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Thursday, April 29, 2004

altered books

i really just don't understand this concept of altering books. I think I mainly have a problem because I feel like a book is something complete, sacred.... and glueing all over it takes away its ability to pass its knowledge set (words). I understand it's supposed to be a sort of art form and personal expression, and man, I'm all about that... but I don't know if I could alter a book... it just seems uncomprehensible to me.

don't know what I'm talking about?

see a few links:

linky 1 -- images


linky 2 -- talks about taking an "unwanted book" but what if someone else could gain from the book? i just feel so uncomfortable thinking about taking away that possibility.

stupid apartment peeps

the apartment manager left a note under our door to give us 6 days notice that they're coming into the apartment next tues and weds to show it off to perspective buyers....

but we're not moving for a couple months at least because of school... geez, it feels so weird to remember that where you're living really isn't YOUR home... no matter how much you settle in.

anyways, so we have to find someone to keep skeeter for a few days since we're not allowed to have pets (the manager actually said we could have them as long as he doesn't see them... so we still have to have someone take skeeter for a while).

We also have to fix the chip on the stovetop. Looking around on the internet tells me that fixing chips or refinishing stovetops is a big lame deal. normal appliance paint doesn't work because it's not heat resistance. indeed the stove top is actually coated in glass (i assume what people have meant is porcelain?) at the factory before it leaves it. some people have used auto engine paint, but the guy at ace hardware was vague and shifty about that option when i questioned him on the phone.

blah so much to do for my thesis and work, and now so much life stuffs. i could scream.

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

roxy's bday!

e and i had roxy over for dinner last night. minger was supposed to join us, but he confused the day that his mother was going come home. So minger helped us make food for bout 30 mins and had to take off.

Dinner was tasty, seeing roxy was good as we haven't had a chance to see each other for a while. We were all very tired, but it was good to catch up. I gave roxy a very pretty crown i made (i meant to take a pic to post here, but i forgot) and some pretty Japanese cups for tea I bought in Pacific Mall in El Cerrito over the weekend.

we both agreed we need to write lorena (who's off in the Ukraine).

oh and Roxy started her own livejournal see roxy's journal

I knew it!

law and order SVU tries to keep up with the times. I've been waiting for them to discover a victim or a perp's blog on a show for a while...
on the new episode tonight... a blog was found from the victim that helps the case! yeah svu!

yeah blogging!

Thursday, April 22, 2004

garden photos

went into my potted garden the other day to check up on all my plants.




I couldn't name everything in the picture, some of the plants are obscured by others, and I was just running out of text space, but I thought this would give a general idea of what I look out to on my balcony...



One of my sage plants in my herb pot... I think it's the tricolor sage. you can see it's yellow edging.




My bushy cilantro. This plant seems hardier than my other cilantro in my garden. It's stems are thicker, and just seems more wild.




My Meyer Lemon bush... you can see most of the blossoms have finished blossoming... i did make rounds with a toothpick trying to make sure they got pollinated... hopefully they'll all turn into tasty lemons!




my kaffir lime tree has these cool double leaves you can see in the picture. while out there, I discovered that the tree is developing flower buds! I'm excited, because i didn't expect it to flower for a couple of years. So I may get kaffir limes!






my zucchini plant... (it's gotten huge since I brought it home... well so have my tomatoes...)




my dainty little blueberry bush




trailing rosemary... should be a rapid grower... i hope it doesn't completely takeover the top of my herb pot... rosemary is interesting because it's the herb i see shaped most often. I found rosemary bushes at trader joe's shaped into circles and hearts... i gave a rosemary circle bush to minger just last week!




my tomatoe plants have also developed buds... you can see to small flower buds here at the bottom left of this photo



me in my garden.... i didn't smile because I feel retarded smiling in self-portraits....



ok that's it.

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

gotta master it

Ok, I just came out of my work meeting today... I watched a master networker in action today. I am in awe. My social skills are limited so networking is fairly difficult for me. But watching my boss, knowing his motivations to call these people, and seeing how he worked his social magic was jaw-dropping.

i want social magic... where's my share of social magic? :P

WWAD

saw this on yellowworld, but check out these posters someone made
for those who don't click on the link, it is a spoof on the What Would Jesus Do? line, but it's now "what would Asians do?"

the tag line is "When studying stops being fun, and the pressure is mounting, ask yourself--WWAD? "

weird dreams

i came home from mingerspice's opening yesterday, (congrats on finishing up the out on the farm project Ming!) and I fell fast asleep on the couch. I woke up to the TiVo playing Seinfeld (the episode where george buys elaine a "Big Salad" but George's gf gives it to elaine and there's this hullabuloo about taking credit for buying it) and a loud churning noise.

me: "what's going on?"
e: "I'm making hummus, but I used too much tahini, and we didn't have enough garbanzo beans"

Maybe this sounds like a normal thing to you, but in my half asleep/ half awake dream state, this was all very surreal. The rest of the night I kept dreaming about running out of garbanzo beans, and I kept going to different stores searching for cans of garbanzo beans... it just wouldn't end! oh hummus.

Thursday, April 15, 2004

blogs are so hip

says this guy... from the christian science monitor... ooh glad you noticed gregory...

he also says, "Except for a tiny number of blogs that have gained prominence, all this techno-chattiness remains just that: an immature form of communication that has yet to gain traction with the general public, experts say"

blah blah, he quote Perseus Development Corporation, ok yeah... catch up with the rest of us greg, maybe we'll wait for you.

peeps are mussed up

honestly, trying to get on a jury just to make the decision go your way when you haven't heard the evidence is entirely whack. (inner thought: did i really just use that term? inner thought on my inner thought: aren't these all inner thoughts?)

so two peeps at least have tried to get on the peterson trial to convict him.


this just makes me sad.

fun

sapphire, a chemical that acts like water that doesn't get things wet

where can i get a gallon of this to play with?
i'm guessing it's not drinkable...

I guess it's mainly used to stop fires...not to amuse lori's


"Other benefits of the SAPPHIRE System include an atmospheric lifetime of only five days, versus 33 years for the closest chemical alternative, as well as zero ozone depletion. In addition, the SAPPHIRE Suppression System offers the greatest safety margin over other non-sustainable halocarbon alternatives." - Tyco's press release

people a buzz

waiting for someone to show up in the psych office with a copy of spss...

so trying out the new amazon/google search engine A9
A9.com

hmm... first off the bat, I'm too lazy to sign-in... plus, how will these searches feature into my amazon account? or will they be linked at all besides the looking inside books feature...

logging in shows a search history, probably from amazon (a misspelled "wustoff", spelling was never a strong suit for me) and the search bar remembers that I last searched for berber carpet (i wanted to know what the freak it looked like since some apartment was advertising that it had it).

honestly, i find the three column layout irritating to keep open... once the book results are closed and tabbed on the side with the search history I feel less cluttered. but then it's just a google search engine...

hmm.. in general... not that useful to me at this stage.

time consuming meme

i can't think of enough questions to give everyone on my friends list 3 questions... this meme takes too much effort when hitting the friend group...

sigh of relief

oh my lovely computer! I almost lost you! the tense fear!!! ahh!!

ok nuff of that rubbish talk. here's the scoop. my laptop's power plug became positioned completely incorrectly (i found out later it actually came unsoldered from the board inside). so I could no longer power up my computer...which means i couldn't access my thesis work, or my work... you see where the fear lies.

so i thought ok. i have to fix this... let's unscrew the bottom of the laptop... well first of all, the screws were so tightly screwed in, that I unknowingly created a blister on my forefinger from abrasion on the screwdriver. the blister then was torn off (eww graphic i know...), it was at this point i noticed the wound and grabbed neosporin, a bandaid, and the aid of my evan.

you wanna see what had to happen to my baby? look at the pictures from this site... this is what we did
here's a pic from there (i didn't take my own pics.. i was too worried about my computer). This is what it looked like:


when we finally did get to the power plug and realized it was unsoldered, I decided it would be too dangerous for us to solder the connection back (there were too many other components I could have fried by chance near it... the space was very cramped)

my solution:
stick the power plug into its notch without resoldering it... super glue it to the top part of the case and tape it in position with a few strips of electrical tape... it seems sturdy.

and after putting it all back (well sort of... my page up button broke off the keyboard) my computer feels much happier and more responsive. The screen is happier, my sleep button works... a healthier laptop... or so it seems.

now i should learn from this and back all this stuff up (esp my thesis work). yes. indeed I should learn from this.

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

piece of shit conversations

so my mom is giving me crap again. She asked again if e and i are serious (the question she asks everytime she's on the phone), and said, "you can't keep living together. you're living in sin."

wow persuasive argument mom, that's sure gonna make me wanna get married. Because being wary of falling into sin has been a guiding factor in my life /sarcasmo.

i told her that she must think i'm going to hell then. she immediately denied it and said, "oh no, i don't believe in that sort of thing." wtf! I ended up swearing saying, "then don't say shit like that about me living in sin" to which she promptly, and probably rightfully, hung up on me. At least this time it was warranted. She likes to hang up on me. She even hangs up on me when i'm physically present with her; if she disagrees with something I'm saying or asking she'll just shut off (her eyes glaze over in this snotty i'm-not-listening sort of way) and I know if I were on the phone, I would hear a 'click.'

I was already peeved because she called me demanding to know when i was going to take "MY DOG" as in the dog they bought during my senior year of high school. funny that even though my dad and brother really wanted the dog as well, and it was my last year living at the house, that Buddy should be solely MY dog. I love Buddy, but I wish my family would fucking take responsibility for shit too! And because I'm gone they let poor Buddy live in a freakin' sty. And they haven't been giving him his flea/tick/heart worm medicine even though i've chided them for it time and time again. (my dad's excuse for not having given it to him since god knows when: "we ran out and haven't gone by the Vet's office"... uhh for 4months?... the vet's office is right next to the gas station you fill up at Dad, I know you, and it's only 10 mins away from the house anyway, and you can have petmeds delivered to your door...) Goddamn if he has heartworms I don't know if I'll ever forgive them or myself.

god i wish i didn't have to get so frustrated talking to my mom, but everytime she calls she berates me about how embarrassing it is that i'm living with a guy i'm not married to and how I need to find a job/going to grad school now now now. She also loves to yell about how if she didn't feed the dog it would have been dead a long time ago (god she's such a freakin' saint)

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

yesterday

despite yesterday's worries about hanging out with strangers, I had immense fun. Everyone was really cool, and we really did bond/get to know each other well. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and even surprised myself being able to kick a soccer ball in the general direction I wanted it to go.

The people I work with are amazing, have amazing stories, and are such intelligent thoughtful people. I feel lucky and excited to get to work with them.

other fun activities included playing kerPLUNK

which brought me back to my preschool playing days.

We also played pictionary which was super fun, and by then we knew each other well enough to really heckle each other! :)

Also, we took the Myers-Briggs and unlike the other times I've taken it, most of us were introverts (go introverts go!).

we ended by going to dinner at Lavanda... we were cracking up because everyone ordered 2 desserts (except me, I ordered dessert + espresso) even though we were absolutel stuffed. Apparently the group has major sweettooths! I was delighted to see that we were all comfortable enough to actually split desserts off of each others' plates!

ok today I have to do all the crazy thick reading they assigned us for tomorrow. And I have to figure out this human subjects sh*t out without stressing my head off. geez.

WTF?!!

ok so I just emailed the person in charge of human subjects protocol so that i could get a formal letter saying the protocol was accepted so that I could pick up my grant money for my thesis.

The woman wrote back that she had emailed my advisor THREE times with comments on my protocol, and that it HADN'T been accepted and I needed to reapply. Valerie never sent me those things!!! I've been working under the idea that I had HSP approval (although I sort of do since Val has blanket approval because of a grant... but i think I technically need this approval... especially for my grant money).

WTF?! I feel completely screwed over! I've been to the website, and my application says it ways "accepted" which I always took to mean approved which I now know is wrong apparently. I guess I thought they would put "denied" down on status should it be denied. I can't believe Val never told me this! I know she's busy, but this is freakin' important!

ahhh stress stress stress

Monday, April 05, 2004

gardening

since being back, I've added to my balcony garden...

I now have:

1 kaffir lime tree
1 meyer lemon bush already sprouting lemons
2 tomato plants ( i can't remember the breeds off the top of my head)
1 zucchini plant (speed racer... meaning it should bear zucchini within 2 months)

3 different colors of sage
1 thyme plant
3 different types of mint (spearmint, curling leaf mint, and apple mint)
2 types of chives (garlic and normal)
3 basil plants - 2 types (both are sweet basil, but one is the normal big leaf the other is a bushy plant with tiny leaves)
1 trailing rosemary
1 cilantro
1 oregano (this one survived from last summer!)

so when i look for a new apartment, it has to have a nice sunny patio or garden to grow my lovely tasties.
We did look at this apartment that was in our price range that felt like owning an actual house. It had its own fenced in garden and was separate from the other apartments. unfortunately, we're not looking to move for another couple months, so it'll probably be sold by then.

shoot

i apparently have an amazon order shipment that's been sitting at the post office since march 24th! I don't know when they send things back.

i hate that these packages just don't end up at our apartment office manager's office... BLAH

oy

today i get to spend 9 hours straight with 7 other people I don't know. 6 of the 9 hours will be spent playing board games. All 9 hours will be spent "bonding" with my fellow prisoners - *cough* - I mean coworkers.

wish me lots of stamina a patience.

toodles!

Thursday, April 01, 2004

last paris photos maybe



e sporting his international traveler shirt


me at the top of the eiffel tower freezing and blotchy...


a pic from the protest outside our hotel on the last day. A bunch of American ex-patriots protesting Bush and the war in Iraq


and for good measure... me being retarded...



for a few more photos, e posted some to his blog here
btw, the last photo on his blog looks like i have a really purple face... now i assure you, as much as i like makeup I didn't go all clown on y'all. our camera's settings hadn't been changed to adjust for the lighting conditions the night before, so the picture was originally all blue. e color adjusted in a photo program to bring the colors back, but my face was still purplish... ah that's ok, it looks kinda neat i think.

the cubano club in paris

searching for a place to eat one night, we stumbled into "La Bodeguita Del Medio," a Cuban bar/restaurant/club that celebrated Che and Fidel Castro on its walls. A crazy dutch looking white guy with long blonde hair was the excited owner of the joint.

We didn't realize that the lowest meal price on the menu was 35 euros a person! but we tried the place out. much to our disappointment, the food was very poor (almost no flavor or anything good to speak of). Perhaps if we had gotten the 60 some euro dinners we would have been happier. Anyways, we later figured we were paying for the entertainment which turned out to be a live mariachi-like band. The band, unlike the food, was actually good.



e and his daddy!


my cutie!


blurry shot of me taken by e


a shot of some of the band

paris from my window at 3am

so I never really adjusted to Paris time, although I messed up my internal clock just enough to continue to wake up a 5:30am every morning now that I'm back home.

Anyways, one of the early mornings I couldn't sleep in Paris, I kept looking out the teeny window of the room e and I were staying in.







photos of the catacombs


These bones were right next to a light and so were growing moss. We found it hard to take photos in the catacombs without a flash (which was requested due to respect although a few other people in front of us used flash anyway). It was hard to keep our hands steady enough to shoot this.





you can see how high they stacked the bones... and how efficiently! we mainly saw walls and walls of leg/arm bones and skulls...


Here you can see just how far back some of these walls of bones extended. remember they fit 2 million bodies down here... creepy factor