Sunday, November 29, 2009

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!

Friday, November 27, 2009

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.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

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 ...

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

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!

Saturday, November 21, 2009

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!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

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.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

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!

Sunday, November 15, 2009

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.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Friday, November 6, 2009

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!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

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.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

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 ...