Steph: “I brought 4 beer and pop five!”
and they say they saved some mead from December…excited
cupcakes are baked, pictures to come…tomorrow
there is plenty of snow on the ground and the rumble of ABS brakes under my feet is very satisfying despite white knuckles
it’s lung hurting cold in SK but warm inside
What is writer’s block called if you are not writing but making powerpoint slides? Or putting together, framing up, drawing up, etc. powerpoint slides? The root of my frustration with this presentation must be in the unavailability of a more specific action word for making slides (something other than making, creating, etc.). It has nothing to do with thinking the thesis is a sham.
Yay for Lunar eclipse on February 21st! Perhaps I should stay in Saskatchewan for a few more days and increase my chances of clear skies?
Last night’s practice was a battle with my height. To start - running with one finger brushing the ground. Later learning that my feet should be closer together when in shikodachi, making it harder to squat down. Conclusion: it will be very very very difficult for me to have beautiful kata.
Three more slides where are you??!!
It was Christmas time two days ago. Now it feels like spring.
I’ll never be able to comprehend this time of year anywhere outside of Saskatchewan.
I think all I have are these photos. This was my day. I woke up, ate breakfast and coded, jogged, showered, went to the uni, coded, had a meeting, coded, went to a cafe, coded, went to karate, came home, coded. I’m in a groove.
Thursday is St. Nick’s day. Please leave cookies and oranges out for the people you live with. Or…make sure you leave your boots out on Wednesday night.
…no probably not. But an explanation for feeling so much pain sitting down at the computer? A bit. I really need glasses. Not full time glasses but on call at least. I’ve been thinking they would do me good for some time not (year+) but never wanted to include it in my budget. But you know what they say, time is money and the time I waste tired, with headache and itchy eyes could by me several pairs of specs. I went to the optometrist today and she agreed.
While waiting they sat me in a dimly lit room and I pulled out my book to read. Smiling, the receptionist turned on a light for me. Was that a test?
I’m reading “In Patagonia” because several recent events have ignited a small desire to travel Argentina and Chile. The latest being receiving a postcard of the Perito Moreno Glacier from Sato Sensei, the head instructor at my home karate dojo, who recently came back from travels in South America. The book is interesting in that it portrays history, culture, and ways of living that I have no clue about. Still, I can’t say that it’s inspiring me to travel. Then I remember that I’m never inspired so much by words as I am by pictures. I will continue reading and at the same time do some research on Flickr.
In the cafe closest to my home an 8(?)-year-old girl repeatedly asks her mother ordering at the counter “mom can I have a vanilla latte, can I have a vanilla latte? …” I am a little shocked - is this her regular order? The mother, done handing money over to the cashier, begins to pay attention and says laughing “no! what are you thinking?!”
Coffee is an “adult drink” by social standards but not by law. It is only somewhat…unacceptable (?) for children to drink, maybe because it changes body chemistry and has addictive properties. Luckily the flavour is not very agreeable with a typical child’s tastes…a built in protection mechanism. But still, there are a number of coffee-based beverages masking the bitterness with sugar and milk products and other flavours - how much do these appeal to children and which children get to drink them? If their parents deny a request for a vanilla latte, are they allowed to have other drinks containing caffeine? If denying a child coffee is not based on health concerns but simply because coffee is an “adult drink” what does this say about adult perceptions of drinking it?
I consider my own. My morning cup of coffee is a daily sign of independence and self-support. I am drinking my coffee to start a day in which I will take on life responsibilities. I also drink coffee as a reward for responsibilities taken. On a day off I might indulge in a late morning breakfast out…accompanied with coffee.
Today I drink a rare cup of afternoon coffee to give me a thesis-working boost. It helped get me started and it helped me notice the shape of these buds on the walk home. I saw them and was able to picture graphics inspired by their shape but before today, I never connected the graphics to a plant that actually existed. They seem so wonderfully cartoonish.
Coffee is not helping me now. My body is sore and tired. I want to sleep. I think I might have a short nap…need to get functional soon.
I am trying to let the spider in my apartment live but he still creeps me out.
So when I find spiders (like this one at the train station) I try to watch and learn and not be so afraid.
Going away party last night. Okonomiyaki around Keikyu Kurihama station somewhere. Small typical bar, bar stools, 3 - 4 person tables in front, tatami area in back. We have the whole back tatami room and I can move around a lot and it feels good.
Okonomiyaki fortunes are told. Hills and valley of egg show the variety of paths at a person’s disposal, fish flakes vibrate gently in accordance with the subject’s internal energy level, and the mayo, the mayo is the key to the heart and the heart’s future. The curves - the degree a heart feels settled, the light it reflects - a measure of passion and sometimes, subtle forms emerge giving a sign of a story to come.
There is an ancient karaoke machine in the restaurant. We don’t sing but I admire a cassette tape inside. I have always loved the look of a white cassette tape.
Only another few months in Japan. Today I feel closer to that reality. It is scary. But then - I am getting an Internet connection in my room on Friday. After all this time. I didn’t break down but, not being able to proxy through UBC to access papers online at work has been inconvenient. But an Internet connection - you do that when you move in. It’s an action of settling.
I am so far from settled.
But the new camera is almost named. It is a choice between two names and I had the idea of making it a vote but I think this one is personal and I need to decide myself.
From the window of this coffee house I see the customers sitting outside, holding onto their cigarettes, people walking by, and the occasional bicyclist. Maybe 10% of people are celebrating the good weather (despite the gray-milk sky) by wearing shorts or skirts - exposing a substantial amount of bare skin. “Only in Canada…” I think, …”at this temperature”. Then I remember the past months of winter and the young high school girls in uniforms with skirts just long enough to avoid train-seat - skin contact. (I think?) Generally the two scenarios involve the same elements - people with exposed legs despite the air being cool. But the stories and interpretations are completely different. The girls do their kneehighs well while that old man in the khaki shorts and black runners should lose the white socks.
I am in a nearby Internet cafe but it is more of a manga hut. This is my room. The windows are frosted so minimal daylight enters. I feel like I am in a movie. I guess that is one thing I miss from Canada. A cafe, with wifi (free or not), people, good coffee, and no feeling that you should hurry up, get up, and leave.
I am searching for pictures on flickr and I wish that they had some filter for search results coming from one person who has taken 20 shots of the same thing.
Sorry - not too exciting but given my Internet access outside of the usual, I feel like I should be writing. It might also be because last night in my dream I had a few people tell me how great my blog was to read. Seriously! Hahaha.
Oh geez. I think this whole browsing flickr thing is getting to me. Many personal photos with little explanation and people you don’t know. My mind goes on autopilot with the story making and now I have a wee bit of a headache.
Hope you are all having a good weekend. Despite working for most of it, I am. Sleeping is good ; )
If what I could write about was like going to a party, I’d be showing up naked for that party and while I might entertain and it would be the most honest thing for me to do, I don’t know if it would be socially acceptable and it could haunt me the next day.
Things in this box have been slow. There is a lot I could potentially fill it with but it all seems too personal. Lately I’ve been debating whether it seems too personal because it is or because I am too scared and retreating into myself.
Or it might be because I don’t have Internet in my apartment or because of this whole actually being productive for most of an entire day thing.
I have thoughts of shutting things down, closing the box. But I don’t want to. I need an outlet. But is this it? Lately I am lacking a satisfying way to express myself. I am racking my brain to find out what that new way will be.
I am a little scared that it is just me getting older and jaded and not so expressive.
My song today (thanks to younger bro): Clap Your Hands Say Yeah’s “The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth”.
So I am not drunk anymore but I have been so preoccupied with my New Year’s resolutions…
heh
Actually one of them was to think less about things when thinking is not doing. Perhaps the reduced thinking affects my writing.
But today at lunch I was asking a coworker about her wedding dress which was delivered to her house yesterday. It got me thinking about how it is too bad you only wear the dress once. I considered - if I get married, how often will I try my dress on again and again after the wedding date? How much will it make me cry if it stops fitting?
Then I started thinking that we should have some type of special occasion garment that we can wear for parts of all life’s special occasions and it remains the same throughout our entire lifetime. What would it look like? A superhero costume naturally. I’ve contemplated what my superhero costume would be a number of times but this time I actually thought about the permanency of it. Would I wear a skirt and high boots? What would my colour be?
I might design one, have it made and wear it for like…15 minutes during my possible wedding ceremony. Then, if by chance I were to get a divorce, I think it would be the most hilarious thing to wear again at the lawyer’s office.
Just noticed that I have a folder on my desktop named “thisis”. That is pretty funny considering the current state of affairs.
in geekdom, if a gal regularly backs up her computer, does it make her more attractive?
Today has been a day of looking for answers to various work-related problems. Browsing through forums, tutorials, articles, wikis, and so on and now my right index finger feels numb everywhere but under my nail where it aches a little. Interesting aren’t I?
The other night I dreamt that I had plans with various people and at each engagement I was boring as all hell if you can imagine hell as a boring place. Or I guess a boring place would be hell. So in my dreams it was hell for people to hang out with me. I think the dream was influenced by lack-of-plans weekend and guilt over having no plans although there was reason to my decision. Either way, today I was wondering if I am entertaining or not, and if I want to be entertaining. You don’t need to respond to that ponderage.
And if I were to go anywhere in the world, is there a product that would always be there waiting for me and would that product be:
nutella?
Oooo great link from there: wiki_nutella references a product called Plumpy’nut developed for famine relief. That is too gleeful for me.
