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Wait, are we in New York?
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Jul. 18th, 2008 @ 09:03 am
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So last night, L and I had to go into my office late, to finish something. So we drove downtown, and it was pretty busy with nightlife. Fine. Great. Okay, but then we walked past this girl who had on a sort of tunic-style shirt, that if you pulled down all the way, would just barely cover your bottom. Only she didn't pull it down all the way. And nothing else was covering her bottom either. No panties, no pants, no skirt, no pantyhose, even. Nothing. She was dressed perfectly normally otherwise, for a night on the town. She was walking confidently along, chatting on her mobile. Very weird.
Weirder, though? The second one we saw, just a block away. This one crossed the street in front of us so that we actually got front and back view. Yeah, she was bare. I saw shorn venus mons. I didn't want that. *sigh*
I didn't expect this sort of thing to happen in downtown DC. I mean, I've seen dolled up 15-year-old prostitutes, sure, but completely pantsless people? This was new to me.
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Books #55-57 toons toons toons
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Jul. 16th, 2008 @ 12:23 pm
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I can't believe the last book I finished was Chinatown, but I guess it must be. That seems so long ago. I guess with all the turmoil, I've started a lot of books and not finished them. I hope I haven't forgotten about any.
I haven't read comic books in years, but I'm sort of getting back into it. I think the only ones I've read in the last 8-9 years are the Persepolis books. Anyhow, the toons are back.
55. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki)
I was advised to see the movie first, which I did. I can see that maybe the movie is a little less wonderful than the book, but I still really like the movie. This is the first book of 4, and if I can figure out where I put the copy of volume 2 that I have out of the library, I will read it this weekend for sure.
56. Usagi Yojimbo: The Ronin (Stan Sakai)
I know these are sort of classics in the genre, yet somehow I never got around to reading them before. The stories are renderings of classic Japanese folktales about the samurai Miyamoto Musashi. The art is amazing. For me, it's an interesting mix of reading a serious story and delighting in the animals that are the characters. There were some ninjas who were cats, and their ninja hoods had pockets for the ears to be able to stick up. That was absolutely the highlight of my day yesterday.
57. Bookhunter (Jason Shiga)
Read it. Read it now. You can go to Shiga's website and read it online (under books), or you can buy the book, which I kind of hope a lot of people will, because it's his first book-length comic, and it's glorious. The premise is hard boiled do-anything-to-solve-the-crime detective work, only the crime is the replacement of a rare book on display at a library with an excellent forgery. They track down the criminal by using, among other things, data on who in the area had purchased a certain kind of rare binding fabric, and studying the types of stitches used in the binding very carefully.
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banalities update
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Jul. 12th, 2008 @ 10:40 am
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So I managed to get to sleep in about 15-20 minutes when I finally toddled off to bed this AM. I slept just over 5 hours, and other than a headache and the vertigo I've had for two weeks from an inner ear infection, I feel fine. I'm still zoomy, and woke up ready to spring from my bed and look up like 10 things at once on the computer machine.
I'm either going to get a huge amount of living packed into this weekend, or none at all, because of spinning wheels.
Hopefully getting a bike rack for the car from Craig's List today, and taking the dogs for a walk at the National Arboretum, and maybe Jim Henson at the International Gallery. I also found an awesome Cherry Almond Scone recipe via ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) oh_tsarevich's brilliant discovery of FoodGawker, which I might either make as a dessert tonight or to have for breakfast tomorrow. I think I need a pastry cutter. I have been wanting one.
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Yes, dammit, I am still up
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Jul. 12th, 2008 @ 01:55 am
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My eyes hurt from staring at the monitor in a dark room, which I really hate doing. I'm not sure why I haven't turned on the light.
22.5 of wakefulness now. At this point, it's tempting to actually try to stay up another hour and a half, just to have the 24-hour trophy on my pity shelf.
I should try, and haven't, to study, to see if I am alert enough to focus on that. I rather suspect that now that I have gotten tired enough to yawn (just did, for the first time tonight), if I bust out Matthew Restall, I'll be out in mere minutes. Perhaps that would be best.
Night y'all.Current Mood: tired/wired |
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21 hours and counting
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Jul. 12th, 2008 @ 12:27 am
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I started a new medication yesterday. Last night I managed to sleep 3.5-4 hours before getting up and cleaning the bathroom. I've been up since 3:30 AM - 21 hours, and I'm a little sleepy but pretty much awake. I can feel that if I were to go to bed, I would toss and turn a lot and probably not fall asleep.( In case you aren't into it tonight. )ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM.
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| » the evening |
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I struggled, but I don't think it's the same as failing here. My mind got to juggling monkeys and being all stressed out for a while, but I fought it, and came out okay, I think. The key was fighting the anxiety and despair.
I think it didn't help that I was doing some cycling. At least, I think I was. I got crashingly depressed for a little while, but it didn't last long. I don't know if I ended it by forcing myself to suit the dogs up and take them out on the trail, or if it was cycling out enough first, to allow me to do that.
Started to have a poor-me diatribe in my head because of some emails that were waiting for me from Chuckles the Witch-hunting Boss when I got in this AM. I managed to detach from that, for now.
How are you today?
Jul. 8th, 2008 @ 10:25 am
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| » harder than it looks |
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This just living stuff is hard. I made it through the afternoon, and I got home, and I made it through the first hour, and now I'm flailing inside. I only have about 4 hours left of this whole day, and I need to take the dogs for our daily walk, and they're all agitated and getting into things and (in the case of Felix) barking, and it's hot as metallic balls outside, this vertigo still really sucks, and I'm worrying about reading the next book for the incomplete I'm working on, and I'm worrying about getting my blood test done in the morning in time to get the results to my doctor before my appointment in the afternoon and in time not to be late to work, and L. doesn't know if he's leaving work in 15 minutes or an hour, or what, so I can't make any plan for the evening, and in general I'm all stressed out.
I could take a klonapin, and that might help, but it seems to defeat the whole purpose.
Jul. 7th, 2008 @ 06:59 pm
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| » ride that roller coaster *cracks the whip* |
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I have had some sort of epiphany this afternoon. I see everything differently all of a sudden. I've figured out the solution to all of this stuff that's been plaguing me.
I need to relax. I need to sit down, take a deep breath, and live, rather than worrying about how I'm going to ever manage to live.
You'll laugh, but the epiphany was conceived while I was watching Kung-fu Panda this weekend. The Kung fu master, Ugwe, chastises Shifu for worrying about the impossibility of a future event. Ugwe says, "Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future, today is a gift. That's why they call it the present." That last bit is hokey, and the whole thing is very elementary, but it's still something important to think about and be reminded of. I've been flailing so hard, not only for these last three months, but for years.
I'm like a mermaid who doesn't know she can swim, because she's been so busy flailing and swallowing water, thinking she was trying to survive.
Yeah, but not Ariel. I've never approved of how Disney made her anorexic. She was much thinner than previous Disney heroines.
Jul. 7th, 2008 @ 01:59 pm
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| » rev_grrl as tiny fragile thing |
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I have almost made it through 2 hours. 6 hours to go before freedom, sweet freedom.
You know, as miserable as I am here, I should be buckled down, getting stuff done to go back to school in September, rather than January, and working on my book on the side, so I can escape the whole working-for-someone-else rat race. On the contrary, my mind shuts down when I even start to think about the future - like even tomorrow - and I haven't even gotten in my application for the one long-shot job I do plan to apply for.
I suppose I should stop bitching if I can't manage to do something to get out. I wonder if I can blame the Crazy.
I feel like a little mouse, sitting here at my desk spying on rich people and their money, and hoping Chuckles doesn't come out of her office and step on me, breaking every bone in my body.
Jul. 7th, 2008 @ 10:54 am
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| » crushing disappointment |
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The staff calendar has Chuckles the Witch-Hunting Boss away on vacation today, but she just came chuckling in. I was all full of dread getting ready and coming to work, and then I saw Hope on the calendar, and then it was decimated scant minutes later.
Fucking ass, I hate what this job has become.
Jul. 7th, 2008 @ 09:06 am
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| » Book #54 - Chinatown |
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54. Chinatown: Portrait of a Closed Society (Gwen Kinkead)
It's actually pretty amazing that this non-Chinese woman was able to get deeply enough into Chinatown culture to write this book. She got a ton of people to give her interviews, and really learned a huge amount, even though many more people refused to talk to her. She covers culture, politics, organized crime, history, and international relations with China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. She focuses almost exclusively on the New York Chinatown, which is where all of her informants are. It's well-written, and fascinating. The one frustrating thing is that her research was done in the late-80s and very early-90s, so a lot has changed politically both here and abroad since then. That left me really wanting an update. I guess I should do some research online at least to update it for myself. I probably won't get around to it, what with work and school and other books and being mad.
Jun. 28th, 2008 @ 12:44 pm
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| » #52-53: as different as they can be |
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52. Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570 (Inga Clendinnen)
Yes, you interpret this correctly. I am finally crawling (slithering?) back into the saddle. I have officially started working on my last two incompletes so I can go back to school. I need to have them both done in time to have been graded by August 1 to be able to go back in the Fall, which is pretty much impossible. January, though. My scholarship and fellowship are waiting, and I will go back at least in January to finish.
About the book, what can I say? If you really want to know a lot, I can send you the precis I've written on it. It's colonial history. It's power, it's culture, it's Franciscan monks who became evil, it's Indians who got fucked. It's actually extremely well written, which I treasure in a scholarly tome. I'd recommend it to a friend, as long as the friend is an academic.
53. The Path: Crisis of Faith (Ron Marz and Bart Sears)
The first collection of The Path comic book. Feudal Japan. Samurai. Honor. Demons. You know the drill. Um, it was okay. I don't regret reading it. It's not super engaging, at least so far. It might start out slowly. You'd have to read on to volume 2 to find out. I won't be.
Jun. 27th, 2008 @ 10:45 am
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| » #51 coffee table architecture |
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51. Bizarre Buildings (Paul Cattermole with Ian Westwell)
People don't read coffee table books often enough. This one was great, and I learned a lot about 20th century architecture in the mix. My fave is going to remain the work of Gaudi, in Barcelona, because I've seen a lot of it, and because it's just fucking cool. Another really fun one in here though, was Le Palais Idéal, by Ferdinand Cheval, a postman who took 33 years to build and carve it. It's both hideous and delightful at the same time.
Jun. 15th, 2008 @ 08:04 am
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| » Let's play dress-up |
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Okay, so I found two potential hats on Amazon, which I can essentially afford, insofar as I can afford anything. I have a very big hat size, though you wouldn't necessarily notice it, what with my hair and all. This hat size comes of being Mexican. So I'm a little worried about whether or not they will both fit. Nonetheless, which is better - the floppy $25 one, or the Asian $10 one?
 
Jun. 9th, 2008 @ 02:29 pm
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| » #50 - A touch of Japan |
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50. Rashomon and other unusual stories (Ryunosuke Akutagawa)
The title of this leapt out at me completely by surprise yesterday at the library as I walked past it. I'm not sure I ever even thought about what the film Rashomon was based on, though I was once a Japanophile (?) and have dated more than one Kurosawa fanboy.
I am perplexed by the "Rashomon" story. I might have to break down and rewatch the film. The story is very short, and I can't help feeling I've missed something important. I'll have to keep thinking about it in the back of my mind for a few days. Perhaps something will come to me. The story "The Dragon" was by far my favorite. I'll have to look into it to see if anyone made a film of that one.
Jun. 8th, 2008 @ 07:49 pm
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| » #49 - MADNESS |
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49. Madness: A Bipolar Life (Marya Hornbacher)
I can't even imagine what reading this book would be like for a sane person. I thought about suggesting that my loved ones read it, and then I dismissed the idea. I worry that they wouldn't know which things are the same for me, and which aren't. They might worry that I will do one thing she does that I wouldn't do, and not pay enough attention to another thing she says that is true of me. So I think I will keep it to myself for the time being.
The book made me feel pretty crazy, though I was mostly stable when I started reading it. I read it in less than a day, and I don't know if that's because it triggered a small mixed episode with enough mania in it to make me read faster, which happens sometimes, or if it was because I was eager to get it finished so I wouldn't feel crazy anymore, which is what I told myself and others I was doing.
It gave me a lot to think about that will go in some friends-locked posts if I remember it all long enough to write about it, which I hope I do, so I myself can read it in a week, when it will be long gone ("I have this condition..."). It's an excellent book, beautifully written. If you're crazy, read it, but only in a setting where/when you'll be safe for the duration of the time you're reading, in case it sets you off. If you're sane, well, give it a try. I have no idea what it will be like for you.
Jun. 8th, 2008 @ 04:26 pm
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| » costco membership |
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Hey, does anyone here in the US have a Costco membership you want to split with me? My understanding is that they give you two cards for the household, and they don't even have to be used in the same state. I haven't 100% decided to join - I think we're going to go tomorrow on a one-day pass and see what we think - but I thought I'd check to see who might want to share. (I'd pay for half, obviously.) Then again, I don't know the procedure for getting a one-day pass. At the very least, we can go once on a one-day pass in my name, and again on a one-day pass in L's.
For those who are members, do you find that it's worth it?
Jun. 7th, 2008 @ 07:46 pm
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| » my summer hat |
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Y'all know I'm very fair (Not like "mirror, mirror," but like "damn, she glows in the dark!"), and I have decided I need a big straw hat to protect me this summer. Enter the takuhatsu-gasa:
Now if I can just find one for less than $70, I'll be SET.
Jun. 7th, 2008 @ 09:46 am
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| » #48 - Silence, no seriously |
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48. Silence: How to Find Inner Peace in a Busy World (Christina Feldman)
For the most part, you can substitute in the word "mindfulness" for silence in this book without changing it, or maybe even improving it. There was some good stuff in here, but the problem was that on any given topic, 1 page, rather that 4, would have been better.
To sum up:
Silence gooooood.
Book loooooong.
It does have pretty pictures though.
Jun. 7th, 2008 @ 09:42 am
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| » Book #47 - Go Green, Live Rich |
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47. Go Green, Live Rich: 50 Simple Ways to Save the Earth (and get rich trying) (David Bach)
I got a few useful links from this book. Otherwise it was a complete waste of time. Turns out this guy writes some big series of Get Rich books, and he just discovered green living, and wrote a book about it. Thank god I got it from the library and didn't pay for it. Basically, I was looking to see if there were any things I could do to be greener that I wasn't already doing. If I were a homeowner and/or had money to invest, it might have been useful, but as things stand, I'm already doing everything in there that applies.
I did get a couple of good links, though.
VegWeb is a vegan website that has some really great-seeming recipes, even if you aren't vegan or planning to go vegan. There's definitely stuff there I'll try.
Local Harvest has a search tool to find local farmers' markets, farms, co-ops, stores, and restaurants that have local food.
There are a couple of cool links on volunteer vacations and ecotourism, though his webliography is pretty low-level if you've already looked for stuff like this. Still, Earthwatch Institute and Global Volunteers seem to have promising programs. For non-volunteer ecotrips, there's actually an International Ecotourism Society, where you can search for ecotours. There are organizations similar to National Geographic Expeditions with really fancy but really expensive trips all over the place.
One trip site I'm really intrigued by is World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, where you can stay at an organic farm and do stuff there. That sounds really fun.
Jun. 3rd, 2008 @ 11:27 am
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