Recluse

Man, I'm dizzy with sitting in front of the computer the whole day, writing papers and creating presentation files and whatever. Geez, come to think of it, I haven't gone outside today at all. Am I a withdrawal or something? Yeah, I'm a withdrawal.

OK, to destigmatize, I will go outside now to put the garbage out :P

Addicted

Damn, I'm bad. Even though I know I have to finish my papers and other stuff, I wasted my time by watching stupid TV comedy episodes. It's a TV comedy, but I don't have a TV set. So, I watch it online. Viva, the Internet age!

Anyhow, "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" is really addictive. Simply, I cannot stop watching it.

Leftover Thanksgiving Dinner

I forgot to take my camera with me to DS's Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday. Food was gorgeous. I wanted to take photos of food and DS's family. But it's too late to regret.

Incidentally, I brought a pecan pie from Eugene City Bakery, which is my favorite.

Thanksgiving Dinner means tons of food (maybe waste of food). So, there were tons of leftover. Why not take some home? I'm a poor student. DS and her mom kindly packed some leftover for me. They save my life!

So, I had another Thanksgiving Dinner for lunch today. Maybe for dinner, too.

Batman Is Getting Darker and Darker and Darker

Double DS took me to the Batman movie this afternoon. DSs looked great after a long vacation in Florida. Mm, I'm jealous.

I've been always a fan of Batmobiles. This Batmotorcycle (above) is cool. It transforms from the Batmobile (below). Transformation is coll, but the Batmobile is not as cool as transformation. It looks like a tank, and doesn't involve aesthetic design at all. Boo.


In terms of Batmobile, my favorite is the one Michael Keaton drives in "Batman Returns." "Batman Returns" is the best Batman movie among others, by the way. No massive killings, no gross scenes, no excessive destruction. More importantly, "Batman Returns" has a great aesthetic sense. Of course, it is a Tim Burton movie. The sets, props, costumes, makeups and everything are the taste of Tim Burton. He is awesome.

On the other hand, "Batman: The Dark Knight" is too dark and too serious. As a result, I thought, "Man, these guys are so serious. It should be a comic world. This is ridiculous."

But thank DSs for dragging me away from my computer and my patch-work papers for a while.

Swing! Swing! Swing!

Man, these guys are awesome! I fell in love with them totally, really, as I listened to their music live and saw their performance with my own eyes.

Their music has been my commuting BGM to school for long. If you see someone walking or biking if the weather is OK, shaking her head and sometimes singing, that's me.

Anyhow, they are cool. The lead vocalist, Steve, oh man, where does his energy come from?! He's a person of energy. I like that. And I love his voice. He has both high tone and low tone. His low tone is ... sexy. He said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you," with his high tone after every song. That's cute.

At any rate, their music will remain to be my commuting BGM, for sure.

Can't stand this weight

My only bookshelf--well, it's a TV table per se--collapsed this morning. It's my fault. I put a lot of books on it, and it couldn't support itself anymore. I shouted, "Don't give up, bookshelf!" But it was too late. It was too damaged to be repaired. Goodbye, bookself ...

F***ing Geniuses

Coen Brothers are just great, unbelievably great!

I've waited for long ... Oops, forgive my exaggeration. I just waited for a few weeks "Burn After Reading" to come to the $1 theater. Remember, I'm a poor student.

This movie is a corpus of Coen essences--senseless killings, complicated sexual relations, a myriad of curse words, irrational behaviors, and on and on. In short, it's crazy and therefore hilarious.

Colors in the Gray Sky

It's a nice surprise in the morning to see this big rainbow from my balcony. Something good may happen, that's my hope :)

Japanese Stuff

Yea, something good happened! YO kindly sent me a box of Japanese stuff. I will cook red beans right away. Dried daikon radish, seaweeds, noodles, konnyaku and more ... my diet will be enriched. Thank YO!

Osakan in the Hippie Town

I found someone who speaks Kansai dialect in my fitness club! After the step lesson, this lady came to me (we know each other from the last lesson) and spoke to me in Japanese. In our conversation (in English), I found she was born in Osaka and went to school in Kobe. She said she speaks Kansai dialect but she can't speak standard Japanese. That's cool, isn't it?

Nice Surprise!

Man, DF is too much! I'm lucky to have a friend like her who thinks about me. Ahhhh, I'm almost crying!

DF sent this shirt and card to celebrate my conference debut. HF chose this shirt for me. Good job, HF!

Because I've been anti-social and feeling bad about myself this term, it really really warms my heart and humanizes me that I can feel like someone cares about me. Man, I'm overwhelmed by DF's thoughfulness.

If It Were a Holiday ...

Mission Inn is a very nice, antique hotel. The reason why I came to Riverside is to deliver my presentation. Mm ... it's not fun. I wasn't nervous, (on the contrary, I was too calm. It's weird, huh?) but it was not fun. I know myself that I kind of like standing and speaking in front of a crowd of people. I was trained by numerous Rotary presentations. Thank the Rotary! But again, it's not fun to do an academic presentation.

Anyhow, the conference took place at this gorgeous, historic hotel. And I wish I had stayed there just for fun :(

Ouch!

I feel muscle pain in every part of my body. That step class is killing me one day later!

E*X*E*R*C*I*S*E!

I feel so good! My membership of the fitness club is valid from today, and of course, I joined one of lessons this morning. That was the one-hour-and-half step & body sculpt class. It's a long class, isn't it? But it doesn't force complicated choreography which is often the case of Japanese aerobics classes, so you simply enjoy stepping up and down and jumping on and off if you like. This simple class was good enough for my lazy body which has enjoyed not doing exercise for such a long time.

Stress, Heartful Comments, Tears

Man, I realize that I have been stressed out seriously. Bob the Supervisor emailed me with his heartful comments. When I read it, I burst into tears, man ... I'm emotional. I appreciate his thoughtfulness. I am really lucky to have him in my life as a supervisor.