Mickey Mouse

Don't you think my feet look like Mickey Mouse? Oh, well, I'm not a big fan of Mickey Mouse, mind you. To the contrary, I'm anti-Disney because of its cruel and heartless business against its innocent image. Cultural imperialism! Media imperialism!

Well, attacking Disney is not my topic tonight. I bought Crocs for the first time, that's my point. And I happened to buy bright mango color (to be honest, I wanted to buy gray or dark green, but they were not available in my size). I like bright color anyway, so no problem. But the problem is, when I came home and wore them, I thought, "Mm, I look like Mickey Mouse, don't I?"

Udon Lunch

This udon is very simple, without any special decorations. But it is really good with the special Japanese spice which YO sent to me. Yummy!

Blessed Thursday

I haven't referred to my schedule of this term here. This term, Tuesdays and Thursdays are big days for me because ... I'm teaching! Can you believe this? I can't believe this myself. Though I'm getting used to it (of course, it's already Week 4), it consumes a lot of my energy and time.

Anyway. Today, another Thursday, when I came home, checked my mailbox, and found a pink slip there. A pink slip means, "You've got a package." So, I went to the community center which holds our packages. The box was from YO. Yipee! I suddenly became excited, probably overexcited.

I'm always thrilled to open the box from YO because it is always full of surprise. This time ... Ochazuke! Koya-dofu (my favorite Japanese traditional food, by the way)! Hijiki and dried daikon radish (my favorite, too)! A box of Japanese curry roux! Rare Japanese spice and stuff!

Now, I need to plan very carefully how to appreciate them. Definitely, I have to have a party (Okonomiyaki party?) or two (Japanese curry party? Yes, I may invite my Indian friends). And the dessert for the parties will be Kinako mochi. Perfecto!

Thanks a bunch, YO!

McClatchy in Trouble

Gannet is in trouble, NYT Co. is in trouble, and now McClatchy is in trboule. What's next?

Pecan Butter Cookies

OK, they smell so good. I haven't tried one yet, so I can't tell you how they taste. Anyway, they smell so good. Here's the recipe.

1/2 cup of softened butter
2 tbs. of sugar
1/2 ts. of vanilla
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of pecan

Mix them, and bake them 30 minutes at 300F.

I know, I'd better read instead of killing time by making cookies :P

Orchastra of Ladies

Maestro R kindly invited us to his concert tonight. It was a local chamber orchestra, partly collaborating with a youth orchestra. I liked their collaboration of Peer Gynt Suite No.1, Opus 46 very much. Young musicians did great job.

M volunteered to drive us--L, S, and me--to Salem, an hour drive. They talked, talked, talked ... forever on the way and on the way back. They are fun people, with strong opinions. Very interesting to hear their stories. I'm usually surrounded by liberal people because my main arena is university. So, hanging out with those out-of-campus people provides blessing opportunities to think what real people think about the world.

Economics of Scale Doesn't Work

Hmm, Gannet is in trouble as other newspapers and chains are. Gannet will push further cutbacks (to lower labor costs, of course). I wonder how much Gannet workers are unionized. Maybe, it doesn't matter whether you are unionized or not under this severe financial climate.

Sucks!

Yeah, I know mobile phone services suck. I found the customer service of T-mobile sucks. Service sucks, and their English sucks. Don't outsource the customer service to India!

Hailing!

It's hailing, geez. I want to go back to California ...

Home ...

Geez, I'm home now. My short holidays were over. What a difference between San Diego and this miserable hippie town! And I need to do some work, gaaaarrrgghhh!

Drunk Day

YS and I drove to Temecula to meet up EC. EC also drove all the way from Los Angeles.

Temecula is a little winery area, and we were planning to go and taste a variety of wine today ... And we did. We are people of words!


To be honest, I don't remeber how many kinds of wine we tasted today, probably in five, six hours. But the very first winery we visited was impressive. This Thornton Winery is basically a champagne (I should say "sparkling wine" because "champagne" is only for sparkling wine produced in Champagne, France) place, but Zinhandel was also good (at least in my opinion).

After this place, we dropped by several wineries to taste more wine. But you know what? I had been already kind of drunk at Thornton. Yes, alcohol during daytime hits fast :P Anyway, it's kind of my holiday. Who could blame me, grrrrr?!

San Diego!

The sun! Oh, well, it's not perfectly sunny, but it's OK, better than my hippie town, which had rain this morning.

Warm! Well, it's not warm in my sense, which means hot in ordinary people's sense. But it's OK, better than my hippie town whose temperature this morning was ... I left my apartment around 5:00 in the morning, so it was chilly, of course.

Anyhow, I'm in San Diego!

PSA

Yay, I got over another conference! Actually, today's presentation was enjoyable. I guess that my audiences (I wouldn't say big) seemed to be interested because my topic was catchy, hee hee hee. I'm glad that I got more questions from the audiences than other presenters. I feel successful! Anyway, it was fun. Fellow presenters were friendly. It was enjoyable to get to know and talk with people who share similar interests.

By the way, the hotel where the conference was held is gorgeous. Of course, I can't afford to stay there tonight. I wonder when or whether I could stay this kind of hotel in the future. Nay, probably not :( I will be a poor student forever :P

My Hotel

So, this is my hotel tonight. It cost me $142, and still expensive for me. But luckily, I have YS to share the room tonight. She all the way drove down from Bakersfield to see me. It's almost a year since I saw her last time. She seems to be busy and active as always.

We went to an Irish pub near the hotel, during happy hours (yea, we made it!), to grab some Guinness. Yeah, here come my short holidays!

Bleaker, Bleaker, and Bleaker

OK, now, the turn of the Boston Globe. The New York Times Co. is threatening to shutter the Boston Globe because the paper is losing a lot of money ($50 million last year). To stay in business, the Times Company is demanding the paper's unions to make concessions worth $10 million. Wow. The most outrageous thing is that the company is proposing more freedom of casual layoffs and elimination of sick and holiday pay. If this proposal is forced, it would be violation of labor rights. Workers, stand up for your rights! Bob Marley sings, ♪Get up, stand up. Stand up for your rights! Get up, stand up. Don't give up the fight♪ Yes, indeed.