per diem

move along move along

2009-07-03T19:42:00.000-07:00

re-route:
http://www.telltalecity.blogspot.com/

The Helmet of Horror

2009-06-23T23:55:00.000-07:00

so i do this thing. pick out one book that i think i'll love and one book i think i'll hate (based solely on cover and title, and maybe by reading a few random lines from back or inside flaps). buy 'em both, read 'em both, and be surprised... or not. this was one of the 'i don't think i'd read this based on the cover and title' books that i picked out at Strands in New York (it's counter was The History of Love by Nicole Krauss which has become one of my favorite novels). i also bought it because it was only five dollars. i never got around to reading it because... well, i didn't feel like reading it based on its cover and title, haha. but today i didn't feel much like packing so i picked up the book and decided to have a go at it. yes, it does have rollerskating dwarves in it.

"one cannot criticize a book for being unrealistic or unreal when the story is about the perception of reality."

the first thing i did after i finished this book was go on google and search 'helmet of horror, explanation.' i didn't realize until I got to the end of the book that the book wasn't so much about the storyline as it was about a concept. i'd like to say that it's brilliant, except, i can't even really grasp the concept yet so it's kind of hard to say. all in all, it's a fast read, but there were some passages that i had to re-read at least six or seven times, only to skip over them in frustration. i read a review on it, which made me feel a little better about not really understanding it in it's entirety. maybe it's the very fact that the concept of the book isn't something that's easily understood that makes it so brilliant. i dunno. alls i know is i had a teeny headache after reading it and i still don't really get what happens in the end. definitely something i'm going to have to re-read at least three or four (or more) times, but not anytime soon! anyway, if you want a challenge or just want to be mind f*cked for a while, i recommend it. be sure to let me know if you do read it, so i can ask you questions!

anyway, i plan to read about two books per month while in korea (i might finish a couple on the plane ride there, if i'm not crocheting) so i'll be sure to write about how those go and if they're worth a gander (some authors include jonathan safran foer (if you recognize the author, you already know what the book is!), jonathen lethem, ayn rand, julio cortazar, italo calvino.. and whatever else i can find in korea!).

don't know if-slash-when i'll have time to write again before korea, but i will 노력 to do so! and i know that makes no grammatical sense but.. you get what i mean!

jungle, out.

eidt- just found out that that The Helmet of Horror is a part of the Canongate Myth Series, which is a series of short novels that reimagine and rewrite ancient myths. this is no bueno. if any are as good as Pelevin's, i might just have to read them all!

Ooples and Banoonoos

2009-06-09T22:53:00.000-07:00

an unintentional eavesdropping:

1:“did you know that tomatoes are fruits?”
2: “oh yeah”
1: “people think they’re vegetables because they put them in salads and stuff”
2: “avocados are fruits”
3: “kumquats too”
1: “well that’s a given”
3: “how do you guys know all this? Did you look it up?”
2: “yeah”
3: “what about cucumbers?”
1: “that’s a tricky one”
2: “vegetable.”

restaurant city; today's daily food quiz question:
A tomato is a:
a)herb
b)vegetable
c)fruit

somebody up there knows what he's doing.

Tommy G

2009-06-01T00:23:00.000-07:00

this weekend was more or less...
a blast!

who doesn't love gambling until 7 in the morning, passing out by the pool, and getting lapdanced on by a stripper from american storm?

my noteboard post on langland's piers plowman may be overdue, but i now have hello kitty gum and blisters on my feet to show for good times.

cheers!

breathe in, breathe out

2009-05-19T01:28:00.000-07:00

i'm waiting for blade runner to finish downloading so i can watch it and write a paper on it. it doesn't seem to matter how much of a rush i'm in to try and finish it so that i can get some sleep... or so that i can start my other paper, at that. it's been an hour an twenty-two minutes and the download is only halfway complete. blast. this is what happens when you rely too much on technology. disappointment. actually, this is what happens when you leech wireless off of an unknown source for the entire school year. disappointment. and slow connection.

but, for that matter, that's what happens when you rely too much on anything. no man is an island, but the smart ones will become islands. or at least a semi-private non-island... or a non-private semi-island... or something like that. i think i'm just delirious because i spend twenty dollars on a freaking hamburger today. it was a pretty good burger; not gonna lie. but not a twenty-dollar pretty-good burger. the company was also great. but... the beautiful thing is that you don't have to pay for company. well, for the most part. expensive food, priceless people... i guess it all kind of balances out. plus, i got to wear my bowling shoes today.

come on,
i just want to watch harrison ford fight some androids.
come on, itunes. any minute now.

what ever happened to my lunch box?

2009-05-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

sometimes i wonder where it's all gone. time, people, thoughts, memories, moments, feelings.. my favorite blue shirt....
and then i wonder where i've gone. where where i've been, where i am and where i'm going. who i've been, who i am, who i'll become.

eyes unfurl, mind expands, soul inflates--
but
i'm still just me.

my leg is asleep.

2009-04-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

i count down the days.
i think i will be happy;
i think that says a lot.

Close Encounter

2009-04-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

I didn't notice them until I walked by them, a pair of interesting birds sitting in the shade, on a cement wall by the entrance of my apartment. I was really close, but instead of flying away, they just stared at me, looked straight into my soul with their beady little eyes. Intrigue...

God bless wikipeida! All I had to do was look through "California Birds" and I found the species within 10 minutes. They were a pair of mourning doves, symbolism abound. They supposedly signify that "The ways and means of leaving a destructive or difficult situation is at hand. Life is about to become much more peaceful and satisfying on all levels."

In the context of my current state of being, I guess that makes a lot of sense.
Shrug.

I knew it

2009-03-03T19:56:00.001-08:00

she's back!

can you say it five times real fast?

2009-02-18T20:22:00.000-08:00

subscapulary sprain
subscapulary sprain
subscapulary sprain
subscapulary sprain

what if you had a lisp?
thubthcapulary thprain

anyway,
that was my diagnosis, according to the sM.D.
what a bust.

They say every man dies twice;

2009-02-05T13:52:00.001-08:00

once, when his body goes,
and again when his name is uttered for the last time.
may his continue to be voiced--

When our TA's took over last quarter, they first said that he should be back the next week. The next week, they said he would be out all quarter, but assured us that his situation wasn't critical. Needless to say, my attendance in class after hearing the news became quite sparse.

He was sarcastic, he was cynical,
but he was brilliant.
Rest in Peace, Professor Kroll.

Odd Numbers

2009-02-04T23:35:00.000-08:00

some would say it's patience, but i would say it's inadvertence. it's almost ridiculous how oblivious i am to things until they actually become a problem.
this time i find that i'm more disappointed than frustrated,
that i'm unfairly indifferent when i should be more than excited.
all i'm hoping is that there's some sort of resolution to all of this,
and a reasonable, responsive one at that.

nonne amicus certus in re incerta cernitur?
i guess it depends on how you interpret it;
perception is deception.

that song by kings of leon; i heard it on the FM a while ago and fell in love with the rawness of the lead's voice... but who would have thought it would fit so perfectly? oh, the irony!

Do you hear what I hear?

2009-02-02T14:39:00.000-08:00

communication is everything.

'Riding in Cars with Boys'

2009-01-31T02:24:00.000-08:00

i wishy-washy on going out, but i really missed angela, sunny (and carlo, haha!) and yoon so i decided last minute to drop by and say hullo. to my joy and surprise, the mansion boys (sans faigao), sex, monica, junice, biznar, isaac, nagooyin and homster walked in a mere twenty minutes after i had gotten there. i wasn't planning on drinking, but I'd never had the force before so I decided to give it a go. Wasn't too bad, considering I normally can't stand beer/vodka; I think it was the hint of lemonade that seduced me.

Anyway, it was hella funny watching the drunkies go crazy and laughing about it with the teammates. After about an hour and a half, the DC kids headed toward BCD's for some post boozing eats. sure, the food was good, but it was actually the drive there and back that really did it for me; all i really want to say is that i love and admire varsity. it's slipped my mind how supportive and protective they are of pussy party. it could have been just the specific individuals that ended up in my car.... but i'd never felt so randomly happy before! After a while, I couldn't tell if they were drunk or just being themselves; all I knew was that I was laughing and thinking about how glad I was to have somehow come to know these fellas.

varsity, for the win :)
cheers!

tennis racquets and cigarettes

2009-01-30T20:18:00.000-08:00

eto and i have officially decided to make 85C our cafe of choice; it's actually kind of funny why we've decided to start going there on the regular. i'm not going to say why because i'm actually a little embarassed, haha!

but i can say that everything they sell there tastes like heaven in baked bread/dessert form. eto and i also had their coffee grass jelly tea, which was actually pretty good; just be sure to mix it before you drink it, otherwise you'll get a ridiculous coffee and jelly overload in the last couple of sips. needless to say, we've decided to go back on monday, haha!

i'm eyeing the coconut bread that i bought earlier....
where's will power when you need it!

more than words

2009-01-28T02:53:00.000-08:00

they had already announced third and second place. before they announced first, anie looked up at me and said, "then it's probably grv or kaba." i looked at her and nodded. as much as i wanted it to be us, as much as i wanted to hold on to that tiny inkling of hope inside of me, i just felt like it was a long shot. too long of a shot. it's not at all that i didn't believe in the set or the team; i guess my mentality was just what the coords had always reminded us: that we just want to put on a good show, one that we would enjoy performing with each other, one where the audience would have fun feeding off of our craziness and energy and passion... because at the end of the day, a plastic trophy can only give you so much. but the idea of a team collectively working hard to put on a good performance that they'll genuinely love performing with each other... now that's something to smile about.

maybe that's why we all cried.
because even before the award ceremony, we were already talking about how happy we were with our performance and with each other.

stay hungry, stay humble;
cadc forever.

twenty one candles

2009-01-23T13:26:00.000-08:00

we sang, we ate, they drank, we laughed, he smiled, we were
full, both stomachs and hearts;

happy birthday, eto!

preparations

2009-01-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

i'm not quite sure what day it is. the time on my task bar says 1:07PM but it feels like it's four. i know i should be reading or writing or something (this is called homework, i think?) but i feel more at peace just staring off at the off-white wall in front of me.

this. this is hell week at its best.

although this is my fourth or fifth hell week, i've found that they're always just as strenuous or just as challenging as the next. there's really no way to prepare for them; i personally think it's a matter of being smart. school, family, dance, work, personal health... there are continually going to be sacrifices made, you just gotta know which ones to sacrifice at what time so as to keep the different areas of your life healthy and intact. it's hard though, most of the time. sleep over grades, practice over family...

but something always brings us back.

it would be so easy to quit. or to miss a practice. or two. or three.... but every night, one by one, we all come back, stretch to john mayer or to missy elliot, and prepare ourselves for the first run through of the night.

three days until showtime;
we're coming strong.

Viva La Villa

2009-01-17T23:30:00.000-08:00

i didn't want to get up. then again, when do i ever? snoozing always feels good. i usually set my alarm thirty minutes to an hour earlier so i can snooze it and feel like i get more sleep. too bad it rarely works!

dragged my body out of bed and into shower, then out of shower and into clothes. got to work, watched the clock for a good four hours before i raced back home. i was waiting for this day for a while. it'd been a while since i'd seen leslie, and since i'd legitly hung out with jamie, even though i see her in class twice a week. we met up at jack in the box (where, by the way, i had a funny/awkward/awkwardly funny encounter with noah, haha!) and took off on the 405 to pacific palisades.

finally! i've been trying to go to the getty villa for a while now but time and weather haven't quite been on my side. but today... today! beautiful weather, beautiful friends... and beautiful, traffic-free highways! it was too good! we got there around three o' clock, which gave us a good two hours to explore before the museum closed.

the architectural details of the villa are absolutely breathtaking; the flora, fountains and statues were obviously handsome but i would say that the ceilings and floors were my favorite structural aspect of the villa. where i wouldn't have expected to see anything but white stucco, i saw quiet, yellow flowers in soft, blue diamonds and intricate vines of white on red marble. personally, i would say that the pride of the getty villa is its structural designs and details. don't get me wrong, the exhibitions are far from uninteresting, but the majority of its displays consist of bronze and marble busts and terracotta vessels.

my favorite piece of the day was a marble statue of "Leda and the Swan," the story of which is a motif from greek mythology. my next favorite piece is a photo of my own, entitled "Jamie and the Penis." Haha! Jamie took a collection of marble penis photos throughout the day, just for fun... i just thought i'd pay homage to her!

as it neared five o'clock, we drove to los angeles where we were to meet janice and sonia at yamato for dinner. we got there about half an hour early, so we walked around westwood boulevard for a while. i got semi-deja vued because westwood had a faint new york-like texture to it... i've just come to accept that fact that i'm a city girl at soul. we stopped by urban outfitters so jamie could say hullo to a friend who was working, then went to buffalo exchange to see if we could find any goodies. at six o' clock, we walked out with empty stomachs and full bags. janice and sonia had just finished parking and were walking to the restaurant. we met them inside, got seated and drooled over the pictures of sashimi and hand rolls. the cool thing about yamato is that they have happy hour every day from five to eleven every night, when all sushi and appetizers are fifty percent off. strangely enough, the drinks (which are usually what's supposed to make happy hour 'happy') are full price.

i think i would give yamato an overall four out of five stars. the ambience is nice, both the exterior (it looks like a city hall, janice noted) and the interior are nice, and the food is pretty good, especially for the price. we ordered a mess of rolls and some sake and sapparo for some sake bombing. drinking on an empty stomach resulted in a quick buzz which was satisfyingly subdued with bacon-wrapped asparagus skewers, tamago sushi and a crunchy roll. i can say we were happily eating and chatting away :) by around seven fifteen, the place was getting packed and the service started to suck. even though it got frustrating with the waiters and we got out and hour later than we had expected, i was glad they were the people that i got to spend that extra time with.

mmm...i don't really have anything profound to say, haha. i'm just happy i got to spend the day with people that i care about, glad that somehow our life paths happened to cross and that we're where we ended up.

Hey, everything's right, said everything's right tonight
Hey, everything's right, said everything's right tonight

sister act, two

2009-01-16T23:59:00.000-08:00

when i was on the team last year, i was lucky enough to have more than one older sister/mother/mentor figure on the team; baff and i had korean class all three quarters of my third year, steppie and i always ended up having drunk soul-to-soul moments during random kickbacks, and anie was my go to person during practices. i know firsthand that being on a newbie on the team can be reason for anxiety... sure, i screamed and cartwheeled around campus village upon receiving the phone call, but during the first couple of weeks (maybe months for others), i couldn't help but brace myself. will i be able to keep up with the choreo? will i be able to keep up with school work? will i fit [in]? can i really trust these people? For most people the majority of the answers come after retreat. but for others, it's a constant struggle.

ergo; i wanted to be what baff was to me, what steppie was to me, what anie was to me. and lo, what they were, i am, and what i was are what the iotas are now. i love them, my newbies.

today i met becca on campus and after taking care of our scholastic duties, we set off for my apartment for a quick second before hitting the road. destination: diamond bar. the drive ended up being about 15 to 20 minutes longer than i had guestimated because i ended up going a roundabout way to the restaurant. i'm beginning to notice that i do that quite often. i guess that's what i get for giving mapquest the cold shoulder.

so we got to banana bay, and i was excited because it was becca's first time! i popped her thai food cherry! hohoho. becca tried thai ice tea for the first time, and i got my usual lychee juice (yum!). we ordered the beef pad see ew and barbeque chicken friend rice and inhaled it in a matter of half an hour. i think it will suffice to say that we left extremely satisfied. since we were in the vicinity we decided to go to diamond plaza. we did the fobby fob, got some yogurt boba and then headed back to the vine where i went to work for an hour (during which becca knocked out in the car from having no sleep the night before). afterward, we went back to my apartment. vineyard, ho!

becca knocked out while i leveled up in iminlikewithyou.com, which has become quite a craze with the team. i attended my first ever LAN party, hahaha! everyone brought their laptops and surge protectors to the mansion after practice and went head to head in gemmers and pictionary. there were oreos, soco, and a lot of screaming, haha :) so when it hit about nine, becca and i drove over to the dollar theater where we met up with irene, kanako and erica. can i say... changeling is the first good movie i've seen in a while. i was surprised to find out that it was directed by clint eastwood, who also directed gran torino (which sucked!). changeling, in a nutshell... simple and raw. loved it. i would have paid the price of a full movie ticket to watch it, but the fact that it was worth a dollar made it all the better! hahah :)

good times, good people....
good night!