Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Mental garage sale... anybody want some bottled anger?

I am getting married. There. Now I can say it out loud to the whole internet.

I. Am getting. Married.

And I have never been more certain of doing something in my life, unless you count the time I was utterly sure it would be funny to hide Bengay, KY Jelly and rubber gloves in Mom's grocery cart. I was absolutely right on that, so my track record is now at 100%.

I just wish the stupid place would call and tell me the ring is sized. It feels like a phantasmic fog until the evidence is there, physical and touchable, on my finger. I guess because the first time felt like nothing at all, handed a ring I didn't get to help pick out or have any say in, I'm nervous. I'm nervous the ring won't actually show up and all of this is just a mirage and I got my hopes up. I am afraid the symbol of our sharing, our cooperation and our partnership will evaporate and I am left feeling immature and stuck in a rotational life of... I don't even know. Going through the motions? Just putting up with things?
So much over such a small thing. It's funny how much power symbols and associations hold over people -myself included.
I'm going to say it now although I wouldn't dare before. It was banal, boring and actually incredibly ugly. Like a yin-yang with a yellow rock stuck in it, from my fiance who decided to believe the jeweler that he needed to get me an actual gemstone instead of the amber I really loved. The guy who was so fast to fly along with the status quo in living his life that I'm surprised he didn't get whip-lash, yet talked about how open-minded he was...and then was shocked and surprised and angered when I didn't behave exactly as was expected for my role as gf or fiance or wife. Like begets like, I suppose.
I suppose it is time to vomit up all the old vitriol to get it out of the way, as I now have something that is loving and respectful to replace it with. I would far rather clean out the interior to make room for that than hold on to it, although it's still a very old and rather deep wound. It's my hope that I don't get in the middle of clearing all this old stuff out and end up taking it out on Bob. I already go in to rants about my previous husband and how much he sucked, who knows what sort of crap this will dredge up. :(

But all of this aside, I am still happy. I have a partner, and I am getting married.
And I'm really sick of everybody saying "We all knew you were perfect for each other!"
Congrats... but Bob could've been running a bestiality fetish site for all you guys knew and it might've torn us apart as the revenue fell off due to federal crackdown. So, yes, well observed but bear in mind all details are not always known! :P
(And no, there's no site. Fret not)
I'm sleepy and hormonal. Wish I could nap. Short weekend, have to keep telling myself it'll be a short weekend. Then we go to the beach, which I love. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to having the sand between my toes, gull cries and surf in my ears, and salt water in my nostrils (literally, if I don't hit a wave right). I'm really excited.
In other news, my holga shots came back from the mail-order place. The colors are horrible and they cut off the extra images at the beginning and ends of every roll I sent to them. That's a full 30 pictures. And they only sent me the 10 images they developed, so there's no other negatives for me to go back and say "Pardon me, could you do this too...?" I thought it was grossly unprofessional of them to do it that way... just get rid of somebody's work like that. So, yes, I will be going elsewhere. But in other news, MOST of the photos from Japan made it back, and while they are all very grey thanks to the development process (There's no way it looks like it was raining the entire trip when most were taken on a bright sunny day) you can still tell some of the colors.
The only thing they didn't entirely screw up were my black and white shots, which they did manage to over and underdeveloped quite a few on. I actually got some really, really nice ones. So to test out the theory that it's not the film or the camera, I'm sending them somewhere else to be developed. If it comes back that way ~again~, I'll know it's not the film, it's that I need more lightning for the camera.
As an aside, I was featured today on MySpace by a writing group that uses artwork from chosen deviantArtists as inspiration. I'm flattered, and also blushing like crazy at the compliments they're giving my work. I always thought of it as mediocre, they really seem to like it. I guess it's good to bring me back in to perspective. Pageviews =!! Talent. (Little coding joke there)
Tonight I'm faxing off my paperwork to officially roll over to the Software Engineer. I can't reiterate enough how excited I am to have an actual ~career~ now instead of just something to bring in money. Money is good, but I am one of those people who's got to have a point to what she's doing or she will be eternally unhappy. Even more so if it doesn't allow her to be creative and use her brain. And if the Ronin Mensch ain't happy...well... things start to happen to relieve the tedium and employers start tearing their hair out. So really it's the best and most compassionate choice for yours truly to move over to something where she'll be challenged.
Oh, and also? I am getting married.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Actual Conversation #67 - Good Justifications for a Road Trip

Me: You know, I believe ever Sunday should start in this particular fashion. Get the motors running.
Bob: Yeah?
Me: Yep. So we can head out on the highway. Maybe look for some adventure...
Bob: ...are you born to be wild?
Me: Or, you know, whatever comes our way.
Bob: Ouch. Why did you have to do that?

Friday, June 26, 2009

Actual Conversation # 66 - Where Typo Confusion Can Be Bad

Mike: thank you
Helen: no!
Mike: uh...
Helen: np, rather.
Helen: TYPO
Helen: my bad. lol
Mike: ha...way to freak me out
Helen: Sorry! rofl

Delusions of Heroism

Almost forgot to spam pictures of the baby song sparrow I rescued this week. This is him falling asleep in my hand. He already had a beautiful singing voice.
His parents gorged on seeds from the feeder and flew over to feed him after he made it to the tall grass. I'm sending the little guy luck. He was very polite while I carried him around and chirped sweetly for his parents once I got him over to my part of the yard away from the neighbor's dog.
(Love the crazy downy feathers still around his head!)

A Few Things I Would Love...

...given my propensity for being frustrated about things lately that are out of my control but for the idea of caring about them. I present to you a list:

~I would love for the people on deviantArt to stop equating breast-shots and nude women with art. There's a point when you're just whoring out subject matter to get attention. Sadly, the majority is pre- and post-pubescent teens and 20 something males who gum up their keyboards to your work. Tits aren't art. Naked tits in an industrial alley way are not art. Painting tits...not art. I have no issue with the human form until it's used strictly to drum up attention. Then you're basically a cable TV network.

~I would love to listen to my first inclination on things. SO many times I have thought one thing only to second guess myself 0.5 seconds later, then realize I was correct initially and regret the "logical" decision that I overlay on my impressions. I am a creature of intuition before all else and logic is a robe I wear necessarily, but without any clue about how, when, why, or if you pin it on the shoulder to keep it from sliding off.
For instance... many times I looked at items in Kyoto and thought "I should grab that" or items when we wandered around Shinjuku and thought they would be lovely to bring home. Upon returning home I realized 2/3rds of what we'd grabbed was gifts for other people and we were left with a handful of items that only barely covered the time we spent there and the things we saw. Now that all but the sharpest details are fading from memory and it is only a month later, I find myself constantly regretting not picking up more items that reminded me of the place and the culture and all of the wonderful things we saw. I regret not taking all of the photos I thought about snapping. We could've gotten more film. Mostly I regret not listening to that voice that whispers quietly "Do this now... this is what is necessary in this moment."
Impulsive, perhaps, but rarely have these moments led me wrong.
~I would love it if I gave myself permission to sit down and do something that's on my mind. I lock so much energy up in doing things I "should" be doing in that minute instead of what is on my mind that I sometimes end up sitting there doing nothing at all.
I have had a few paintings waiting in the wings and my latest volume of "Bride of the Water God" sitting on the coffee table. I have been dying to work on them or read, but each time I think of it, I then tell myself there are dishes to be cleaned, or laundry to be folded, or any other number of things. Subsequently, I only sort of do what "should" be worked on, half-assing it, and I'm miserable because I want to work on something else and I'm not letting myself. Yet the second I actually do it, I get a rush of energy that carries me through the rest of the "shoulds" lightning-fast. I would also love to remember this!
~I would love to have faith in myself and just do something instead of stopping to study if I know everything about how to do it, especially how to do it right. I'm guessing everybody who's done everything wasn't prepared for everything when they did whatever "it" was they chose to do, and I need to let go of my fears and my perfectionist streak... at least insofar as it gets in my way from starting or completing something. I don't lose fingers or go to jail for making adjustments after the fact. Somehow I need to convince my brain of that.

That's pretty much it. Right now utterly nothing of importance is going on and life is like normal. We're going to the Celtic Fling tomorrow, a perennial favorite of ours (the Scotch eggs are a necessary evil as cuisines go) and at some point I will fold laundry. Desperately exciting stuff, folks, I mean it...
Oh, and one last thing. I officially put in to have my major changed from networking to programming. I'd rather write the commands that make the beast go than be the one that has to make it perform after the fact. I would love for a chance to be creative every day and I think that would allow me to be. I feel really, really good about the decision. Now we'll see if my advisor kills me for changing my mind after she's stated she already has all of my classes scheduled out for me as a networking major. Heh.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Today's Bigger-Than-The-Previous Achievment!

There was a girl I follow on deviantArt (and here on Blogspt, actually, she's got a blog filled with crocheted things of immense cuteness) who found a website asking people to describe their lives currently in the form of a haiku. She got a real kick out of the idea and was talking about it, later following it up by asking people who followed her on deviantArt to do the same and post their life haikus in her blog.
I love haiku. It's so damned hard to express an idea in limited syllables, but even once you do that, there is a certain level of art and eloquence that can also be attained if you can just figure out how to juxtapose phrases, ideas, sounds... and on the rare occasion I'd managed it. I enjoyed the idea of the challenge and leapt to it, wondering if I could accurately compose what was in my head.
Instead, I went outside of my head and immediate events. Somehow I managed to write perfectly about what my life's been like for the last several months. Possibly with a bit of art... verging on eloquence? Not sure. I lose points for paraphrasing a bumper sticker in the first line, anyway:

Wandering, not lost;
I love everything I've seen.
and brought it with me.

It's true. I photograph things daily. I draw. I enjoy petting my cats and cooking dinner and drawing and knitting and doing all kinds of other things. I'm happy just being in this spot like I haven't been in a while, collecting up the places, sounds, smells and sights in my head and going off elsewhere with a small smile on my face. I am content. It's a good place to be in.
On the way home the wild tiger lilies surprised me, blaring bright orange from the side of the road. Every year I promise myself I will take photographs of them and every year I miss them.
I'd been so busy with other things that I hadn't even remembered they were on their way, and now they're already here! This weekend I shall set aside time to go hunting them by the roadside somewhere and see how they'll turn out on a Holga and a Nikon. maybe even a camera-phone, who knows. :)
This evening was spent crafting miso from scratch (a MUCH easier process the second time around, let me tell you.) and I finally got it adjusted to a place that I liked. We had some soft tofu that had escaped being frozen by the busted thermostat in our fridge, so in it went along with the green onions. That, and a test drive of the tamagoyaki pan yielded wonderful results, although it is quite obvious that there needs to be more practice. The tamago wasn't as sweet as some we'd had before, and I allowed the eggs and pan to get too hot, so there was bubbling and browning. It came out tasting decent, it was consumed with gusto. But I have work to do, and if it's THAT easy to make the stuff, really there's no excuse for me not to more often. I am further thrilled that the specialty tamagoyaki pan is amazingly easy to clean and I basically ran it under the faucet to get the gunk off it. It's totally clean now. :)
We bought plants on Saturday in the hopes of getting to put them in the ground and rescue ourselves from a summer without fresh tomatoes or hot peppers, but didn't get around to it until tonight. It felt good to get my hands in the earth. I've got dirt under every fingernail and I'm proud of it! Planted seeds of herbs we'd gotten last year, and we'll see if anything comes up. I'm hoping the basil and the mint do, as I'm dying to make some fresh, sweetened mint tea for the disgustingly hot days to come. And nothing beats freshly made pesto.
Also planted 3 big marigold plants and a handful of sunflower seeds out back. We'll see if the sunflowers pop up. if they do, i would love it. If not... eh, no big worries. I can live a year without my favorite flowers outside. I've done it before. But I'd be lying if I didn't say I had my fingers crossed and was willing them to sprout like nuts and grow tall in the sun. :)
I then followed all of THAT up by filling up the seed and suet feeders in the hopes of seeing some of the local wildlife around. I've vowed to only fill it once a week, as I really don't feel like shelling otu a ton of $$$ when 50% of it just goes to fatten those little fucker squirrels out back.
We released a white mouse last week as the pet shop had sent us home with 3, but one was a full adult and Tiamat would've torn her mouth trying to swallow the thing. Bob took him out back and dropped him off in the high grass, and we figured that would be the last we'd seen of him.
Except that the next morning he popped out from underneath our cement patio and proceeded to eat bird seed before taking a walk down to the far end and disappearing. okay, we thought, nice that he's found a place to hide, but it won't last.... until he proceeded to show up every morning in that fashion for the next several days.
Unfortunately we got attached to him, and I made sure to throw small bits of grain or stale popcorn outside both for the birds and for him. He came out in the mornings and evenings and nibbled here and there, then disappeared. Great! we thought, he's doing well and he'll survive! We'll have him under our porch and he'll make it...
Bob found him in the middle of the street by the dumpster on Monday, flattened as if he'd been stepped on or backed over. It's my hope someone backed over him carelessly and someone didn't intentionally see him and stomp him, leaving him there. As Bob said, though "How weird was it to find him that way, way over there? It's obviously the one we let go, it's just so weird that he was somewhere we absolutely could NOT miss that he was dead."
I believe Bob moved him, perhaps back in to the tall grass where we'd set him loose originally. Now he gets to stay there peacefully and undisturbed.
I can't wait to see the mice showing up with partially white shocks of fur on them by fall. That's enough time to disseminate the genes through the gene pool and start having run-ins with those carrying his albino gene. It might be a fun mini-game.
Either way, I'm really glad we didn't name this one. And I'm glad his last few days he was free, enjoying the sunshine and fattening himself up on sunflower seeds.
So we don't end on a lousy note, here's a shot of the world from Bob's car window as we were driving down 30 on Monday:

It's been a longer day than I thought it was. Time for sleep.

Today's Biggest Achievement.

I present to you my handiwork:

This came after realizing that someone had been taking them and had not even so much as bothered to ask if it were okay to do so. One of my coworkers mentioned having very bad heartburn and I thought it was unusual to share such a detail...until I looked over at the jar of antacids I'd brought to work with me a while back before I figured out the coffee was the source of the problem. And noted it was halfway empty.
I then decided that it was incredibly rude to simply take something from somewhere else (revisitng a moment from college when I discovered that the coffee I was happily getting ready to brew had been completely used up by a room mate who didn't even replace the shit) and sprang in to action.
What you can't really see is the fine tape-wrapping job I did on the lid. It's taped to the plastic bottle by several strips and there is tape wound around the top of it. In order to get in to it now they will need to employ scissors and risk my ire. We shall see if that happens, or they actually ask.
And yes, it absolutely qualifies for the passive-aggressive notes website, but the guy who's probably using them is across the freaking building and had no reason to be over here. Ever. Which means he's been making a bee line to my cubicle every night after I go home to make use of medication he's too cheap to buy. He's the networking engineer, so I know he's making more. It's no excuse and it's fucking creepy.

Aside from that? Utterly nothing else of note has occured this week. I am prone to falling asleep at work because of the lack of stimulus. It sucks.

Also, I decided today I would start collecting Hello Kitty cell phone straps. They're small and inexpensive, yet utterly adorable. I can just keep them in a shoebox and mumble about them when I hit old age. This seems like a good plan to me.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

*que U2 song here*

Discovered a direct correlation between how much gets done in an evening and the time at which the TV comes on. Because shortly after the TV came on and my laptop was turned on, my productivity stopped.
I'm going to start holding off on touching the laptop or TV until after 8 and see just how much I blaze through in those 2.5 hours after I get home.
Shot the last frame of my 3200 speed b&w film last night. We shall see how it turns out, if at all. My final exposure was on the ground facing a different direction and exposed for only 10 minutes. If it didn't catch the fireflies, I'll be interested to see what it makes the landscape look like, as I had only very faint ambient light coming from the streetlights out front and a few living room windows to light the thing (and none of those were in frame). I'm worried I"ll have 12 shots of utterly mediocre stuff but hey... it was a Holga. They're known as lo-tech for a reason.
Awoke to a frog-choker rain which apparently inspired my artwork. The fact that I had artwork at all was a bit of a surprise but my mind is pretty much insisting I produce some things. It's that wonderful fiery beckoning that calls from deep in the back of one's head, singing about how you utterly need to pick up a pencil and begin a sketch. I'm told it's similar to what addicts go through when they haven't had their afternoon fix. I'm in that.
It's nice to be drawing again. I'm also noting I'm far more awake today than I was previously. Maybe I kicked some weird energetic/motivational blockage out of my system and we're going to be going crazy again as we once did. I would LOVE that, personally.
The boss was nice enough to buy us pizza for lunch... the good brick-over kind from a local hole in the wall. I enjoyed the taste but now my stomach is informing me it does not enjoy the contents. So for now I think we're cutting back on the processed flour and cheese bits of our usual diet. More rice and gentle protein for this tummy.
It's a good day even though it's been rainy and gray for most of it. It is date night, and we have plans to talk about gardening and other things. I like how this day seems to be going.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Did I do that?

I somehow remembered I needed a more stable tripod than the gorillapod purchased in Akihabara (which has left me desiring an even bigger one, actually, as the one I have is cute and demure, but not good for wrapping around big poles. And that sounded dirty.) and stumbled over to the Amazon site. once there I discovered I had dropped one in to my shopping cart yesterday and opted to wait until I got paid to snag it even though it's an el-cheapo 'pod.
It boggles me that my mind even puts two and two together these days. I'd forgotten it was in there. I'd forgotten that I wanted it until I stumbled across some time lapse shots made with a Nikon and thought "Oh, yeah, I need to get one of those because I can't stand still for an hour like that holding it."
I'm really not sure what happened to my brain that reduced it to pudding, but I do have to say that when I am aware of it, it's rather irritating. Reversing this trend is foremost on my list now.

If I'm staring at you it's because I've forgotten everything in the world.

The first thing of note to happen to me today was to see a very teeny tiny baby bunny nibbling on grass at the side of the road as I slowed down to go over the verkakte speedbumps they put at the entrances to our little subdivision. I do believe my head popped, and apparently I made a high-enough pitched sound that it sat back and looked at me for a second, whilst still chewing on what must have been some epic food.
So that was kind of cool.
This is the first time that I can remember (important qualifier there) that I have had a massage and continue to experience pain as a result. Usually it's totally awesome and I feel refreshed and springy the next day. Last night Norah gave me the People's Elbow -literally- and I feel as if I have been doing jumping jacks and pushups for three or four hours... and then was beaten with rocks. All of my muscles ache. Perhaps I didn't drink enough fluids last night afterward to flush everything out? I'm not sure, but I crack and creak when I walk today and it is most unpleasant to perambulate about feeling as if 30 years was magically added to all my joints and major muscle groups. I'm thinking I need to start going back systematically and getting crunched every 2 weeks, minimum. Then maybe this won't happen again.
Last night after arriving home Bob and I sat out back on lawn chairs and watched the blitzkrieg of fireflies rise out of the strip of high grass and completely take over the trees. It was amazing that these animals that we only see for a few nights every year survive in such great numbers asleep beneath the soil as they do. I thought about the sheer numbers there, and just how many would rise out of an entire field of high grass, how the glow would be amazing to witness. And also how Japan was probably seeing fireflies there as well. It was whimsical to think that a country on the other side of the planet had people stopping to watch them the same as I was.
As we talked last night, Bob and I hit upon the idea for next summer's epic trip... we usually seem to have one thing that stands out moreso than the others. This year obviously was Japan. But we tossed around the idea of driving up to Maine for a bit to experience the place one weekend until we realized the drive alone would eat up the better part of a day. We've now decided to wait until next year and make it at least a week up there, probably with stops in Boston and Connecticut.
I have wanted to go to Maine for a few years now, as I've seen very little of New England but it's just right up there. I've dreamed of walking on the beaches of Acadia ever since seeing photographs of them in College. I thought about standing on Mt. Washington and looking out over the woods. Also, I will have officially been to all 4 corners of the United States and it's two straggling outer members with this, and there's something that feels very complete about that.
I'm currently excited enough to be researching things about it even though it's over a year away. Also, I've gotta note that I'm about as excited to go to Maine as I was to go to Japan, and it does my heart good to know that apparently my brain doesn't "grade" new possible experiences as much as I thought it did!
Currently I've got a backup in projects awaiting my attention, but I find myself so tired in the afternoons after I get home that it's very hard to find the energy to work on them. We manage to wrangle dinner pretty well, then shortly after that the energy just takes this immense dive and I sit down to stare at things for a bit or fall asleep. It's obviously not a blood sugar thing, as I'm not shaky or scatter-brained. But because of this I have a growing list of things that need finished that has started to weigh on me, in part because they're also "fun" things that I do, and not 100% necessary (like standing outside taking firefly photographs, you know...)
A quick rundown of what I'm in the middle of -really for the purposes of personally tracking this stuff-:
~A new pair of socks for bob
~A new pair of socks for me (working on second sock, almost time to create the heel!)
~Yoga socks
~a crocheted sweater
~A baby pillow
~An amigurumi chocobo
~A Dr. Manhattan mini-amigurumi
~A scarf
~a watercolor of a sea turtle
~an abstract acrylic painting
~two hemp necklaces
~a massive list of unbegun sketches, paintings and sculptures I've had to start writing down to keep track of in my mind.
On top of this is my constantly forgotten promise to walk for half an hour 3 times a week, do some yoga to limber up, and remember to lift weights. Oh, and also do my homework, do the dishes, pick up the house, and whatever else comes up.
I completely forget this when I get home. It's like my brain turns off and I go in to power-saver mode. I hate it.
I also hate that I've had to go back to coffee to keep me awake during the days. Tea just wasn't handling it and I was in danger of nodding off constantly.
I'm starting to wonder if it isn't the place we're at. Even with walking constantly, sleeping on strange stiff beds and eating strange cuisine, I did BETTER in Japan than I am doing here. I was not this sore, this tired, or this (pardon the sharing) digestively volatile in a completely foreign situation. I think that kinda says something. Maybe like I should just eat rice and soba and tofu and see if that doesn't balance things out better.
I think if we were to win Powerball tonight I would probably hire someone to keep track of my brain until it was back to normal functioning on its own, whatever that entailed.
Yeah. Universe, let's try that out and see if it works. 72 million is enough to experiment with...

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

I heart fireflies

Today apparently my pet peeve has been the anthropomorphization of the body's actions. I know this because I was getting coffee (given my falling asleep at slow moments in the work day I am forced back to Le Caffeine Liquide) and an ad came on the television in the breakroom that began with "Your headache knows when you're stressed..."
My first reaction? No, you morons, it doesn't know when you're stressed, it's a physiological reaction to the tightening or enlarging of blood vessels in one's head due to stress or changes in health. If you have a headache it's because you're out of whack, stop making it sound like outside influences are the cause of such shit...
...and then I realized how badly I needed the coffee I was done preparing and now clutching in my sleepy hands. I was arguing with a glib one-liner produced by a marketing firm who honestly didn't put more than a few seconds' thought in to what they'd produced after determining it would appeal to their demographic and sell the product. And if they didn't, why on earth should I?
I had no response. Instead, I explained to a coworker I looked this tired because I was up past midnight doing homework. This being the truth, I took my coffee and my cup of pre-oatmeal (read: hot water) back to my seat and pondered a few other things that had been bothering me.
Here's the weird thing. Last night I stood outside utterly enthralled with the sway of the breeze in the night and the dance of fireflies above the grass and around the trees. It was like a summertime light string, or a faerie waltz through the fields like one reads about in childhood stories. It was utterly magic and I stood there in wonder for several minutes as they blinked and flashed and gently rose in the night.
The entire time I was praying that my little Holga was catching these little guys on its time-lapse exposure I'd set up on the deck. I bought a very high speed black and white film for the camera in the hopes that it would catch their dancing around the maple trees out back, but I won't know for sure until I get it developed. Hopefully it'll treat them like a time lapse light-kit and register them as little glow spots and light trails against dimly lit leaves.
What I'm really excited about is the fact that there was a lightning storm off in the distance during the latter part of the time-lapse. I didn't realize it was going on until I had already closed the shutter and saw the purple flashes off in the distance. If it was doing that for any length of time I have a dimly illuminated sky that helps establish that the fireflies are congregating around a tree. There's also a road off in the distance that is visible and that would have left light streams on courtesy of the passing headlights. It's rather expensive film to be goofing around with, but if I achieve what I'm hoping for, it'll be one of the greatest series of photographs I've ever taken.
Last night was perfect. Perfect temperature. Constant breeze. Lightning off in the distance. I loved it. I drank it in and hoped I could carry the peace I felt in that moment with me forever, even though I knew the futility of the wish. (as a Buddhist I know all things change, it has nothing to do with pessimism).
There's more going on in my head, about the awesomeness of the weekend and my family, getting to run screaming through a bonafide Biblical downpour, having the kitties dog-pile me once everyone was gone and fall asleep, happy to have me all to themselves... so many good things! I find my mind drifts to the immediate future and what needs to be taken care of and I smill but don't always document the past. There are pictures, and I remember what Mom and Julian looked like grumbling at each other over breakfast.
There's a lot left to do just that I'm aware of. I keep dwelling. One day I'll have the time and memory to set everything down, I suppose. But for now I'm going to look forward to sitting outside watching the fireflies this evening with Bob.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Nostradamus might have an idea....

Ahmadinejad will be the one in the middle east who starts the 3rd world war.

I had a great weekend with my family, but when I returned to the internet today I saw Iran in flames and blood. It's hard to blog about the wonder of watching my young niece explore new places and things when I know there are people who could get in serious trouble or be badly hurt for having that level of free speech there. It hurts to see what they go through, and to stand here and not know what I can do to help. When I can, I've tried to help by retweeting safe IPs and ports for people to sneak their video and reports out of when they can. Maybe somebody manages to get something out for the world to see because of it, maybe not. But it's the only thing I can think of to do to help.

I've managed to bang my toe well enough to probably fracture it, but the best part is that in favoring it I'm shuffling my feet and managed to kick at least 3 other things with it since then, resulting in a sharp and not-fun pain each time. I hate that I'll have to stay still for the next little bit, but it's better than the constant shooting, angry pain.

The fireflies were very quiet tonight, didn't make for such great photography. Maybe when it's a bit drier they'll come out more in full force. I mentioned something about thinking perhaps some of them had drowned in the downpour, Bob was quick to point out that most likely there just weren't a whole lot of them out yet (although they were out en force two days ago before the torrential rains we had.) I love him for wanting to comfort me that my favorite small, magical insects weren't hurt or dying.

I enjoyed having my family here, sad to see them leave, but really glad we had such fun. Watching Mom and Bob try to outsmart each other over who paid the bill was rather amusing, but I'm glad it's done for now because it would've gotten ugly had it gone down one more time.
Ella was fun to see and spoil. We ended up sending Dolce home with her courtesy of a well-placed hand covered in peanut butter and ordered another. I'm hoping their similar enough in feel that I won't notice it every time I use the new one for a pillow. I'm really happy she likes it so much, though. We'd been wondering when would be a good time to get her one, and seeing as she took to that thing immediately, that answered the question. I hope it brings her lots of enjoyment...along with that mini tambourine we got her, and the markers.
It occurs to me I just provided her with quite a few implements of destruction when she gets home. Oops. Not my intention, I'm hoping my bro and SIL realize that.

Listening to the tick-tock of the new-to-me mantle clock my Mom passed along to me. It's a comforting noise, not in the least bit mechanical. It reminds me of homework in high school, hearing that in the background in the evenings. It's enough to make someone very sleepy...at least until that "unique" gong goes off on the hour. It just struck 13 o'clock at 11...I'm a bit worried for it...

I think it's time to go to bed. Finally sleepy, I blame the wakefulness on the delicious and huge serving of gyokuro I had this afternoon. It's wonderful tea. I'm glad we got to have it.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Ya rly

Family arrives today. I would be a liar if I said I was thrilled with the communication going on between us, seeing as I've sent out emails twice to some people asking for info and gotten a phone call with a cranky hang-up in response (You know, if a VPs BB is on the fritz, you don't put him on hold for 10 minutes to discuss family plans. End of story.)
My level of irritability has risen noticably and I'm already going through scenarios in my head where things could get nasty (but they almost never do) so basically right now I'm having a big, fat Buddhist FAIL at this whole get together.
I would love to breathe and focus on that, but right now I'm irritated there was mold all over my food when I went to eat lunch. Now I'm angsty AND hungry. It's an awesome combination. *siiiiiiiigh*

Thursday, June 11, 2009

What hath LG wrought??

My new phone is here, and let me tell you so far... I am incredibly pleased with what it can do. It has the capability of listening to music in the background while texting or doing other things, something my old Krazr most certainly lacked. Also, the camera is far less fuzzy, the speakers are REALLY nice on it for listening to my music, and I really like the interface.
The only downside so far is the fact that it wouldn't let me transfer my ringtones, so I guess I have to purchase new ones. That's kind of a bummer, but I guess it's the price of setup when you were using older technology.
At least it transfered over my Tetris game!

Actual Conversation # 65 - Marketability as an Impediment to Creativity, and puppy-bombing.

me: Heh. Mom says "no raw fish, please, other than that we're fine with whatever."
My response: "We were so looking forward to bringing out an Authentic Okinawan Raw Fish Headdress and cutting slices of raw tuna off while dancing in kimono and singing traditional songs while accompanied by the shamisen!"
Sweetie, your "available" is showing...
gru: Hmm?
me: <3<3<3 ^_^
gru: :-)
me: Morning!
gru: And yes, that's cute :-)
me: I now wish there was such a thing as a hat we could cut raw tuna off of while dancing.
Do you think there's a market for that?
gru: Probably in some island nations, sure!
me: Okay. I should work on design specs for that in my downtime today. nods thoughtfully
Oh, btw... puppy bomb! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXzh0FwxTmA
Cute German Shepherd Puppies at Play!
It's better 'cuz it has Jazz.


I cannot tell you how psyched I am to have "puppy bombing" as a new journal tag. This will get used. A LOT.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Oops...

...aaaand upon viewing the pizza photo up close I'm noting that my oven needs some serious cleaning on that glass window. Nobody pay attention to that, focus on the yummy food instead!

It's about that time; PHOTO JOURNAL POST!

The fireflies have graced us with their presence for the year. I caught the brief glimmer of a few brave souls this evening as I looked outside.
I raced to the internet and grabbed some super high-speed black and white film. I'm hoping they do what they did last year and swarm the maple tree in my backyard. I want to do a time-lapse shot of them if I can.
Last night we had a serious thunderstorm, so bad it knocked out the lights. we did the logical thing by popping up popcorn and building a fort, thusly:
It was incredibly comfy, as evidenced by the multitude of pillows and the papasan cushion we laid down in there. After eating popcorn, we played two games of Go!, then disassembled everything after the lights came back on. It was perhaps the most fun we'd had in a long time.
Of course, when you build something that incredibly fun you're going to have some people show up to crash. For instance, this bastard who eats our food and doesn't pay rent and always takes the best part of the couch: you can even see he's totally blase' about the entire thing, taking up the whole papasan cushion so that no one else can comfortably fit in there. What a jerk, huh?
Turns out everything was okay in the long run, though. Eventually he moved to the side and we were able to reclaim the fort en force in a maneuver that would make most generals damned proud. Behold the victorious partying:
We then proceeded to have a good rest of the evening before finally disassembling it and putting it away after the lights returned. It wasn't nearly as fun making the room neat again as it was tearing it apart and cannibalizing the furniture for the purpose of the Uber-fort.
The last few days have actually been very fun. Returning from Japan has reminded us that we can get too caught up in our own little world and that we have to stop and make time to hang out just ourselves without electronic distractions.
Tonight we spent time making dinner and baked it, then shared it. We each got our own pizza crust and toppings and we went nuts making and baking them. Bob went for a double-pepperoni and cheese and I made a chunky mozarella and basil Margherita pizza. They were both utterly delicious and cooked in about 10 minutes. Total prep and cook time was 20, faster and cheaper than it takes to have one delivered. Plus, it was just all kinds of fun to talk and laugh while personalizing things. When we were done I commented on how it actually felt like the food had been nourishing instead of just acting as a stop-gap for hunger...something I often feel with American food, honestly. I didn't feel that at any point in Japan unless they were attempting Western-style food. With the glorious acception of Chris's brisket on Okinawa!
Tomorrow is more fun with Date Night. We plan on sharing a milkshake at Cheeburger Cheeburger and taking care of a few things for our soon-to-be-visitors.
I like this turn of events in how we do things since we've been back. :)

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

While it is probably of very little interest to you, to me something very exciting happened. I got a new phone!
I am the type of person that can not afford to simply hop to the newest, latest and greatest thing on the market with a bajillion features. I look forward to my "New Every 2" promotion with Verizon with great delight, as it allows me to get a new phone and stumble to keep up with changing trends.
But today? Today I actually got a shiny new phone. Not a Blackberry, as I'd been contemplating... remember the part about being poor? I didn't have $80 a month to cover a data-plan. I got a beautiful maroon EnV3 with a full keyboard and a 3.0 camera. It does other awesome tricks and apparently texting isn't nearly the pain in the ass it is on my long-suffering Krazr.
I am very excited. It will play the music on my SD drive, it can handle a LOT more data, it has a better camera on it (so no more horrible blurry pictures from conventions where I go "see that red dot in the background, that's me laughing at...")
I will love having a full keyboard to type messages on so there's no more stupid typos thanks to txt-thumb. And I will love having a phone that doesn't need to be recharged every 16 hours to keep it from dying even with the expanded battery pack in the back *cough*KRAZR*cough* That should be a lovely change.
I'm just waiting for it to arrive, then begin the painful process of migrating all my apps, ringtones and pictures over to it. Maybe they have a button they can push that automatically transfers everything over. That would be seriously ducky.
Awoke to a monster rainstorm this morning. Thunderstorms don't tend to kick off in the AM but this one did and it was a doozy. It hammered down rain, sparked lightning and roared thunder, even throwing in tray-loads of hail stones on occasion. Somehow I managed to hydroplane up a hill. I would normally think something like that takes a specific skillset but being that I managed it while still in my happy morning haze, I really have to withdraw that. I think I just managed it out of dumb luck with a lot of water rolling down the hill at me.
I'm hoping it continues after I get out of here, as there would be nothing better than building a clubhouse with Bob, popping up some popcorn and watching the storm go over.

Actual Conversation # 64 - Where We Learn New Skills

gru: By the way, as a heads up I have a class on Sexual Harassment in the workplace at 2-3:30. Hopefully I'll be good at it by the end.
me: I'll quiz you on it later.
gru: Thanks!

Monday, June 8, 2009

RIP Caine...

A final thought before oblivion and bedtime... this weekend in honor of David Carradine's passing Bob and I obtained a great deal of sake and sat down to watch Circle of Iron together.
We MST3K'd it a bit, as it was a B-grade movie from the 70's and required it.But for the most part I enjoyed it, I think he enjoyed it, and as tends to happen when I watch my inspirational movie set, a bit more of the overall and deeper meaning crept out between the bad acting and the oddly segueing background music.
I thought it was a fitting personal wake for the guy. After all, he's a small part of the reason I got in to this whole "Buddhism" thing. The man needed a proper seeing-off on the 3rd day after his demise, and so we did it.
Felt right to do. That's the most important thing I can say. :)
Sleep beckons seductively...

Of course you never doubted me...

So this might come as a surprise to some of you but I am actually NOT nuts.
I went outside at roughly the same time one morning at the end of last week and looked out to the left. The sun was coming up. Realizing this was a great opportunity to see if the sun was, in fact, at a different angle I took note of where it was rising from, standing in a very specific spot.
Upon arrival at work I looked up a few photos I'd taken a bit before we left for Japan. In one I was standing on the driveway photographing the sun rise.
Guess what? It was coming up in a different location in that picture than from where I'd seen this morning. Little to the left now, the sun was.
I AM NOT INSANE! THE SUN CHANGED ANGLES!
So for some reason I became hyper-sensitive to the changes I was going through and took special note of the fact that the sun was coming up earlier and slightly more to the left each day... except I hadn't been here for 2 weeks to get used to the gradual change, I just came home and it was a lot further to the left than previously.
So... if that's more than you ever wanted to know about conspiracy theories and me not being nuts, you're welcome. I thrive on giving people more info than they need, as they will probably make use of the excess in the future at some point!
It feels good to be able to explain something like that. I calmed down measurably upon that realization.
Bob rendered what can only be termed a "sublime and wonderful" bowl of oyako-don yesterday evening. Even with the few mistakes we made in reading through everything, it was undeniably the dish we thought we might've left in Japan. It was subtly flavored, sweet, with soft scrambled eggs and chicken and the lovely touch of dashi, soy and onion that balanced it out. With an extra egg or two we could've easily fed four people on that mixture and had everyone be full. I will be sure to prod him in the future to make sure he doesn't get out of practice and may, in fact, get a chance to perfect this art based on how many times we have it. I'd love to be the person that helps him practice that a whole bunch. I'm a giver.
A misjudgement on how much rice we could actually eat, however, ate up the rice I was going to use to make onigiri. Which is fine, really. I wanted to do tamago in them, or salmon and mayo, and I had neither prepared. So that's a snack for another night. I'm pondering making some for the fam-damily to sample when they come. I think they would really like it.
Bob had a point, in that onigiri are fast and delicious (also, they could be nutritious as well) and it didn't make any sense why they hadn't become more popular, or why there wasn't a place to sell them where there were high Asian populations. I agree. Why is that, Asian population? Open an onigiri bar where you can order 4 different kinds on a little lacquer tray and have beer and/or sake with them, the hipsters would go freakin' INSANE and hang out at the place just to seem avant-garde. It's an untapped market and you need to get on that stat. Or if you don't and I suddenly have a windfall, I might take care of it for you guys.
We also acquired a tamago pan, having had so many good and varied experiences with it while within the Land of the Rising Sun that it seemed a shame not to have a way to make it upon return home... especially since we both loved the taste. It has not been test-driven yet but I suspect that'll be forthcoming shortly if for no other reason than I would rather try to make tamagoyaki than do my homework this week.
Had an odd sort of amnesia come over me this weekend. Had a list of things to do, started doing them... then somewhere around Saturday afternoon forgot what I needed to do and forgot where the list was. As soon as I got in to work this morning I remembered precisely what I'd forgotten and how much time I'd spent wandering around the wastelands of the internet instead of things like folding laundry and was deeply disappointed in myself. I still feel a touch "off", like my mind isn't all the way back here yet. Or maybe I was always this way and because I'm on hyper-observant mode it's making itself known. Either way, I've started taking copious notes and making lists to remember because I don't trust my brain to recall anything until I stumble across something and a vague association hauls it up from the muck and muddy waters of my consciousness right now. That ain't a good system.
Looking forward to the family being here. Trying to figure out what to do/eat/pull out for entertainment. Trying to figure out if they'd be impressed/delighted with tea from Kyoto, or mochi snacks, or shredded dried squid... you know, the usual.
It occurs to me that I don't even remember what "normal" people have in their pantries as snacks and such. Maybe we need to buy potato chips or something...?
As Mondays go, this is not a bad one. I just wish my head had been more atop my shoulders. Now to go home and have leftovers from the weekend, possibly make onigiri, and tidy up so the mades don't freak out and just vaccuum for fear of getting something contagious on themselves if they try to move anything.

Actual Conversation # 63 - Why Coffee, While Not Good, is Still Needed

me: The day seems to go slowly still.
gru: Yep, almost noon now.
me: gar
0_o
gru: hmm?
me: General unintelligible noise of dismay and frustration.
"gar".
It's like "Gah" and "argh" together.
If I was more awake, I probably would've actually typed one of those two, but I didn't.
So instead it gets an elaborate explanation.
gru: Oh...well...good :-)

Friday, June 5, 2009

Things I Didn't Know I Would Miss

a la Japan, of course:
1. Watching people go about with umbrellas in the rain in Tokyo.
2. The Shisha dog statues of Okinawa
3. Cake sets. They're just awesome.
4. Shrine maidens (aka- miko)
5. Onigiri
6. Late night runs to convenience stores.
7. Tempura fried shiso leaf.
8. The chimes of the JR Yamanote line.
9. The light pink color that most women wear on them somewhere to take a break from the blacks and whites of their office wear.
10. Watching elderly women reading Japanese comic books on the train.
11. Crazy small cartoon animals made out of everything (soy bean puppy dogs, shinkansen-people, apple-people, cats, rabbits, taiko drums...etc...)
12. Finding any random arcade and walking in, watching machines eat 100 Yen coins like candy while having a complete blast.
13. Having random nice elderly Japanese people fall all over themselves to give you food.
14. The British announcer on the Shinkansen. When she came on, it was time to stand up and head for the doors to get off and she gave you 2 minutes to do it.
15. Finding the awesomest food imaginable in the amp/pm for 200 Yen.
16. Japanese game shows and Mr. Brain.
17. People smiling at you just for trying to say something in their language.
18. Riding trains and seeing the countryside.
19. Mt. Fuji peaking out from the clouds as we sped by.
20. Access to really good tea, excellent coffee, and fantastic chocoalte at all times.

I'm sure I'll think of more, but for right now that is what sits with me. I'm going to go home and play with the musical keychain that chimes the sound for Shinjuku and sigh.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

David Carradine is dead. For some reason this bugs me quite a bit.
Circle of Iron is one of my favorite movies, and it's a vague one. I'm fairly sure most of the people who read the previous sentence have not seen it. But he was in it, playing all the major characters but being nearly unrecognizable until one reached the credits. He did a great job, and of course there was his portrayal in Kill Bill as Bill, which everybody knows and loves.

Right now they're saying he hung himself. But seeing as he made it all the way to 72 and was in the middle of a movie, I'm wondering...
Perhaps the bottle and bad news happened at the same time and he figured he would just exit, having had a good batch of years to his name.

Either way, RIP. We shall drink sake to your name, Caine.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Actual Conversation # 62: Why Coffee is Not Good.

me: :)
fifteen minutes!
gru: Yay!!!
me: Seriously. I'm kinda dying here.
And on two cups of coffee.
BAzzzzzzzzzzzyyyeeeeeoooooooozomgzomg lookitthatomgwhatisthat yeahthatthingthere wtfisthat???
*points repeatedly at a poster that is askew*
gru: *eyebrow*
me: *sighs and sits back down*
me: Oh. My music stopped. That's why I can hear the air.
gru: heh

Slowly Coming Around...

Awoke to a brilliantly flashing thunderstorm at 2:30 am (and still amused my first impulse was to check the clock to see how early in the morning I was being awoken by it). It rumbled and hammered on our roof for a good half hour and put on a glorious light show. The cats, of course, attempted to embed themselves underneath us into the mattress to hide from the scary noises which led to tender bonding moments where we talked quietly until they removed their claws from my back.
Got to snuggle the Bob and watch the light show until it passed away to low rumblings off in the distance, then we both passed out.
Something about the rain made the world seem a bit more -right- this morning, possibly because the clouds made it easier to just see everything and my brain wasn't constantly telling me someone had hijacked the sun and moved it 3 inches to the right as a tremendous practical joke. I could just walk out my front door, briefly mourn the loss of the clover flowers that had dotted our front lawn until someone came through with a lawnmower, then hop in the car and get to work. Early. Again. I'm hoping it'll stay cloudy long enough for my brain to stop "remembering" the sun at a different angle and just accept it when it comes back out. Because very honestly it is annoying to have to constantly go "okay, shaddup, it's not important, at least there's light, okay?" to your own mind. I did begin to wonder about my sanity for a bit.
My family comes next weekend, and I am very excited about this. It's been a bit since anybody's been by to visit and frankly I think the house fairs better when we're forced to clean it up and make it livable for others. I'm hoping to have the shadowbox set up with all the shrine's charms we brought back to display for folks to look at. I'm also wondering if I should try to make Japanese snacks to munch before we go out to dinner or just wuss out and order cheese steaks and fries for everybody and call it good.
Learned, or rather re-learned, of something rather cool today. "Graknitti", or "yarn-bombing" as a social phenomenon.
For a terrific example of it check out the Urban Knitting Page. Some really fun stuff. Or you can look at Yarnbombing. There's other links as well.
I think I don't invoke civil disobedience with acrylic yarn and size 19 knitting needles nearly often enough and might have to pick this up as a hobby. In fact, I should do it just so I can list "yarnbombing" on my resume' for when they finally let me go from this contract position. Then when they ask I can say with a straight face that I take up hooks and needles to fight against the man in our urban landscape and knit "sweaters" for light poles, street signs and public park benches.
Hey, if they can't laugh or aren't intrigued by that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to work there anyway.
The former slow unwinding of the data center is chugging forward at a mighty pace. They decommissioned something like 10 servers in my absence and have gone so far as to take the motivational posters off the wall. I'm guessing they're all about conservation of resources at this point and moved them somewhere with people who will be sticking around and need the motivation for better productivity. Bon chance, poster with surfer guy on a huge wave, may you convince someone to give 110% some day.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

And another thing!

You know what else is weird? My brain keeps insisting that the sun is wrong. It's not like it suddenly drastically changed angle on us in only 2 weeks, but my brain keeps telling me that it's coming from the wrong direction and the shadows look weird.
In all of my days traveling by plane over long distances I have NEVER had that happen.
On top of this, I seem a little more sensitive to light and sounds. Birdsong is far more noticeable as is music (sometimes to the point of being irritating even at what were low levels) and light, even indoor fluorescent, seems unnaturally bright.
I have no idea what any of this means, I just know it's going on and I'm hoping that it eventually fades away.
Enjoying the smell of the new 72-pack of Prismacolor pencils that arrived today, along with the Copic Sketch markers. Not going to smell the Copics, they're alcohol based. My thoughts are drifting to what I can do with all of these lovelies but... I'm kinda at a loss of what to do with them. Prior to Japan I would've been bouncing off the walls when these arrived. Right now I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to stay awake long enough to catalogue the new colors.
As an aside, I'm watching Steve Wiebe, the nicest guy on earth, try to break the Donkey Kong world record live at E3 courtesy of the G4 TV channel. I am seriously sending him all the good vibes I can produce. Granted, that's a percentage less than I usually can, but he's got all of it.
E3 is going on right now and a ton of awesome video games are being announced and demo'ed. Ahh, free time. I remember when I had it. Once I graduate I will be getting back to my second love, video games. My first love is, of course, pie. Bob! I mean Bob! My first love is Bob! There we go...

The Aftermath.

I was reading a rather interesting book (Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, if anybody's interested)where the main character mentioned a theory on jet lag. The theory was that you had moved so quickly your soul could not keep up, and the jet lag was your body operating as best it could until it got there.
That is entirely what I feel like right now. Which is odd, because I don't recall feeling this way in Japan. We got off the plane, crashed the first night, then were up and about exploring our first day. I don't recall feeling dazed, or even that tired. Perhaps the sheer excitement and different-ness of the place kept us going on a thin silver stream of adrenaline and forced our souls to hurry to us, as we wouldn't wait on them to observe and inspect the new world we were in.
It's almost as if I'm in shock, observing what's going on around me, recognizing those items I've come in contact with before, but having no attachment to them. I arrived home, was happy to be within 4 walls, but didn't feel the wave of relief I'd quite expected upon getting there aside from "travel is over". The couch was just a couch and it was nice to sit upon, yes... but it didn't recall all the nights we spent watching movies on it, or the homework I'd gotten frustrated over on it. It was just furniture, with a pink octopus pillow that I knew from experience was comfortable. And that's about how logical all my observations have been. For a person like me who is wickedly sentimental and has a pattern and a link-up for everything in her life, it would appear down right disconcerting. Except that I'm still being logical about it, so my thoughts keep telling me "wait and see, possibly it's just the time change, maybe you're back to normal in a few days."
Only certain foods have taste. I was starving and wanted a good, American cheeseburger. We'd had approximations of them in Japan but they were surprisingly flavorless. I attributed that to things being cooked in soybean oil instead of what we were used to, but upon trying a Whopper I realized that the usual sensation and flavor of the food just wasn't there. So far only fruit really seems to have a flavor. Downright unnerving.
What I've noted the most, though, is that I seem to have forgotten what I used to do. I got home, I finally had access to all of my art supplies... and all the ideas that were bumping about in my head during the trip, all of the things that had been put on hold until we got back, suddenly... rattled out my ear and away. I can barely think of a one. I know I have knitting projects and crochet projects somewhere, I only faintly remember what they are and where I left them.
I remembered my desire to paint with water colors and specifically to do a sea turtle in them thanks to all the turtles we'd seen at the aquarium on Okinawa. Seeing as I couldn't sleep Monday morning I went in to the room where my supplies are stored and got to work laying down base color. But I keep forgetting to go back to it, so I'm feeling very silly.
Sleep hits around 8 pm with vicious strength and there's just no getting away from it. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I was asleep by 8. I'm going to try to reset the clock tonight with coffee and some moving around.
In fact, I'm not going to wait. I'm going to start chugging coffee right now (sadly, the poorly made American kind, not the Japanese kind where they put more importance in the quality than the quantity) and build up a cumulative effect, see if it'll help reset me, refire my brain synapses.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Actual Conversation # 61: Learning new words and putting them to immediate use.

me: Okay, so in Kyoto they have a bread and pastry shop that advertises
And their catchline is "a taste of the bread"
talula: no way
hmm
me: ....mostly good English.
talula: ok
me: ANYWAY...
I told Bob about my desire for biscuits.
And he says...
...you know what YOU need...
....taste of the bread.
And I was like.... 0_o
talula: ehhehe
me: *laughing*
There was a donut there that said "We are pleased to offer fine tasting and premium item for you"
talula: item
hha
me: I looked at him and was like "I've never had a fine tasting AND premium donut before"
talula: hehehhe
me: Engrish is awesome.
talula: hahahah
me: We should've taken more pictures.
talula: yeah
heh
didn't you take alot?
me: WE did, but not of the bad engrish.
Like this T-shirt I saw that said "Love planet"
I'm trying to figure out if that was a title or an order.
talula: hahahha
me: Oh oh oh!
This one... blew me away...
"I have a jenky switch in my head and it goes flip flip flip"
.....
WTF IS A JENKY SWITCH??
It got stuck in my head... it was prompting me to use "jenky" but I didn't know what it meant...
(It now occurs to me in a country of non-English speakers I could've just said anything. Heh.)
But that whole time I was like... Is ~that~ jenky?
~Is that thing over THERE jenky?
Are polkadots involved?
HeLP ME OUT HERE!!??
talula: hahahhahahha
i haveno idea
hheeh
JENKY
maybe it's anal beads
me: According to the urban dictionary it means "ghetto" or "crap"
Which reminds me...
Okay, I'm not going to call judgement on this, I'm just going to say the stewardess was African American.
But she was pulling a bag behind her.
The wheels on her bags had rims.
talula: whoa
hahahhahhahahah
me: And the rims had LEDs that flashed red and blue.
That's some jenky shit.
talula: no way
hahahhh
def
me: *laughing*
talula: interesting.. the things you see when you travel