Everything Goes Well in the End

I was pretty upset when I got an email from someone who was supposed to take over my bookshelf and bed frame by saying, "I'm not interested anymore." What the hell?! I was upset for a while, but craigslist helped me. I was lucky to find good people to take over them at short notice. So, they are gone.

My mattress was also an headache. I didn't have a place to store it. But I was lucky again. JC offered his storage to keep my mattress. So, this afternoon, I loaded my mattress in my van and took it to JC's office. We drove to his storage to put it in. Phew, I was relieved after I got rid of my stuff.

Then, I moved in with DS's family. When I moved in, no one was at home. So, I started sipping tequila. It's not logical, I know. When they came home, I was drunk. I told them, "Oops, sorry, I'm drunk." And they were like, "Good for you!" Man, this relationship is super comfortable.

Yesterday, Christmas Day, the poor DS family was all sick. Therefore, Christmas Dinner was cancelled.

I'm impressed to hear that they are fine today. Wow, Americans have great physical strength (healing power?). Anyhow, they rescheduled Christmas Dinner this evening and kindly had me. I have kept eating and drinking  without doing exercise for the last four, five days. My stomach is a little upset ...

After dinner, they gave me Christmas gifts ... Ow, I didn't buy anything for them! I felt blessed and at the same time embarrassed. Buying gifts for them is really hard because they have everything, literally everything, more than I will own in my life. For instance, I brought ice cream from Sweet Life for dinner tonight. And I realized that they were making ice cream with a brand-new ice cream maker, ouch. They, especially the daughter, like Sweet Life, so my choice of ice cream turned out OK, but still ... I think I don't like coincidence. 

They have a variety of card games (video games, too). We tried the one that they just got, called "Pit." It's totally about capitalism. The goal of the game is to dominate the market, buying up a target commodity. When you finish (buy up a target commodity), you call, "Corner!" I didn't understand the meaning of "corner." RN explained me that "corner" comes from the phrase "corner the market." Street corners are always good to do business because of high exposure. The phrase "corner the market" comes from that. I see, I learned a new phrase.

It's very American, that's what I thought while playing. Through playing this kind of games (there are a bunch of other capitalism games, such as Monopoly), kids learn market mechanisms? Kids accept that the winner gets all? Kids justify the free-market economy? Very interesting.

Photo Shooting Trip

Mm, I had nothing special to do this afternoon. I thought I would take a nap, but I remembered that I did it yesterday. Taking a nap twice in a row is not interesting.

Luckily, it was sunny and warm (50+ though). I decided to go on a photo shooting trip. I may leave this town in a few months. It is not too late to start taking photos of the town.

I went to Hendricks Park. I was thinking of walking there, but I drove. Because it's far on foot, the sun may have set, not on the way, but on the way home for sure.

I hadn't been to the park for a long time, three years? Views from the park have changed. One obvious thing is the university's new basketball arena. It is gigantic from close by, but it is even from a distance.

Other than the new arena, I couldn't get great views. Views are basically blocked by trees.

I moved to Skinner Butte Park across the town. A-ha! Views were much better and open. Oh, again, the university's new arena was in sight.

The university's football stadium is far in the distance. There's no doubt that this is a college town.

 Spencer Butte is in the back. Mm, I've realized that all photos are too brown. Nothing fancy.

On the hillside, I found people climbing rocks! Wow, this is an exciting discovery today!

Human

I felt bad when I heard my school's tech support person calling my name and I realized that I didn't know his name.

The story goes like this ...

I needed my new PC (woo-hoo!) to be connected with the printer in my school to print stuff from my new PC (woo-hoo!). So, I took my PC to the tech support of my school this afternoon. I saw familiar faces there. You know, I'm not a tech person, and I often ask them for help. I know all of their faces but only a couple of their names.

One of the guys who I don't know his name, ugh, attended me. He is one of my favorite tech people, but I didn't know his name, ugh. Basically, I love tech people because they are saviors! He is emotionless as tech people usually are, and it is hard to read what he thinks. But he occasionally says funny things with his serious face, which makes him more funny, at least to me. That's why I like him, though I didn't know his name, ugh.

He had a hard time to set up the printer with my PC. It took a while, while I had to go in and out of Help Desk to run errands. I don't remember exactly when he called me by name, but he did. It was a total surprise to me. I knew he knew me by face, but I didn't expect he knew my name. I've been here long enough. He may have set up my school account. He may have been monitoring everyone's account use ... I don't know.

I was so embarrassed that I didn't know his name. It's not polite anyway. While I was running errands, I was trying to figure out how to get his name. The staff directory on the website? Ask one of my admin friends his name? Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do those. I was quite busy running around this afternoon. I went back to his office to collect my PC. Alas, I saw his name plate on the door of his office! His name is TL! Thank God! I felt relieved.

I tend to think that computer people are beyond humanity. Like TL, they are basically emotionless, and they speak a different language that I don't understand. But today's experience overturned my preoccupation. They are human!

TL didn't finish setting up the printer with my PC, and he asked me to come back tomorrow. So, I was like, "OK, T, see you tomorrow!" Phew.

Freezing

Geez, I'm freezing back in the hippie town. Brrr ...

Last Cocktails

Tonight's drink (eat) out was Duke's Waikiki. Of course, because this is my last night in Hawaii, I needed to have my last cocktail. That's why I chose a "bar." But N, K's daughter, apparently didn't like my idea and said, "A bar again?!" Hahaha, she will understand when she grows up. Anyway, K agreed with my idea. We are adults.

I had a lava flow again. It was OK, but in my opinion, lava flow in Sheraton was better (actually, fantastic).

K ordered a tropical itch again because we found it came with a back scratcher. A cocktail with a back scratcher is hilarious! Who came up with the idea of a back scratcher from the name of the cocktail ("itch")?!

Rainbow!

A rainbow!

Cocktail Night

I conquered lava flow and mojito at Rumfire in Sheraton tonight. I was late to take a photo of lava flow before I consumed it. It was smooth and almost like a strawberry shake. I finished in a second by when our waitperson came to take a food order. And she was like, "You really like it, huh?"

This mojito with a bunch of mint leaves was also really good. Man, I can't enjoy this kind of luxury back in the hippie town where I don't have the sun, the ocean or money. Oh well, money is a critical issue.

Failed Attempt

Darn it, why is this museum closed on Sundays?! My common sense says museums are usually closed on Mondays. But this army museum is closed on Mondays AND Sundays. Geez.

Beach Bar

One of my plans was to have a cocktail on the beach. Yes, because I'm on vacation! On the way home from my failed attempt to go to the army museum, I dropped by the Beach Bar of Surfrider literally on the beach. It was not open when I went there, and bartenders and waitpersons were busy preparing for opening the bar at 10:30am. But anyway, they said it's OK to sit and wait, so I did.


The bar opened in 10 minutes. I'm sure that I was the first person to order a cocktail today. I was thinking of having a mai tai, but a bartender recommended me to have this drink, cucumber & pineapple something, Hawaiian vodka based.　Actually, it was really good, very summery.


Peter, this person, made this cocktail. He was like, "Oh, I don't like photos. The good thing of digital cameras is that you can delete photos. Will you?" Nope. I have posted your photo on my blog.

Diamond Head

This is my second attempt to climb up Diamond Head. The last time, a couple of days ago, I took a longer path to get to the entrance. I didn't get to the entrance, actually. It was too far from Waikiki. I was not planning to walk to Diamond Head. I wanted to drive. But today was the Honolulu Marathon day. I thought traffic was too chaotic to drive. So, I walked, stupid me. Even though I took a shorter course, it was still far. It took one hour to get to the entrance and another hour to climb up to the top. But it is worth climbing. Views from the top are just gorgeous.

And the crater is amazing!

My legs were totally exhausted when I came back to the entrance. I don't recommend you to climb Diamond Head with Crocs. Instead of walking back to my hotel, I took a bus :P

Mai Tai in Hilton Village

Oh, man. Hilton Village is really a village. We couldn't find the entrance in the first place and got lost. So, we needed the help of a concierge to find the bar and grill that we were looking for. The hotel turned out to be a gigantic compound of buildings. No wonder we got lost. After a long day of walking, it was very, very nice to have a cocktail. Well, I remember that I started today with a yummy cocktail. Our waitperson said Mai Tai is a signature drink of the hotel. Why not?

I had a Myers's Mai Tai that was pretty strong. Hoo, I feel good now.

Kamehameha

Ka~me~ha~me~ha! Well, not Dragon Balls. King Kamehameha.

Santa in Honolulu

The Santa costume must be too thick here. Santa leaves his shirts open and puts his boots on his side.

Iolani Palace

Hawaii was a kingdom. Right. So, I took a historic trip to Iolani Palace where the monarchy was living.

It's a tiny "palace," compared with European palaces like the Palace of Versailles that is ridiculously gigantic. But the facility was pretty cutting edge back then with flush toilets and electricity. Furniture, china, glass windows, etc. are beautiful. Sadly, most parts of furniture was lost after the monarchy was overturned. Highly likely European billionaires bought in auctions for their private collections, mm, billionaires.

My question is ... why this palace is decorated with cheesy lanterns?!

Walk in Waikiki

Haaaaa, it was so relaxing to walk along the coastline, seeing the ocean.



I saw weirdly shaped trees and statues of surfers and dukes (princes?) on the way.



But at the same time, I saw picturesque trees (stereotypical tropical trees!). Haaaaa, I am in a resort!

Pearl Harbor

Actually, I arrived in Hawaii on the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7). Though I missed the celebration on that day, I visited Pearl Harbor. Well, it was one of my rare must-to-do things in Hawaii.

When I came to the historic site in the afternoon, tickets for USS Arizona had been already gone. A guy at the cloak told me that I should come much earlier because tickets are distributed at as early as 7 in the morning. Oh, my. So, I missed an opportunity of looking at the sunken battleship.

Arizona aside, there's a bunch of stuff to see in the site. For a Japanese, it's not necessarily a comfortable place to be. But I learned a lot the Japanese military tactics to attack Pearl Harbor.


Incidentally, the white rectangle with several windows is the facility below which Arizona is sitting in the water.

The Origin of Wiki

A-ha! I found the origin of "wiki" (e.g., Wikipedia) on sidewalk in the shopping district?!

Hawaii!

I'm pretty much a typical Japanese, but in a sense, I was not because I haven't been to Hawaii that is the number one holiday destination of the Japanese. But today, I'm in Honolulu, Hawaii! I just joined the party of KH (well, only KH and her daughter) here. They are going to run Honolulu Marathon this weekend. Me? No way. I will enjoy a Mai Tai or two while they are running.

It is cooler than I expected. But it's really nice to see the warm sun and the ocean! The sunset from our hotel room is just gorgeous.

Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the Attic

I realized soon after I moved in here that the house owner is pretty into alternative music. Indie rock that I never heard before, world music including Korean pop, exotic Middle Eastern music and high-tone cheesy Indian music, etc.

Recently, he often play Bach and opera. I love Bach, and I sometimes like listening to opera, which makes me feel cultured and high society. But that a white, single guy in his 40s is listening to Bach and opera in the attic makes me doubt that he may be a serial killer. Yeah, I know I've got a lot of impact from "The Silence of the Lambs" series.

Coffee Shop Refugee

Going to my favorite coffee shop in my neighborhood is kind of my routine. I went there yesterday and found it was packed. I had to come home.

I tried again this afternoon. Again, it was packed. Ah, Dead Week has started. That makes good sense. A familiar barista spotted and waved to me. I said to him, "I'll be back," and left.

I came home. But I wanted to spend some time out of the house, reading. I decided to go to a Starbucks a little away from downtown, thinking that the shop must be less busy. I drove there. I stayed on the left lane to make a left into the parking lot. I was seeing the shop. The shop was right there. Before getting to the shop, I had to turn left onto freeway. Damn it, I was on a left-turn lane.

I drove farther and farther away from the Starbucks on freeway. I knew there's another Starbucks around an exit. So, I got off at the exit and drove to the Starbucks. I didn't even dare to go in the parking lot because I saw it was packed, ugh.

This time of the year, during the weekends, shops are busy, busy, busy because of Christmas shopping. Coffee shops may be also busy serving those Christmas shoppers. The last Starbucks that I tried is located next to a big shopping mall.

I ran out of coffee-shop ideas. And, I was running out of gas, too. Damn. I got back on freeway to a cheap gas station, filled it up, and came home.

Now, I'm having a cup of coffee that I brewed myself. I just wanted to have coffee out of the house, reading. But it ended up with a long trip in vain. What a day.

Dying PC

My PC is doing really bad. Power supply is unstable because the adapter doesn't stay still. Now, my PC has to sit on the table in order not to move the adapter. Otherwise, my PC can't get power at all and easily go out of power because my battery lasts only 30 minutes or so. I can't use it on my laps anymore because it makes the connection between the adapter and my PC unstable. What a laptop!

Early Oshogatsu from Japan

Oh ho ho ho ho, kagami-mochi flew here. Oshogatsu came a little early. Of course, these are gifts from YO, who is supporting my Japanese diet here.

Tenkasu, fantastic! I decided to make negi-yaki with tenkasu for lunch today.

Tenkasu Negi-yaki

Tenkasu negi-yaki made of tenkasu and okonomi-yaki power that YO sent me. Itadakima~su!

Japanese Fall in Hippie Town

I have a lovely adviser. I often wonder why he is doing professor because he is more a gardener and fisher than a professor. As part of his gardening project, he grows persimmons, Japanese ones. Every fall, well, it's winter, he gives me his persimmons. Ohhhh, kaki, yum!

I appreciate his persimmons, but more than them, I appreciate that he thinks about me. I'm lucky to have this thoughtful adviser.

Last Class!

I'm soooooooo glad that this term is over! Well, I have the final to give next Tuesday, but it's nothing, compared with giving a lecture.

Today, I gave another midterm (I can't call this the final) in my small class. I took a stick-and-carrot tactics. My carrot was sushi (salad rolls), and my stick was of course the exam.

I love my students. They were impressed by my sushi, even though making sushi rolls is a piece of cake for me. "Did you make these?!" "Oh, I'm gonna take a photo of those," said students. They think making sushi rolls is craftwork. How lovely they are. Anyhow, they seemed to like them because only two pieces of rolls were left after the exam.

What else made me happy was that some students told me they enjoyed my class and learned a lot. Ohhhh, they just made my day. They may have just given me lip services, but it was good enough to make me happy.

This experience gave me an illusion that I may like teaching. No, no, no, no, no. I should keep in mind that this class was special. This class was small and a group of nice students. Usually and in reality, classes are groups of nasty students, ugh. Look at my other class! Some students are good, nice and polite, but some are nasty, rude and stupid. I'm not a babysitter, man. They have to know that.

Stupid kids aside, tonight, I don't want to ruin my experience. I had the best class ever in my short teaching life.

Term is Almost Over!

I'm sooooooooo glad that I finished my last lecture today! I felt comfortable in this small class, not always though. I may miss this small class because I liked this small crowd of students. But if I'm asked whether I like teaching, my answer is no. It's too much work and too little reward. I want to feel that my labor is worth something. Teaching is not my thing.

Anyway, tomorrow's large class will be taken care of my lovely teaching assistant. So, I will take a day-off. Actually, I have to do something else. And, Thursday, I will just give the exam to the small class. Oh yeah, there will be the final for the large class, but that's nothing. After that, I will be in Hawaii, woo-hoo!

Life Change

Um, I'm not sure whether the title is accurate. It's not that big deal. I was just asked by my committee member to sit his house and cats for two months in January and February. But that'd change my life a lot. If I will stay in his house for two months, there's no reason for me to keep my current room. If I keep it, I will just waste my scarce money for rents and utilities (The house owner forces me to pay utilities that I don't use, which pisses me off).

I talked with DS to secure a temporary place to stay. She is always generous so that she immediately accepted me. After that, I told the house owner that I'd move out by the end of December. He said OK. OK, then, my life will change.

I won't miss this hippie house and the owner (no way!) at all, but I will miss my housemate. She is a nice, comfortable girl to share a house with.

Hair Cut After More Than One Year!

A-ha! Finally, after more than one year, a year and half, maybe, I had my hair cut this afternoon. It is the first time for me to go to a hair salon in this hippie town, wow. I don't have my hair cut so often anyway because I don't feel comfortable to go to a hair salon even in Japan. I don't know, but it may be because I don't like awkward conversations between a hair dresser and me while having my hair cut, mm.

Anyhow, my hair was really long, well, I should say heavy. I have thick hair, which is good. But when it gets long, it becomes heavy.　For instance, when I put my hair in a bun on the top of the head, I feel pressure from it. I almost gets a headache.

I complained about my long hair to my gym friend who is Korean, and she introduced her hair dresser to me. Initially, I was thinking of getting a hair cut in Hawaii when I go down there next month because I thought there must be a bunch of Asian hair dressers there, given the large population of Asians, especially Japanese. But this Korean gym friend who used to live in Hawaii told me that it is expensive in Hawaii and suggested to me to get one here, instead.

The hair dresser she introduced me was also Korean, a very nice, polite lady. Her work was fast and pretty good. Now, my hair is light again! And she charged me a very reasonable fee. $18 for a hair cut! I wrote a check of $22 including a tip for her, but it was still reasonable. I will come back to her some time again :)

Bye-Bye Evil Bank of America

I closed my BA account this afternoon. I was thinking of doing so for a long time, but I didn't want to stay in a long line to do so, which prevented me from doing so. But today is Black Friday when everyone is busy going shopping crazy, and the bank must be slow. I was right. No line at all.

The atmosphere at the bank was a little different. In the first place, a guard was standing at the entrance (because of the Occupy thing). And a bank clerk asks you the reason of closing the account (because of the Occupy thing). Because I saw a news clip in which a customer who closed her account with Citibank was arrested at the bank, I didn't tell the clerk that I closed my account because I've been pissed off by BA. Instead, I told him that I may be leaving the country. That is not necessarily a lie. I have to leave the country, as early as the spring, if I can't find a job. So, the clerk closed my account without asking me further questions.

This is a small town, but the Occupy thing is apparently going on. Actually, some people have been arrested. I felt uneasy by looking at the militarization of banks and police. Where is this country heading to?

Turkey Day

D & T invited me for their Thanksgiving dinner. They are a nice, lovely couple. T cooked all from scratch, wow, fantastic! Turkey is turkey, but decent stuffing and yummy vegetables, hmm, good job, T.

D invited other people from my school. It was nice to see people from my school. I don't complain. But I realized that their conversations were boring, sadly boring. This is highly likely because I'm alienated from my school and I'm not interested in teaching, a Ph.D. or the university. I'm in a complete apathetic state, probably I have since I passed my comprehensive exams a few years ago. Why have I been in the university though I've been feeling I don't belong to it? Oh, well, that's a question too late to ask. Anyhow, I was bored, and I realized that I was getting bitter. So, I just shut my mouth. I don't want to be a bitter person, ugh. I just want to be out of my current situation ...

Black Beans

I'm proud of myself, cooking black beans! Oh ho ho ho ho, they look fantastic. I can't wait until tomorrow to taste them!

Waiting for Superman

I found my housemate keeping this DVD in her shelf. Taking advantage of being her housemate, I watched it while enjoying wine. Well, it turned out that this movie is not good to watch over wine. The movie is all about the depressing, dysfunctional public education system in the United States. It is understandable that parents want to homeschool their kids or send their kids to magnet schools or charter schools.

In a sense, the movie is helpful for foreigners like me to understand why the level of knowledge of university students, generally speaking, is incredibly low. I only know students here (a public university), so I don't intend to generalize what I have experienced and witnessed. But I have heard similar stories from teachers and parents across the country.

But this movie is kind of anti-union, bashing unionized, tenure-track teachers. They are unionized and tenured so that schools cannot fire them easily. That's what the movie says. Really?! I thought. Look at what it happening across the country. Teachers are being fired because of massive budget cuts. Kids are losing their favorite teachers. Kids are taking four-day weekends, which is ridiculous to me. The anti-union message aside, the movie tells you enough about how bad the public school system can be.

Another Toshiba

This looks better? Well, in the photos, they are the same, but this model is newer and installed better CPU. The price is about 10,000 yen more, but it's still reasonable. Because this model was released just last month, so I can't find any review about the keyboard. It should be improved ... that's my hope.

Ultrabook

This looks fantastic, though it looks like an imitation of MacBook Air. It weighs only 1 kilogram, which is fantastic. Toshiba just released this model today. But the problem is that this model is not equipped with a DVD player or Blu-ray player. Mm ...

Desperately Need a New PC

My 5-year-old Fujitsu is cranky and getting crankier every day. Windows sometimes does "unexpected shutdown," volume sometimes can't adjust, some keys are not in use for a long time, power is unstable, etc. etc. I have to seriously think of replacing it. So, I started searching a new one.

My conditions are: either Fujitsu or Toshiba, a 15 inch monitor, Microsoft Office installed and a reasonable price. I sent these conditions to KK for advice. KK is my personal computer consultant. He picked up a few options, and I'm currently into Toshiba Dynabook. Dynabook is lighter than Fujitsu, which is the decisive point.


This model looks good for the price. KK recommended this. I read reviews about this model. One of customer complaints is that the keyboard is cheesy and hard to type. Mm ...

Week 7 is Done

Thursday evenings relax me. I'm so tired of teaching. I have hated the Monday and Wednesday class for a long time, but recently, I'm not so happy about the Tuesday and Thursday class anymore. I just can't keep doing this. Teaching is not my thing, which is for sure. But this is the only way for me to make a living right now. Sucks.

Winery Tour

DS kindly took me for a winery tour, which visited four wineries around the town. I thought, "Hmm, I should prepare for classes for next week ..." But someone pushed me by saying, "You need a break." OK, I'll take a break, though I will have to work really hard tomorrow. So, I took the tour.


The first winery we visited was La Velle. I love the wine they make, and I'm glad that this tour included La Velle. Pinot Noir is awesome!


The last time I came here was at night, so I didn't see the scenery. I realized that the property is quite large. The weather was nice and warm. It was nice to hang around outside, taking photos.


The second winery was Sweet Cheeks. I don't like Sweet Cheeks wine at all. It is too young to me. But the winery itself is a lovely place with great views of mountains (hills?). The garden is well organized and maintained, which must be a great venue for weddings and other kinds of parties. But unfortunately, wine is not good.


The third place that we visited was Domaine Meriwether. The host (the owner of the winery) kept calling his sparkling wine "champagne," but I believe that only sparkling wine produced in Champagne can be called champagne. Anyway, I don't care about sparkling wine because it gives me a headache. I didn't taste the "champagne" that they served for that reason, but DS and M who tasted the "champagne" said it was not good. They live sweet wine, so I guess the "champagne" was too dry for them.

There are two things that I learned at this winery. Champagne is made only of either Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. Vintage means that the wine is made of grapes produced in a single year, and non-vintage means that the wine is made of grapes produced in multiple years. I see ...

I wasn't fancied by wine there, but the property is really photogenic. I like that.





The last destination was Sarver. Before I came here, I had been pretty filled with wine. I may have lost my taste of wine, but the wine (I tasted only Pinot Noir) was not so good. My conclusion of this tour is that Pinot Noir of La Velle is the best. The glass with which they serve wine was pretty. Shoot, I forgot to take a photo of it.