Another Bleak Sign to Newspaper Industry

The Washington Times is cutting lots of newsroom poisitions. Man, 2010 will be a tougher year to the newspaper industry.

Rushana Buddha's Head

Kayo chan took me to Mukoryoji famous for this head of the Rushana Buddha. Rushana Buddha statues are usually sitting, but this one has only the head. Looks rare, rather, weird. But one legend suggests that this Buddha grants people's wishes and hopes related to the head. Of course, I prayed, please do not make me demented.



This sign is hilarious! It reads, "Thieves, do not come because the temple is poor. Scholars, do not come because the priest is unlearned. Salepoeple, do not come because the priest is unsophisticated." Well, I thought this is a temple for the head ...

1200 Years Old

A World Heritage site near my hometown.

District Governor Night

Yea! Free dinner and free drinks! Well, I worked for them, ahem. I served as greeter at the front desk to entertain people who checked in. To tell the truth, I like that kind of hostessing people.

Anyway, tonight, our RC had a dinner party at Hilton, inviting District Governor. It was fun as always, and it was a little bit of politics as always. But it was fun overall, and that's important. And that's why I like R.

Dissertation Proposal III

OK, I've sent my revised dissertaion proposal to everyone in my committee. All I have to do is wait the judgement day, which is Dec. 8, to be grilled. Aaaaaaaah!

Turkey Oyakodon ... II?

Yeah, now I remember that I made turkey oyakodon today last year, the next day of Thanksgiving Thursday. And, I did this year, too. DS kindly gave me leftover turkey yesterday, along with other stuff like stuffing. Whoa, her turkey is really tender, and I like it. Believe me, this turkey oyakodon tastes good, too.

Yesterday's turkey party at DS's was nice. I like that family get-together thing, rather than parties with lots of unfamiliar faces. I appreciate that DS and her family welcome me.

Hakusai Lettuce and Ofu

I admit my stomach is tired. I like Thanksgiving food, but as you may know, it is heavy, really heavy, on stomach, especially on a little Japanese stomach.

So, to soothe my stomach, I cooked hakusai lettuce that NG gave me the other day with ofu that YO sent me the other day. Yes, I'm supported by my friends!

Anyway, it was so good and soft on my stomach that is tired of digesting heavy Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. Nice.

Kaki no Tane, Chocolate-Coated!

What a treat! YO sent me a box of Japanese stuff, yay, thank YO! She always puts surprises in the box, and this time, kaki no tane caught my heart. Especially, it is coated with chocolate, oh, my Buddha. I would have it with wine tonight.

What a shame. I unintentionally had a huge piece of very rich chocolate cake for lunch dessert so that I'd better refrain from consuming any more chocolate today. Otherwise, I will have pimples all over my face tomorrow. That means, I can't eat chocolate-coated kaki no tane tonight. Man ...

Dissertation Proposal II

OK, I'm not done with my dissertation proposal. My advisor is a very nice guy, I know it, and therefore, he gave me tons of suggestions and corrections on my proposal. Urgh, I have to revise it a lot, a lot! Ahhhhh ...

Canker Sore Again

... Then, my old canker sore has come back! I'm sensitive to stress, ouch!

Dissertation Proposal

OK, I'm done with my dissertation proposal, well, for the time being. I have emailed it to my advisor, and he is supposed to give me tons of corrections, suggestions, criticisms next week. So, I have to enjoy this short break!

Canker Sore Disapeared

It is interesting that my about-a-month-old canker sore (see Nov. 4 entry) has been gone! It suddenly disappeared once my former roommate moved out. I imagine how much I was stressed out with my former roommate.

Farewell to Stitch

Yay, Stitch moved out this morning! I have tried to convince myself that she is Stitch, otherwise, I couldn't have stood to share the apartment with her. Well, I mean Stitch is my former roommate. She made disgusting noise (through her throat) all day. Though I told her to stop it, she said that she couldn't. That was the end of the story.

So, anyway, she left early in the morning. I was so relieved! But, my relief did not last long. She left tons of junk! She made mess in the shared areas like living room and kitchen, but I didn't want to make a fuss about it because she was leaving anyway. But, I was completely pissed off when I opened her door after she left. Mess! I didn't understand why she didn't clean her room. It is an obligation of a tenant to clean the room when moving out, right? And, she left piles of junk in front of the apartment, by saying, "My friend will collect them soon." I don't know who she means "my friend" is and when "my fiend" will come to collect the junk. Anyway, I can confirm now that she is really an irresponsible person.

I spent the whole morning to clean her room because my new roommate was supposed to move in the late morning. I was frantic, as you may imagine, cursing my former roommate.

The good thing is, my new roommate looks nice, friendly, clean, and neat. Ah, finally, I can sleep sound tonight!

Soderbergh!

Another movie night with a young crowd of my friends. Tonight, we saw "The Informant!" Matt Damon is cool. He can play whatever kind of roles. He'd never be typecast.

It is a comedy with small laughs, but not like Tarantino's "Inglorious Bastards" with rolling-on-the-floor laughs. One reason of small laughs is that the story is a little complicated, and in fact, you cannot laugh at some parts of the story because this is a story of a real crazy person, not a fake crazy person. But it was OK because I could laugh on and off and enjoy a 2-hour interval from my school work. This interval was what I needed. To meet my friends, chat and interact with them ... that manages to keep me sane.

Health Insurers Deceptions

Tarantino!

Urgh, Tarantino! Lots of violence, senseless killing, ridiculously funny tricks and lines, improper (and therefore proper?) music, and so on and so forth. It is a long movie (150 minutes!), but time just flew because of Tarantino magic. This is entertainment!

Canker Sore

Excuse my gross photo. I've got a canker sore, which is really really annoying.

IF I were in Japan, I would go to see a doctor and the doctor would fix it in a second for, say, $10 or $20. But here ... in a country where medical costs are crazy, nothing can be done.

I called the university health center to make an appointment to fix this annoying stuff in my mouth. But, they didn't let me make an appointment. The operator put me through to a nurse, and she gave me suggestions to gaggle with hot water and salt or baking soda, avoid spicy food, and whatever. Come on, just let me see a doctor!

But I analyzed this situation. According to my analysis (or guess), the university health center does not want to reduce the number of patients as few as possible. Doctors who are stationed in the center are not hired by the university. Actually, they have their real jobs in hospital outside the university. Anyway, I guess that doctors are paid by the university, depending on the number of their patients. Because the economy is bad, actually terrible, the university wants to reduce the costs as much as possible. University is a business, man!

Mm, this canker sore is really annoying.

Another Newspaper to Shut Down

Mm, the East Valley Tribune will shut down at the end of this year. To tell you the truth, I didn't know about this paper. But I found it has more than 100 years of history, and that won a Pulitzer Prize earlier this year. Man, a newspaper with good journalism is dying. That makes me sad ...

Halloween

Before ...

And after ...

Because the weather was not Halloween friendly tonight, not so many kids showed up to collect candies. One of moms who accompanied their kids said, "Yeah, the weather is bad, so kids are hanging around in the community center." I see.

Well, I will end up taking those leftover candies to school next week.

Gala

We had our biggest annual event, the Gala, tonight. I made a little bouquet from leftover table decoration (flower arrangement) :P I admire MF's talent of decorating tables. Gorgeous.

It is always fun, during the Gala, but it is not fun during the preparation. It is very difficult to have unorganized people organize something, especially this kind of big party. Things are messed up, people get stressed out, and blame each other. Nasty.

But, the interesting thing is, everything is alright at the end. People have fun, thank each other, and hug. American culture.

Done ... Not Quite

Well, I'm done with the oral exam of the qualifying exams. But, one of the professors did not like one of my answers though the other professors supported me by saying, "Yeah, what you are saying makes sense," when I defended myself in the oral exam. Stubborn professor.

Anyhow, as usual, GM and GM were willing to become listening victims of my whining tonight. GM gave me this corn (maize?) decoration (for fruitful life?). It is now hanging on the kitchen wall.

Well, I'm tired. I don't feel like doing anything.

Tomorrow is the Judgment Day

Urgh, tomorrow is coming, the oral exam is coming! I feel like a cat in the middle of the road, astonished by a approaching car and unable to move. What did I do today? I just killed my time. But what can I do for preparation? Aaaaah, I'm just waiting to be torn me down!

Moving Day

Today was the moving day of my friend (and her family). They moved from a house to a house one mile apart, so it would be not so bad, that's what I thought. No-no, I was wrong. The problem is not the distance, but the stuff! They have tons of stuff. I was astonished at the amount of stuff, and thought, "Oh, man, it must be miracle if we finish moving today." Well, that may be a typical American household.

I don't know how many times the truck went back and forth between the two houses. She was lucky to have five, six robust, masculine guys to help her move. One of the guys was cute and funny. Yes, I went there to help, not to hunt a guy.

Anyway, it was a nice escape from reality of mine. And physical labor is good for your mental health. My body is tired, but I feel better than yesterday.

Sties

Damn it, I have a couple of sties in my left eye. Aaaaaah, I know I'm stressed out! Conference papers, journal articles, upcoming oral exam, lawsuit, grievance, etc. etc. Seriously, I'm tires, exhausted (sigh).

Boston Globe off the Market

Times Co. takes Boston Globe off the market - The Boston Globe


Ah-ha! The New York Times Co. apparently changed its mind.

Ah-Ha!

Saturday Night Live is fast to mock Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. I like it.

Duck Race 2009

65,000 ducks competed with each other to win a VW Jetta. It is very American (I mean, U.S. American), hilarious, and cute. I like it.


OK, now it is time for me to get back to my reading.

Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Obama

Yeah, it is a surprise. Why was Obama awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? According to this guy, former speechwriter for Presideng George Bush, "It just shows how the international left is so in love with this guy, and for no apparent reason except that he's not George Bush." I like it.

Restructuring the Newsroom Hard

Wow, news coverage will be more and more narrowed. Where was people's right to know left behind?!

I'm Done!

Yes, I'm done. I'm done with the qualifying exams! I've survived. Now, I will be qualified to soak myself into tequila.

Japanese Box

Yippee! YO sent me another box of Japanese stuff. It arrived at the very good timing. After finishing the six-hour writing exam, I came home, totally exhausted. And I found the box on the kitchen counter (my roommate collected the box while I was out). What a nice surprise! Thanks, YO!

Margarita Night Alone

Phew, I'm done with two subjects of the qualifying exams. So far, OK. I'm not saying that I'm doing good. Actually, I will never know if I'm doing alright until the oral defense. Anyway two more subjects to go.

The two subjects will come next week. Today is Thursday, which is almost weekend. Urgh, I'm bad. I took up margarita after four days without alcohol since I had a margarita last Saturday when AP and I went to have dinner at an Asian restaurant (margarita at an Asian restaurant?!).

Good thing is, this tequila tastes good, smooth, and strong. Yeah, I can tell it's strong. One margarita is good enough for today.

Where There is Peace, the Cat is?!

Japan, at least this rural town, is seemingly peaceful ...

Capitalism Kills Newspaper Industry

American capitalism is killing the U.S. newspaper industry, and other capitalism will kill their own newspapers, probably?

Obama's Health Care Reform Speech

Obama's speech writer is good. Actually, his speech on health care reform was moving. But, I realized Obama's plan is not like Japanese health care. Private insurance companies will be asked to provide affordable health care to the lower class?! I think unless private insurance companies are expelled from the national health care, nothing will change.

Why did FOX feature Obama's speech? Ah, right, Hulu is owned by FOX, or News Corporation. And, FOX did not forget adding criticism (counterattack) of Obama's health care reform plan at the end of this footage. Man, the media are screwing up this country.

I Knew It!

I knew it, I knew it! GM is a great guy. He helped me out of this impasse. Ah, thank Buddha, God, GM!

Switching Sides

Wow, this is interesting. Samoa is switching from driving on the right of the road to the left. The media are fussing by saying it would cause mayhem, oh well, we will see.

W Spocks

I wish I had known at least the rough plot and some characters of Star Trek (TV series). This is a pure entertainment, so you can enjoy it, without any knowledge of historic Star Trek, just by watching special effects and the designs of stuff. The story of the movie is confusing because some parts are not logical (at least to me). But you can enjoy it, without caring about the story.

Overall, this is a good movie to see after spending the whole day in front of computer revising my paper (a.k.a. crap). I like it. Young Spock is sexy. Eric Bana is completely a different person in the movie. Old Spock is forever Spock. Also, it was a surprise to find Simon Pegg in it. His "Shaun of the Dead" is hilarious/ridiculous.

Anyway, I enjoyed this Star Trek.

Ha! This is He!

I have watched the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien for a while. The reason why I do is because Conan O'Brien seems very familiar to me. I may have tried to figure out why he is familiar to me. And finally, tonight, while I was watching the show, I realized why he is familiar. He looks like N chan, who is my friend and coworker back in Japan.

It is interesting. N chan is Japanese, and Conan O'Brien is Irish (American). The colors of their eyes, hair, and skin are different, but still they look like each other. Funny.

To confirm myself, I emailed a photo of Conan O'Brien to a mutual friend of N chan and me to seek his opinion. Ha! He agreed with me. Conan O'Brien looks like N chan!

Tiger

My friend told me that my youngest brother looks like Kano of Hanshin Tigers. Mm ... well, I don't know ...

September

Oops, I think I'm running out of time. It is time to start preparing for comprehension exams seriously. I have only three weeks to go, urgh, am I in trouble?! The comps are also called the "24-hour endurance race" (well, only I call them that way). They will not be taken place in consecutive 24 hours, but still, I am expected to spend 24 hours in total to complete those exams, in a sound-proof room, in front of computer ... I'm already scared by thinking that I am going to be in a little closed room alone for that long. I'm kind of claustrophobic :(

Mrs. Worry Worry

My mom is Mrs. Worry Worry. She is worried about everything includling things that I think do not worth worrying.

She emailed me this morning (she is not good at emailing, you know, she is old anyway), by saying, "T is diagnosed as having duodenal ulcer. I'm too worried to get sleep last night."

Let me explain. T is my youngest brother. I talked with him before he talked with our mom. He told me that his regular checkup had found suspected duodenal ulcer, and that he was suggested to have a recheck. In other words, he is NOT diagnosed as having duodenal ulcer (yet). And, duodenal ulcer is a curable illness, not a fatal disease. In my opinion, finding a suspected illness in an early stage is good, and ignoring it or leaving it without noticing is bad because it would progress and get worse. My mom and I have complete opposite ways to see illness/diseases.

So, I emailed her back by saying the same as I mentioned above. And she emailed me back fast (which is rare for her) and said, "Oh, I envy you. I wish I had the nature of yours." Mom ... such a worry worry.

Gift of Organic Vegitables

N is now supporting my diet :) She is sweet. She gave me vegetables from her garden. I made simple salad from them, and I sprinkled some goat cheese on it. The dressing was also simple, which is just a mixture of extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and salt. I like the chemistry of balsamic vinegar and goat cheese. It is really yummy.

Girls DVD Night

AL organized a girls DVD night tonight. Girls, and, therefore, "Sex and the City." I didn't understand this logic, but I do now. It's a chick movie, well, a movie for girls in their 30s or over. I was so ignorant about this movie and TV series that I did not know they were huge hits (among girls, of course).

Simply put, this is a happy-ending movie as the majority of Hollywood movies are. It's fine to me because it is Friday and I needed some entertainment, but it was not to AL. It should not end happily!, AL says. AL knows the whole TV series. Given the TV series, this happy ending of the movie is impossible. I see ...

One thing that I was annoyed in the movie was product placements, tons of product placements, including Starbucks, garment brands, to name a few. Oh, there is another annoying thing. The movie is all about the upper-middle class. Girls with career and money live in an expensive condo, wear highend clothes, eat at fancy restaurants all the time, go exploitative vacation, etc., etc. It's not realistic, especially poor Ph.D. students, sigh ...

Japanese Sweets!

YO is funny! She sent me a surprise box again. When I opened the box, I found the box was full of packs of tissues. "What?! This is funny. But, YO wasted her money to send me lots of tissues?!" Then, I took out packs of tissues. Ta-da, daifuku (bean cakes) was there! Sweet red beans are one of my favorite Japanese sweets.

But anyway, YO is funny, very funny.

Nasubi Lunch

Yummy! I'm admiring myself.

Narcissism?!

My nails are now long and in good shape, which doesn't last long. My nails are fragile and easy to break. So, while they look good, I took a photo of them. Ah, they are beautiful ...

Vegitables from Home Garden

My aerobics friend gave me fresh vegetables from her home garden. I don't remember the name of this tomato, but it was rich in taste. It went well with beer, mm, yummy.

She also gave me nasubi, not egg plants, which suck. I'm looking forwarding to cooking them tomorrow :)

Lazy Person's Must-Have Item

Yea! Finally, I bought a bedrest (or reading pillow?)! I'm glad that it was on sale.

I have a habit to read (and solve sudoku) in bed. The problem was my pillows were not supportive. So, I wanted a firm, supportive bedrest like this for long. Now, I can comfortably read in bed. Zzzzz ... ?!

Johnny!

The only reason that I saw this movie tonight, even though it is long (141 mins.!), is that Johnny Depp is starred.

The theme of the movie is kind of timely. It is about bank robbers in the 1930s--the Great Depression. We are now experiencing the worse depression than the last one. The main character that Johnny Depp plays was a hero among financially oppressed people, so he was not caught easily. Meanwhile, FBI was frantic to catch him because they felt their reputation was hurt by him. At the end, Johnny was shot to death by FBI ... Well, to be honest, the story was boring. And, too much gun shooting made me tired.

But, Johnny Depp was cool as always.

Think Critically ...

Well, I always have a hard time to think "critically." Today, again, one of my advisers pointed out that my reading style is very narrative, not critical at all. Yeah, I knew it. Thanks for reminding me.

But he is great. He did not only criticize me but gave me specific ideas of how to ask questions (to myself), and how to look at things from where to answer the questions, which is very helpful.

It is really interesting and eye-popping to me that he suggested to me to connect the concept of "imagined communities" and newspapers. Imagined communities, newspapers, nation-state ...

Very Short Sightseeing

My conference session was 8:30-9:30 this morning. Phew, it was so early that I missed coffee and breakfast.

Presenters at my table were nice people, and I enjoyed talking with them. It is my first experience with this conference and this type of presentation, but I think it was good. It was informal, and provided opportunities to get to know people in a better way.

So, after finishing my session, I took to the streets (?!) to get some coffee. It is interesting that there is a Starbucks almost every corner in San Francisco. In other words, it is hard to find coffee shops other than Starbucks.

Fifteen minutes later, my stomach was settled down with a tall size soy latte (Starbucks, not to mention). It was little past 10:00. My flight was scheduled at 12:50. Even given the time to get to the airport, I had 30 minutes to hang around the town (only 30 minutes!).

I thought of taking a cable car to get to Fisherman's Wharf, but I thought twice, and concluded it would be impossible to get there and come back in 30 minutes. On top of that, there was a loooooooong waiting line for the cable car. Instead, I took a photo of the cable car (as a piece of evidence that I was in San Francisco), and got on BART.

Man, I just spent several hours in San Francisco. What a short trip it was!

SF Newspaper

Good, the San Francisco Chronicle is still alive. Right?!

End of the Summer

It is not quite the end of the summer, but it is the end of fun and distractions. Geez. All my trips are now over. I have to study for big exams at the end of the summer break. Urgh, I need more fun.

Horizon Air

Horizon Air is nice.

Firstly, they changed my destination without extra charge.

I was scheduled to fly Portland, kill three hours of downtime, and fly to Oakland. As soon as I got to Portland, I asked a gate agent to put me in an earlier flight. Actually, I tried twice. By the second try, I realized that my original flight would be delayed an hour. Geez. But the gate agents told me that there was no flight to Oakland before my flight, and that flights to San Francisco were overbooked.

By the way, there's no much difference between flying to Oakland and flying to San Francisco as long as you go to downtown San Francisco. Downtown is located between those airports (see the map above).

Giving up, I took a seat at the bar to have beer. When I finished my beer and left the bar, it was almost 7:40 pm. Then, out of blue, into my beer-filled brain, an announcement came. "There are a couple of available seats in the flight to San Francisco. Those who want to fly to San Francisco, please come to the podium at Gate ..." I didn't think I could change my destination, but anyway, I went to the podium. "Excuse me, may I get a seat in the flight to San Francisco? My original flight is to Oakland, though." "Sure!" So, easily enough, I got a seat, and arrived in San Francisco one hour earlier. Good job, Horizon Air!

Secondly, they served free beer!

During the flight to San Francisco, they served complimentary beer and red wine. Viva, the local airlines and local breweries! On top of that, flight attendances were so nice that they came to me each time I finished my beer by saying, "Another refill?" Sweet.

Familiar Faces

I arrived at the SFO before 10:00 pm. I called SC who is already in San Francisco. She told me to come over to Hilton where she is staying with her friends (, drinking that time). So, I got on BART to get to downtown, which seemed to take forever. Finally when I got to Hilton, it was 11:00 pm. Geez.

SC was at the lobby, as I expected, drinking. She was with her friends from her department. I was delighted to see them (I knew two of them). It's kind of nice to see familiar faces in different locations. Though I am in an unfamiliar town, I can feel that I'm not alone. Kind of? We chatted for a little while about ridiculous stuff, and I left there around 11:30 pm because my conference session will be 8:30-9:30 tomorrow morning.


San Francisco is a tourist town so that I found it is quite safe to walk alone at night (it would depend on the street, though). My hotel is few blocks away from Hilton. I walked there, but I didn't feel scared at all. Nice.

Handmade Skin Lotion

I didn't tell you that my lotion was confiscated at the airport because the lotion was over 3 oz. Who decided the maximum amount should be 3 oz.? Geez. Anyway, I needed to buy another bottle of lotion to moisturize my skin.

I always get lost at the cosmetic section, wondering what brand I should buy. It is very tiring to read instructions, effects, ingredients, and stuff. So, I made up my mind to make lotion instead of buying mass product lotion!

I browsed several websites to figure out how to make lotion. They said it is very simple. Just mix purified water (whatever it means) and glycerin. Simply enough, I can do this.

I went to a drug store, and asked store guy what purified water is. He took me to the bottled water section, and told me those drink water is basically purified water. Wow, it is easy to find.

After coming home, I mixed 200 ml of bottled water and 2 teaspoonful of glycerin into this blue bottle. After shaking well, I applied it to my face. Yeah, it is OK. My skin retains moisture. No chemical, other than glycerin, is in there. Thus, it is natural and healthy, compared with mass product lotion. More than anything else, it is cheap. The bottle of glycerin is $5, the bottled water is $0.5, and the blue plastic bottle is $3. Nice.

Finally, Boston

My flight is 6ish this evening. What a hectic trip it is! Anyway, I decided to take a look at the city until my flight. At least, I needed to say hi to Benjamin Franklin and Samuel Adams because I came to Boston. So, here's Benjamin Franklin (above) and Samuel Adams (below). Nice to meet you.

East Coast

Wow, I feel I'm really on East Coast. See this sign saying, "New York." Wow.

The Esplanade

Sitting along Charles River, relaxed with comfortable breeze ... an oasis in a big city.

Boston is nice to have this kind of public area such as the Esplanade and Boston Common.

There are a lot of first things in Boston. This public library is also the first thing of the kind. This is gorgeous.

Poster!

So, as scheduled, my flight arrived in Boston around 3 in the evening. My session was scheduled to start at 5. I didn't know how long it would take to get to the conference venue. So, I skipped lunch (domestic flights do not serve free meals anymore), and rushed to the venue.

I'm glad that the public transportation system is good in Boston (not like Japan though), which makes it easy to get around in town.

Fortunately, I arrived at the hotel (conference venue) around 4. I posted my poster and other stuff on the board as fast as possible, and went to the nearest shopping mall to grab some food. Yes, I was hungry.

The session was OK. In fact, I think poster sessions may be better than presentation sessions in which some audiences would get bored. In the poster session, only interested people drop by, so you enjoy more talking with those people.

On Sale

Boston Globe is now on sale.

Geez, this news must be harsh on the employees because they just recently agreed with the New York Times Company to accept concessions in order to avoid a possible shutdown. I want to talk with Boston Globe employees about how they think about their situation. Dehumanized work relations ...

T

I thought the Boston subway system, T, is good (yeah, I remember I said this in the post above). But I found it is not so good.

My hotel is in Cambridge, which is several stations away from the conference venue. To get to the hotel, I was supposed to take one line and get off at the terminal station of that line.

I got on the subway at the nearest station to the conference venue. The train ran a couple of stations without problem. And I heard an onboard announcement by saying, "This train is taking out of service." What the hell?! Man, I thought I could take a shower and go to bed in 10, 15 minutes. See, I was tired after a long flight and conference. I didn't expect that I had to get off the train halfway through.

Complaining does not lead to anything. So, I waited another train coming. But, next train was also out of service. Train after train, they were all out of service. People were still standing at the platform, waiting. Finally, the station announced that there was an electric issue at somewhere, and no train would go farther from this station. Damn. I cursed Boston. You know, I'm tired!

I was told to get to the ground and take a bus. But which bus? What number of the bus? This guy said, "It doesn't matter." Really?! Skeptical about what he said, I climbed up the stairs and got out of the station. Ta-da, there was a bus, sitting next to the station! The signboard of the bus said, "Lechmere," which I was going, yea! It turned out to be a shuttle which the subway arranged.

I usually don't like buses because I don't know where they take me. Well, it is not exactly right. They have their routes, so passengers know where they take them. But, you know, I don't know with what timing I should ring the stop button. And there are other stuff which makes me nervous on the bus. Anyway.

Tonight, I was comfortable on the bus because I knew where it would take me and where I would get off. Also, I enjoyed a short but free sightseeing. Nice.

Noooooo, United!

Y is sweet, he gave me a ride to the airport. The problem happened after he drove me off.

It is a small airport so that it takes, say, 5 minutes to get to the gate. So, I was at the gate one hour before the flight, which was scheduled at 8:30ish tonight. Then, a gate agent announced the flight delay because of a visibility issue--foggy San Francisco, which was my first destination, not the final destination. I needed to catch a connecting flight in San Francisco.

I talked with the gate agent. She punched the computer and found no later flights today from San Francisco to Boston, which is my final destination. I need to be in Boston by 4 tomorrow. Conference! My session will start at 5 tomorrow!

The agent gave me the only option for me: Fly to San Francisco tonight anyway, and take the 6 in the morning flight to Boston tomorrow, which will arrive in Boston at 3ish in the evening. Of course, because this is a delay because of the weather, United has no obligation or responsibility to put passengers in hotels.

Well, I didn't have another choice.

Finally, I got to San Francisco around 11:30ish. I was wondering during the flight: "Well, I will arrive in San Francisco almost midnight, and take a flight early in the morning. Is it worth taking a room to stay four hours?" Guess what? I chose to stay at the airport. Geez, I cannot sleep on these uncomfortable chairs in this freezingly air-conditioned airport.

A Little Decoration on the Wall

The walls of my living room are white, or blank. To be honest, I'm not an interior coordinator type of person, that is, I don't have a sense of decorating house. But, I found candle racks in the storage a couple of days ago, and today, I hung them on the wall. Ta-da ~~~, they changed the atmosphere of the room. Nice. They are hung on the wall next to the door to the balcony. And there are other different candle racks on the wall next to the entrance. Now, I want to decorate the room more!

High Heels

Yeah, I kind of missed wearing high heels. Here, you know, there's no opportunity to do so. But today, in Seattle, for my friend's wedding, I was given an opportunity to do so. Nice.