Life in the sky.
03.04.08
・01:13
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Music o' the Entry: "Fragrance", Gackt
When I drive I like to listen to music. However, I lack a CD player in my vehicle and to install the factory one would take a cool $300, slightly more than I'd dream of paying. Thusly, I've taken to the traditional ghetto-ized version of such: the car adapter of a portable CD player. Because I view this as somewhat annoying to deal with, I generally will keep the same CD in my player for two or three trips (if I take the trouble to put in the thing because I'm painfully lazy about such, the trip is probably going to be about 35 minutes, or the exact amount of time it takes me to get my family's home from Ye Olde アパート) and this weekend's was Gackt's Moon album, which I received for Christmas last year and have sadly not listened to as much as it merits...I like this CD. A lot. The bad part is I like Rebirth even more, and the only method by which I possess that is on MD, and I lack a player...Gackt is awesome. Yes, he's a giant freak, but he's a ridiculously pretty giant freak who can sing and produces interesting music. I think the next time I head overseas I'm going to see what Mars and Rebirth are going for used. Speaking of Gackt fanhood, has anyone heard the newish single that's on the Oricon and can tell me if it's good or such? I've had little luck in downloading, it seems somewhat rare...
YAR I need pants. Actually, what I need is to fit nicely into my old pants, which I will surely accomplish by lots of exercise and not eating awfully. Unfortunately I didn't do too well at the tail-end of last week, on Thursday I did Eatza Pizza with Matt (and they recognized us, which I'm not sure is more of a testament to our frequency of visits or that we're distinctive and relatively easy to identify; I'll have to post a picture sometime), on Friday I did Vietnamese food with the illustrious and delightful Misha, Matt, and Kenji; and Sunday afternoon I ate Chinese with my family. From this, I have learned a valuable lesson: my body wants absolutely nothing to do with grease. Which isn't a bad thing, truly: it's just plain not healthy and is not terribly helpful in my efforts to lose weight. So I'm working at making my new hours at school work for me by actually cooking, by using vegetables, which have been relatively scarce in my diet. Last night's dinner consisted of a stir-fry (not too much grease) that involved lots of tofu, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, carrots, green onions, and bean sprouts, and I was pleased (plus it was meat-free! w00t!). This evening's dinner will take the form of mabo tofu (I'm starting to dig on the stuff hardcore), and now that I have all the ingrediants I could ever want, there shall be miso. To aid in this quest, yesterday I went to both a Vietnamese and a Korean food store; overall I think I prefer the Korean store, given as it has more Japanese ingredients (and much of the food present has Japanese translations or is labelled in such) and I'm most familiar with that for cooking, but the Vietnamese store has cheap Thai tea as well as sexy Coco Rico, one of my most enjoyed sodas. So, from each store I ended up with Thai tea, hopefully awesome things of ramen-style Vietnamese soup bowls, a log of kamaboko (the white thing ringed with pink that's commonly found in Japanese soups), atsu-age, and freaking Ramune, which, while tasty, was more to let my family experience the joy that is Ramune (plus it spilled on my newly-washed pants). Still, was overjoyed to see that they actually
carry the kind of ume-shu I got in Seattle and so I need only drive 25
minutes for the stuff instead of six hours, yeehaw.
Good news kids, I hooked up with the great and lovely Dr. Warren this afternoon and following a paper trail I get to do tomorrow which will invariably end up tragically warped given every paper I touch and hand the registrar is embued with some sort of horrifically bad karma, I will officially bear the title of "GEOGRAPHY ASSISTANT" and be getting a sweet four credits for it. It's not much, but it pushes me to my max for the quarter without paying extra and moves me closer to potentially being a senior by fall quarter, but unless I take an ungodly amount of credits during the summer (more than the potential 22 already, which is just plain scary) that ain't happening. Still, I'm doing just fine for credits to graduate next spring, barring something like failing math again...oy. We'll not think about such, this is a blissfully math-less quarter, and no such thing can stop it. And even better, if I decide I like being the department's gopher and do it next year, I get paid and I get an office. Having an office would be smashing, I'd put bizarre signs and things on the door. Still, it's the geography department and they're a consistently weird lot (in the good way), so I doubt they'd be surprised by anything I do. I'll let the world knows how this works out, I let them know anyway.
So on my way home from my family's home this weekend, I called Matt and asked him if he'd be interested in doing dinner at my place, given I enjoy to cook with him and enjoy cooking in general. I continued on my merry way, zooming along at a speedy 20 mph. Then those stupid flashing lights appear behind me. Yes, I got pulled over for a second time, this time for allegedly not stopping at sign when I turned right. More correctly, this would be not stopping completely at the sign, which I suppose I did out of complacency; the corner in question is that of where I live, and I'm used to it, and looked carefully before turning. I was not issued a breathalyzer test this time, nor a ticket, which I was positive I'd get given I'm presently unemployed and have a cheerful negative cashflow. Still, it was creepy, from the time I left my family's home I was positive I'd get stopped...a self-fulfilling prophecy? Argh. It's not like it happens frequently, but it makes sense, given the craphole I live in has more cops than streets so one is caught for the tiniest offense...still, the point of this is since I got stopped in December I've been freakishly paranoid about driving, particularly late at night when it's pretty much you and about five cops at any given point about campus or in the town and this has only heightened it. Hooray for irrational paranoia, but as they say, it's not paranoia if they're really after you. Not to mention I'm about as comfortable as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs driving to begin with...oy. Score one point for Japan, I am NOT driving there and I do not have to.
Speaking of Japan, Avagoyle has produced a brief essay on Japan that I heartily agree with, designed to blow anyone's delusions of a happy otaku paradise out of the water. I doubt it applies to any who read this, but regardless...I'm considering writing my own blurb about Japan and whatnot, how it's not all roses; far from it, in fact. I speak of it often in pleasing terms, but I think I also give attention to the fact that it's a place with a horrifying human rights record, treats women like crap, is ludicrously conservative to a fault, expensive, cramped, and that there seems to exist a vague national sense of pedophilia (does anyone else get that?). So yeah, I'm moving there for a time (probably not permanently, but I will not remain in the US either), but I know what to expect and what I'm getting myself into. So, yeah.
I think I'm hating my Japan Today class more and more, we have to do little group discussions about painfully broad topics (ie, how does climate affect agriculture and recreation in Japan) and today Otaku Boy came in my group. Arrrrr. He's presumptuous and I dislike being argued with on topics that I'm knowledgable about, e.g. geography, weather, and Japan in this case, especially when the other person is WRONG and insists they're not. That particular question wasn't what irritated me, but I'm glad Matt slept through class today, he is much less tolerant of annoying folk than I...oy. I suppose my reaction comes off as that of a know-it-all bitch who revels in always being right, but I suspect my inordinate annoyance with the fellow comes more from his exceedingly obnoxious otaku-hood "GOD SHAT OUT JAPAN HIMSELF" character, which has already given me a negative opinion of him. The worst part is the rest of the people in the class aren't much better, if not otaku...
Speaking of annoying, that atrocious anti-smoking 7th Heaven episode was on again this evening. Hooray for Matt flipping through channels.
SOMETHING ELSE I DISLIKE: Flash ads. They pop up incessantly on MSN, and just when you thought pop-up ads were bad enough, these abominations explode in the center of your screen, taking joy in making you watch at least a few seconds of whatever they're trying to hurl at you before you locate the "close" icon whilst spewing the foulest epithets at them. I don't like them.
Still, I've been complaining and listing things I dislike with disconcerting frequency, so now I'll talk about something pleasing. For example, I finally determined the absolutely perfect place for me to live: in the sky. I'm not kidding, if I could live my life about the clouds I'd be so pleased, they below my feet, upper edges of the atmosphere and stars and space above. It'd be so freaking amazing I cannot express such. The closest thing I can think of is when I'm on a plane, and when you're still low enough to look closely at the clouds, not so high that it's too bright...still, I think I'd miss the sea. But living in the sky...it makes my meteorological heart swell (oh, and for the curious, my ideal part of the atmosphere to live at would be the tropopause at 50-60 degrees latitude, aurorae and noctilucent clouds above me...)
Anyway, need to run, tomorrow brings tidings of going to the library to secure and awesome illustrative Japanese cookbook and to hook up with the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Exaltation of Inana, assorted books on Egyptian and Sumerian/Akkadian stuff and all the other crap I need to slog through to survive Ancient Near Eastern History. More later, must sleep.
chronos
・kairos
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