost on her, but I'll share for my two reluctant readers:

I can only pick my nose with my left-hand fingers.

I may be right-handed, but it's not like I have like ninja turtle digits on my right hand not allowing me to fit a finger from that side up a nostril, but it seems that I lack the nose gold-digging skill my sinister has.

I am aware I do hold a few residual skills exclusive to my left hand from when I was ambidextrous (I guess that could qualify as another fact) but more on the left-handed persuasion, but I never figured that nose-picking was one of those things.

So I guess what I'm really trying to say is that you wouldn't have to worry about getting boogers all over your fingers if I shake your hand or if you borrow a writing utensil from me. Unless I've been recently really, really bored, for those are the times when I try my hand (YAY PUN) at regaining more writing dexterity with my left hand (I guess that could be yet another and I'd be done...?).

STORY OF MY LIFE

2008-10-16T21:08:00.000-07:00

In other news, Blogger is a great way to want to pull your hair out because it's so damn strict with its coding. I only say that because it always always always makes you close your tags, which I guess is something you should do and is a good habit, but DAMMIT SOMETIMES IT DOESN"T MATTER AND I AM LAZY TO CLOSE MY TAGS.

So thank you, Blogger, for making me a holdin' on to the 90's I-still-build-pages-using-Notepad but very tight with my coding HTML writer.

HTML 4 proper was finalized back in 1999. And I'm sure you're surprised I'm not watching DVDs of original 90210 when new 90210 is airing.

(For the record, I do not own old 90210 on DVD, and I've only seen two episodes of the new one)

...In an Interesting Turn of Events...

2008-10-15T16:40:00.001-07:00

I completely abhor listening to most, if not all music right now.

The radio is especially difficult for me to listen.

AUTUMN!

2008-10-10T16:51:00.000-07:00

Today is autumn. It's the feeling in the air. The sun is still sunny and bright, and it's cool and it's time to bust out the light jackets! HOORAY! There are even some trees that have color in their leaves that isn't green, but I think that's more because it's been so damn hot the the poor thing is dying. Forgive me for chuckling if I mock those with scarves already (not the fashion ones, but like the keeping from freezing ones). Then again, that may be me, for I woke up all achy and with that particular lump in my throat...nice.

But we all know that seasons don't really exist in LA except for the fashion. I pretty much wear the same exact outfits, just with maybe a layer underneath and some outerwear. Heck, I'm still in slippers. But you know what's cool? PLACES WITH SEASONS!

I was lucky to spend this time of year in New York a few years back, more amazingly, I took a few trips to the pretty part of Jersey (from Joysee) and it was amazing to watch the urban landscape change to true autumn with the leaves turning and falling and piles being made where people jump and play in those things (which I grew up dreaming about doing, only when we did it, our tree was full of spiders and ants and that just seriously freaked me out from ever wanting to do it again), and it was pretty darn cool to see this stuff happen in Europe, too.

...now that I think about it, it's really funny how season-turning is so exotic for an Angelina like me, where most people probably look to LA to be some cool, great-weather place.

Oh well. I'll enjoy wearing my slippers year-round.

But oh, I forgot one thing...cool weather, dry air...you know what that means!

SANTA ANA TIME!!!

"Selling Out"

2008-10-10T00:23:00.000-07:00

I'm going to try not to get all music snob right now, but I'm going to be talking about music, and that always runs the risk of that happening.

Ready?

I've liked the group, The Submarines for some time before iPhone decided to let their cute little ditty play all over the 3G commercials.

I don't have a TV in my house, but I've been watching enough of it to know...and you know, too:
Yeah, that one.

Now, I have to be careful here, because I've had a former bestest friend in the world who HATED to talk music with me, because he had this crazy notion that he thought that I thought I was the alpha and omega when it came about talking about music, and he thought that so strongly that he even told other people that I was as well, so when I talked music with them, they would tell me that they were otherwise warned that talking music with Mz. Muzak-Can't-be-Wrong is just an uphill battle.

I could never say that about myself. All I can say is that I'm very passionate about music when you get me in my musical element, that's all.

That said, I'll now say this:
What I don't like about the commercials is that they just use the instrumental track and don't even use the vox, which make me really sad. That's because I really like that song and I actually do get excited when those commercials come on, only without the vocals and it makes me sad and makes me want to fill in for her cute, raspy voice, and well frankly, it's just not the same.

...and no, I'm not all bent out of shape that Apple is using their music, thus cheapening the music for their real fans. Please. Just like I can't get all upset that they're using Muse clips during the Olympics and the like.

Now I'll say this:
How can you not love LA with all the amazing music that comes out of here? I mean, sure, there's TONS of amazing music that's being made, a lot of them NOT coming from LA, but you have to admit, there's like something in the water that makes for good music from these parts (Thanks, Mr. Mulholland and Northern California!). Yes...wanna know how good it is? It's so good that when I'm in Salzburg, A Fine Frenzy will be playing there and how cool would it be to see a local act on the other side of the world?

We're good.

...maybe I won't end this entry on such a downer, so I'll leave it with this instead:

No, these guys aren't from LA (the water's not THAT good around here), they're from Brooklyn. And if you haven't already, you should really see the official music video for this song (No embedding allowed for this one).

Maybe I've Been Living in a Fashion Cave.

2008-10-08T09:51:00.000-07:00

I won't hide it but I like and I'll tell you I'm subscribed to the American Apparel newsletter.

It's pretty entertaining, I'll tell you that much...kind of like the one the sent on Super Tuesday persuading their readers to vote for Hilary Clinton if they're Democrat-leaning, and for McCain if they're Republican-slanted.

But this one has be slightly baffled:

I never thought ties to be gender-specific. Sure, the ladies never really wore them regularly in the past as men have, but are the gender-specific ties any different? are the button and button holes on different sides like jeans and shirts? Different silhouette?

If anyone can help me unravel this mystery, I'm more than happy to learn.

Ghetto Gourmet

2008-10-07T22:22:00.000-07:00

I live pretty simply, for the most part. In particular, when it comes to taking care of just my immediate needs, I go for the bare minimum, and that includes when I eat. Sure, I'll cook something semi-decent for myself every now and again, but it usually takes someone else eating for me to cook something proper. For example, when I know someone will be over, I'll make the effort to make a stop at the grocery to get food to cook, and depending on whether I have stuff already at home, what I make may depend on what I already have on hand. When it's just me (maybe my roommate who usually doesn't eat with me), I just get plain lazy.

Factor in the fact that I'm worried a bit about money and trying to save (aka BEING REALLY CHEAP), and you multiply the laziness by 1,000. I may have gone to the grocery sometime earlier last month, but I've been mostly surviving off frozen burritos and canned soup, and maybe a can of refried beans, but today, I felt like something different.

Having little to nothing around the house makes it easier to come up with a plan of attack. I had a few large hot dogs in the freezer, an entire onion in the fridge, and a bunch of tostada shells in the pantry.

That was more than enough for me for the night, so I boiled the three remaining hot dogs in a saucepan as I chopped half the onion and started cooking them up in the skillet. As I was doing that, I figured it would be tastier if I actually got one of the 'dogs and cooked it up with the onions, so I nabbed one of them from the saucepan where it was already warm enough to slice and toss into the pan with the onions. I may have put more hot dog in there, but my roommate wasn't sure how much she wanted, so I left two intact for her, and I figured that once the onions reduced down, the onion-hot dog ratio would be appropriate.

I thought about adding seasoning to the mix, but I figured the onion and the dog have enough to carry their own, and the tostada shell would be a nice, crunchy and starchy add to it. Once the dogs browned a bit and I could smell the sweet burnt smell of cooked onions, I was ready to eat.

It wasn't half bad considering, and it sure beat chewing on a mouthful of broken glass. I might have wanted the hot dog bits a little smaller, as the cuts I made were a bit too big for each bite, but I think the onions were just right. I'm pretty glad I didn't add any seasoning, as the hot dog was pretty salty in itself.

Roommie only wound up eating one hot dog, which left one uneaten, which I put away for maybe eating tomorrow. Maybe what I'll do is do something of the same, maybe add the last egg I think we have in the fridge and make a scramble of it...and since the hot dog water isn't discarded yet, I may save a teeny bit of that to add into some refried beans to soften and salt it a bit and at least I have breakfast!

But tonight marks an end of an era. The three hot dogs I warmed up last night were the last three in a giant pack of large dogs I got from work as surplus from an Earth Day event of last year (2007). My old work was the storage place for TONS of these packs of hot dogs for the local Fire Department, as they got an old-timey grill to raise money for their cause, but when they ran out of propane, they just stopped grilling, which left our work with packs of these, one of which I got to take home. It's taken the combined efforts of me and my roommate this long to get through all of them, and I feel like without that safety net of frankfurters if I'm ever starving, I very may well.

They were good while they lasted. Maybe with their departure, I may very well not buy much meat to cook, unless, of course, there's a special occasion.

Topical on the Toilet

2008-10-07T21:47:00.001-07:00

Though I noticed that the toilet at my parents' "small bathroom" was a little wobbly once sat upon, I never realized that the thing was actually sinking through the tile and wood below, as the house apparently was slowly trying to digest it.

So my dad made this sign.

My sister was asked to add that last little bit - I'm going out on a limb here, but I don't think Obama's approval stamp got on this one just yet.

Coincidence?

2008-10-07T18:20:00.000-07:00

I'm currently listening to (or was, up until Coincidence #2 called) the Presidential Debate on KCRW (Shameless plug) via iTunes when I guess the stream crapped out, which made iTunes went to the "next track" and started playing the below song (though a cover):

Have you made up your mind?

Coincidence #3: I think it may have been about this time last year (Yes, I'm not going to check because I'm lazy and the fact that I'm writing this at work when I've been off the clock for 20 minutes now makes me wonder why I'm even writing this right now) that I posted this very same song on my blog. Only it didn't have some Cary Grant theme to it and just had a whole bunch of pictures of hippies.

20/20

2008-10-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

I once told my first boss of my first real job that I'll stay working with him so long as I'm not creatively inhibited. I lasted there for 20 months, even though I felt like I already learned everything that I could learn even before my probationary period was over. Part of the reason why I stayed there that long is because with that job, I was able to pay off all remaining debts I had from college then immediately take a 14 day trip backpacking around Europe, managed to train to run a marathon in New Orleans and raise $3,000 to help support AIDS Project Los Angeles, save up for when I quit I had well over $10k saved up, and still was able to buy a camera or two and take a few photo classes in the process, while doing shoots for friends and for myself. As soon as I quit, I skipped town for the Big Apple, where I did two photo shoots while there and then came home to take a photo class or two before I was tied down to my next full-time commitments.

It was for the most part, a good time in my life.

Financially, that was a very bell-curved time, and as I look back, the times when I was at my peak in saving more money than I ever fathomed I could ever save, was the time I was most miserable.

I don't think I was ever destined to have much money in the bank.

That's not to say that I have a lot right now, but I have more money than I've had in the past year, and even though I could have more if I were a little smarter with my money, my most recent big expenditures have been for things that have/will make me very happy.

I hate thinking about money. I simply hate it. I guess it's a necessary evil, but I was much happier two years ago when I barely had any, but I had a lot more free time on my hands and was doing things I wanted to do.

I'm not doing much of what I want to do right now...writing more, taking more pictures, at least coming up with ideas for fun picture-taking opportunities, and this past Friday when I got to see some old friends jam at a small coffee house in Long Beach, I realized how much I miss performing and just monkeying around with some brilliantly musical people and shoot the musical shit, listening to others try to get their collective talents to possibly play an entire song, and be happy with the few occasions when I'd somehow contribute. I miss talking shop with those folks about the little nuances about songs and lyrics, and trying to figure out harmonies and chords together. I know some really big music nerds, and though I have been spending time with some pretty musically sharp people, it's been some time that I've spent time with people who are just always willing to pick up an instrument and jam.

It's rather sad that in 4 short years, I've lost track with what was the most important thing for me - for I've been living through this desert void of little, if any bits of creativity for the past two years. I miss the sleepless nights when my mind could not rest as some idea for a project stews in my brain, or the frustration I sometimes have after burning the creative candle out (as strange as it is to explain). I miss pulling my hair out when something is not working out the way I wanted it, and even though I really don't, I do kind of miss having to be careful of my clothing as I've ruined several good shirts with fixer from the wet darkroom. I miss writing non-pathetic and sad blog entries, and I oftentimes feel something bubbling inside that needs to be written out, but every time I try to get it out, I lose steam too quickly. I don't even know the last I actually played the guitar, and I've forgotten how to play chords.

I have to do a better job trying to balance things in my life - I need to find a way where I can be a responsible, money-making (and saving) adult who needs to pay for things like a car and rent, but still be able to creatively express myself. I've been able to satisfy one for the most part, but I think the other that I've completely neglected is something more important to have in my life than I ever thought (denial, perhaps?), that it's made me into this person that I don't think I really am (miserable).

I need a new game plan.

#4 for now.

2008-10-05T21:18:00.000-07:00

In the efforts to get this "7 Things You May Not Know about Me" thing actually accomplished, I will skip the previously half-written passionspiel I was working on and just lost steam midway (Okay, I had to look at something else and then lost the zeal for it) and replace it with something else that's a lot less interesting, but generally unknown about me.

I tend to sleep in tree position on a semi-regular basis.

...kinda like this, but much without the arms part. I also tend to place my foot at the other leg's knee to create as an evenly-sided area as possible.

That's because after having slept with my man-cat during the cooler times, he likes to sleep in little areas where he's surrounded by warmth, and by making a little nest with my legs, he's a happy boy.

The things I do for cuddles. I just can't resist.

All the Best Laid-Out Plans...

2008-10-04T14:13:00.000-07:00

I've been working at the library for the past two hours determined to work on things that I couldn't at home because I get too easily distracted, and even though I have accomplised some of what I wanted to get done, I've mostly accomplished identifying songs that I could feasibly sing with the friends I haven't seen in forever if/when I decide to sing with them at a throwback 50's diner/bar in Long Beach.

Now I just have to see if I can convince them to learn some of these songs.

Heute

2008-10-01T22:26:00.000-07:00

The word I kept wanting to use but kept forgetting it until now when I can't even use it: insecure.

Und heute habe ich zwei Tickets für ein Fußbalspiel gekauft. Alles war auf deutsch; ein bißchen ängstlich. Die Tickets sind ein bißchen teuer, ich habe die im Euro bezhalt. Schmerz! Das Spiel ist am 25 Nov und wir sehen FC Bayern München zu spielen. Sie sind ein weltbekannte Fußbalteam! GEIL!

Ich bin sehr aufregend, aber alles andere ist jetzt ein bißchen traurig für mich. Kein Problem, das ist mein Leben.

50 Tage bis meine München Urlaub. Ich soll meine deutsch mehr üben.

Well I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues

2008-09-25T11:59:00.001-07:00

It's even more basic than usual; it seems that I've grown accustomed to making these pictures with my touch pad on my laptop. Making images with a mouse doesn't seem to cut it anymore.

Roommate Weekend!

2008-09-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

This weekend shaped out to be a Me + Roommate weekend, as we got to hang out and do fun fun stuff this weekend. It's been a long time since we've actually hung out, so it was fun to have this time for us.

After spending a good deal of Saturday running around the SGV running errands (and fitting a few rounds of Mario Kart in), I grabbed some cupcakes, we got some Chinese takeout and headed for the Hollywood Bowl where we saw MGMT (YAY!) Spoon (Awesome!) and BECK (OH YEAH!), with Beck playing a good deal of his set with the LA Philharmonic strings, conducted by David Campbell.

I had almost forgotten about this concert completely, and when I did, I wasn't sure if I was still going to go. I had bought the pair of tickets back in May at some cafe during the show's presale for my roommate's birthday, which was 5 days prior to the show. Even cooler was the fact that I really had no grand scheme to get the best seats (I'm not rolling in that kind of cheese), but wound up in the "Super Seats," which are actual plastic seats with armrests and drink holders instead of benches. Since they were my roommate's tickets, she could have taken anyone she wanted, I'll say that I'm very happy that she took me (about which I'm sure she gave no second thought).

The show was pretty awesome. The lineup was amazing, and I was very excited to see MGMT and Spoon, and I realized last night this was my third time seeing Beck live (#1 was Coachella 2004, #2 was the first Detour Festival 2006). It was an awesome set, kicking things off with "Loser," then launched into the newer stuff from his latest album.

Even cooler was that for this show (including during the Spoon set), I noticed they were using this swirl effect around the layers of the Bowl, which I've never seen before. Beck's set took full advantage of this effect as such:

I'm a big enough nerd that I was very happy to find a free program that can batch resize images, and then at the show I remembered my camera has a continuous shooting mode that shoots 2.5 frames per second. All this paired with my recent discovery that you can make animated images on Photoshop made for a nice little geekfest of making animated GIFs.

As cool as that may look, it doesn't do the night justice, as these sights were accompanied by some awesome sounds, and I'm sure there's some way to capture sound on my camera, but I like to use my camera to take pictures...sorry.

You can see more images from the evening, including more swirly stage animations and cupcakes in my Flickr set

After waking up too early today because I failed to turn off my alarm, I lazed about, did some laundry, and headed for Chavez Ravine to see the Dodgers play the Giants as part of Fan Appreciation Week. Roomie got the tickets for free thanks to BoA, but we didn't partake in the special tickets that offered free drinks to fans. Oh well. Our seats weren't too bad, (Reserved first base side within foul ball territory) and we later learned it was also Deaf Appreciation Day, which was sponsored by some company that had reps as ASL interpreters at various stations where they would accompany the hearing impaired fans when they were ordering at the refreshment stands. I thought that was really cool.

It was a fun game, and a great one, too, with both teams staying even on hits, but remained scoreless up until the 11th inning when the day's theme of bad calls and a few missed balls by the Dodgers gave the Giants a run for them to win the game. What sucked was that the Giants deliberately walked Manny twice. BOO.

You can see more pics from the game here.

...and of course, there's always more room for kitty love:

I haven't been spending much time here for the past week or so (I was sidelined last weekend and happened to be in M-town), and I have to say there is some sense of comfort in being here. Still, I went to bed last night with a blanket over my window to act as some sort of privacy screen, for though It's been some time since the more recent incident inside the house and even further from the first incident, I still felt uncomfortable, since the last time I went to the Hollywood Bowl with my roommate, I was left home alone and in my room to have a peeping Tom make his way atop our basement doors to peek into my room. Not to say that I expect such a thing to happen every time we go, but something felt unsettling to me, and I felt like I needed to do that.

Either way, this weekend has been really fun and I'm so glad I had this time here and with my roommate and with the cats. It's truly been a very long time since we've done anything like this, and it's something that I miss that I wasn't fully aware of until now.

This Month's Moment of Zen

2008-09-20T10:36:00.000-07:00

BLACK CAT ON MY TRAIL

:3

There's nothing like neighborhood tuxies coming from afar to be all cuddly.

As I sit here thinking about the previous sentence, it's taking a lot of normal person of society behavior restraint to stop me from 'sploding from cute and going crazy and thinking, "WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH, I want to go walking and have cute, collared tuxie kitty following me around on my walk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" *dies*

I mean, I'd otherwise allow myself to do that, but I'm currently sitting in a leather chair at a Honda dealership, and I don't think it would be good for their business. I'm not going to involve myself in any funny business...I came here to get my car tuned up, not down.

Quote of the...Ever.

2008-09-10T16:43:00.001-07:00

"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken."
-Oscar Wilde

2008.09.20 - It goes to show how little I actually go and write and visit my blog - I didn't even notice this quote that I emailed to post was virtually invisible. Kudos to those probably now two readers of this blog who knew how to read it, but just to be nice, I made it so it could actually be read. All the coding that was part of the original entry was such a joke, especially there really wasn't much there.

Going to Hell?

2008-09-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not an atheist, so imagine my surprise last night when I came very close to chopping off my thumb and thought to myself, "Thank evolution for fingernails!"

I don't know why I didn't think to myself "Thank God for fingernails!," but at that moment of thumb-sparing, the former phrase seemed to make more sense to me.

Am I going to Hell?

Or have these sound bytes from Sarah Palin and her super Evangelical speakings have scared me a bit?

LOL o' the Day

2008-09-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

It miiight make a little more sense if you saw this

I Love My Car

2008-09-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

8.510 Gallons of gas, 333.1 miles

Fueled in Long Beach
Drove to LA
Drove to Burbank
Drove to Monrovia
Drove to Pasadena
Drove to Santa Maria
Refueled in East Ventura

No E light - the gague looked like there was 1/8 a tank left!

I've got 1/16 of a tank used up with about 70 miles on it - but now that the week's started, that's going to crap.

-_-

2008-08-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

I should really lay off the coffee.

Things are slow right now, and the caffeine is hyping me up. I'm so restless.

It's the combination with not much to do and the caffeine coursing through my veins that make me think it's during times like this I almost reach the point of boredom.

Maybe I'm just misinterpreting things.

The Woes of the Asian American Artist

2008-08-27T14:54:00.001-07:00

...for the most part, I should be more specific and focus on one big woe.

If you are Asian American with an artistic slant, or are very familiar and/or good friends with one, you would know that Woe Number One would be what our parents think about it.

I'm sure with more time, I could think of something else that could be more heartbreaking than having your child want to be an artist that wouldn't be very racist to write. Stripper/porn star isn't worse - they make pretty good money, and that would, at the very least, mean that your child is marginally good-looking and/or well-endowed enough to make the cut, and if you want to play the stereotype card, that would also entail the fact that your child has broken the norm.

Think about it - how many films are based on the wildly successful and/or colorful life of an Asian or Asian American artist? Do we have our own Caravaggio that we can be talk about? Okay, I'm sure there was some homosexual artist somewhere in Asia that went around fightin' and stabbin' people, but again, but with not enough acclaim and notoriety with which to make a film.

No, I'm not writing this entry to look for pity. In fact, since Asian American artist folk by nature will have a pretty thick skin from facing his/her parents and telling them that you want to be an artist (I'm sure that Sean Lennon didn't have such a problem, but I don't know if I'd want Yoko Ono as a mom, myself), there are several resilient and talented Asian-Am artists that have done well for themselves and have lived to tell the tale. Prince Gomolvilas has survived the ULTIMATE GUILT and has made a pretty nice career as a writer/performer, and has written an article on how to deftly follow your dreams while escaping the parental guilt (preview: yes, it involves lies and hiding stuff).

Now I'm not saying that secrets and lies are the way to go (though I'm also not not saying that that's not the way to go), but from my point of view, taking those measures aren't really that hard to achieve, especially when sometimes, your parents may not just "get it." That's not to say that my parents are inept to interpretation, but they just don't have the same sort of aesthetic as the things I've created, and I guess we'd have to agree to disagree.

...and behind my back, they may be talking about my wasting my life away on very confusing things...

BLOGARGH

2008-08-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

I've come to realize that my blog layout is for some reason, all ways wonky. The sidebar stuff is all the way to the bottom, and when I try to see if it's set incorrectly, the layout template says it's all good. But it's not. Oh well. I guess with more time, I can tinker with some settings, as I have a redesign in mind anyway. Too bad I'm very rusty in my code.

I don't think that anyone would notice, including my lack of writing my morning rambles. I won't lie and say that I've been doing them all every day on a paper notebook, for I have missed a day or two here and there, but I have made the jump from using this blog as a sounding board to the pen and paper realm. I really do miss writing, but then again, I also miss doing lots of things, like reading books, writing more, having time to take non-cat pictures during daylight, playing Mario Kart, etc. But I guess life just sometimes has to make us make priorities. Damn priorities.

Even though it seemed I had a giant creative spike last week, I think I'm still riding on that, but on a much smaller wave. I should be more diligent on my writing, and after spending an entire week photographing kitties, I decided to get the hell out of dodge and take pictures in places that had much nicer weather and very nice views (I took some pics of the long, hot period from when I was in Silverlake for Sunset Junction, and that was a wash). I have continued to photograph this week, but on a much smaller scale - I've been taking pictures of things I've been eating a of late, including my semi-impulsive meal at McDonald's and my sister's homemade bibimbop. I actually haven't spent much time on my own computer this week, which is why I haven't downloaded the images, and thus created some good blogging material that's a bit different from my daily ramblings.

Methinks that when I redesign my blog page, I'll use one of my newer images. Not that I love this image of the truck I took ages ago, but I'm thinking I should go for something a bit...cheerier.

There Should be a Law

2008-08-23T08:03:00.001-07:00

Okay, I can't complain. I should be happy that I'm awake early enough to take care of my domestic responsibilities and then have the time to do all the other things I need to do to get my day going. I've realized now that I think I've lollygagged a little too long, and it's already 8 and I need to be ripe and ready to go by 9, and I haven't showered and washed dishes yet. Today should be a long day - or at least, I hope it to be. I'm going shooting on this somewhat gloomy morning - and I hope that this overcast weather comes along with me, for I love this kind of lighting. It's like shooting in one giant soft box. Even better is the fact that I'll finally be able to shoot during the day, with good light, though I'm now debating on whether to shoot with the lens I've been so diligently trying to master, or go for the more appropriate lens for what I'll be shooting (street photography) and go for the 18-55 lens I have. That lens has the advantage that it can also use the autofocus feature of the camera, despite how slow it can take to focus automatically. Oh, it just makes me pine for the depth of field preview that I oh so miss. Oh well. I can't complain.

I have a pretty good camera. It's the go-to camera for a lot of people, it's a good beginner's dSLR, and it's light and ergonomic. Even for people who have the nicer cameras, including the fabled D3. No camera is perfect, I suppose, and my camera is no exception. I also can't complain since I spent 1/6 of the price for this camera (with lens) for the top of the line camera in its class. Perhaps I should prove my shooting chops before I even consider dropping a few dollars on the fancier cameras.

But what am I worrying about? This is my third SLR ever in my life. My first SLR was a automatic/manual camera that had a decent lens and whose manual functions were more difficult to access than finding the fabled g-spot. My second camera was an impulse buy after spending a few months without an SLR after giving my first one away to a good friend who would have done wonderfully with an SLR (albeit a beginner's one), and went to Samy's to drop about $150 on an old Nikkromat that's older than I am, with a pretty decent lens. Sharp the lens is, but the fact that it only opens up to 2 on a 50mm focal length had its limitations. The camera itself is one heavy beast, but that thing is solid and reliable, and I love that thing. Sure, it's the cameras pro photographers say that that's the camera they loved using...back in the day, but they also say that they sometimes shoot with it. I do love that thing, and if I could possibly fit my lovely lens on that baby, I'd be shooting 35mm film with that thing, once I get that thing a new strap and return its UV filter I'm now using on the D40.

I'd like to think I've taken a few good shots with that camera. It went with me to Europe, New Orleans, Princeton, Hawaii, and have shot a few dancers in yoga studios, the Upper West Side, a few bands, and an electronica musician. It's probably because I knew how to tinker with the few variables I knew how to manipulate: rating down the film, choosing my ISO, figuring out what depth of field I wanted, and of course, my preview. I actually like the feel of its weight, for it helped me stay still, and I'm just trying to stay even more still when shooting with the new camera it's so light (it's about one pound without a lens). But I suppose shooting film right now is not so cost-effective right now, and since I don't have access to a darkroom at this moment, it doesn't make sense to pay others to do something I could do myself. And yes, I do prefer shooting 120mm film now, but that's something I can't think about doing digitally right now, especially since I've been yielding pretty decent pictures on my cheap $200 TLR. One of these days, I can spring for a dSLR 120 camera (if ever I get that serious about my picture-taking), and heaven forbid, I may even get a digital back for it.

At the very least, for a few more dollars, I could somehow add an analog element to this digital process. It's something that I never knew about, I guess since I wasn't really serious about shooting digitally. It's called Through the Viewfinder, a new photographing technique where you take an old, cheap TLR that has a bubble viewfinder at the top of the cameara, and then you take your dSLR to take a picture of that image. Sure, there's still no film involved, but it creates an image that's inspired of that lo-fi effect that makes film photography variables and processes so unique.

I could go on for a lot longer, musing over more photography things. I suppose that's what I've been primarily rambling about for the past week since I've possessed my brand new camera...but in fact, it has possessed me (if you haven't noticed already).

For those who actually read these ramblings, you now have a sampling of how I could get very wrapped up in something. If you think I'm being a bit obsessive about it, you don't even know how bad it can get...it would be a lot more severe if I had more time and energy to devote to this all.

It's Been Happening

2008-08-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

I've been aware of it for some time, and the day that we never thought that this day would come so soon is finally here. It's almost the end of the summer. When I left work last night, I noticed the sun surprisingly close to the hills to the west, and even though I did leave work a tad later than usual, I haven't seen the sun so close to the hills in a while. the day is ending sooner, and the summer is wrapping up. Our intern's last day is today as well, and when I was initially worried that I wouldn't be able to find something for her to do every day, I have now found her indispensable. I don't know, it's a bit of a bummer.

And since I've been a little bit obsessive about it, that also effects my ability to shoot as well. I guess I really couldn't have done this any sooner, but now with my new camera, I have less and less opportunity to shoot with decent light. Yes, when I get off work, I do have the advantage of being out during the "golden time," but I'm also in a place that's rather good to photograph, but there isn't much to really take, and I honestly want/need to get out of the area for the sake of my sanity, and by the time I'm anywhere I can actually shoot, I either have to find a place to find parking or it's already dark.

I don't know if this morning's overcast sky is also a sign of the beginning of the end. Now that I think about it, this August hasn't been as hot as I otherwise would have expected it. Sure, we did have some sweltering days, but August is usually reserved for the "Dog Days of Summer," and yet, we really haven't had much of that. August has gone by like a blur, thanks to the madness that's been happening at work, and just all the other general craziness that's been happening around me. It's pretty tough to think that all this time is going by, and I wish that I would have done so much more...but I guess that's beyond my control when other things presents itself and as responsible people, we've got to take care of things.

It's also been pretty fun, as well. I've seen some really great things, eaten good food, gone to great places. I've been able to hang out with friends with whom I haven't hung out in such a long time. It's crazy to think that there are people who I could not live without (partly because I did live with one of them), but we now live in different places (polar opposites of the Greater Los Angeles Area), and life just doesn't allow us to really spend time with each other like in the days when we were banging around Westwood and the Valley. I guess other circumstances have prevented more things from happening, and I really don't regret that I haven't done enough. It's better than nothing. Except, I guess, for the Olympics. It would have been great to have watched more of it, and it really doesn't help that when I speak to anyone in my family, who has had the privilege to watch a lot of the Olympics, thanks to HD channels and the like, and they like telling me that I've missed out on a lot of things. It's not like I need to be told, I know. And I'm sad. There goes yet another Olympics that I wasn't able to follow in the way that I otherwise would have wanted. Oh well. I guess them's the brakes.

It's really tough to think that even though there are times when I'm able to go out and have fun, just like any other time of the year, but the summer has always been to me as a time when extra fun and magic happens, when the weather's hot and you can either go to the beach or to the movies where there's air conditioning. I don't know. As a student, I really valued my summer, especially after I started college...I never valued my summer more than after my first year of college. I never wanted to do a lot of nothing so much ever in my life. It was so bad, I didn't even touch the internet in a little over a month after leaving my dorm room, which was remarkable considering I was just living in a place where I would constantly be on the computer with a very fast internet connection (in comparison to the dial-up we had at home - I suppose that would have contributed to my wanting to not go on the internet on a snail's internet pace).

I'm not sure what the next season will hold. I don't know what the next week will hold. Each month this year has seemed to present its own interesting challenge, and when I would think that I've successfully met that challenge of the month, the next month always seems to provide another surprise challenge I otherwise wouldn't have expected.

I guess that some of all of this feeling is that I'm kind of in this state of anticipating something happening for me. I know that these things won't happen on its own, that I have to make the effort for things to happen. I have been doing what I think I've needed to do to make things happen, even though I know that I can be doing more. But I'd like to think that I'm doing pretty well for myself, that I'm trying to take some control in what's to come in the future, and perhaps I'm kind of hoping that all my efforts won't be done in vain. I suppose everyone would expect that from their actions, but after such a challenging year so far, I really need to make sure that I make things happen for myself, and those things will go well so that tomorrow will be a better day.

Joke of the Day

2008-08-21T09:10:00.001-07:00

Did I just hear right? Is Microsoft really paying Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to help give street cred to the Windows Vista platform?!?!?

Wow. What a waste of money. That's just like having Charlton Heston run around telling people that firearms for all is a good idea. Oh wait...

Choices

2008-08-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

Since starting this unconventional way of writing Morning Pages, I have missed two days. The first time was complete oversight - I was just a little too comfortable to leave my bed that day, as it was the first night/morning that I actually got a good deal of mostly uninterrupted sleep as well as the only day in who knows how long I didn't have to wake up and get up by a certain time. It was good. Yesterday I pretty much intentionally didn't write here, as I was preoccupied with other things. There was changing out my old alarm clock/radio into a new one as I switched from one MP3 player radio to another (since I pretty much think that I'll never see my iPod again). And of course, I was preoccupied with my brand new camera.

I spent almost the entire morning shooting, and the one of the few things that I have access to are the kitties who charged my room as soon as I opened my door as I was working with everything. It's not to say that kitties are bad subjects to shoot, but after over 200 pictures taken, it's rather uncanny to see that there are so many kitty shots. I have to say, and I never thought that I'd ever say such a thing, but I'm almost tired of shooting cats. I love cats, don't get me wrong, but I feel like I should try for a different subject than their cute, cute faces.

I don't know. I need to practice a lot with my new toy/tool/opressor. Don't get me wrong - this new camera will give me a lot of leverage and flexibility, but I have to be able to learn the way to control my image, which is the one advantage of shooting digitally. I know I have a rather unorthodox way of shooting to begin with - just take the shot as it is, prioritize on the raw image first, then work on the image afterwards. I embraced the lack of light sometimes or the "soft focus," but now that I'm no longer tied to the conditions and type of film I have loaded for the next 36 exposures, I need to understand that I have the freedom to tool with different settings with every shot that I take. I can look at what the image looks like, and if I don't like how it looks like, then I can just do some adjustments and plug away again. That's something that I have to start getting used to, and if you've seen my ever-growing set of first images that I've taken, you'll see that I'm still getting used to the automatic camera settings that will allow an image to be perfectly exposed in one instance, then totally blown out or too dark the next. I have to remember that "rating down my film" no longer applies to me, and my trick of overexposing is no longer applicable - there's just over or underexposed.

I still have to tame the tricky task of manually focusing with the lens that I love that's not completely compatible with my new machine (which is one of the larger consiiderations when I bought this camera - I knew full well it wasn't fully compatible with the lens that I wanted), but knowing that I've lived with a manual focus for oh, for the entire time I've been shooting, I didn't think it would be a problem. Perhaps I should try shooting outdoors, when the lens doesn't have to be compeltely opened up and the depth of field is so narrow all the time, and I'll feel a little more confident shooting. It seems that the majority of my images are wide open, allowing no depth of field whatsoever, so it's really hard to tell what the exact point of focus is, and another disadvantage to my camera is that it has no depth of field preview, which is something that most people don't even use, but I loved taking advantage of on a regular basis.

Maybe I can gain confidence if I were to use the lens that came with the camera body - for it's a pretty good lens, nice and fast, and I could better explore the true features of my new camera. I'm torn, though, as I want to try getting used to my "dream lens," especially since I did buy it wanting to use it in low-light conditions and for shooting action. We'll see what I can do.

I'm just starting to become aware of monkeying around with the exposure settings after shooting a shot that didn't come out perfectly, but I'm more focused right now on the fact that I can actually shoot in rapid succession without having to worry about burning too many shots on every similar shots. The idea came to me almost like an epiphany - I could press the shutter button, and just keep shooting. There was no real penalty to shooting more, I didn't worry about how many shots I have left in a roll before I have to change out again, and more importantly, I didn't have to manually advance the film to the next exposure, which did slow me down a great deal, especially when shooting action.

I know that this is going to be a very good thing for me. I hope that my manual photographic skills won't entropy after letting my camera doing a lot of my dirty work (as I should let it do), but maybe before that, I should focus on mastering these new controls and start consistently taking good pictures before I worry about un-learning all that I have been - I should tame this digital beast first, and then we can talk.

A Different Kind of Cat Lady

2008-08-20T13:58:00.001-07:00

"The trouble with a kitten is that eventually it becomes a cat." - Ogden Nash

After having my first few bouts with my new camera, I've noticed that I've been a bit cat-crazy with it. I guess when they're there, they're there.

I really hope that I don't become this crazy cat-photographing lady when I grow old.

I mean, I don't mind living alone with a million cats, but devoting ALL my time to them may seem a bit much.

Now, all I have to find is a link to that cat calendar skit series.

This is The End

2008-08-19T22:39:00.000-07:00

My only friend, The End (click for images).

Well, this is the beginning of a whole different era.

It's going to take a bit of getting used to, especially since I'm using a lens that's not exactly compatible with the body, but I got myself a pretty nifty camera, the Nikon D40 with a 50mm f/1.4 lens.

Let's see what happens from here.

My New Baby is Here!

2008-08-19T15:38:00.001-07:00

We'll see how ambitious I am with my first moments with it (her/him?).
YAY!

PS - email posts are ninja-like posting goodness.

Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

2008-08-19T07:08:00.001-07:00

Buffy is not drama. I mean, it's drama, but not drama.

I grew up across the street from a rather large freeway. I'm sure that was the perfect cocktail with genetics and exhaust that caused me to develop a low stamina and my physically induced asthma. Yes, any extraneous physical activity gets me wheezing. And I hate it. Other than that, there are other things that I grew accustomed to while living across a very large artery of Los Angeles. Small rumbles don't phase me...having so many trucks and whatnot barreling by, even though the freeway was well above the street level, it would shake the ground. Oftentimes when there was an earthquake, I just thought it was a really big truck passing by, as usual, but when the rumblings continue, I know it's something more. I'm used to noise like no other...on the opposite side of town and space, my old best friend's house is just at the small hills at the foot of the San Gabriel mountains, and whenever I was there to take care of the kitties when the family was away, it was so quiet up there it hurt my ears. It was one of those piercing silences that penetrates your ears. Because of that, I guess I'm used to having noise about me, even how subtle or ambient. I don't mind the sound of the cuckoo clock ticking away, and I often like to listen to some steady beat to help lull me to sleep. I'm not sure if it's associated with our living across the street from the freeway, but my family also tends to like to have the TV on as ambient noise, regardless of wheather anyone is watching or not. It fills some kind of void, as if a place is being used, and lived in.

I guess that's why studying in the library wasn't always the most ideal place for me to study. That's not to say I never did that, and wasn't successful, but I would find myself more successful when I would find something to focus on as far as sound and then plug away at my work. Then again, I could have just found some earphones and listen to some music while working on things...and I guess I was pretty successful.

I know that everyone supposedly dreams several dreams every night, but that doesn't mean we necessarily remember them. I wonder if there are factors and the way we sleep that help facilitate whether we remember our dreams or not. Either way, I do remember my dreams at some capacity for the most part...and it seems that I don't remember the more banal dreams, but the ones that stick to me are the more interesting and out there dreams. I've been dreaming (or remembering them, at least) a lot more recently, more specifically, during the weekends. But last night, I had a very interesting dream or series of dreams that involved my family, something like a cruise, but not quite, or at least some kind of location where we were at some kind of beach and an area that had some kind of gift shop. Before that, I was dreaming I was sleeping, and when I got up for the day, my mom was mad at me, because she could hear me while I was sleeping. I was worried about what she meant about that, I don't know why, but she was saying that she could hear me tossing and turning throughout the night, thus causing me to have a poorer quality sleep for the night...as if I could have controlled that. I wonder if that translates to my waking life, but I haven't brushed my hair this morning yet, so I'll see if I actually was tossing a lot at night with some gnarly bed head. But there was this boat that had a lot of trinkets and pieces of art related to some sort of nautical theme, as well as a celestial them? I don't know. It all seemed to make sense to me, but maybe it was selling a certain type of aesthetic. It was a pretty vivid dream, and I last remembered getting interesting Tin Tin postcard prints that I was planning on framing in cute frames and hang on the wall somewhere in my house, but when I was standing there thinking about which little pieces I wanted, I was picturing hanging these things in the house of mine with which I wasn't familiar. It was in a space that I've never seen before...but at least from what I was picturing it while I was in my dream, I'm pretty sure that it was pretty nice. Maybe that's just a part of me that's thinking that I really do have to get out of this house and find myself a new place to live, a place that I would be invested in decorating, a place that I would be proud of living in, as place that I could call my own. I moved into this place knowing that I wasn't going to live here forever, that this place was just an exalted version of a college apartment where you only think of living for about nine months until it's time go to again. The funny thing about that is the fact that when I was going to school, I did make an effort to decorate my space, I suppose it was my way of defining my space. Perhaps It's a bit different since I now do have my own room, but even then, there are very few things adoring my walls here in my room, and there are very few things around the other parts of the house that are actually mine. I'm pretty sure that my roommate treats this place like her place (after all, she was living here for a few months before I even thought of moving in), with me just as someone who's living with her. I did come here with not many things, and I really don't possess the things that any humble home would need like a lot of dishes and utensils, furniture and the like. Oh well.

I think this is the first time that I tried writing my morning page while I had the radio blasting. I'm not sure if I've kept it on while writing or not, but I haven't lowered the volume of the radio since it went off about an hour ago. Either way, for some strange reason, I am more aware of the radio and it tends to tempt my attention away from my writing here and give my undivided attention to what it wants to tell me. There are moments where I almost want to transcribe what's being said, but I think I was pretty successful at not letting that happen.

I know that a big proponent to this exercise is to write stream of consciousness, and I guess since I've been doing this, I've been kind of writing to some kind of theme, but it's not like I actually premeditate what I want to write about when I go here. If I did, I'd be talking about the new camera I decided to buy and how I waver between elation and utter fear about doing so, or how it's still not comfortable for me to stay here completely alone, especially with my roommate gone (oh wait, I wrote about that yesterday). I guess I've been pretty good at keeping this exercise a free association exercise, but I still feel like I'm holding something back...maybe part of that is my awareness that others will be reading it...perhaps I'll experiment just writing in a notepad or Word document...perhaps that way, my flow would be better if I were to type something out on notepad, since there are no little wavy lines telling me that there are any typos, things that I have to obsessively look and see how I misspelled the word and correct it.

That totally runs my groove.

I Can't Say I'm Not Disappointed.

2008-08-18T16:30:00.001-07:00

I know it's piddly little things, and that my life will continue on with it, but our intern (whose last week is this week - I will miss her more than anyone can comprehend) was reeling at the fact that she gets to see Radiohead at the Hollywood Bowl next Monday! I'm really happy for her, especially since she's never seen them before.

It's pretty remarkable we've rounded past the ides of August, and that the summer will last for about a month from here. Being able to see a great show at this time of year at a great outdoor venue would be a great added touch to any summer, I think, and add to that it's Radiohead would make any night great.

I know I talked about this before, but I think I just need to get this out of my system.

The sad part is, I did have tickets to see Radiohead. They weren't for the Hollywood Bowl, but it was for the other, littler bowl up the 101 in Santa Barbara, which is smaller, but actually means more intimate. It's not sad that I did give my tickets to two good friends who have never seen Radiohead their whole lives, and after not getting tickets for this time around, they resigned to the thought of ever seeing them in their life. Now, that thought made me sad, especially having seen them once myself. So it was a no-brainer to offer my tickets to them so they had the opportunity to go see them, that it is in fact possible to see a favorite band once in a lifetime. I remember when I had gone without seeing them in my short life, and I almost resigned to the idea that I shouldn't see them anyway - since my expectation of seeing them live would be so high, I convinced myself that what they would be live would pale in comparison to their show in my mind. Of course, when I did see them, it was everything I expected and more. Having alread seen them, my need wasn't so urgent, I think that 4 years running without my last Radiohead fix isn't so bad.

...and it really isn't...bad, but it's just a bit of a bummer that I can't bookmark this summer as the magical summer that I got to see Radiohead in the cute little confines of the Santa Barbara Bowl. I do like the band a good bit, and I was looking forward to seeing them. I should really focus on the great time and weekend my friends will have going to see them, but I know in the back of my mind, I'm crying just a little on the inside.

Not to add more sadness to secret sadness, I'd really, really like to go to Sunset Junction this weekend, as a few bands I like, like COLD WAR KIDS will be playing the weekend, and it would be great to take out my new toy in a place where it's full of people and intresting sights, but I don't think it's meant to be. As inexpensive as it may be, I just feel like I should save some pennies right now.

Bah to responsibility and priorities!

Outside Ourselves

2008-08-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

I've been awake for well over an hour at this point, when I would otherwise be slowly waking up to the radio right now. It's not to be today, for one, I forgot to turn on my alarm to go off this morning, and because I didn't spend the night here.

I had decided to go visit my family and actually try to watch a bit of Olympics there, which is something I have set as a goal for myself if I don't have anything planned for myself. Unfortunately, I do have several things working against me, the biggest one being the fact that my home doesn't have a TV that gets a television signal, so I can't readily watch it, and when I do wind up in Monrovia to sit and watch the games, I wind up sleeping during some of the best parts, and this last trip was no exception.

I at least got to wake up to see the USA basketball team play against Germany, and even though Germany has two NBA players, not to mention the fact that they do have some of Europe's top players (because they do have good teams over there, which is surprising to some), USA was very much kicking their butts. Still, I think I'm just preconditioned to just...sleep during certain events; as I was sitting and catching some of the game before I left to come back to LA, I did nod off for a few moments. I suppose it doesn't help that I was up and at 'em at 5 am after going to sleep sometime after 1, but still, I didn't think I'd be such a sleepy person nodding off at any moment that I could get.

The other interesting thing is that I feel as though I have a completely new responsibility this week in my own home: In a sense, I'm kind of house-sitting, but more specifically, I'm cat-sitting. I was told this past Friday that my roommate would be gone the entire week on vacation with her family, leaving me completely alone in the house save for the two little monsters to keep me company. At this time, and with the history that I now have with the place, I would otherwise opt to maybe not spend that much of my time here, but with the cats here who need attention, food and a clean litter box, I'm more apt to stay here during the week. I suppose that it wouldn't be bad to fill their food and water bowls and have their box clean for a few more hours than they're used to (which happens on occasion), but I don't want to leave them completely alone and lonely, especially since my roommate has closed her bedroom doors to them (with due reason - I don't even keep my door open when I'm not here in danger of getting all my stuff roughed up by the paws of some rambunctious kitties). So long as I know that they will have enough food for the overnight, I wouldn't mind not spending the night completely alone in this empty house maybe one or twice this week, and I think our neighbor has the key so he could check on them, too.

It probably doesn't help that my roommate hasn't been working since last week, so she's actually been here at night, which isn't something that's consistently happened for practically the entire summer, and I do say that it does give myself a certain piece of mind. Sure, she wasn't around at night when she was working the night shift. But it's a little different knowing that she's not here at all this week, not filling the space with her presence, whether I'm here or not. It's not like this is the first time I've been by myself in this place when she's been gone, for she was traveling a lot last year for conferences and the sort. It does give a different feeling to the place, cats or not, and that's something I'm very unfamiliar with nowadays, especially after what happened last month.

I don't know. It's not like I'm trying to focus on this uncomfortable aspect of it, but it was something my roommate was worried about with me, considering everything that has happened. It is something that I can't ignore, and maybe I should make sure that I don't put myself in a position where I'm afraid to come home from any place I'd have to be in the evening during the week, or that I'd be apprehensive about being in this emptier house during the night.

I suppose only time will tell.

Garbage in, Garbage out

2008-08-16T09:02:00.000-07:00

There is nothing wrong with starting the Morning Pages when you're no longer sleepy groggy, right? I guess I'm making my own rules and those apply.

This is my morning, part II, and miraculously enough, I did manage to put in at least a few hours of sleep. Then again, I did hit the hay around 2, and then wound up waking with horrible tummy pain around 5, at which point I went running to the bathroom. I did feel a little rumble of that before going to bed, which I thought was just something that attributed to cramps, so I ignored it and passed out, not knowing that it was going to later kick my tummy and ass. Is that TMI? Meh. I'm just happy I managed to go back to sleep after that, and even remembered to turn off my alarm so I wasn't going to be persuaded to wake up at a certain time. After my second trip to the WC this morning, here I am, starting my daily writing exercise, and the kitties are already welcome in my room (cue kitties as they make their entrance as I type this).

I suppose this is what I get for betraying my usual love. I did try to keep in mind some of my company last night wasn't the most thrilled with Leo's taco truck, and I do recognize that there are a lot of people who don't, so we had the option to go with the familiar, or go with something new. I've been kind of curious in trying Sonia's taco truck, who is up the street from Leo's and is supposedly the truck of Leo's ex wife who left him because he supposedly cheated on her (both bits of information I gathered at different times, I guess I'm somehow kept abreast on taco truck drama...then again, it is Leo's I'm talking about). I was the maverick of the group and ordered a burrito instead of tacos like the rest, because I was pretty hungry, having only eaten some leftover veggie tostada fixin's that probably would have fit on two tortilla chip rounds, a mystery flavor hot pocket, and maybe a piece of candy. The burrito was okay, slightly spicy, and had a decent amount of meat, but it was agreed across the board that the tacos were not up to par with Leo's, even though the actually had a nice looking veggie taco (which doesn't count in the taco tally, apparently, because there is no gastronomical damage in putting a bunch of beans and salsa in, so it's more like a side). The food was so disappointing, we did wind up going to a sure fire good meal, Carnitas Michoacan, in order one good taco to wipe the ugly taco taste from the mouths of some, and more importantly for one, to introduce one of our party to Orange Bang! which was discovered she never had before. That could not be for one, and CM was going to happen in short order.

I didn't have anything, but the four of us shared a nice, large order of Orange Bang! I also did steal a small bite of an al pastor taco, for I'm not sure if I ever tried it there (though through the course of my going there, I'm more than certain that I have). Either way, it was good, and those who had redemption tacos were well satisfied.

That all said, it can be said there is something working against Sonia's as well, as my tumms is not happy with me right now. Of course, it could have been caused by other things, but what? I didn't even have alcohol last night (oh wait - I had a swig from "backwash bottle" and was gently persuaded to take a remarkable hit from The Bottomless Flask (damn you...which really actually means *hugs* yay, friendship!!!) but the booze wouldn't do something like that to me.

Needless to say, I find fault in those who have given that place a favorable review, unless this upsetness is caused by my shaking the hands of someone with dirty hands then eating my food, but that doesn't even make sense either, because I had a burrito, and was eating as I unwrapped the thing from its double layer cocoon.

I hope the tumms gets better soon. I'm supposed to go to an exhibit today, which I'm going to have to stomach, then I'm supposed to picnic. I can't very well picnic effectively if the tumms ain't having it...and if that be the case, that would be a bummer for sure.

It's funny that as I do these morning writing exercises, I find myself simply recounting what happened to me the day before. I don't think that's entirely a bad thing, I think, it's just that's what bubbles to the top on thoughts when I click on the "New Post" button. I guess this morning's events is concerning enough to dedicate to a blog entry (perhaps to my readers' dismay), but perhaps this entry should remain here as a constant reminder that do not try to have Sonia's again, and if you can't stand the wait for Leo's (of which, should have been an indicator for us, since there was NO LINE at this place), just go to Rambo's. Rambo's is not that that bad.

But yeah. I'm sure the more I make this more of a habit, the more that I'll be able to let out more things that perhaps need to be processed out of the inner workings of my head. Something like how instead of lying here longer to write an entry about the new camera I ordered yesterday, or having a nice cuddle session with the kitty that's currently purring my arm, or even taking a cat nap, I should really shower in order to start my day...

KITTY IT IS!!!

More on Morning Pages

2008-08-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

Can be found on this site.

I have a feeling that even though this time is supposed to be used as free association writing, I should attempt at putting some kind of structure to it...such as writing for a certain time period, since I'm not writing longhand, and on a blog, three pages is kind of an arbitrary thing. Maybe I could start in Word then transfer here? then I probably wouldn't publish it. Even if I did, what would be my employed paragraph spacing? Should I correct my mistakes (I have been). I guess the point isn't to publish, but maybe it's good for me to see on my own blog that I'm able to put something out there...though I'm sure that down the road, I'll want to write about things that I otherwise wouldn't want to disclose in this blog.

I'll have to give this some thought.

Here I Go Again

2008-08-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

I'm just way too tired. I suppose I could just lie here and keep my eyes closed for a little longer and that would be a little bit of rest that I would really appreciate. I really need to get some sleep, though I don't think I could do anything of the sort until Sunday, possibly. I'm supposed to go somewhere tonight, then I have an absolutely full day Saturday which starts with my going to a health center to prove that I don't have TB by showing my arm and I don't have a little bump (but I can show I have a little bruise, which I guess I can attribute when the gal said "Oops" when she had the needle in my arm...ugh). Now I can happily bring my little yellow card from two years ago and show that I didn't have TB back then, and if I keep it up until tomorrow, I can get another little card and have a little collection to show off the fact I don't have the consumption. I don't have that kind of a respiratory problem. I do have the asthma still, and I was told about this special shot that asthmatics takes every 5 years to help prevent the possibility of getting the flu and pneumonia because of my weaker lung sacs. I guess it's like a flu shot booster of the sort, and I'm not sure if I'm going to take it or not. I don't really get the flu every year, though I do wind up getting sick at least once a year, but not for the flu, I don't think.

Man. I'm kind of glad I do listen to NPR, because I do get results from the Olympics. I don't think that the US have seen the results of this event, and since I don't get to watch today (like I haven't been able to watch...GAH), I now know the results to this event, which is a pretty hot ticket one. Wow. That is pretty much of a bummer for me - that I really haven't been able to watch the Olympics. When I was stuck at work on Tuesday night until well after I was supposed to be there, I heard the sounds of the Olympics coming from the other room, and I have to say that I was extremely jealous that I wasn't there, or in front of any other TV for that matter, watching where instead I was going crazy with making a DVD or two. I really do long for the time and the opportunity to actually watch the Olympics. I guess if I really wanted to, I could, especially since I haven't been getting much sleep as it is anyway, I could strategically not be sleeping at night at a place with a TV where I could watch the Olympics at the wee hours of the night. Then again, I tried doing that, and after watching the no problem win of May-Treanor and Walsh for Women's Beach Volleyball, the next few events were the ones I was very interested to watch, and just passed out cold until about 2am or so? I don't know, it was sad.

The radio just told me something sad...seems like the latest Harry Potter movie installment's release date is now delayed half a year from this winter until the blockbuster summertime due to the writer's strike. Wow. That's going to really depress the big hardcore HP fans, and I know of some people who will be pretty upset about that. I was just recently linked to its trailer, and even though I haven't read a single book save for the very first page of the very first book in 3-4 languages (the cool part about going to bookstores in airports), I have been enjoying the movies, and the latest one looks to be pretty good. I do think I will have to watch the last one that was out, because I watched the whole thing on a computer screen, and I think so much happened, I forgot most of it. In fact, these movies are so long, I'm starting to forget what happened in each one. Okay, maybe just the third one...maybe I should look that up.

I guess this is more than enough writing for the morning. I'm still kind of groggy, but I'm definitely not going to pass out anytime soon. The radio just turned off as it's my alarm and if I don't press it again later, it turns off after an hour of being on.

I think it's time to make my bed and open my door and invite the kitties in, thus marking the start of my day.

Maybe the Large, 6:00 Matcha Iced Tea was a Bad Idea

2008-08-15T03:15:00.000-07:00

I can't sleep.

Maybe I should have had dinner.

But I'm awake still.

It doesn't help that I have a lot on my mind as well, but I'm sure that paired with the caffeine is a frustrating combination, because I really do want to sleep.

I'd like to recount my day since I was able to skip work today after a seminar and I hung out with my Adventure Buddy around Torrance/Gardena all day and had fun with Japanese things. I think I will, and provide some photographic findings of randomness, but I really don't have the motivation to monkey around with coding and writing about ham and cheese flavored potato chips right now. I will hopefully be able to do that soon.

If anything, let me tell you about this product called Eye Talk, which is basically eyelid glue to create folds on your eyelids if you don't have any. I never knew this thing existed until today:

So, if you have no eye folds and don't want to go through the Asian eyelid surgery, you can just pull a Cinderella and do it for a day (and then some).

Pair it with extra-wide contact lenses complete with pupil widening, and you've got yourself a live-action anime character!

KAWAIIIIIIIII DESU.....no?

Okay, I'm going to try to sleep again.

Gross.

2008-08-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

Here is my first earnest attempt at writing (kind of) first thing in the morning. Of course, this may have not have happened at a worse day. Maybe even a worse week. It's not that I'm complaining, but I'm just telling it like it is.

I actually should hop into the shower right now and get ready for my day, because I have to be at a doctor's appointment right at 8, then I have to go to a seminar to improve my work writing. Following that, I have to go pick up plates and forks and then I'm off adventuring with my long-lost friend around Torrance and Gardena.

All this wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that I'd like to be ready by now, but I slept past the beginning of my alarm and that I promised myself that I'd do this exercise for the first time, after I had planned to do this daily a long, long time ago...so long, in fact, it's coming close to about a year.

Also, I know that this will be good for me to do. I should do this, regardless of how tired I am, how little time there is, how little sleep I got from looking at things and tossing and turning in bed, and recalling at some point, I did have a strange enough dream that caused me to start crying. I have no recollection as to what caused me to do that, but that was upsetting...at the time, and now my eyes are a bit puffy from it. It's not something foreign to me, because that happened the night before anyway.

Gah, I really don't want to go to this doctor's appointment. But I must, it's for the best. I also don't feel like digging up a book that I really, really need right now, but I think it's a good thing for me to grab, because today officially marks the beginning of starting something new in a way, but is something that I should have done ages ago.

In fact, that's something that I could share with others, for not many people knew that I did such a thing 5 years ago, even the people who actually knew me at the time, but that's for another entry with its own purpose. Perhaps I should really get my day started and perhaps address things for later.

Green Rage (#3)

2008-08-10T22:55:00.001-07:00

Contrary to what you may think what the Green Rage may mean, I actually mean something else. If you were thinking I'm employing some kind of association with a jealous rage, but this entry is a lot more boring than that (though I must admit to the fact that I do have bouts of jealousy here and there).

I'm talking more along the lines of the third in the 7 Things You may not Know about Me.

I try very hard to suppress how pretty adamant I am about being environmentally sound.

I think I'm at my worst is when I personally think I'm failing in the cause.

Don't get me wrong...I think I'm doing a decent job, but if I had my way, I'd be drinking water out of a PBA-free water bottle I'd take with me everywhere so I can put my drinks in there, along with reusable utensils and eating surfaces, particularly ones that can store food should I have any leftovers (because I do not like throwing away food, either). Yes, I do think when I go out to eat, if I know I'm taking something home, I do consider taking my own Tupperware with me.

Sure, recycling is good, but it takes a lot of energy consumption in order to re-process something. Reusing is better, with a particular emphasis towards upcycling, which is most often miscategorized as "recycling." Of course, the best thing is to reduce, which means trying to consume a little less.

I could get more detailed about it, but I don't know...I find it rather strange or crazy myself. I suppose, trying to save the earth is not such a crazy thing, but maybe I'm just a little shy about trying to tell people to try doing better, especially when I can't fare so well myself.

Here's another example:

At my first real job, doing the whole Office Space way of life, I had a collection of different kinds of cups and bottles behind my computer monitor. I did have my UCLA Library mug, which I used for coffee and tea, but I also had a bunch of other cups, used for various things at various times. The reason they were all there is because I had used them at one point or another, and kept them knowing full well that the things had another use or to out of them before they had to be thrown away completely. Unfortunately, I did have to throw some away from time to time, because the collection would be on the brink of getting out of control, but I thought it was good trying to delay the inevitable for even a little bit.

Okay, that's it. I could go on forever. If you're ever face-to-face with me, you could bring up the subject, and I could go on and on about how I sometimes obsess over trying to reuse or recycle a myriad of things, how giddy I get when I get a frozen dinner and see that most of those plastic trays are now made of more commonly recyclable plastics (check with your city's standards to see which plastics they recycle - not every city can process all plastics).

You can also double check with your city if it recycles styrofoam. Yes, it's a little friendlier now, but oftentimes, the process needed to recycle the stuff is still pretty gnarly, so trying to reduce is key.

Okay! I'm going to STOP!

HOORAY?

2008-08-10T14:44:00.000-07:00

62%

So long as you're not taller than I.

Time-Honored Traditions

2008-08-09T01:58:00.000-07:00

#2 of Thing You May Not Know About Me:

I really like the Olympics.

And it especially broke my heart that I missed out on a great deal of the last one, when it was in GREECE!

I suppose it doesn't take one big stretch of the imagination to figure out I would, for I'm a big Classics fiend and I do like watching me some sports. In particular, I love watching Swimming, Track & Field, Gymnastics, and if I can catch it, Soccer. Weightlifting is pretty interesting to watch, too...oh, who am I kidding? I love the Olympics, and I thought it was the greatest thing that my uncle had a satellite dish back in '92 and had the Olympic Channel that had events 24/7, whether it was live or not, I love it that much. It even got me inspired to actually challenge my physically-induced asthmatic self to train and run a marathon during the last go around.

Although I'm throwing in the bedtime towel at this time, I do have several thoughts about my expectations for this Olympics and my thoughts on the Opening Ceremony. The Ceremony was pretty, and it got me really excited for the next 16 days (here's hoping I can actually follow it this time around), though I have a lot of mixed feelings about it with all the political strife going on in the world, with the Koreas, Iraq, Iran, China (obviously), Sudan, and most recently, Russia and Georgia.

The official Olympic song is in Greek, I say that maybe make like the Ancients and put a halt to fighting during this time of peace.

Count on Nobody and No One Will Let You Down

2008-08-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

There was this book that my family somehow happened to own called The Music Book. It was a shiny, red hardcover book with the title in big lettering on the front, and the whole thing looked pretty sleek. It was of good length of material in there, and it was chock-full of a bunch of random music information.

I don't think I knew how to read when I first recall seeing the book, but eventually, I went through the book, not thoroughly, but I do remember looking at things that caught my eye. One section was on the ukulele, and it even showed how it was tuned. It was some time when I figured out that I could get my old little Casio keyboard, play those notes corresponding to the ones in the book, so I could tune my plastic pink ukulele with rainbow note stickers on it (and I eventually used to tune the semi-real one we got from the Philippines a while later).

One part of the book I vividly remember was this part that had an illustration of some trees and clouds with a rainbow and a happy sun in the background. I had (still have) a thing for rainbows (in not the homosexual sense - I kind of have mixed feelings about how that part of the population took ownership of the colorful beams of light - it's not that I'm against homosexuality and they shouldn't have something to represent that lifestyle, it's just that I really like rainbows, and I don't identify with the semiotic relationship between rainbows and homosexuals and therefore feel misrepresented when I admit to my rainbow love and I am automatically classified as a homosexual for it. In short, I do have Rainbow Love, in both loving rainbows and love the fact that people of the same sex loving each other, but I myself am not in love with persons of the same sex as me, that's all), so I would always turn to that page because I thought it was a nice illustration. Following it was the sheet music for "You've Got a Friend."

Thanks to my parents' rather good taste in music, I was more than familiar with the song, and when my dad told me that he loved that song, I was happy to learn the lyrics for it, and I pretended that I knew how to read the notes since I knew the song already. Eventually, I did manage to play the notes on my Casio.

What's funny about this song in particular is the fact that my mom hates that song.

It's because it was "the song" for my dad and one of his ex-girlfriends.

Even funnier is whenever that song is ever played in the presence of my mom and/or dad, they always manage to express their hate/love for it.

I like it.

It's a little too late and I'm a bit too tired to remember what the point was of telling that story, but here it is anyway.

Oh.

It's because this song was stuck in my head...which is quite the opposite of Carol King's song.

Man...I really, really liked this band.

Sometimes, I Actually Blog

2008-08-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

...AAAAAAAND IT'S MEME TIME!!!

I do have some sort of follow through, particularly when someone calls me out. It hasn't been since my Livejournal days that I've actually filled out a meme in a blog, let alone be tagged to do one.

Some time ago, the City Elf tagged me to do one entitled, 7 Things About Me You'd Not Likely Guess. Now I'm sure that I have some bits and pieces written through my scores of drafts on this site, but I realized that I might as well tackle this challenge in bite-sized doses.

Sadly, like with most of the things in my life, I've overthought the exercise, trying to think up stuff that MOST people would not know about me, and seeing that I lived with one of this blog's readers for the majority of my life so far (and was a reader of all the memes from my LJ days) and there's possibly one other reader that probably still knows a bit about me, I figured I'd present fresh material to that 1/3 of my readership.

So here is my first installment of this series of seven:

I've never gone skinny dipping in my life.

By no means of the imagination am I against nudity - in fact, it's a marvel I'm wearing clothes right now, but in the case of swimming in the buff, primarily because the situation never presented itself.

I'm sure that the fishes and other large-bodied water denizens are forever indebted to me for it.

What else will you find out about me? What other six facts shall I present? Will I be dedicating the remaining facts to all 6 of my readers? I guess you'll have to keep reading this blog to find out!

SO-rry!

LA LA LA LA LA...

2008-08-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

Dialogue of the Day:

Me and my friend were in a park and come upon a 4' x 10' ish slab of concrete, right next to a sidewalk. There was no indication that it's really used for anything.

Friend: What is this thing for?
Me: We should just leave it alone.
Friend: Come on, we're college graduates, we can figure it out...
Me: We're not civil engineers.
Friend: Gahhhhhh!

I went for a walk around the hills of Monterey Park, on a 2 mile tour going up and down and up hills, past a cute park, lots of neat houses, many neighbors out on a cool evening with a view of the LA Basin, and a SNAKE!

A SNAKE!

What was a snake doing on a driveway in the middle of Monterey Park? It looked kind of like a not-from-around-here snake, and I'm pretty sure this was my first time actually setting eyes on a snake that wasn't contained and controlled, for this little buddy wasn't so well watched over. I was in some state of disbelief, as evidenced by the way I presented it to my friend:

Me: Oh, look, there's a snake.
Friend: What?!? WHERE?!?!?

She went running ahead as I just kind of stood there trying to comprehend the fact that I was looking at a black and (most likely) yellow snake at this person's house with barking dogs. It didn't seem aggressive, and I was just thinking if it had an owner and it went missing and was missed by its family. I also wondered if the thing was poisonous and that I should exercise more caution being within 5 feet of a snake. I'm pretty sure that any indigenous snake of the area (MONTEREY PARK!?!?) would be more earth-toned and not tropical (and/or danger) colored.

Other than that, it was a very wonderful 2-mile walk, which was a bit of a challenge for out of shape me, but it was a nice go at things, especially since I did manage to pack my spare running shoes with me in my car from the possibility of running track with other friends.

Plus, I got a free schrunchie after all that's said and done. Scrunchies were things that were really cool and popular back in the day when I didn't have hair long enough to actually use them, but that didn't stop me from wearing them around my wrists. But look, I can wear them now! Take that, 15 years ago people who made fun of me!!! ...now I cry. Middle school was such the soul-breaker for me. SURE I SHOWED THEM IN HIGH SCHOOL!!! (?)

While I'm here, I'll share my current obsession: Hanne Hukkelberg and her song, Berlin. Not apropos the fact that the song is named after a cool German city, it's just a really great song, one that I could listen to over and over again, that would be a very appropriate song to have playing during a rather awkward situation with...well, anyone. I'm sad to think that I could have seen her live, if not for the fact that I broke into a cold sweat, thereby causing me to practically miss her entire set.

Perhaps obsession-worthy, but just introduced to me tonight is the song, "Cats R People 2," by Quitzow. I personally think that it's the inverse, that people R cats 2, but I'm also a little buzzed, so that may alter my worldview in general.

Swingo Things

2008-08-05T02:02:00.001-07:00

Sometimes, I have fun with camera phone.

I have to admit that I'm really disappointed in myself for not getting back into the blogging habit. It's not like I don't have things to write about (for I have many), it just seems that I've been spending less and less time on the computer, and when I do get the chance to hop on, I have more important things to do (as in my Grown Up Personal Advancement Project). I guess I'm mostly here to dump a bit of thought on here, and hopefully give something my 6 readers to ignore since I never update, causing my "regulars" to never visit again.

But for those of you who are still out there, why, hello there!

Before I forget, if you ever want to gain any kind of appreciation for LA (or deepen your undying love(/hate) for it, you must go to the Huntington exhibit, This Side of Paradise (if I was just a little more ambitious, I'd also provide an image, but just go - I'll go with you if you want, I'm for sure going there at least a few times before it goes next month, so you don't have an excuse!).

Being obsessive compulsive enough, August came with many hopes of a better month from the last. As we're creeping onto the 5th day, I can't say it hasn't been too bad. I am spending more time at home, which is a very bittersweet sort of deal (mostly because I actually still am living here), but it isn't bad. Thanks in part of kitties, I do feel at ease when I'm here alone at night, and I'm not as freaked out during that minute from leaving my car to my front door and into the house. Unfortunately, I'm not completely over it, as I had to refill on gasoline tonight, but was very, very apprehensive about stopping at any nearby station to fill up. Sure, those places are well-lit, but some shady people tend to hang around those areas. As fate had it, my on ramp to the freeway was closed, causing me to drive by one of the stations anyway, and I braved it and got Danny's fill of petrol. At the very least, I'm progressing with that...

Even though it's been pretty chill, August has been rather busy as well. I spent the entire weekend not at home, hanging around the San Gabriel Valley going here and there, sleeping at the parents'. Though I didn't really plan on doing it, I was fortunate once again to my mom's shopaholic tendencies and her recent purchases outfitted me for the entire time (which is good, since I was actually hanging out with people outside my family, so wearing the one outfit I had would have been not cool for my friends). If I do keep the momentum going, this will be sure to be a fun and busy (hopefully not tiring) month.

It's been rather materialistic lately, as well. Aside from the clothes from my mom, I've also got a brand new phone that's pretty fun, and now I'm in need to get myself a headset in order to not be on speakerphone all the time when driving. I bought a book that commemorates the wonderful 8 years our President has put us through, and after a whirlwind hour and a half of squatting in an American Apparel dressing room with a friend who is now happily moved back here from her two year stint in Hawaii, I managed to buy a sassy dress to wear, though it isn't the dress I originally thought of getting.

I forgot the point of this entry. I'll just post it.

Wow...I never imagined what these guys looked like, and after watching this original footage, I don't think that I'll ever hear this song the same way again. Teen Wolf was extra creepy on this one.

Making Silk Purses

2008-07-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

(I take pictures with my camera phone. It sucks. It's better than 1,000 more words written by me, wouldn't you agree?)

Perhaps it's not a silk purse per se, but I at least made a decent bag from some shiny fabric.

There was this large order of fries in my fridge that was vexing me. I got it last Saturday as part of a combo that really should be a duo, and it came with me from my housesitting place back home, and sat in the fridge for several days.

I couldn't bear to throw it away. But most know, fries usually don't keep very well, and I didn't have the heart to throw it away. The other night, in a bout of curiosity (and crazy hunger), I took the fries out to see if they were still okay. Surprisingly enough, they were edible. Fortunately, the burger joint from where they came sprinkles seasoning salt on them, and their medium cut allowed them to not dry out as quickly. But I wasn't in the mood for potato that night, and instead opt for my popcorn dinner, but strategized for a potentially good breakfast in the morning.

I woke up, got up as soon as I could manage, busted out the fries, an onion, some frozen bell peppers, the rest of a head of garlic I had. Chopped all those up and threw them in a frying pan. Added some spices, and I had myself some ghetto hash browns!

Apart from the fact that you had little ends that looked like french fry ends (because they WERE!), you almost couldn't tell that it was made from fries. It definitely smelled like breakfast potatoes (heaven forbid having french fries for breakfast), and when you tasted them, you could almost not tell they were made from not fresh potatoes! It's perhaps the seasonings and all the other veggie/fruit contribution that helped in those efforts, and all the same, it made for a good meal. The roommate agreed, as she was still awake when I was making them, and even though I didn't want to subject her to something potentially yucky, I invited her anyway, and as it turned out, it was decent and she liked it a lot!

I managed to steal a veggie sausage from work, and had that with the leftover potatoes from breakfast, and that was mighty tasty. I'm happy to know that I can whip up a good batch of potatoes (especially after miserably failing at one attempt that I've just now remembered, it was so bad), and more importantly, I'm cheap enough to make a decent batch from potatoes that had a different original purpose. Hooray for not wasting!

BLAH

2008-07-23T08:21:00.000-07:00

I feel so gross and yucky right now. I woke up with a pretty gnarly headache, and my body's all achy.

When I was younger and had yet to experience more of life, I would read the blogs of friends and others and witness them celebrate things that I otherwise wouldn't think to celebrate. I mean, I understood they were happy about such a human, everyday occurrence, but never to the lengths of announcing it on a blog and thanking the heavens for it.

I may be the age these friends were when I first read their blogs now, and I have to say...

HOORAY!

In other news, there's another man in my life. Actually, he's just a boy, but he's a sweetie all the same. He's on my bed right now as I type this, and he's totally looking for some love. His name is Colin. He's got these big, bright yellow green eyes, and he's such a lover. He's white, but he's got a little black on him in little spots. He's got this cute little pink nose and loves purring. But his claws are looong and SHARP, and he gets them stuck in places, including my skin, when he's kneading.

As lovely as he is, it makes me miss my baby a little more.

A True Blast from the Past

2008-07-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

Writing this entry guarantees my being late for work today, but I'm going to have to do this now, otherwise it's never going to happen.

I just finished forwarding an interesting article to my two hosts about possible tips on caring for their tomatoes (that I've been caring for this week), when I switch over to my email to see I have a new message. I figured it would be some sort of confirmation my email was sent, or some copy of the email I sent them, but I was pleasantly surprised to get an email with the subject, "Hello! From the Past."

I immediately knew what it was. It was an email I sent to myself exactly one year ago using FutureMe.org, a website where you can compose emails to yourself and then have them delivered to your inbox at a designated date. I do remember going to the site and writing myself two emails, little did I know or recall the exact date when I actually wrote one. One of them was to myself exactly a year later, where I am right now, and the other one has yet to be delivered.

It was a pretty standard and safe email, especially since I opt to make the email "public" once it was delivered (Eublic being the email itself would be made available to read on the site, though your email would be concealed). As I expected, I didn't drop any names, and kept things rather vague, but wrote it just so NowMe knew what PastMe would be talking about.

Although I am much more financially stable, it seems that things are a lot different than last year and as hoped for me by my former self. The one big thing is that even numbered years typically made for amazing summers, and in light of what happened to me earlier this month, a lot of that hasn't come into fruition.

...then again, I shouldn't be saying something like that. First, there is plenty of Summer that has yet to happen. Second, it's not like I've been living beneath this dark cloud of fear and loathing this whole time - I've been to baseball games, been hanging out with friends and loved ones, enjoying drives in the sun with the windows rolled down, walking around in shorts, tank top and a bikini top beneath that because I can. In light of all that's happened, I'm having a blast, and I'm sure that there are plenty more exciting and fun things in store for me.

At the very least, I'm definitely much wiser, as I had hoped for myself.

I'll be sure to write myself another email sometime today, as I think it would be a fun thing to maintain - getting my annual midsummer check in with my former self. Since I registered at the site, I didn't know they have this feature that can reply to PastYou. I think I shall do that, but won't tell myself what I've been wishing for when driving under tunnels.

She should know, it's always the same thing I wish for, and that hasn't changed since then :)

Hello Again

2008-07-18T07:02:00.000-07:00

Let me do you the favor and tell you that if you want to watch the video, spending half a minute would suffice. Trust me.

Fancy that, I'm back to blogging.

It's not that I had nothing to write about, and had thoughts that I did want to put down in some shape or form, but this month since day one has been nothing short of madness, and along with other things in my life, blogging was one of the things that really didn't happen during this time.

As my entry at the end of last month suggested, I had big plans for the rest of the summer, with hopes of doing a few of those things in July. Unfortunately, this month was started in the most unsettling way: around 2:30am July 1, I woke up to a man standing at the end of my bed. He had somehow got our side door open, and was in my room for who knows how long. Sparing the details that I'd rather not get into, I'm okay, nothing was stolen to our knowledge, locks were changed/are fully functional now (though there was no sign of forced entry).

It was a very scary experience for me, as I was alone in the house with my roommate working the swing shift at the time. Even though the police came to investigate, dusted for fingerprints, and I have the support of many people around me, all of that still hasn't allowed me to completely put this experience behind me. Out of the 18 days of this month so far, I've only stayed at my home maybe 5 times, one being after the incident occurred, when my roommate came home from work and we locked ourselves into her room and slept in her bed. Since then, I've slept in 6 other beds aside from my bed at home. It worked out that I had plans to stay the night in other places already, as well as house sit for my boss and then house sit for my friends that I'm doing this week, so I don't have to spend nights alone at home, trying to sleep in the dark of my room, where it happened. Yes, there are new locks even for my room, but I still do feel uneasy about things, and since then, I've never really had a good night's sleep. I've either woken up in the middle of the night freaked out, have cried myself to sleep, or otherwise. I've had unsettling dreams every night as well.

As much as it is nice to get some space from the incident and where it happened, I worry that avoiding that space for so long will make it even more difficult for me to come back to it and try to settle back into normalcy. That's not to say that my time spent alone in a strange place as I've been doing for the bulk of this time has been easy, but I've managed to keep myself busy until I'm tired enough to go to bed. In those few times that I've been home without someone there with me, I do rather well by myself, keeping myself busy, keeping the lights off as much as possible so whoever doesn't know where I am/what I'm doing, but last I tried, each time I turn off the lights, this overwhelming sense of fear gets to me, and I then have to somehow convince myself there isn't anything to worry about and hopefully sleep will take me quickly.

I know these things take time, and I have to keep reminding myself that. Still, that doesn't stop me from waiting and wishing for the day that I can once again feel safe sleeping in my own bed, alone again.

...and in case you're wondering, I have been making something of an effort to find a new place to live.

Manchmal, bin ich verruckt

2008-07-12T00:44:00.001-07:00

...und manchmal, es ist ein bisschen ängstlich. Aber ich weiss, das es viel Spaß macht!

Im November, ich urlaube nach München!!!

Das Wetter wird sehr kalt (so wie Boston, ich glaube), also unsere Kleider soll sehr warm sein.

Ich kann zum Christmarkt, und es ist die Zeit des Jahres für GEBRANNTE MANDELN!!!

Fur jetzt, ich muss mein Geld sparen. Ich muss viel Geld sparen. Europa ist ein bisschen teuer.

Aber am Ersten, muss ich mein deutsch üben.

Oh, the Scots

2008-07-10T06:04:00.000-07:00

Perhaps a part of me kind of knows that had things happened differently, I could have been in Scotland right now. Or maybe Scots are just fun people.

Craig Ferguson's Late Late Show is funny. My uncle had a cameo in one of his episodes when he became a U.S. Citizen.

Even more funny is when he has another Scot on the show. Perhaps I will share the time when Jame McAvoy was on the show, but for this time around, Ewan MacGregor should fare very well.

Oh, Ewan.

Part II is fun, too.

NOT on the Wishlist

2008-07-01T04:40:00.000-07:00

You'll be so good to notice that home invasion wasn't part of my previously compiled list.

At least I got my annual creepy pervert summer fix taken care of!

Summer Wishlist 2008

2008-06-30T20:14:00.001-07:00

I want to be responsible for someone falling in love with something they otherwise would have never given the time of day.

I want to see the sun rise and the sun set in the presence of a very large body of water. I'd prefer it to be an ocean, no matter what coast it faces.

I want to go to the First Cabin early and get the best seat in the house, finish my first Long Island iced tea before Pat O'Brien and the Priests of Love rock out, be responsible for at least two requests, and void all apprehensions of the change of ownership that nothing will change and Captain Bob will still be at the Helm.

I want to spend several days at a time wearing my bathing suit underneath my clothes so I can go swimming at the drop of a hat.

I want to see a movie that I truly, truly love on the big, big screen.

I want to stay up all night, with good company, all the while not even taking one blink of sleepiness.

I want to be able to talk and talk and talk about nothing and everything all at once, dreams and disappointments, kittens and grandmothers all alike.

I want to spend a day where I don't know or have to care what time it is, and where I have to be next.

I want to spend more time outside.

I want to challenge myself and see how much fried catfish I can eat before I feel like puking, one Tuesday or Thursday night.

I want to wear the summer dresses that didn't get to come out last year.

I want to take a train, plane, or automobile somewhere, ideally to a destination further than an In-N-Out burger can be served.

I want to get so drunk, I play a mean game of pool. And/or make BFFs with someone I despise.

I want a nice tan.

I want to make summer somen noodles with the sauce made from scratch, and serve it with all the fixins, with the noodles on ice.

I want to laugh so hard, I use up all the oxygen in the room.

This year feels like a good year for camping.

I want crazy long video gaming marathon (with others).

I want to actually watch the Olympics.

Although I don't like breaking the law, I want do try defying gravity.

I want to get lost with no worry for my safety or of whether I will still be alive in the next few hours.

BBQ

I want to sleep in...like, really, really sleep in.

I want to look to the heavens and watch it raining stars.

I want to feel like I'm making a difference somehow.

I want to spend an entire day inside watching movie after movie, and eating tons of popcorn.

I want to read a book.

Perhaps the most realistic thing I should have as my number one is to go to the 99 Cent store and get myself a headset for my cell phone.

I Saw what Could Have Been

2008-06-27T09:19:00.000-07:00

This is a summary of my week:

WORK: workworkworkworkworkworkrkrkworkworkwowo - Yes, it's been so crazy that compounds and overlaps upon itself

HOME: workworkworkworkwork *nap with kitty* workworkworkworkwork - I've been concentrating on my own personal project, it's madness, except for kitty naps time.

SOCIAL LIFE: workworkwork - ?!??! Yes, I go to friend's work to wait until work is done, and in the meantime, possibly do what I need to do for HOME. Instead, my input is needed, and I wind up reviewing a proof for a very important brochure my friend's been working on. So I do copy and layout notes for the whole time there.

Funny thing is, had things unfolded differently in the recent past, I would have been doing that exact thing around this time, except I'd be getting paid for it. It's a bit crazy to think that the brochure I was editing probably would have been created by me, as I would have been in charge of planning the whole retreat.

My friend is going crazy having to deal with all of it, and I feel badly, thinking that I would have helped prevented a lot of crazy-making if I was around to help out, and I would have been more than happy to do it. Not to mention, I really wouldn't have minded spending a week in Edinburgh.

TWO FREE TACOS DAY IS TODAY!!!

2008-06-26T01:45:00.000-07:00

CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION!

And during a time that many people are hyper-sensitive to the smallest of things nowadays, I'll go on the record to say that THIS PROMOTION IS UNFAIR AND DISCRIMINATORY TO THOSE WITHOUT CARS. I may only kind of believe that, but for the sake of anger and arguing, I can blindly argue to support my claim.

I'd like to get into greater detail about it, but seeing that it's well past my bedtime and I'm not even at home, I'll have to promise to do it at a later time. For now, I thought I'd offer the deal to those who aren't already aware of the promotion, regardless of how unfair I think it is.

I just hope I'll get to it before the hormonal rage passes.

One of Those

2008-06-26T00:26:00.000-07:00

You know...it's one of those weeks where everything's just off.

I've had a million things to do and take care of in the past few days, my internal clock is all out of whack, and I'm half-expecting to wake up in the morning to think that it should be Saturday already with all the work I've been doing this week. It's crazy to think that even with the assistance of an intern, there just isn't enough hours in the day to get everything done. Coming into work on Tuesday had me FREAKED out, because I had so much to do, yet had so much more I still needed to take care of, I was just dizzy thinking that I only had two more days left to do things. I thought it was already Thursday. I guess in a way it's a good thing, because it really forces me to crank out everything I need to get done so I can move onto the next thing, and I've really been getting that stuff out there and fast. I've caught myself a few times just taking a moment to sit back and realize what I'm doing, and by the end of the day, I'm just brain dead.

Sadly enough, right now I have no time to allow myself to veg out after punching out.

I've got my own things to take care of, been doing a lot of writing, including helping out my boss' housekeeper write an appeal for her son who just graduated from elementary school, and is not allowed to enroll in the middle school in the same district that he's been in (the one closest to work). I'm volunteering for an event Saturday morning, and have yet to set aside a bunch of clothes I no longer want for this clothes swap event. After that, I have to work at my job's latest performance. On top of that, I'm organizing games for a baby shower on Sunday, and have yet to buy all the materials needed for those games.

At least I've been good at remembering most things. Usually during times like this, I get blatantly absent minded, like turn on my headlights during the day, or trying to get out of the car without unfastening my seat belt, or almost leaving the house without shoes.

One thing I've done with that so far is put on my underwear inside out today. I didn't realize that until I went to the restroom later in the day.

The worst is when I make bad decisions based on appetite and that time of the month. Having not eaten meat for most of the week, I had a sudden hankering for the stuff. At first, I thought to get carne asada fries, which I've never had before, and through the course of time, it somehow dwindled down to Carl's Jr., where I decided to get one of my usual spicy chicken sandwiches, and out of curiosity, I dropped the $3.09 for their version of the chili cheese fries.

It takes a lot for me to pay about $0.50 more for something that's not Tommy's chili cheese fries, but I figured, I might as well try it now before I try it in absolute chili cheese fries desperation moment and become utterly disappointed in them. Of course, the picture of them looked good, and when I got the bag of food, it smelled like it was made with real beef, but when I got it home and opened the container, I got the biggest disappointment in my life.

Did you see the fries that girl in the commercial was having? Yeah, I was NOT having that. It had a lot of cheese, and what little "chili" they had looked pale for chili and had such a small amount of the stuff in the nest of skinny fries. The fries themselves were probably the saving grace, since they were skinny and seemed baked, and were tasty on their own. But dropping $3 on what's suppose to be chili cheese fries is a downright scam.

Summer's in full swing, but I didn't expect it to be so CRAZY.

There's one good thing about things being crazy right now, it makes you look forward for the time when things won't be as crazy. I do intend to have a fun summer this time around, even though mine last year actually wasn't as bad as I thought (Though it had its rough spots).

I've Got My Mind on My Money and Money on My Mind

2008-06-24T06:57:00.000-07:00

It's pretty crazy to think that I find it novel that I'm actually saving money.

That's not to say that in the past year and change, I was blowing each paycheck on superfluous things and lived from paycheck from paycheck. In fact, it was a bit of the opposite: even when I started working more hours just over a year ago, I still wound up tapping bit by bit into my savings just to get by. I did have medical insurance, because my work actually arranged it to have all employees to have insurance, but my more hours per week job was so demanding and crazy, it really wasn't quite worth it. That job caused so much irreparable damage to so many things in my life, it's got me rather jaded to the point that even now, I'm very apprehensive on how I react to and talk about work now.

Now, I actually have a job that pays me fairly well. After taking paycut after paycut for the sake of doing things that I feel like was worthwhile, I was finally being paid a livable wage...the wage I actually was making when I left my first job. Those were good times, because that was a point in my life when I had a lot of money saved up enough that I managed to quit my job and remained jobless for six months before picking up some part time work just to get by; two of those months included my stomping around New York City, which actually has a higher cost of living than where I'm used to. Back then, I didn't have a car to pay off (I just bought one off my cousin), or had to pay for rent. Nevertheless, being paid what I made three years ago was a drastic improvement from before.

Now that I'm past my probation period, I'm getting paid an extra 20% from that, and it's just amazing that even with all my bills and whatnot, I'm able to save money. I've even paid off my personal debts. I've lent somewhat substantial amounts of money. I've weathered May, which is usually a high-spending month, and June is almost over with its usual high degree of spending well. Even so, my savings is slowly creeping up, and it makes me happy.

They say that your savings should be enough to cover you for six months should anything happen. After dealing with what I've had to deal with for the past three years, I've now learned that even though there's money in the bank doesn't mean I can just throw it around. And I haven't. I don't really buy new clothes; I get something new every now and then on a sale, or when my mom gets me something (not that I really need more clothes right now...well, I do, possibly, pending certain things). So far I've only bought one game for my Nintendo DS (the other two were presents), and I bought one game for a console I don't even own. When I do need/want something, I first refer to Freecycle or Craigslist to see if someone no longer wants theirs. In all, I've been pretty good.

In all honesty, though, I do miss doing things what people who have money can do. I miss being able to burn money on film and developing. It's a blessing and a curse I've been working in casual wear offices so I don't have to have "nice" clothes, but I do miss the feeling of gussying up for work every now and then. I haven't been to Coachella in two years, in the past 18 months I've only been to Disneyland once. Most missed of all, I haven't really traveled since 2005. I was making good work going to some far-off land every year for a while: One year was Germany. Year after that was broader Europe. After that was NYC for almost two months. The last thing that resembled a trip for me was when I flew to Las Vegas for the first time to go to a weekend festival there.

I've been so entrenched in survival mode, I've lost sight of the things I really enjoy doing, even though a good deal of them costs a bit of money. Now that it's becoming more and more feasible for me to start with those things again, I'm getting itchy. Still, I revel with every paycheck that allows me to save even more, but the more I save, the more I want to just take that and go away for a while.

Whatever I do wind up doing, please help me in making sure that I don't wind up blowing my money on a plane ticket to Berlin and a course to get my certification to teach English abroad.

Working at Home

2008-06-23T09:32:00.000-07:00

Granted, I really don't spend a large amount of time at home. On top of that, when I do, I'm usually in my room, working on things on my computer atop my bed. I hear it's not good to do that, because your body knows you use this space as a working space, so when you sleep, you wind up thinking about working more, since the space where you do both are one in the same.

But if you have something like this accompanying you whenever you do, how could you resist?

For the record,there's no cute, mangy little thing next to me. That's partly because my internal body temperature is another 10 degrees with my laptop on my lap as my kitty cats are roaming about the hot, hot den.

Seeing Things

2008-06-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

There is, as usual, some really great exhibits around town. Three in particular, I really want to see:

Robert Rauschenberg
June 28 – August 16, 2008
Artist Reception: Saturday, June 28, 5 - 7 pm

Greenfield Sacks Gallery
2525 Michigan Avenue, B6 (Bergamot Station), Santa Monica, CA 90404
http://www.greenfieldsacks.com
Tuesday – Saturday, 11am-5:30pm

This exhibit presents twelve new, original prints entitled The Lotus Series, were completed March 23 of this year shortly before he passed away.

This series comes from images that were recently rediscovered when Bill Goldston, Director and Mater Printer at Universal Limited Art Editions asked Rauschenberg if he would be interested in having an exhibition of new prints in Beijing in 2008. The images used in this exhibit came from trips Rauschenberg took to China in 1982 and 1985, in the latter year Goldston accompanied Rauschenberg.

I enjoy Rauschenberg's work, and I am privileged to work in a house that has several pieces adorning several walls through the place. It would be really nice to see his latest work, especially since this is the last work of his we'll ever have.

Also at Bergamot, which is convenient for a one-stop visit of good art:

“Passage” Solo art exhibition by Dennis Mukai
June 21, - July 19, 2008

Robert Berman Gallery
Bergamot Station Art Center
2525 Michigan Avenue, C-2, Santa Monica, CA 90404
http://www.robertbermangallery.com
Tuesday through Saturday from 11am until 6pm

I've never heard of Dennis Mukai before, but this Hiroshima born, LA-based artist's new work is actually created using sandpaper to remove layers of paint to gradually reveal the white of the original surface. From the press release, "Inspired by primitive photos from the advent of photography, Dennis’ realistic yet distressed images trigger the emotions of recollection."

Seeing the image with the press release, I initially thought it was a photograph, which somewhat piqued my interest. After reading the description, I was even more intrigued, and would very much like to see these works in person to be able to see what I expect to be somewhat tactile pieces of art.

Also at Bergamot is the Rose Gallery, which is a gallery devoted to photography. Every time I've been there, they have great exhibits up, and have shown some of my favorite photographers such as Martin Paar.

What I most want to see, however, is The Huntington's current exhibition:
This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in L.A. Photographs
June 14 – Sept. 15, 2008
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108

You've got me at photography, you've got me at Los Angeles at the theme. But what most intrigues me to this exhibit is that I really don't see The Huntington presenting a contemporary photography exhibit like this with that particular subject matter. Even more intriguing is the fact that part of this exhibit features some of The Huntington's photo collection. Apparently, The Huntington has an "extensive photographic archive," something I never would have expected. I always thought that the Huntington pretty much had a collection of "classical" paintings, much like the works that are call the Huntington House its home (ex. Blue Boy, Pink Lady). I guess they're not unlike the Getty, where J. Paul's personal collection is a bit too pastoral and stuffy for me, but The Trust has one amazing collection. Either way, the trifecta of The Huntington showing a photography exhibit about LA is way too good to pass up. I'm already pretty sad I didn't take advantage of the member preview showing on the past Friday, the 13th, since I am a member, after all.

Should anyone want to see this show, let me know, and I can get you in for free ;)

In fact, should anyone want to see any of these shows, let me know!

Reader Speaks Out!

2008-06-21T10:08:00.001-07:00

It's always great to hear from one of my 5 readers and get their feedback on what they've been suckered into reading.

From the feedback that I got, guess posting three entries in a row about how hot it is, how hot it is with a kitten on your lap while eating ramen, and how hot it is makes for bad blogging. I happen to agree. It's heat like this that makes me think that Mulholland really doomed the fools who decided to settle in the hot, hot chaparral that is now Los Angeles and made them think there's actually enough resources to sustain all its inhabitants. I would otherwise suggest that LA turn subterranean if not for the many lethal gas pockets as well as the mine of a petroleum lake that's under La Brea. It's pretty hard to ignore the fact that it's so hot it's causing me to have headaches and falling asleep spells when I otherwise should be doing other things.

And when I say other things, that means that I have been doing things that haven't been blogging, but I have been doing a good deal of writing for some time now. All that writing energy has sapped any quality of blogging I may have had ever.

So in the interest of further fooling you, dear reader, into visiting my blog, I shall write about other things.

=BUT BEFORE I DO=
I have a fun and handy tip to use this heat to your advantage and reduce your carbon footprint and energy bill. If your house gets really hot like mine and are planning on eating food from the fridge, try thinking ahead and just put the food out to sit out in the heat, thus eliminating the need to use the microwave/toaster oven!

And in almost similar news: A longtime dream has come true yesterday. I was given a POPCORN MAKER. Had I known this day was coming, I would have already stocked up on popcorn kernels, because all I want to do right now is make myself a batch of popcorn. RIGHT NOW.

Packin' the Heat

2008-06-19T23:31:00.000-07:00

Even at 7am, it's pretty hot. Like sweaty hot.

Of course, it doesn't help that I decide to make myself ramen for breakfast. Not only that, along with some other things, I make it spicy as well with white and cayenne pepper. I tried to let the soup cool a little bit before eating, but time and hunger prevented me from doing so. I was working up a sweat eating the stuff, but it was so worth it.

But then there was the kitten. She's now banished from sleeping with my roommate, who will be working the swing shift for the rest of the month, so her room is unavailable to the little terror, which meant she was milling about my person the whole time.

Every now and then, I'd look down at her, and she'd look up at me, and do her cute little kitten head tilt and gaze at me with her ice blue eyes. Against my best judgment, I finally picked her up and placed her on my lap for that human contact that she wanted. As expected, despite how hot it was, she stayed and lay on my lap as I finished my food.

I mean, really...
Could YOU resist this face?

She may not be that big, but her little body creates a good amount of heat. Combine that with the hot, spicy soup, I was melting, but really happy since I was eating soup while having a cute kitty on my lap.

I'm thinking of a word that best describes this...suffering from heat though enjoying it at the same time...

...oh yeah. Shadenfreude

....Darn

2008-06-18T22:12:00.001-07:00

I burned the soup.

Yes, it's possible. I had the fire on too darn high and didn't attend to it in time, and all the liquid was boiled away. I managed to salvage it, though, and I did add that other sausage. Now it tastes toasty.

Kitty is totally lethargic from the heat, too:

It's not even officially Summer yet, either. Ugh.