carebear strikes again.

mom’s original email:

Hi! Phil and Vivian,

How’s everything? We are doing fine. If you need to contact me, just send email to me. I can find Roxanne’s email address, say hello for us.

Mom

my response, part one:

things are good! really busy!
where are you guys now and what is the latest thing you’ve seen?

my response, part two:

you know what would be fun.
i think from now on our emails should all include 2 thing that have recently happened which have made you happy, and 1 thing you’re looking forward to!!! OKAY??!
[ [ [ [ [ PS - PHIL DID YOU EVER GIVE THEM MY PRESENT?????????????????????? ] ] ] ] ]

i’ll go first.

- COMING UP: i’m looking forward to seeing everyone at jeremy’s wedding this weekend! not looking forward to giving wedding $$$ ;p
- PASSED: my friend just gave me a bunch of images of his artwork. you can see it here… it’s the trees! he started with a single brush stroke (japanese sumi ink) and then added the trees after the basic shape was formed. they’re all differerent and all really incredible. see here.
- PASSED: we had an alice in wonderland-themed picnic in the park last sunday…!! i made a dress, kinda. here are some pictures:

heck yeah! i will make you bitches think positively!!!

>>>

in other news.
it’s funny to have recently met the swahili people because they are so much on the same page… i mean, they even say “so good,” which is pretty much just really super ridiculous. cosmic.

today i went to a lecture that troy (yeah, troy, but not the los angeles one) invited me to about science versus belief. it was interesting… interesting in that… i am also trying to bridge science with spirituality, but the route the dude (a chemist who basically reworked entire theoretical physics models to fit his worldview…) took was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo far removed from everything i’ve been thinking though the basic topics are still there. as is the basic notion of duality… so… i can say he’s astute, but i disagree completely with EVERYTHING he said, and it was maddening because there were people in the audience (“audience”) who were really quick to accept his theoretical model though his graphs and charts meant NOTHING at all and had NO value… and one guy behind me was saying, “you just have to realize that people are idiots and the majority of people don’t know what’s right!” and that was his argument against the current theoretical physics models. it was kind of sickening and really, really disturbing. anyway, the fact that he is a chemist — an extremely rigid form of science because as blake said, “it’s generally figured out and is a complete science,” only adds to the fact that i think what he’s saying is crap. furthermore, he would say stuff like, “that just doesn’t look right to me,” and that was essentially his justification for that stuff being ‘wrong’ and his model being ‘right’. man, i swear, you can manipulate data in any way to construct the reality you want…

anyway, i’m going to los angeles this weekend for jeremy’s wedding. i am going to call up troy. i rather doubt he will meet up with me… or even responsd to me… but i’ll try anyway. other than that… oh right, xinlei got engaged. aaaah! everyone!

and lastly, one more thing. after last friday’s chemical ingestion session with blake, the next day, I BECAME A PRO BIKER! seriously, though. i went to research club the following day and was biking circles in ladd’s addition with no hands. weirdest fucking shit. it just magically clicked and now i can bike huge huge huge huge huge huge huge huge huge stretches and blocks and blocks with no hands. and i don’t even have to think about it. it’s super easy. second nature. makes ZERO sense. i dunno what clicked or why, but something clicked. SO WEIRD.

blake also leaves in a couple weeks for montana and then the east coast, which is kind of a little strange. i don’t think i’ll realize just how strange til it happens, though…!

i also opened a new bank account with wells fargo because they don’t charge you the same amount in ridiculous fees that chase does. the banker who opened my account was really quite fun. he also told me a banking joke — of “which there are not many” — but i guess people at wells fargo say that “chase chases all their customers to [us]“. har har har.

anyway. exciting things coming up. i’m finally lighting a fire under my ass again, at least a little bit…

i am probably the least paranoid person ever…

… but i just slightly spooked. i was walking home from northside festival in brooklyn, to the lower east side of manhattan, around 12:30am. it wasn’t even that late, and there was plenty of thru-traffic. buuuut.

the williamsburg bridge splits into two parts about halfway through: one side for pedestrians and one side for bikers. towards the williamsburg end, the two lanes merge right now because of construction. i am walking in this section, ever slowly… and people are biking by in great number, generally ignoring me. some pay attention, though, in the form of one kissy face, complete with smacking sounds, and a couple who look me up and down. generally no big deal. then comes this dude. black dyed hair. gothic. scraggly. older. boombox attached to the front of his bicycle (??).

dude bikes by from the opposite direction, eyeballing me all the while. i see him slowing down as he is passing me, so i half-turn to see what he does. he flips around then gets off his bike. i see him look up and down the bike lane to see if anyone else is coming. there is another biker coming, but pretty far off in the distance. it just so happens we are in the section of the bridge where the pedestrian and biker lanes split once again. he gets off his bike and sits at the entrance of the pedestrian area, looking as though he is waiting for me. i mean. it’s kind of really obvious. i mean, EVERY move he’s made ever since he initially passed by me was really obvious, even though he probably thinks quite the opposite. he smells like alcohol; i smelled it as soon as he started heading towards the pedestrian area.

he lets two people pass; they don’t know each other but are walking extremely closely together. there are no other pedestrians for as far as the eye can see, and the eye can see pretty far at this point. i realize that if i am to now go down the pedestrian path, it could easily be just me and him for another mile. there is a great gap separating the bike and pedestrian paths, and most likely, no one in the bike lane would notice if anything were to happen anyway.

after the pedestrians pass, he puts on GLOVES. i don’t know what the hell that even means, but that may be the most chilling detail of all. all the while, i’m waiting in the bike lane to see what he does. i say aloud, “what are you doing??” to no one in particular, as i watch him from behind a grating.

finally, he comes to me while half-riding his bike, eyeballing me up and down again. he says, “no bike? no skates?” in an almost mocking, sneering manner. i say no. i then ask him why he is waiting for me, and he said that his friend was following him and he is merely waiting for his friend. i don’t believe him for a bloody second.

and i think this next action probably blew his mind, but i decided to defy all the “rules” and walk down the bike lane. he did not follow. i studied the face of every future biker to pass; i am quite certain none of them were his friends.

narrowly avoided catastrophe.

like i said…
i’m probably the least paranoid person ever…
but something was absolutely definitely 100% amiss there.
dee-sss-gusss-teeng.

dude so arfing fat!

feel so fat ommmmmmmmmmmiiiiiiiiiiiiiigaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat. yeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuk.

anyway.

johnny and dustin and i just fucking made a giant gingerbread cookie from trader joe’s. the cookie was pre-made but it took us TWO AND A HALF HOURS to decorate it holy shit! i will share photos when i’ve got them but that’s pretty insane, lemee tell you what! this week is pretty crazy busy and as usual, i am kind of neglecting my responsibilities but all is well as long as i am not monetarily in the drain is how i feel about this situation. in any case. johnny also baked some pies for equally as long of a time and uhhh just had a half of one that was the size of a muffin and it was delicious. the food is out of control! even if i personally don’t want to eat huge meals, people are always around and about and in my house or having food parties that all i can do i feel like is eat food. i’m getting so fat! and there isn’t enough biking these days, although right now there is a little bit, but there needs to be fucking moar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the weather has at least been appropriate for biking in the recent past, though, thank god, or else i’d be dying, but tomorrow is fucking a grilled cheese party and that can only end in disaster, granted it is delicious, delicious disaster. wednesday is a fucking warm holiday creamy beverage (along the lines of white russians) movie party, and man, after that, who knows. friday is my birthday party, and that’s guaranteed to be heaploads more food. shite is ridiculous. eesh. whuteva whtueva whuteva fat fat fat fat fat!!!!!!!! claire also made amazing cherry almond pie yesterday. jesus. i don’t even need to fucking DO anything!! AAAH!!!!!

siem reap, cambodia, day three.

september 27th, 2010.
woke up and explored the downtown area, which was done and over with in like, ten secnds. siem reap is tiny. i ended up walking in some parts of town that tourists pretty much never went to, and how you could tell was that the tuk-tuk drivers –finally– left you alone, and the locals gave you the weirdest looks. on my way back, i tried to find happy pizza — which i thought was shroom pizza, but it is in fact marijuana pizza — bummer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i didn’t end up eating it — i was going to buy it for take out, but i couldn’t fucking find it on the menu, so i didn’t ask. it was also like, 10:30am or something ridiculous, and i didn’t have much of an appetite…

kept my bike for another day. after putzing around for most of the day, i decided to ride out to bayon. by the way, throughout this experience, i’d been learning to put all of my shit — camera, wallets, money, etc. — in plastic bags. that way, because i had a cloth bag (i bought two bags in vietnam. they both broke, in less than a couple days. so fail… the cloth one i was using — its zipper fell off and it could no longer close!!!!!!!!), so putting stuff in plastic bags protected the contents while i still got to utilize the bag’s utilitarian aspects. so smrt. uh huh. so bag lady. bag lady’s the name of the game.

anyway.

i didn’t take any photos this day, which felt pretty godamn good, to be honest. i just left mycamera at home, because who the hell cares, dawg. it was nice to just relax for an effing moment. i went to bayon first and drew for a while, but then i got bored and went to ta keo. i met a couple people at both temples. at bayon, i met a canadian couple who was traveling for a very, very long time (it seems like everyone we met on this trip was), and at ta keo i met a couple of locals who were working in that temple, and i also met this really young kid who drew in my notebook. more notes on him later. there were also these two japanese guys, and one of them was learning cambodian phrases from the two guides in ta keo, and he asked to learn, “how much do you cost?” haha. errrm. and i gave him this look and laugh — but i don’t think he was embarrassed…

in any case.

had some really long broken english conversations with them, and then the two guide dudes had to leave. they were rushing to get home and ran down the steps of ta keo because they know it so well, even though the steps are really steep and narrow!!!!! i stayed there, watching the 13-year-old kid draw in my sketchbook, for a while. it was pretty cool, cept then it was sunset, and the sunset was obscured by all the clouds. FAIL. this was never-ending sunset fail (the previous day was the only day i was at the complex that a sunset woulda been possible, but josh had been tired of biking). anyway, so i saw no sunset and headed down with the kid, and he showed me this back route and like, insisted on holding my hand and helping me down every step, which was weird, because he was tiny!!!!!! and then, as i was leaving, he asked for a handshake, then a hug, and then kinda seemed like he wanted a kiss, which was really fucking weird. but then he asked for a cheek kiss, “for good luck,” he said, and that as a tiny bit weird as well…………………………… but i gave it. weird. and then i hauled ass out of there.

by then, though, it was pretty godamn dark, so i was riding, and got slightly lost on the way back, and i ended up putting my bike into a tuk-tuk and then riding back home that way. it was $4 or $5, which was weak and expensive, but luckily i didn’t have the full amount of money — or i said i didn’t — so……………… yeah. whuteva. i do what i want. went back to the hostel and passed out pretty early. kind of… unintentionally. yeah. by the way, i’d been conned into buying an angkor wat guide book the previous day at the temple complex. this kid had been following me around -forever- until the $10 book (or was it $12?) went down to $4. but i only had a $20 bill (by the way, cambodians pretty much use american dollars everywhere… not that they don’t use cambodian money, but you can use american dollars just as easily), and he ran away with change, and only gave me back $15. he seemed quite pleased with himself. i told him that it wasn’t nice. and the he said something like, “good luck to you,” which is what cambodians always seem to say when they’re saying goodbye to you. which is kind of sweet, i guess. i guess i like it.

anyway. the rest of that day was a wash until xinlei came to the hostel early the next morning. i was quite impressed that i’d passed out so early and so thoroughly. guess i needed it… i had intended to be social at the hostel, but who the hell needs that anyway…

siem reap, cambodia, day two.

september 26th, 2010.
taking josh’s notes and expounding on them, again… lazy.

Woke at 4:30 and biked out to Angkor Wat to catch the sunrise, but it was obscured by clouds

we were also late. the bike ride was quick, though, because we were relatively hauling ass, trying to get there in time. we still failed. ah, well. angkor wat isn’t frankly that cool anyway. this is not to say the complex is not fucking awesome. i’m only talking angkor wat — the main temple. it does have some cool bas-reliefs, though.

there were also monkeys… you know how i feel about monkeys… monkeys can do no wrong. monkeys make girls and boys happy. monkeys, monkeys, monkeys. especially if they’re sniffing butts…

josh was a newb and fell sucker to an expensive-ass breakfast and this horrible effing hat. well, he bought a different one, but his fucking, melted, basically, in one day of heat, humidity, and biking. SO FAIL.

cool bridge showing creation myths.

loveth the mossy water float.

biking like a champ. model style.

Biked to Bayon and explored the temple there. It was a temple with many faces

when we first got to bayon, it was raining. it was AMAZING. made it my favorite, although the beauty was not captured in these photos below, and ta keo later beat out bayon as my favorite temple. so it goes.

Next went to Preah Khan and was given an interesting tour by a local who asked for 10 bucks. We gave him 3.50.

but that’s pretty much because we literally didn’t have any money. high-maintenance whore!

garuda, my favorite bird-man!!!!!!! mythical! yeah!

ganesh, all cute and shit at preah khan!

preah khan had hindu and buddhist features. really interesting. the difference can be seen in the legs of the figures and their prayer postures. some buddhas were carved out of the walls (chopped out, really) and they were sometimes replaced with hindu-postured prayer-fools.

Biked to Ta Keo which is the really tall temple with very high and steep steps.

almost didn’t go into it. were getting templed out. glad we did…

Next was Ta Prohm which was a temple over run by trees that grew directly on the sandstone structure, sometimes holding the buildings together with it’s roots.

this is the “tomb raider” temple. everyone digs it so much. i thought it was alright after our awesome preah khan tour…

the old trees WERE cool, though…

i took this spider shot a MILLION TIMES. what was annoying is every shot i would take, someone else would be there, waiting to copy it. and i just thought. man, there’s no way you’d typically want to take this shot (the one below here)… you’re only taking it because i am. no one takes crappy shots like this. i mean, not no one, but barely anyone appreciates this kinda crap… kinda obnoxious.

After Ta Prohm, biked 13 km to Angkor Wat and another 10 or so back to town. My ass hurts from biking on a teeny tiny bike with a teeny tiny, barely padded seat. Dropped of bikes in front of a store and took a tuk tuk to the Old Market for some cheap eats and then took another tuk tuk to the bus station to get my bus ticket back to HCMC.

josh complained a LOT about his ass hurting. i guess his bike was really small, but c’mon, you were a marine, fool! he also took SO MANY SHOWERS. like, literally, three a day. he was definitely the diva between us. i was just a dirty slob (as usual). we also met a guy — an engineering student — on the way back to our hostel from the grounds. i gave him my phone number so we could go watch the sunset on bakhaeng hill the next day, but he never called! stOod up!!!!

After, went back to town and got a Dr. Fish foot pedicure and an oil massage, once again from a guy. I think it’s because Vivian was there I keep getting guys as masseuses. Whatever, better for me I suppose.

josh paid for this massage cause i was getting broke, and he wanted an oil massage but didn’t want to get one by hisself. the place was slightly seedy-seeming, and it was really unrelaxing because it felt like the chick was fucking KICKING!! MY!! ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and also……… there were these really godamn loud people in the main entrance room who kept asking the workers shit like whether they had boyfriends or not, and i expected them to be super shady dudes when we went out, but it was like two dudes and a chick, generally well-vibed, although the main dude (a belgian who spoke english — the other ones were russian and didn’t) did give me some weird looks. but he was generally friendly and just asking basic questions about whether the massage was good or not. still, though. it was really, really, really non-relaxing.

yeahhhhhhh.

i’m listening to… menomena’s “intil”.

moorg. today was mostly an entertaining day; i guess i feel pretty good about it. certainly better than the rest of this past week. shiet. saw a couple shows at pdx pop now and that was not as crowded as i woulda thought, but it’s a pretty freaking amazing event that happens. i swear rotture looks different from what it looked like last time i was there, too; i don’t know if i’m freaking crazy or what. went pretty explicitly for brainstorm and also saw wampire. they both put on good shows, i reck’n, but i liked brainstorm quite a bit — and they gave off a good, extremely goofy as hell vibe. it just kind of made me happy, in a ridiculous kind of way. also went to the research club taping, and that was amusing. then i went on a really long bike ride along the esplanade and got slightly lost. also just hung out for a while and chatted at the beech&borth and listened to the hoop dreams record that hasn’t been completely finished yet… it’s mostly done and sequenced and just needs to be mastered, but it’s pretty fucking good, man. really proud of the dudes for cranking that out. hopefully they can get a good record deal out of it or something, but man. it’s good.

!

it’s 3:09am! quick post!

[1] it’s weird that these dreams keep happening. (hopefully i’m not jinxing myself. i probably just did.) i’ve consistently dreamed about the same person for like, the past three or four or something days. which is reallllllllly unusual. that never happens. ever. i don’t even think it happens two days in a row ever.

[2] nothing like being really, really inspired to write an album review starting at 1:30am. just finished up a review for tallest trees’ upcoming disc. pretty satisfied with the review, but most of all, i finally know the words with which to craft it after attempting to make music on my keyboard today. it’s not the keyboard so much as the act of making it that led me to think critically about this disc in different ways. like whoa. interesting, right?

[3] feeling pretty good. did jack shit today, but finally went on a (bug-stinging) bike ride at like 9:30 with nim, shawn, and tori, and talked to some stranger drunk guy on this grimy ass beach along the riverfront… i guess the bike ride / coming back home when it was no longer searing hot and disgusting helped my brain work a little better. been brained this whole week because it’s been so hot. it’s funny. we shouldn’t really be able to blame people in africa or the caribbean or hawaii or wherever for being lazy when it’s hot. because shit. brainnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn.

food me up!

i’m watching “brick” right now. not joseph gordon-levitt at his sexiest, but part of the reason he’s so sexy is because of his acting, anyway.

today is fourth of july. just another day like everyday, only it’s a day where there is imposed pressure for one to “do” something. whatever. there’s a lot of days like that… i feel like holidays kind of leave people feeling like if they’re not doing something, they’re kind of nobodies. like being orphaned for christmas just makes people feel real bad!

anyway. that’s maybe not comparable with this, but kind of similar.

i’ve become a bit of a foodie because i’m so broke… been basically being pretty creative with food. so. i had some rainbow chard and rosemary i picked from aaron’s garden, and like half a block of pepper jack cheese andrew bought (and he’s leaving tomorrow for new york, so there’s no time for him to eat it). bought a yam for 50 cents and some mushrooms for 60 cents and made a pretty delicious vegetable gratin mixed with garlic. the cheese is a little sweaty but it tastes good!!

also i’m making a white russian creme brulee for tonight. andrew bought the kahlua and vodka because i’d suggested making one (because someone was making jello shots), but i couldn’t afford the ingredients :0 there’s enough left over to make some actual white russians, so maybe that’ll happen. or maybe we’ll just hang onto the kahlua… hrm! or maybe a white russian before heading down to the shindigs.

whatever. food. meow.

yesterday was also a food day… a very, very random food day. went to nicks’ parents’ house early in the day because he’s leaving and was having a going-away brunch. amazing food! amazing fruit! amazing banana-chocolate pancakes! amazing pizza-bread! amazing! amazing! amazing!! his grandma is also really cool and is like 80 almost and bikes 20 miles and when she was like 60, did biking trips all the way to idaho from portland! waddafack! and she’s sharp and amazing. what a positive vibed family!

and then later, on the way back, i brought johnny with us and there was an impromptu biking sesh with him, andrew, and i. they’re much fitter than i, because i’m a biking newb. it is what it is. haha i barely made it up this humongous hill, though, and they were totally whatevers about it. newbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbery.

and yeah we made a pretty epic pizza for dinner. yet another example of a day of hanging out with someone completely randomly, as i’d just met johnny the previous night. weird. and he has the same birthday as brian [m], down to the year! people’s birthdays never line up, especially in such close proximity. kinda weird. i’m not sure if they share any similarities or not (you know, the whole similar birthdays, similar people, thing), because johnny was in “taking a vow of silence” mode. no idea what he even sounds like or anything yet. funny way to first meet someone.

notes.

i’m going to go to bed soon — yes, bed before midnight! tis the goal. it’s a little un-fun, perhaps, but i basically got a work space at research club where i’m going to go most days of the week now so i can get to work in an environment that is not my comfortable house, full of speakers and shit and distractions galore. i’ve also taken to scheduling my time so that i can actually be productive in a way that allows me to have fun while still getting work done, and most of all, getting paid, because i am at an all-time pathetic in terms of money i have. it’s funny, though, i’ll try and starve myself or budget my eating so that i’m only spending a couple of dollars per meal, but then i’ll splurge — like i did this evening — on buying expensive ass drinks. $4 large bubble tea tonight was a huge rip, but i had to do it anyway, because i lubs the bubble tea, and i’ve always been more into paying shit tons of money for drinks than i should. whuteva. that’s another plus to working at research club… i won’t be caffeinating myself nearly enough because i won’t be working at coffee shops anymore (damn, right after the lady at the coffee shop finally learned my name), but i will be saving shit tons of money. and maybe i can bottle up some homemade chai and make that shit work. shit. i left my bags full of spices all up in my car. my car is going to smell like an indian grocery store. this is a total ramble of the head because i just rode back from last thursday art walk on alberta. unfortunately, the bike light that rj gave me stopped working, and i was wearing all black (as usual) so it was a totally unsafe bike ride. boo-fucking-hoo. at least i didn’t die. but now i have to get new lights, which is a bitch, because like i said, i’m broke as a motherfucker. fugg! but i’m riding at night all the time and it’s quite unsafe to bike around without lights…

hopefully we find out soon if we got that house. that would be so nice. that would be between research club (new “work”) and north portland, where i’ve been spending the majority of my time these days. which is a pain in the ass, considering i live in se and that is so godamn far.

for dinner tonight, i ate a whole fucking cucumber with hummus. HAHAHAHA. and then a bubble tea. and a snack of bread with hummus. probably not the best diet, but sue me. tomorrow i hope to go to the food stamps place so i can maybe get myself some food stamps. i didn’t really think i’d need to do it, cause i’d never be that poor, surely, but i actually kind of am. it’s not for lack of trying entirely — the problem is that i went on vacation for like two months straight practically and wasn’t working a lick during that time. ate into my own shitty savings. fucking sucks. sometimes i still am reminded of the fact that if only i had just not printed redefine… i’d be rich as a motherfucker. i’d be swimming in like 15k or something. i’d be on vacation mode central. but i probably wouldn’t anyway, and great things come out of being poor anyway. well, kind of. i’m learning to cook, for starters. it’s a start. haha. except i eat a mediterranean person diet, and i’m not sure if that’s the best. soon, though, indian food diet!

i’m also getting a buttload of exercise, so that’s a plus. a major bummer the other day in seattle, though, because i decided i couldn’t afford the $20 for me to go rockclimbing, and i really, really wanted to do it. bah, humbug. :[ lenny and i also rode around on the burke gilman trail a whole bunch, and it was fun; i borrowed linh's bike which is a cruiser, and man, those are so much easier to ride in some ways than my road bike. they're way heavier so they're not so good for like hills and shit, but for flat ground, they're chill as heck, and so sturdy... you can like wobble or do anything and it's fine.

what else in life... i'm going to exchange aaron chinese lessons for music lessons. not sure what kind of music lessons yet... for starters, i just basically want a low-down on equipment and how it works and nerdy stuff, because i know vaguely what things do and what not, but i don't really know what it REALLY does or how to manipulate sound with equipment and stuff.

yesterday i played some basketball and also went to the bluffs (first time!) with a buncha people for a mini-picnic, and that was fun. met a girl who is a counselor at a mental health organization and asked her about potential volunteer opportunities, because after meeting up with john [g] this past weekend in seattle, and him asking what i was doing down in portland and if i was volunteering or anything, i was like, hot damn, i should probably be volunteering! particularly if it’s a field i’m interested in… why the heck not? hopefully i can make it happen.

lots of other cool ideas and things going on lately on a conceptual, to-be-determined level. we’ll see what happens this summer!

funny goals for the summer:
- writing a nurses song. it’s a challenge that was proposed to me, and i accept.
- riding a bike with no hands. right now i really fugging suck nugnuts at that.
- wooeing. teehee.
- volunteering. hopefully my dead-beat ass can do something productive that’s in a non-computer field.
- working. i got a part-time job, but it doesn’t pay enough and there aren’t enough hours. i have freelance clients but it’s super spotty. i’d like a part-time non-computer-related job, and i’ve applied to a whole bunch to no avail yet… hopefully…!!!

new wordpress tag to add to my current tag pool: “being poor”. we’ll see how many posts pop up in this…

oh yeah. this evening, i came up with a new social experiment project. my bike was locked up on the same pole as another bike, so i left the other bike locked up on the poll a note, saying something along the lines of: “hello stranger. i couldn’t help but notice that our bikes are locked up on the same pole, so i have to ask: who are you and what do you do? answer that however you see fit (or don’t answer as you see fit). [enter e-mail address].” we’ll see if anyone responds. but i’m going to start doing that all the time, and taking photos. shebang!

recap central: washington, d.c.

i’m listening to… micachu and the shapes.

saturday, september 26th, 2009.
got into dc after a layover in boston kinda late, and it took FOREVER to get from the godamn washington-dulles airport to where i wanted to go (my couchsurfer host’s house). she picked me up from the subway station after like three hours of travel or something, and then she went out with her friend and i went out to the experimental music show, sonic circuits. it was pouring like a motherfucker, which was kind of a bummer.

i hadn’t eaten in a while and was super starving, so like the fatass i am, i decided to eat snacks instead of a regular meal. got some peanut butter-filled pretzels and a bag of utz chips… the best chips ever, really. carolina bbq?!! it’s like bbq meets salt & vinegar aka HELLA FUCKING GOOD. ridiculously good. anyway, after cramming this shit down my gullet, standing in front of the drugstore under an overhang to keep out of the rain, i walked a block over to the black cat. stomped in a giant puddle on the way, hence i was fucking FREEZING to death in the venue because it was sOoOoOo cold and i was wet, too.

as i was watching one of the performers that night, kotra, this ukranian electronic dude, my camera fucked up, and i’m pretty convinced it had to do with his sound. i asked some other guy who was taking video next to me if it was possible, and he thought i was crazy and was not convinced. but check these pics, man. other than the first pic, the pics were taken the next day when it had a temporary relapse for a sec, but since then, the camera has been 100% in working condition.

many more where these came from.

kotra was amazing.

there was also a free jazz band and i don’t understand free jazz whatsoever, but it was interesting.

started talking to this persian couple — both really cute — about music and what not. saw them the next day, too. they were nice!!!

one more act had a visual and audio component synced together, but unfortunately, the venue hadn’t provided them with projectors. so, no visuals… they just tested out their audio portion. it was this japanese girl and a black dude, and the black dude made these shirts that plugged into usb portion of a computer and they were touch-sensitive, so when you touched certain parts of the shirt, it would make a sound. it was pretty godamn cool.

took the metro back late at night and then chatted a bit with katyln’s roommate, mb. mb was talking about how it was amazing, she thought, that a girl like myself (and others similar to myself) could travel by ourselves because she could never do it and she described herself as a “typical american” who has never been outside of the united states and is kind of content with that. kind of sad, really.

sunday, september 27th, 2009.

anyway, the next day, katyln, my couchsurfing host, and i, hung out. this started with some tapas at la tasca in alexandria’s old town (not in d.c.)! on the way back, we stopped by a new age bookstore for a while and she asked questions, and then we borrowed bikes and headed off to the city. i borrowed her roommates but i can’t use bikes unless the seats are really low, so we had to lower it…

obligatory washington dc pics. not gonna lie — really didn’t care about any of this shit other than seeing it for a sec. not that exciting. especially not with other people because then i can’t just cheel.

washington memorial. btw, all these monuments are in what’s considered a national park, which is really funny to me, because it’s so different from the kinds of national parks that are in the rest of the country.

some kind of world war ii monument that was remarkably new — think it was erected in like, 2003.

it started raining, so we went to starbucks to chill and hang and chat for a while. ^__^ nom nom nom chocolate banana smoothie, nom nom nom.

after doing the downtown circle, we went to the eastern market. lotta cool random stuff, and good, cheap fruit! mmmmmmmmmmm. got a buncha peaches for like a quarter each, like big, full-sized peaches (i think they were about to rot or something).

that night, went to see another part of the sonic circuits tour, this time to see HEALTH (along with some others, like faust). it was cool… decided to talk to the guy from HEALTH i had a crush on and he was really nice. did an impromptu interview and it went really well… now i just gotta find the time to write the godamn thing, ugh!

so i left and katlyn drove back and i decided to take the subway to josh wu’s place in dc, only the subways were about to stop running so i had to catch the last one. i accidentally missed the train i was supposed to take because i thought i was supposed to take a yellow train when it was in fact green (or vice versa) and i missed the last train and ended up taking it into another direction and being stuck in the middle of nowhere-ish and josh had to come and rescue me, haha. fun times.

his condo was really nice and i got a really super ass comfortable bed to sleep in because he has a spare bedroom. it ruled, needless to say, especially since i’d been sleeping on couches for quite a while by this point in time.

monday, september 28th, 2009.
josh left me a spare key and i just worked at his house all day until it was time for me to go to baltimore. got myself to the greyhound station and accidentally missed the proper bus because i had headphones on when they called for a chance of gate. by the time i realized it, i’d missed the bus by a couple minutes and it had already left, which sucked. the next one didn’t leave for another two hours or something. UGH.

washington d.c. greyhound station rating: DECENT.