yo gurl gotta get dem chubz on lockdown.

fucking winter, man.
fucking holidays.
sooooo fat.
diet!!!
diet!!
diet!

looking at my recent past page of posts, it seems like there’s nothing that’s not about metaphysical mumbo-jumbo. rest assured there are actually some posts about normal things; they’re just private because they’re about relationship stuff and i wanna keep it to myself in case my boyfriend actually reads any of it (i don’t think he is reading this, though, or even know what the url is, but if so, hi troy! or as sherry said tonight as we were eating dessert — why rot! but then again, now that i’m actually looking at the spelling, it’s like totally wrong! shit!)

i’ve been back in the bay for a little over a week this time, and i barely left the house. kinda barely left the house last time, too, because i get such shit for leaving unless i just don’t explain what i’m doing! in any case. so yesterday and today was pretty much my only time that i actually got to hang with people for an extended period of time (that wasn’t holiday dinner). drove to napa to hang out with gina (surprisingly only a little over an hour; i somehow thought it was just the furthest place and really had no idea where it was) and had lunch with her sister and mom, then went to a coffee shop and had lots of metaphysical conversation with her friend ???? who might move to portland (seriously good conversation), and then drove to san francisco like two hours and a half late (because the conversation was so good) for cam’s pizza party and had a funny crush on his roommate and ate really good vegan pizza (daiya is fairly legit) and made a banana curry pizza and no one really was into it and thought it was “weird” — so unadventurous, guys!!! — and crap and shit and then today woke up at 7:00am because i had to pay for the meter then but had no godamn change and also i wouldn’t have been able to get back into cam’s apartment without waking him up ass early since it was in a locked building, so i just decided to drive to sunset where i would be interviewing an artist (got mad lost along the way), did a whole bunch of eavesdropping at a coffee shop (see post below) that was interesting because most of the crowd was older people reading newspapers {{ just got briefly interrupted by a half-hour phone call }} and it was like, man: 1) where did all you old people come from; 2) how come you guys are all reading newspapers, that’s crazy?? fast-forward. did interview for an hour-and-a-half and it went very well, met up with karla for a really rushed meal of vietnamese curry and salad stuff at mangosteen — totally good — met up with cam, gina, and gina’s mom at haight-ashbury and got mega bored of thrift shopping because they have some stores that specialize in like 20s, 30s, 40s-era stuff and all of that is well beyond me in terms of tastes i am interested in but gina is very slow at shopping, then went to meet up with phil and josh at the ferry building and watched them drink coffee and eat cookies. drove back with phil to the east bay, ate dinner with the mom and the sherry, and met up with xinlei for dessert. so fat. ughhh.

other than the past couple days, what i accomplished this time was basically a lot of writing, including b o o oo o o o oo o oo o o oko ok. all i wanna do is write, really.

goals for the 2012 new year, coming soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I AM SO FAT.

at the top of that list will be like, get in shape, jesus christ. but that’s everyone’s list, all of the time, but this is absurd. seriously.

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San Francisco, CA @ Java Beach (www.javabeachsf.com)

This seems like a fun thing to start doing since I’m at coffee shops all the time and love eavesdropping. This is just the snippets that fly in to me as I’m sitting in the corner of the room, not including the things I omitted because I was doing something else while they were happening. Will eventually be posted at http://www.ilovesocialexperiments.com

Favorite is EASILY the “$” man.

———————————————————————————————————————–

CAST:
# chinese guy 1 (in mandarin)
> chinese guy 2 (in mandarin)
@ barista 1 (female, 20s)
> barista 2 (male, 60+)
^ barista 3 (female, late 20s)
& customer 1
$ customer 2 (male, on phone, 50+)
! customer 3
* customer 4
+ customer 5
( customer 6 (dad)
) customer 7 (kid)
= customer 8 (female)
———————————————————————————————————————–

-DIALOGUE:
# “going to seattle is okay, it’s easy; going the east coast is tiring.”

& “i don’t recall seeing a hot dog under five dollars”

> “can she speak chinese?”

# “every year my house and mom’s house and sister, we look for a place and live together. this year, we went to cambria… christmas valley… yeah yeah yeah… very beautful… drive to school, not twenty minutes…”

@ “jasmine green tea?”

# “it’s okay, now they’re older. her friends are all chinese. my daughter’s friends are all white. it’s different.”

> “there’s no chance.”

# “too tired.”

> “your mom…”

# “yeah at home… taiwan… two year prior…”

@ “gina?”

@ “thank you so much”

# “yes, they’re anticipating they can pass the new year and then come… my two sisters…”

> “actually, she’s just… working…?”

# “she’s at a power supply…”

$ “talking about… so… gotta go to chicago… you gotta go to…”

# “uc berkeley. renovate their stadium. she began working at uc davis. transfer…”

> “she can ride the train…?”

^ “so we got two or something?”

! “do you have an um, spinach crossaint, too?

^ “is it heated?”

$ “knish! i think if you got it for five bucks, you cut it in half…”

# “’97 marriage… ’95…”

$ “fresh… fresh… fresh-roasted knish! that’s why it’s a fresh-roasted knish! so we can have a uh, whatchamacallit… okay, so how you’ve got the fresh-roasted knish… uh… you’ve got the uh…”

* “design versus maintenance… bay area…”

$ “fresh… oven…”

$ “you have a popcorn machine… pizza oven… popcorn machine… you have… i think that would be enough… and then you can always put… garden salad. what’s the garden salad? whatever you want… salad… side salad…”

+ “scan it in.”

$ “i don’t think that you should wait…”

$ “where i work… but i’m saying, charge five dollars… it’s four dollars… make less than…”

$ “make it look like a… you’re good at this, you’re… yeah! you’ll be… you’ll get… hit the hammer… hit the… “
^ “… nathan please?”

$ “why don’t you give that cup back…”

^ “kyle? large double latte for kyle, please.”

$ “got a lot…”

# “quick…”

$ “lot of people…”

$ “what’s next? you’ve got chili fries. chili dogs. in a little cup. french fries like that… it looks more…

> “…basketball…”

$ “and if you want a mcdonald’s…”

> “a… a… running player. so i participated… a few years… for five years, s/he ran three…”

^ “… nathan?”

^ “nancy?”

( “thank you”

) “… dad”

# “i went and have left for half a year…”

# “start a party…”

# “at boeing. is doing…”

@ “darjeeling?”

# “conversation. passenger size…”

# “him and his wife… same as me… marriage…”

@ “large double mocha for kyle?”

# “’84… at that time, i knew my wife. he and his wife met at work… i went to japan to play… he went to japan for a second…”

@ “two bagels for daniel?”

@ “berry tea”

@ “nicole? four shot large latte”

$ “after that it was all over. those two guys… yeah.”

# “before no. before, my sister… afterwards… when i lived with jeff…”

# “lauren lived downstairs…”

= “my uncle…”

^ “she’s no hazelnut hun. she’s no hazelnut! she’s a regular.”

caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaajun.

inversion,
in this form
reconstitutes its borders
into framed petals,
unwrapped.

i write because i know not how not not to in these moments.
ever i find myself more caught up in my own thoughts.
it’s horrible.
but it is a moment of introspection –
of a returning to familiar grounds,
which i have not truly tread for years.
i am turning back inwards,
into myself,
a simultaneous blessing and a curse.
but from a interactive level,
i’m having a fucking hard time giving a shit about anyone else.
like i said:
it’s horrible.
i hate it.
but i just need this time to sort out my dismay.
then i can get back to asking people all about themselves.
because that’s all i ever do.
i just want to be selfish,
to indulge in me me me me me me me me me,
to better me
without constantly doing the thing i always do,
which is turning the conversation outwards
to ask everyone else a million things about themselves
while avoiding the topic of me.
who the hell are we all anyway,
and why do these windows keep giving me a glare of unreality…
if even such simplicities can turn me inside out
what won’t, idiot!

if a prospector can mine for gold through centuries of dirt, so shall i.

—

12:45
i just got dropped off at bottom of the hill in san francisco for a ty segall and trmrs show. i wasn’t on the godamn list even though i just confirmed it yesterday. so i walked back to the financial district-ish… took me a bit more than an hour. i got back and told tinwin and her friend this; they said i was CRAZYYYYYYYY. “look what portland has done to you,” they said, but it isn’t portland that has done this to me; it is other parts of the country, where i never know a soul, where my lack of advanced gadgetry leaves me ignorant to bus routes. walking is not simply traveling, though; it’s exploration.

what moments of lucidity to be found in night walks… of seeing a city’s dimmed delicacies! layered cascades of shadows cast by trees and framed windows harboring any number of panels — ranging from cardboard inlays to the pristine! in that setting, child-like wonderment remains commonplace rather than luxurious and foreign — one sees an old world with new eyes when in the night, when given the moments, presented by mobility, to reconsider all. the clarity they offer is transcendent.

night walks are the fucking best! i would trade them for nothing! absolutely nothing!

—

01:09
and finally, this letter i have been crafting for a month’s time; i think it’s ready. i think i’m ready. hope to talk to you in the future nearest to ours, where we will be real human beings, saying and doing real things.

we gather as moths to the light.

tomorrow, i meet one of my writers, of five+ years, whom i have yet to meet. this will be the first time. i’m excited.

this track below is from the death cab for cutie album, transatlanticism. as “un-hip” as death cab is in recent times, i can still remember the first time i heard about them. it was from my “gothic” and rather hermity freshman year roommate, who often smelled a bit surprisingly like cheese, and really, really loved radiohead. her name was julia. she had pretty good taste in music — far superior to my next roommate, who was far worse, though on the surface a much “nice little asian girl,” rather than a gothic hermit. in many ways, i rather liked my freshman year roommate, though we were drastically different at the time. in any case, i remember her listening to death cab for cutie — i think “company calls” was a notable track — and it was instantly appealing… i had no idea who they were at the time… and how humorous that i am now here, and now who i am…

transatlanticism, at the forefront of death cab’s journey into un-hipness, still means a lot to me. it is nostalgic. i recently (a couple days ago) found the album burned onto a cd in the car. i don’t know when i put it in there, but it must have been quite a while ago. re-discovering it has been quite pleasant… even if the feelings are bittersweet.

there are three, embedded into this album’s whole.

Sometimes I think this cycle never ends;
We slide from top to bottom and we turn and climb again,
And it seems by the time that I have figured what it’s worth,
The squeaking of our skin against the steel has gotten worse.

But if I move my place in line, I’ll lose.
And I have waited, the anticipation’s got me glued.

I am waiting for something to go wrong;
I am waiting for familiar resolve.

Sometimes it seems that I don’t have the skills to recollect –
The twists and turns of plots that turned us from lovers to friends.
I’m thinking I should take that volume back up off the shelf,
And crack its weary spine and read to help remind myself.

But if I move my place in line, I’ll lose;
And I have waited, the anticipation’s got me glued.

I am waiting for something to go wrong;
I am waiting for familiar resolve.
I am waiting for another repeat,
Another diet fed by crippling defeat.
And I am waiting for that sense of relief;
I am waiting for you to flee the scene
As if you held in your hand the smoking gun
And on the floor lay the one you said you loved.

And it’s strange –
They are basically the same,
So I don’t ask names anymore.

Sometimes I think this cycle never ends;
We slide from top to bottom and we turn and climb again,
And it seems by the time that I have figured what it’s worth,
The squeaking of our skin against the steel has gotten worse.

The squeaking of our skin against the steel has gotten worse.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE – EXPO ’86

—

The Atlantic was born today and I’ll tell you how.
The clouds above opened up and let it out.

I was standing on the surface of a perforated sphere,
When the water filled every hole.
And thousands upon thousands made an ocean,
Making islands where no island should go.

Most people were overjoyed; they took to their boats.
I thought it less like a lake and more like a moat.
The rhythm of my footsteps crossing flatlands to your door
Have been silenced forevermore.
The distance is quite simply much too far for me to row;
It seems further than ever before.

I need you so much closer.

So come on…
Come on.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE – TRANSATLANTICISM.

allowing the gypsy to shine.

it’s a way of life.
and i guess i’m embracing it as much as responsibilities possibly allow.
i am disconnected.
just going with whatever
and doing just whatever whatever whatever…
it’s all out of sight out of mind, anyway.
i suppose i am searching for something higher.

sherry, tin-win, and i made like a hundred cake pops and i personally hand-drizzled chocolate over like a few hundred pretz crackers last night. it was kind of fun but man, the sugar intake was kind of intense. i certainly see it on my body today (damn you body, that just… does… that… all the time…) but yeah. hand-drizzled pretz for tin-win’s wedding, man. got quite innovative with it, though. good, fun, sugary times — so sugary it made the hands glisten with oily cake grease. mmmmm. probably pretty good for the skin, i’d imagine…?

a year in facebook status updates – 2009.

January

does believe people should go to the new and improved http://www.redefinemag.com

done did got her laptop infected by a virus. ~__~ BSOD FTL.

February

got a web facelift: http://www.redefinemag.com — and a new arts blog: http://www.redefinemag.com/arts/

is going to be in Los Angeles tomorrow, until the 17th! Holla!

is wondering if anyone would like to go to Peru with her in late March / early April for a couple weeks?

March

is wondering if anyone knows anyone trustworthy who needs a room to stay in for SxSW?

is going to Peru, April 1st through April 23rd. Confirmed, son.

is wondering if anyone else noticed Facebook looks different! Rounded profile pictures, omg!! Bigger fonts!!!!

thinks the Indian holiday, Holi, is AWESOME. ^__^

is pretty sure SxSW is the best shit ever.

cannot WAITTTTT to get back to Seattle where allergies are more or less tolerable and not complete complete death action.

… did I say I couldn’t wait to get back to Seattle? Well, I don’t want to be in Austin, but I don’t want to be here, either. RESPONSIBILITIES. BLACHHH.

It’s funny when you have a sudden epitome on a way to fix something that is obviously wrong, with so obvious an answer it’s ridiculous. Naw mean?

Today I hung out with a 23 year old Australian dude I met at SxSW and an 18 year old super mature and smart (and classically very good looking) British lad. I rarely ever meet and get to know English-speaking foreigners while living in the States. It’s in…

Feeleth so dehydrated…

is headed to Seattle’s Green Festival… for anyone who wants to go tomorrow, if you go to PCC and buy some shit, you get a free ticket ($15 value).

Sometimes you just need a giant 16 ounce cup of cappuccino / hot cocoa mix from — no, not the coffee shop down the street — 7/11. Hail. Yeah. Son. Sure, you’ll regret it later as you are shaking with its sugary nastiness, but the first half hour or so o…

is headed to Mexico City / Peru in one day and seven hours. Here’s to not pulling a “Tony Cordova”. Not pulling a “Tony Cordova” can be defined as, but are not limited to: 1) not breaking arms while arm wrestling, 2) not getting rings stuck on fingers til…

April

was told that her brother’s house has Oreos for consumption, but the Oreos cannot be seen!!!!

is in the Lima airport, at a Starbucks. Ohhh nooeettthh! They’re seriously everywhere. X:

is in Lima, waiting to go to Trujillo, Peru. Lima is just a city, like every other city, but man, is Peruvian cuisine colorful and exciting. But people here drive like maniacs. It’s super fun to be in a taxi, wondering if you’ll get in a crash, but even i…

is going to Huacas Del Sol Y De La Luna today… and then off to the desert. – http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huacas_del_Sol_y_de_l a_Luna

is wondering about how strange it is that I’ve been here for like… three days… and it feels like an ETERNITY somehow. It’s fucking bizarre.

is thinking about how a girl on my flight from Seattle to SF five days ago finished off our 2 hour conversation with one another by telling me that I have “really nice hands” and that she has an “obsession with hands and necks.”

has photos online at http://picasaweb.google.com/veez0ri

helped another teacher teach some 2nd graders English today. We did one class in Spanish and one class in English, teaching kids things like, “What’s your name?” and “What’s her name?” and the class taught exclusively in English did MUCH better than the c…

$569 roundtrip to Iceland from Seattle this summer. Who wants to go

es muy confundido.

is PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY. K thx. Off to the mountains of Peru this evening for Semana Santa!!! Holy Week!

is just a girl.

has new photos from an awesome weekend in Cajamarca, Peru: http://picasaweb.google.com/veez0ri/042009Cajamarc aPeru#

has just been reminded that holy shit… art is better than pretty much everything. – http://www.redefinemag.com/arts/ – http://1988watcher.blogspot.com/

is wondering who wants to go to Burning Man this year… like, for real. This time.

& Mihae received many a love letter this evening from Peruvian men. Here is a note a hot 17 year old Peruvian waiter wrote us before we left: “Cuando vas muy lejos adonde yo no te puedo ver se que vata (?) o extranarte mucho Vivian te extrano mucho quisie…

is forever in love with “Gorecki” by Lamb. One of the most awesome songs ever.

feels like she just smoked at least five cigarettes due to the plethora of secondhand smoke this evening ~__~

doesn’t like secondhand smoke but residual smoke-in-hair is SO GOOD. So good.

is sad to be leaving Trujillo cause the kids are SO cute. ~__~ Want to come back for longer. How to do so logistically…

is Lima-bound tonight. Hello overnight bus.

says: If you’re riding a bus in Peru, reserve the freaking 1st row of seats on the 2nd floor of the bus. AMAZING view (And “Bruce Almighty” in Spanish is amazing, too.)

is in Cusco, and NOT altitude sick! Yay. Mihae is yet to be determined, however.

Cusco / Cuzco is uncharming, expensive, drab, unexciting, and completely un-Peru-like. Machu Picchu may be great, but this tourist trap mecca definitely is not. Just saying.

is tired after a day of hiking up a 3,500 meter (11,500 feet) above sea level mountain because two Peruvian waiters (we sure like making friends with waiters) told us to. Tiring and hard, with some parts of the “trail” actually being giant ladders we had…

is thinking, WTF, BBQ, LIFE, and using the internet while sitting on the floor of our hostel in Cuzco.

actually heard a stranger fart last night in an alleyway and then SMELLED it. That’s SO wrong.

got a tarot card reading today from a Peruvian jungle man nicknamed Captain Jack, while sitting on a giant rock and stuff.

is in the Lima airport… again. Living in Trujillo was SO cheap, but coming to Cusco and Lima is SO expensive!! BAHH! Sapping money like a motherfucker!!

is leaving Peru tomorrow. Already? Is it over already?! :[

is back in the States after a night of 0 sleep and techno music in Mexico City. Thanks, Franco.

is dying of stomach ache! WTF!

is feeling better. Yay for no Mexican flu

is wondering why people would install shit on my computer. Kinda annoying.

wants it all -- brand new socks and drawls -- and I'm ballin every time I stop and talk to y'all. I want it all, all, all, all.

lied a little. Stomach still hurts. :X And it is not reassuring that one of the people I was hanging out with in Mexico City also has had a stomach ache!!! (But I don't have any other flu symptoms, so I'm not going to die, right?!! RIGHT?!!)

can once again think of a zillion reasons to never live at home.

is wondering if anyone wants to pick her up from the airport at 11:00pm on Tuesday. No? OK.

is going to interview Crystal Antlers tonight at the Crepe Place in Santa Cruz. Bands? At a Crepe Place? We'll see how this goes.

is wondering WHYYYYYY WHYYYY STOMACHE WHYYYYY!

is pretty convinced what burned my stomach was drinking a glass of absinthe (when I never drink) on an empty stomach. Finally took medicine, and now it's all peachy.

is thinking four days or so is about the maximum amount of time to visit the parentals in California without going batshit crazy.

is wondering if anyone is going to Sasquatch, cause I'd actually maybe like to go for once, perhaps.

May

is thinking that looking at high school people's Facebook profiles is some Twilight Zone shit.

wants Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits. SRSLY.

is having her patience tested, z0mg.

reckons there's always a lesson to be learned in experiences that test you, but man, it's hard to glean something super positive from someone's annoying the shit out of you.

is gonna see some dags. Do you like dags?

revolutionized nail-cutting this afternoon. Cut your nails outside; never worry about mess again!!!!!!!!! ZOMG!!!!

gives in to Conor Oberst. I had always written off Bright Eyes as mediocre, but dammit, it's kind of good.

is wondering if anyone wants to go with her to either The Kills / The Horrors' show or The Curious Mystery / Ole Time Relijun's show. Both on Friday and free. Hollar.

is going country line dancing or something tonight. They call it 2-steppin? What? We'll see.

is HOLY FUCK, round-trip tickets from Seattle to NYC for $219 and from Los Angeles to Australia for $646. HOLY FUCK ASS!!!!!

just fell in the mud with my Nikon d40 D-SLR. But dude, smoothing concrete is fun (and the camera is okay).

is now officially only one degree of separation removed from Mike Patton (of Faith No More / Mr. Bungle fame). Wee!

is going to Hammingbell, aka Bellingham, for the day...!

recommends that you go watch The Kills and The Horrors, on tour now. They killed it this evening.

needs to need to not want to need.

loves the VH1 show "Daisy of Love." I'm just a lameass.

sometimes wishes she liked alcohol even a little bit. But alas, no.

is an idiot around boys I have even remote interest in, and I will run away prematurely. But hey, if I don't like you, I will talk to you for fucking hours.

... sometimes you think you know, but then find out what you know ain't shit. But it's nice when that can be said in a positive manner. SON!

spent the night at a bar with a fucking banana in my purse. SON!

eats a little too much hummuses!!!

necesita aprender mas espanol :0

was late for the bus but forgot bus money, had to run back home to grab the bus money, grabbed the bus money, kept it in her hands while running down the hill, lost a quarter of the fare in someone's unkempt lawn (where it was never to be seen again), and...

was called by her mother today, and her mother said to her in Chinese: "Your house is actually pretty clean now! But you live with boys, so make sure you wrap up your pads well when you throw them out while you're on your period." To which I replied (verb...

thinks the problem of being a sucker for pretty writing and pretty words is that, more often than not, that's all it is... pretty words... not pretty actions.

thinks may all die a nuclear death... in 2012.

just interviewed Mike Weiss of mewithoutYou. They have a new disc out: http://www.myspace.com/mewithoutyou

has been trying to install a Ruby on Rails environment on the computer all day. ALL DAY. Lord.

is being FUCKED OVER by Google. Motherfuckers. The Redefine website is inaccessible via Firefox without a warning of "vulnerability", and I fixed the errors, but they're still not removing this warning. PISSED!!

June

is up late, being emo. ~o~

: incentive for waking up earlier... $290 round-trip tickets from Seattle to Madrid, including taxes. *WTF*. Too bad I slept in and it got sold out. :L

is going camping in the Olympic Peninsula until Tuesday. Suckaz!!!

... just saw *the* most amazing dance-off ever at Trinity, by a pair of strangers, to dub-step. INSANE. They were *literally* climbing on the wall, crawling on the floor, and doing the fucking splits. In fact, the chick did the fucking splits on the wall,...

had an awesome weekend playing Rock Band, white trash golf? (testicle toss?), eating yummy catered food, and seeing ScM friends from looong ago. Congrats Pwny & Renae, and thanks! Even the sanest of girls is crazy.

is going to Ashland, Oregon for July 4th to watch Macbeth at the world's most awesomest Shakespeare Festival. Hail yessssss, dawwwwwgggg.

totally kind of believes in astrology crap. Do you?

July

was volunteering at Real Change today and Rosette made a joke about my going to bed at 4AM last night because I was watching Michael Jackson videos. That was untrue. Today, however, I am actually staying up til 4AM watching Michael Jackson videos. ~__~ Li...

thinks it's hilarious that *NOW* the FDA says Tylenol (and Percoset and Vicodin) is bad. - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/31671172#3 1671172

inhaled too much nail polish, omg... headache galore.

still can't get over the fact that my parents have Facebook. Can they read this?!!! I have no idea!!!

just had a car trunk closed on her head and it hurt like a motherb!tch. If a giant bruise emerges on my face, I'm going to have to pin domestic violence on some lucky person!!!!

battled four nosebleeds today and won. Then again, if they keep coming back, does that still count as victories? Are they all the same nosebleed coming back to life again or are they four separate nosebleeds?!! HMMM?!!!!!?!!!! And if they're separate nose...

+ sports bra = boy... pretty much.

wonders if you would ever read a magazine in downloadable PDF form???? Check yes or no.

is disturbed by how different raisins in the same pack taste from one another Some are so nasty and mushy I have to spit them out!!

hates going through all the CDs we get for Redefine and really realizing how many bands we simply don't have the resources to give the time of day to. :{

spent the last four hours sorting through CDs. Got a couple discs in the mail that seem fairly exciting for me personally: Volcano Choir (JagJaguwar), OKie Dokie (Aagoo), Forks And Knives (Self-Released) and INF (Beats Broke)... WOOHOO!!!!!

is putzing around Portland for the day... what to do, what to do, other than talking to random crazy awesome strangers...

pretty much loves Portland. Seattle's still more beautiful, though. But Portland's more fun.

told Kyle that my house is really super empty because Chris moved out all his furniture. Kyle told me to try doing cartwheels now that I have space. I've been trying to do them... and I'm not going to give up til I actually do a legit one... but what's pa...

It's a bitch convincing people to like you/ If I stop now call me a quitter/ If lies were cats you'd be a litter/ Pleasing everyone isn't like you/ Dancing jigs until I'm crippled/ Slug ten drinks I won't get pickled!.../ Oh I could throw you in the lake/

fucking loves cherries! WHY OH WHY MUST I BE ALLERGIC! WHY!!!

is going to sleep at 4:30am and waking up at 9:00am. WOOOOO!

thinks is unfair that Block Party is this weekend in Seattle (still haven't been!) for a zillion dollars and PDX Pop Now is a free event this weekend. Pish, posh, poosh.

thinks it's kinda sorta fun to live without: a microwave, a television, a bed frame... a clue. Just me, music, hardwood floors, dreams, and a zillion dust bunnies are ADEQUATE!

had a freaking amazing day doing the "Talk To Us" thing in downtown Seattle (imagine Christian women's conference meets Narcotics Anonymous crowd meets Torchlight Parade participants), choosing from 60 FREE CAKES in Seattle Center, high-fiving marathon ru...

... when all the furniture goes away, all the spiders come out to play :/ including the hobos the size of your palm. WOO! This is when sleeping on the floor not so good.

... [stolen from someone else cause social experiments rule.] This is a Facebook Experiment. If you are reading this, even if we don’t speak often, post a comment with a memory of you and I. When you’ve finished, post this paragraph into your own status u…

HOW IS IT 105 DEGREES IN SEATTLE? THIS IS NOT RIGHT.

… damn you, bleeding from the nether regions! I wanted to go swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wonders if anyone knows of good electro/disco-type bands in the Portland and Seattle area??

August

had a memorable dream for the first time in a long time… kid ghosts, kid ghosts, kid ghosts… so plentiful in number they were flying and practically overlapping with each other in my vision. plus feelings of being insane.

enjoys the sleeping positions of the two cats I’m cat/house-sitting… teehehehe! Their names are George and Bert (because of resemblance to a Muppet)… but strangely, they’re both female. (Crazy cat lady in the making?!!…)

is going to hit up the $7-haircut-run-out-of-a-house place I’ve been wanting to try for almost a year now! Wish me lux.

“Your skin is something that I stir into my tea/ And I am watching you/ And you are starry, starry, starry…”

… me: going to tillamook today, never been / rachel: huh / me: what could possibly be confusing about that statement lol! / rachel: cheese / me: yes / rachel: holy shit, didnt know that was possible

is loving the new Portugal. The Man disc, The Satanic Satanist. More falsetto + blues/funk? Sweeeet. – Free MP3 here (not the best song on the disc, though, but whatever): http://freedownloads.last.fm/download/278763095/Pe ople%2BSay.mp3

… “Lovers loving love just like these lovers are loving in love.” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv3z8m1qbOQ

had a fantastical evening with Miss XL consisting of (but not limited to): getting lost in a maze of freeways, taking the LONGEST freeway detour EVER, being hit on by a guy using the classic, “Are you hot wearing that jacket? I mean, you’re HOT, but are you hot?” line, and laughing our asses off when a whole crowd of ridiculous clubbers got, “Low low low low,” in unison because “Apple Bottom Jeans” told them to.

is so very jaded by traditional Christian weddings… receptions rule, though. Fo’ realz.

is officially REALLY bad at frisbee golf. Really good at living off of snack foods, though.

… “A horse is a horse, of course, of course, and no one can talk to a horse, of course, that is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed.”

should give lessons on being a nomad. August / September / first half of October = PDX -> SEA -> PDX -> SEA -> LA -> NEVADA -> SO-CAL -> PDX -> SEA -> SF -> ????. All rent free. Jea.

… new nomad schedule for Aug-Oct 2009: Portland > Seattle > Los Angeles > Black Rock City, Nevada > Long Beach > Austin > Orlando > Seattle > Portland (MusicFestNW) > Chicago (La Dispute!!) > Detroit (:D) > Chicago > New Orleans (:D) > Pittsburgh > Seattle > San Francisco (Fever Ray/Castro St. Parade!) > New York > New Jersey > New York > Montreal > New York > Seattle…! (Settling down in Nov? Mayhaps. TIPS??)

… despite making films that would lead one to believe the contrary, David Lynch IS in fact Captain Obvious. Gems include, “And I thought to myself that in California, people wear sweaters! So it must sometimes be cool at night or something, because it was kind of a night-time thing, I imagined. And I thought, ‘What a great climate, that it’s warm in the day, and cool in the night — cool enough to wear a sweater!”

… 1) does anyone know if you need to take a GRE to get a Master’s in Social Work?… 2) does anyone know why I keep freaking getting Charlie Horses in my sleep? CHARLIE HORSES *SUCK*!!!

… emo emo emo mo mom oomaoo.

is gonna interview Theo Ellsworth in a hot sec. Awesome. – http://theoellsworth.blogspot.com

presents… a cross-section of Dutch words cuz Dutch is awesome/impossible … afschuwelijk = horrible, beschonken = drunk, droogtrommel = tumble drier, eigenaardig = peculiar, hulpvaardig = helpful, loopjongen = errand boy, natuurwetenschappelijk = natural phenomenon, ooghaar = eyelash, prijzenswaardig = commendable, raaskallen = talk nonsense, schurkenstreek = roguery, verachtelijk = despicable, zaniken = bother

… all of this past month’s Redefine updates in one handy ol’ August 2009 newsletter: http://www.redefinemag.com/newsletters/2009-08-new s.html (you can sign up for future similar updates in the right-hand column of http://www.redefinemag.com)!… … duude. Redefine life is doing good. It is, it is. A horse is a horse, of course, of course.

is pretty godamn satisfied. Bitches. And you need to listen to Leftover Cuties. – http://www.myspace.com/leftovercuties

… I know I just had a conversation recently about how band/musician names really shouldn’t play a role in determining how good he/she/they are, but man, Mac McAnally’s name is pretty funny.

is wondering if anyone in the Seattle / Portland / Los Angeles areas have crazy, super HOT desert weather clothes that they don’t need anymore that they want to give me to wear / demolish / never return (?)

wonders how many of the neighbors can hear me singing my ass off through the open windows. Hahahahahahahahaa.

wonders where I should go from Austin… Boston, Raleigh, Charlotte, Portland (Maine), Fort Lauderdale, Orlando…?? Decisions, decisions. VOTES?

is wondering if anyone in LA has a shitty bike he/she wants to sell/lend me? EH?????

has too much to do and therefore wants to do *nothing*…

… dude, coffee-drinking today has been CRAZY and has kind of sent me into this world where if I sit still for a hot sec I’m reeling into the unknown folds of the universe. Seriously.

is friggin pissed. Got a virus trying to download Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. Virus rendered Internet unusable. Now, while trying to clear space on my hard drive to back up data, guess what I find? Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits. Godammit.

is watching a documentary on noise music called “People Who Make Noise”, and the cats are definitely freaking out in parts.

hates iTunes. I formatted my iPod Touch when my iTunes was set on shuffle and now my songs will only play on shuffle. Anyone know how to fix short of reformatting again?

September

is back in the real world (as real as Los Angeles is, anyway). Hello dry skin and straw hair.

is Austin and San Antonio-bound tomorrow, September 10th, through Monday, September 14th. Holla, Texans! And recommendations, por favor!!!!!

… funny press release of the day: “Name Your Tune is an exciting new children’s music compilation that is made-to-order and personalized for each child. Children will hear their name more than 80 times throughout 14 much-loved songs, such as If You’re Happy And You Know It (becomes If You’re Paul And You Know It) and Old MacDonald Had A Farm (becomes Little Ringo Had A Farm.)”

… guy’s name at the Long Beach Airport (the weirdest airport I’ve ever been to, BTW): Rohan McGee. AWESOME!!!

… one of my new favorite names for a city: Gay Hill, Texas!

equals not impressed by TexMex. TexMex is kinda sick. I’ll take Mex over TexMex every day of the week.

… dude, there’s a PLEASANTON in Texas!!!!!!!!!!!! 30 miles or so from San Antonio!!!!

passed a 5-mile stretch of highway in Houston today in which like, every American chain store had a branch. It was both amazing and disgusting! I’d begun to think that for sure every chain store had already shown up, but new ones kept popping up! Bed Bath And Beyond was like, “Don’t forget about me!”, Kohl’s was like, “I wanna play, too!”, and Panda Express was like, “Eat me!”

… three-hour-long+ adventure on Los Angeles Metro, here I come!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

… actual synopsis for the film “Hood Of Horror”: “The Ghetto can be a scary place. And thanks to Snoop Dogg, it’s about to get even scarier. Snoop brings us three tales of terror from the hood featuring Billy Dee Williams, Method Man, and Jason Alexander. They’ll scare the shizzle out of you.”

loooooves eavesdropping on non-English-speaking humans (that I can understand, obviously)… cause sometimes you get real gems cause people think no one around can understand them!

… funny press release of the day: “Megan Fox is hot. She’s everywhere. And those short shorts and tank top and the black leather motorcycle costume she wore in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are available for all to buy.”

… awesome press quote I just saw on some taxi in Chicago about some theatre show: “Like Cirque du Soleil, but with horses.” — WTF!

… two assholes, at two shows, two days in a row. One racist in Detroit who said the Asian Yale girl who got murdered and stuffed in the wall begged her murderer, “Please no keel me; I sucky sucky for free,” (seriously??) and another dumbass who told Micachu And The Shapes that their music wasn’t music and that he “didn’t pay to have my ears pissed in.” Why so angry, Chicagoans and Detroiters?!!

self-loathes with a vengeance this evening, and to top it off, my electronics keep committing suicide, too. UGH.

… yet another low: MySpace Music is now brought to you by McDonald’s. WTF?

was thinking it was too early to sleep because my computer clock says 11:45pm, Pacific Time. Realization: I’m on the east coast. Dammit.

… MOTHAFUCKIN THESE ARMS ARE SNAKES IN DC, BEEYOTCH!

is so frustrated with myself!!! The airport security workers were totally being a dick to this Spanish-speaking lady and I wanted to stand in and translate, but I kept asking the security worker what she needed to do and he kept ignoring me, so I just stood down. It was so sad! They just wheeled her off in her little wheelchair and she was like, “No comprendo!” and had no idea what was going on :{

October

… Sondre Lerche twittering about Redefine? Awesome!

thinks it’s funny when people (*ahem, Sherry*) get all worked up over sports on TV.

… TONIGHT: Fever Ray in SF!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!

… who wants to make me a cupcake costume for Halloweenie!?

… anyone have experience with podcasting and can chat with me about it?

… funny press release of the day: “Dell [has] partnered with Major League Baseball to offer fans across the nation opportunities to bring their team spirit to their PC. Dell Design Studio offers designs for all 30 MLB teams in three customized levels – Fan, Classic and Die-Hard.”

is gonna be in New York City until the 13th, Montreal until the 17th or 18th, New Jersey until the 24th. Let’s meet up!?

is pissed! Of all the freaking delicious places to eat in NY I somehow settled on a place with THE WORST godamn eggplant parmesan sandwiches ever!! How could an eggplant parmesan sandwich possibly be this disgusting? AND it’s expensive. I’m craving one from Romio’s now. Ugh.

wishes bugs didn’t like biting me so much!! AAHHHHHHH. Three bug bites on the face… mostly no big deal, except for the one around my eye that makes me look like I got punched in the face

wants to eat something warm and hot, but I don’t have any Canadian money left except for $1.11, and I’m leaving tomorrow! I can’t even buy something from McDonald’s here with that! Much less the poutine next door.

being in the Northeast during the fall might be one of the best things ever… so beautiful, aaaah.

… my 16-year-old cousin doesn’t have ANY idea what Schindler’s List is. That’s almost as scary as Lingo’s nephew {?} not knowing who Michael Jordan is. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Social networking does a REDEFINE body good.

… explaining non-meat-eating to 85-year-old Chinese grandpa = impossible. Meat sickness impending. Not to mention they were pork buns, which I hated even when I did eat meat regularly!! ~__x

… wowowow Spaceland venue in Los Angeles!!! Taking word-for-word my article on Nurses for use in their promotional mailer: “By blending everything together in a way that turns layers of instrumentation, samples, and loops into structured tracks, Nurses create underlying backgrounds which teem with life and create a visual musical experience.” FUCKFACES. Where’s the credit!?

is geeking out on music so hard. Amusing finds for the evening: Terrible Records – Ghosts (http://terriblerecordsus.com/blog/wp-content/uplo ads/2009/10/ghosts.mp3), Yura Yura Teikoku – Dekinai (http://girlieaction.com/yurayura/sounds/Dekinai.mp3), Pylon – Beep (http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=down load&ufid=C646D21D51E64387), and finally… this really rad Nesey Gallons album, Eyes & Eyes & Eyes Ago! Yay!

is thinking, in this day and age where music videos are better than ever, why don’t VH1/MTV actually show music videos???????? Certainly they would hold someone’s attention…

just turned in my absentee ballot today, and I actually looked up all the candidates, but I feel like they’re all just about the goshdarn same. They all care about the environment and safety… blahblahblah. So I just went with whatever person seemed like he/she liked public transportation and homeless people the most. Ha!

November

… The Norwegian word “Røyksopp” means puffball fungus (lit. “(a) smoke mushroom”)… now you know!!!!!!!

… ever get those moments where you’re so insanely idiotic that you can scarcely believe yourself? They’re kind of special.

… funny press release of the day: “The Beatles cover [of] “I’m Only Sleeping” was recorded the day “The Beatles: Rock Band” game was released in protest of the idea of great musicians wasting time playing games about making music instead of actually making music.” – AEONs

… “I did not stir, and presently I began to breathe with the dispassionate rhythm of sleep. He listened, that was certain. I listened to his listening. He listened to my listening to his listening. Something snapped. I noticed that I was not thinking at all of what I thought I was thinking; attempted to catch my consciousness tripping, but got mazed myself. ” – Vladimir Nabokov, Despair. <3 <3 <3

… s o m e t i m e s l i f e i s r e a l l y r e a l l y a w e s o m e a n d i t f e e l s a m a z i n g . i feel like i'm onto something.

… loudly listening to music on Mihae Jung's $700 speakers = kinda better than going outside.

… so glad I don't work for a corporation… some corporate politics are truly ridiculous.

… "And we were laughing at the stars while our feet clung tight to the ground. So pleased with ourselves for using so many verbs and nouns. But we were all still just dumb, dumb, dumber than the dirt, dirt, dirt on the ground."

… "My grandfather used to say: 'Life is astonishingly short. When I look back now it is all so condensed in my memory that I can hardly understand, for example, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village, without his being afraid — quite apart from unfortunate accidents — that the whole span of a normal happy life is far from being adequate for such a ride.'" – Franz Kafka (The Next Village)

… three hours in Korea, and already I've been kidnapped and forced to drink beer and chat in broken Korean with two older Korean men (with the pimply-faced one stroking my back / laughing creepily and the other one — although hilarious and drunk as hell — calling me his wife and saying that Xinlei and I would be his friends forever); thank JEEBUS for being rescued by Xtra Large. <3 <3 <3

… mmmm, dreams about Joseph Gordon-Levitt…!!

… day two in Korea consistethed of going to seven different convenience stores to acquire seven types of banana milk and then taste-testing them one after the other. You'd be surprised at the array of flavors. The one with Bart Simpson sucking on a banana and having crazy eyes that looked like spirals was the winner.

… Portland's YACHT (http://www.myspace.com/yacht) and White Rainbow (http://www.myspace.com/whiterainbowwhiterainbow) are in Korea = free comped tickets for Friday night's show ($30 each!). Dunno if I actually like them, but it's not just a concert; it's a concert plus a DJ set by YACHT which goes until 5:00am. UMMMMMMMMMMM, AMAZING? 350 people confirmed on Facebook so far. S T O K E D!

… YACHT = awesome live show.

… I think I've done it. I think I've made myself sick of banana milk. THIS CAN'T BE!!!!!!???

… 2012 = worst movie ever……………… two hours of sheer and utter pain.

got rescued by the cops today. They pushed my car to the Honda dealership. Two of them plus one civilian. Hell yeah.

December

… cars are a pain in the snarse.

… breakfast! It’s what’s for dinner!

… the problem with always making faces or doing weird shit while taking photos is that when you actually need a professional-ish photo for business purposes, there are zero. Zilch. None. Nada. The closest to a passable photo might even be one you took with a Macaw bird on your shoulder. BLARGH!

= dry cereal addict. NOM NOM NOM. (so much better than wet cereal.)

… what’s an awesome name you think needs to be used more often? My vote: WYATT.

… Iceland/Europe in spring, anyone? Round-trip airfare from Seattle for $474…………. including taxes…….?

can’t sleep worth shiet.

is doing a post on Album Covers Of The Year!! Have any favorites from this year?? Anything blow you away?? Share

gets to eat lunch at Google today, heck yeah!!!!!!!! Free fooood come to meeeeeee!

… dude, remember Tomodachis?? And Furbys? Scary the random things you remember…….!

… REGIFTING RULE #1: Remove that sweetly-worded card that’s addressed to you. (Saving mother from embarrassment since 1983.)

… dude, did all of my tape singles get thrown out?!!!!! THERE WERE LIKE A HUNDRED OF THEM!!! Goodbye, childhood memories! You left without saying goodbye!

… 46 rad album covers from 2009! This is the most fun I’ve had writing an article in a while. Enjoy! (PS, Duran Duran is awesommmmmme.) – http://www.redefinemag.com/music/reviews_cover_2.php?artist=46-Fantastic-Album-Covers-From-2009,-Part-One&id=1379

fun night.

i’m listening to… the best of duran duran, motherfucker!

random crap today. posted up redefine’s 46 fantastic album covers from 2009 article today, and now i’m wondering, is 46 too many? well, whatever.

either way.

after posting up that article i tried to go to the sprint store to buy a fucking lg phone car charger but sprint didn’t have any! at least not sprint in pleasanton! what the shit! that’s messed!

so i headed over to san francisco, sparingly using my telephone so i’d still have battery life by the time i got there. met up with fontaine and allen. we went to watch the new “sherlock holmes” movie! i thought it was pretty good. at some points i was like, bah, this is too long, but for the most part it was good, and there were some fucking hilarious laugh-out-loud moments, but totally in a really ummmmm smart (british!) way. i swear, brits are better than us. i’ve said it many times. i’ll say it again!

anyway.

after that, we went to japantown to eat at on the bridge. it was pretty good… really had my eyes set on some gratin but they were all sold out of it, so i got some wicked delicious-looking pesto udon! so good! kinda salty, though.

after that, i headed over to kevin‘s house and we went out to north beach for his friend’s birthday pub crawl thing. it was fun. met a lot of really nice people and had some interesting convos for sure. some talk about dildos and jokes about calling them devastators. haha? and some talk about random people’s occupations… lot of interesting occupations in there… and religion, because one guy had a buncha religious tracts that were super funny, with one of them featuring one guy saying to another guy, “you’re no longer a LOSER! you’re a WINNER!” after he had found god… and evidently everyone there was pretty much a godless heathen. oh, and there was a filmmaker at the table next to us being awkwardly (kinda) interviewed… and what else. crap. oh. tried curry fries?? interesting. apparently it’s a popular irish thing.

fun stuff… the birthday boy told a story about when he thought he killed someone. when he was 21 and temporarily going to school in olympia, washington, hanging out with two roommates for new year’s eve, each with an entire fifth of bourbon in their hands, some random guy came into their house holding a giant bag of shrooms… and that at that point in time he really was into fighting people and the guy who had the shrooms (after they’d all eaten a bunch “like potato chips”) started quoting “fight club”. hence, birthday boy’s like, “let’s fight!” and the shrooms guy was into it, so they fought… and birthday boy was super jazzed about it and kept trying to get his roommates into it but they weren’t having it cause they were trippin so he’d try and punch them in the face to show them that it was fun, and they jumped out the first floor window and left hahaha. then two hours later the roommates came back and the two others were still fighting, so they left again (and proceeded to drive around at 90mph, when one of the guys was like, “this is just like being in malaysia!” and they were driving on the wrong side of the road). when the roommates came back, apparently shrooms guy was on the floor with half his face bloody and was unconscious… and birthday boy had been running around the house with his hands up in the air cheering and basically deeming himself “the man”… and the roommates were like, “dude, we think you killed him,” and the birthday boy’s celebration turned to bummed outness. naturally. at this point in the story, some new guests came in and he never finished his story, but i guess at some point they realized that he wasn’t dead? the end? maybe?

anyway other stories about a guy having to escape ukraine because his family was rich and chased after by the mob. more stories about the guy going to cougar bars and being told by a cougar who was there (and good-looking, apparently, thanks to plastic surgery) something along the lines of, “do you see this face? this face is worth thousands of dollars.” hahahaha. awesome.

funny story of my own… as i was gettin ready to leave the second place we went to, which was a place called the bubble lounge (think i’ve been there before, strangely, but i don’t know for sure… the basement with its brick-tiled walls just seemed REALLY familiar), i went to the bathroom and had washed my hands. i don’t usually dry my hands, so i was running back up the stairs to leave and this convo took place.

CONVO WITH RANDOM, PRETTY MUCH GUIDO-LOOKING DUDE:
dude: whoa! who are you?
me: vivian.
dude: i’m ruess. (extends hand)
me: (extends both hands, for some reason) sorry, my hands are kind of wet.
dude: we’ve only just met and you’re already wet?
me: that’s horrible.
dude: i know, right? (totally proud of himself, it was obvious)

(followed by other lame dialogue of him trying to convince me to stay and go to the bar with him even though i said i didn’t drink, and he said, “me neither! i just am going to get some water!” which i think was a filthy ass lie.)

going out in sf is fun. good times!

(only bad part is that this is the ONE night i coulda stayed out til whenever cause my parents didn’t come home tonight!!!! unfortunate, because i came back at 2:30. oh well. the last stop was at a club anyway and i can’t say i really cared all that much to be there.)

recap central: san francisco, california.

friday, october 2nd
stopover in new york and it happens to be the day they’re having a party for jetblue all-you-can-jet passengers! woohoo! lots of free food. good thing an all-you-can-jetter who was sitting next to me tipped me off on it. fucking score. free alcohol too, and people kept tossing their extra drink tickets to my table for some reason. i didn’t drink, though.

unfortunately, the guy who tipped me off to the event had stinky breath… i could smell his breath through his exhale of his nose. blah!!! talked with jason? mike? someone else? while at the free food thing. jason is a dude from portland who works for idealist, another guy is this kinda older, cocky rich guy who does real estate in florida… ex-navy, talks about being rich and how once you make a certain amount of money you can never go back to getting mediocre money (he said something like $100,000 was not enough a year because of what he was used to). he WAS a consultant, after all.

anyway, off to san francisco after that. parents pick me up and then get into some ridiculous argument action about a detour and driving. stupid. go to bed asap.

—

saturday, october 3rd
eat breakfast at denny’s with the godparents and then nap. putz around. i have a note here that says “moon day” but i’m not sure what that means. watch “zombieland” with my brother and roxanne, and then eat japanese food for dinner at sakura with the rentals.

a church family owns the restaurant so we got massif free foodages.

continue to putz around, and then bart to sherry‘s. relax.

—

sunday, october 4th
go to church with sherry and tin-win. it’s whatevers, the pastor is pretty funny and amusing, and he certainly has charm, but as always, i don’t agree with the bs he spews. go to korean lunch (soondooboo! they actually have veggie soondooboo!) with one of their friends, and then i go muni to the castro st. fair.

view from sherry and tin-win’s fancy apartment.

hilarious back massager ;x is that REALLY what it is? can’t tell.

i was expecting more, unfortunately, but it was really quite tame.

this guy was dancing up a storm, though.

really awful mash-up band.

look at that stomach.

so awesome!

met up with jesse and his sister shortly thereafter and went to this really super cute tea house called salmovar that had a $65 pot of tea!!!!

<img src="“>
this is a tray of cookies we got. karla met up with us but it took her a while to get there. right when jesse was taking off, actually. too bad!

ate pizza buffet with sherry and tin-win for dinner, and then putzed around! it was good, but there weren’t much veggie selections, so when the workers found out i was vegetarian they kept bringing me everything ad nauseum. really nice of them!

—

monday, october 5th
explored san francisco by myself, particularly the mission district.

… is it just me or does that not look like michael??

lotsa murals in the mission district.

<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_RqrWKVC07xM/SttvGlLPz-I/AAAAAAAAVno/lnFJ0waqk8Q/s720/DSC_0068.JPG"

this one particular alley had shitloads of murals!

my favorite.

found a neat market and bought this amazing! beets drink! so delicious!

went to the ferry building shortly thereafter to meet up with jesse.

found this amazing soap. i want i i want it i want it i want it. unfortunately, i broke the bottle of beets juice before i got to finish it all :/ i want more, though. someone get me some.

as i was standing in the ferry building, waiting for jesse, i caught a glimpse of the back of some girl wearing green, and she walked like jean-claire so i thought it was maybe jean-claire, so i texted jean-claire, and it WAS her, which is really weird, because if i hadn’t been looking in her direction or had looked in her direction literally five seconds later, i wouldn’t have seen her. not to mention… i met her in peru, and she’d lived in portland up until that point. so what the fuck. it was weird and random.

jesse and i went to eat mexican food and then he went back to work.

after this, i didn’t take notes, so it’s all a blur. teehee!

random plane jumble scramble.

so, i don’t usually do the television thing all that much because i simply don’t really have access to a television ever. and even when we realized that we magically had cable television in our 716 house in greenlake, i never used it.

hence, it’s kinda exciting catching up on television while flying on jetblue. i wouldn’t pay for television because i’d simply rather listen to music or watch movies than watch television, but since it’s here, and it’s free, i watch it a lot. and i must say, I LOVE PROJECT RUNWAY! I LOVE FAIRLY ODDPARENTS! I LOVE TOP CHEF! etc. etc. pretty much bravo is the best channel ever…!

anyhoot, i’m flying on my way from san francisco to long beach right now, and then i have a five hour layover, and then i fly back to seattle. wee!! been eating like a pig lately… it’s really quite piggish. but yeah. watching fairly oddparents. and it rules. ^__^

i’m pretty excited to go back to seattle.

also, i’m going to korea and taiwan next month; it’s pretty much decided. i was right about ready to settle down and just live somewhere again, but the opportunity to see my 90-year-old grandma and simultaneously visit xinlei in korea just seems way too attractive to not do. so i shall do do do do.

anyways. i would recap right now because i actually feel like writing mindlessly, but unfortunately, my ipod touch is kinda running out of batteries and i think i want to conserve them for a later time (aka when i’m riding the bus from the airport to downtown seattle later). moo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a continuation!

Took a flight from Seattle to San Francisco this evening, because my flight from San Francisco to Peru (with a layover in Mexico City) takes off tomorrow morning, at 7:00am. My friend Mihae’s mom will be picking me up from my brother’s condo at… 4:30am. It is currently 1:23am. Dear lord god. Needless to say, I’m thinking of not going to bed this evening, so I can get some work done, and then just sleeping on the way to the airport, at the airport, and on the plane (a four and a half hour flight). I was HOPING to sleep on the plane from San Francisco to Seattle, but I sat next to a girl who really wanted to talk, which initially was BLARGH but turned out fine because she was pretty amusing. Her and her friend had flown up to Seattle from the San Luis Obispo area for just one day to see Mindless Self Indulgence, because they weren’t playing shows in Cali. Apparently, it was totally worth it. I thought it was pretty hardcore.

Anyway, I thought it was kinda bizarre… because…

The last flight I was on, from Austin to Seattle, I was sitting next to Ryan, the Aussie. I was in the window seat and he was in the middle seat. We had ended the flight with him showing me a bunch of music on his iPod, and then us trying to figure out how to get him from the airport to the Green Tortoise Hostel.

This flight, from Seattle to San Francisco, I was in the window seat and a girl was sitting next to me in the middle seat. Same seating arrangement as with the Aussie, but on the opposite side of the plane. Around the same row, too (I think it was row 26 from Austin to Seattle and row 27 today). She started talking to me, and basically started off the conversation with how she had just flown up to Seattle to see a concert, and that she had been late to the airport and had come from the Green Tortoise Hostel. Then she showed me music on her iPod. WTF!

I should mention that they are of the same style… not the same musical tastes, mind you, but visual style… dark hair, dark clothes, piercings, tattoos.

In the words of Lenny, “The Aussie came back as a chick!”

I mean, the coincidence isn’t SUPER mind-blowing, but it’s certainly coincidental enough where it’s kinda like… whoa.

my first time really looking at san francisco in a long time.

i’m watching… machuca (spanish film).

it’s funny when you live somewhere for too long — you seem to think it’s not important. that it’s the same as everywhere else. i never really paid much attention to san francisco because well, i figured, i lived there. i live in pleasanton. pleasanton sucks balls. therefore, san francisco probably sucks balls as well, even if it sucks less balls. well… truth of the matter is, san francisco has some rather cool qualities. by the way, i notice this in lenny too, because he thinks seattle is so ugly and boring compared to everywhere else… that nature is so far away when in fact that’s the thing i like best about seattle — that nature is so close. but seeing as he grew up here and has not been to too many places outside of here, he thinks seattle is ugly… when the first time i saw seattle from the airplane, i thought it was absolutely gorgeous. one of the most gorgeous places i could remember ever being at that point in time.

anyway, lenny and i went back to san francisco bay area for the first time i’ve been there in about a year. weeee. excursions. i felt this huge need to show him as many things as possible because well, technically it’s my home. so… i should?!!

friday, january 18th, 2008.
arrival in oak-town. oakland definitely in the house!

saturday, january 19th, 2008.
san francisco, bright and early. wake at 7:30, leave, leave, leave!!! pretty much this was the schedule this entire weekend — sleep @ 12am, wake at 7:30am. HARDCORE! EXTREME!!!!

started off by going to alcatraz cruise area at pier 33, but it was SOLD OUT!! sold out all the way until the next day, which we already had plans for! craziness. anyway, so we decided to walk up to fisherman’s wharf and do whatever. bummed around, saw the seals, saw lots of tourists… ate some crabcakes that were kind of subpar… hmmm yeah yeah yeah. fisherman’s wharf was fine fine fine!

* musee mecanique *
this is a museum on fisherman’s wharf that features old penny, nickel, dime, quarter machines of all kinds. very interesting. not limited to arcade games, and you will soon see! i love love LOVE this museum!!!

this is a little boxing game. lenny was on the left and i was on the right. his guy wouldn’t stand up! ARRR!! waste of money T__T

did you know rosie the riveter was this buff? I SURE DI’INT.

as we were leaving fisherman’s wharf, we saw that holy shit! there was a pro-life parade. SUCK. they had these signs saying “women deserve better than abortion.” i didn’t know it was a pro-life parade initially since there were pro-choice people mixed in there as well, so i was like, “what does your sign mean? can someone please explain to me? what does your sign mean?!” and no one said shit. they just stared at me. half those people were like, under 16. ghetto as fuck. they are not even old enough to decide what they would want to do in such a situation. way too young. give them a couple years and they’ll be whoring it up, i bet. anyway. i took a lotta pics.

unfortunately for the pro-choicers, the number of pro-choicers that showed up was merely a handful, and naturally, it was the more militant types of people, since more passive people would not bother to show up and protest in a pro-life rally. so… therefore, all the pro-choice people at this rally were either butch dykes, crossdressing men, or just women who were shouting really angrily and loudly… while the pro-life people were, i hate to say it, calm and relatively normal. but i attribute that to the sheer number. unfortunately, i think that perhaps the media would not attribute that to sheer numbers, although i didn’t really get a chance to see coverage of that parade or anything. but yeah, a lot of them were representing some catholic station, 1610 am, and soon i discovered that fucking station had billboards EVERYWHERE in san francisco. it was fucking ridonkulous. +__+

* chinatown *
chinatown was a bitch. i hadn’t really been there and i regret wasting time going there, because it was thoroughly unexciting. T__T there were soooo many people. i had a map with bike parking lots on it, but i forgot to consult it before we got into chinatown. by the time we got into chinatown, though, it was ridiculously crowded and navigating around was much too difficult. >__> it was difficult while riding a bike, but just as difficult when we got off and WALKED with our bikes. it was truly “ren shan ren hai” — truly ridiculous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and as far as excitement goes, there really wasn’t much exciting, other than well, live chickens that they would slaughter for you. poor little chickens, they were completely cooped up in their cages.

* italiantown *
if you can really call it that…

* golden gate *
were going to bike on it, but like, not enough time and stuff. and the roads were confusing.

terrible pic, but you know, whatever.

* japantown *

i bought this hat for roxanne, although i pretty much wanted it really badly.

sunday, january 20th, 2008.
hiking in mt. diablo with xinlei, matt, lenny, and sherry. never really been before!

cool ground ^_^

this tree was a toilet… it had a big hole underneath my ass here.

the view! this was on our way up the waterfalls… hahaha “waterfalls.” but uh january was not the best time to go see the waterfalls, and they were practically just minor trickles. we weren’t the only ones, though… people coming up asked us how the waterfalls were and we gave them an honest answer (“sub-par”).

xinlei had massive problems making it down the hill. more than once ;D i have a video. that’s definitely better.

after this (around 1pm) we went to the new ufert’s center and had dinner with my parents. sherry came too. we had ramen. it was rather good, actually!!! weird having an asian center in dublin, though.

after that, i took lenny to amador. oh, how it has changed!! eeeek. it’s so kind of weird. here are some differences. this is my first time back since i don’t know… 2003?

these things are the same.

these things are different.

last time i came back, this place had run out of $$ on the top floor and was empty or something, lol.

since when did the don look like a crazy mexican!?!!

that night, my godparents came over and we like, had a fucking feast. MMM FOOD. and then i was reminded that i hate family conversations as they are all about money and stocks and bullshit i soooo do nooooot careeeee aboooooooouuuut. so boring. lo lordy.

i pulled out my old videos and had lenny watch some of the er, terrible home videos. i used to be a fucking spaz. nancy [yu] used to be even MORE spazzy but that doesn’t mean i wasn’t. haha. oh man. good videos. and very painful to watch too. i will never be able to live down singing whitney houston’s “greatest love of all.” X__>

monday, january 21st, 2008.

ferry to alcatraz! because it was full the other day.

ahhh so *this* is what agave is!

after that was home time (seattle)… well, my license was expired, so i had to go through special security. it was like i was a criminal! certainly much easier in washington than in california. but yeah. things were fines. but i think this image is interesting as each separate pen mark basically represents a different check.

california – winchester mystery house, yosemite, and the decemberists

i’m feeling… cool.
i’m listening to… augustana – boston, aimee mann – how am i different, a lot of random other stuff i forgot to write down.

well it’s been a long time since i’ve posted, so i’ll try to recap as much as possible!!

thursday, april 26th, 2007 — went to san francisco from seattle. lenny brought me to the airport. yeaaaaaaaaaaaah. i BARTed from the airport to xinlei’s work at embarcadero. dropped off my stuff and then we went to eat at some singapore/malaysian restaurant. ordered a taro bowl. it was okay. and a lychee ice. it was okay. okay restaurant. malay satay hut better, except for that one time. we BARTed over to the warfield in san francisco. essentially, the warfield is the paramount, but 1/2 the size. a pretty cool venue to be in, actually, because it’s like, kind of big, but well staged so that it’s intimate, yet everyone can basically see everything. very, very nice. and a super duper good decemberists show. super duper good. colin was super friendly. they were doing the can can during “mariner’s revenge song,” and they brought out a giant whale costume for it and stuff. man, what a good show. i am really excited to see what the seattle one will be like, man! really excited! lots of joking. and accordion girl is pimp man. yeah. they once again ended the set pre-encore with “sons and daughters.” at some point, they made the entire crowd basically give “magic fingers,” and everyone did it, and colin said, “it probably doesn’t look nearly as cool there as it does from here.” probably true. cool show. cool band. they looked like they had a helluva lotta fun, man. after the show, headed back to xinlei’s office to grab bags, then took the bart home to her house, where i slept over and stuff. yep.

friday, april 27th, 2007 — woke up at xinlei’s and watched some discovery channel. mom picked me up. we went to eat at jia jia le in walnut creek. it was alright. mom took me home, where i just hung out for a while. what did i do? i don’t know. oh yeah, surfed ebay like, forever, looking for clothes. why, i’m not so sure. oh yeah, and we have housecleaners now and they cleaned my room and stuck a bunch of my shit in places where i don’t know where it is, and let me tell you, that’s pretty fucking annoying. at night, went over to phil [hua]‘s place and played “god of war 2,” which is pretty much um, AWESOME. must go back and finish it out?!!!!! I HOPE?!!

saturday, april 28th, 2007 — went to yosemite with sherry. wee!!!!! we’d been planning this for a while. on this trip we talked about road tripping across the country, visiting weird as places. three weeks minimum. things like, giant radio flyer, spam museum, etc. etc. anything weird. vivian and sherry’s tour of the country. also a lot of hypothteical questions, like, would you rather have a horse vs. pig, pig vs. dog, etc. etc. ? anyway, we got to yosemite and climbed around a little on the side of the road near a creek. some good first views of the park. some scary winding roads up to the park. lol. also got to listen to the newest jason mraz cd on the way back, the mra.z. one, and i must say, it is one of the weirdest albums i’ve listened to in a while, but i think i like it. anyway, enough about the way back since i haven’t talked about the way there yet. we passed by this one piece of land that had all of these cool volcanic-looking rocks and grass and prairies and hills and trees and creeks. WHAT A DOPE PLACE. i want that land. i want. anyways, i really think that land piece was cooler than the actual park, but whatever hahaha. we rented bikes, after much confusion with their shuttle system, and the bikes were about $6.50 an hour. lol. some brothers ran the bike shop, and they were quite friendly… we shoulda rented adult bikes, but they were rather tall, so we went with the kids’ bikes. big ass fucking mistake, cause kids bikes have such godamn tiny ass motherfucking seats. muchas asso hurtos. that’s for real, son! anyway, the brothers were super friendly til we found out they were brothers and sherry asked them, “who beat up who when growing up?” and then the younger brother got all quiet and to fill the void, the older one was like, “he beat himself up,” and from that moment on, the younger brother was no longer friendly to us HAHAHA. TRAUMATIZED? anyhow, the whole entire bike trail was 2 hours, and we took right about 2 hours. that was including a mini hike up to mirror lake and stopping a few times due to exhaustion. little bikes are good for one-handed biking, but bad for um, pain, and for going far distances. so it was kinda painful and hard to go up even the smallest of hills. we got excited when going down TINY little ramps. it was kind of pathetic hahahaha. :L anyway, we hiked up to mirror lake, like a half mile. on the way there, i decided to climb this sweet ass rock and the way up was cool, but the way down was kinda painful. think i rolled my ankle that i hurt skateboarding nubbishly again. rolled it a little or something. dammit? it hurts a little today. :/ and there were all these people in the lake and swimming around. it was hot, so i went and splashed water all over my hair in the mini waterfall and soaked my feet in, and let me tell you, the ride back was way better. it might have been better because i was cool, but also better because i started video taping the ride back a little more, and i wuold say to random people, “smile! you’re on my video!” and some people laughed, but there were a lot of negative responses too.

oh man, i almost forgot. i got hit on by like, an 80 yr old guy at yosemite. when we got on the shuttle the first time, he was sitting in one of those seats you normally offer to elderly people, and he made me sit next to him cause there was an open seat. i kept offering to give it to other people, but he kept saying, “it’s for you.” so eventually i sat down, thinking he’s an old dude, so what? and then he started conversing with me about living in sacramento, and i like asking people questions and making conversation, so i asked him a helluva lotta questions. maybe that was my first mistake!?!!!?!?!?! eventually he got a little weird and asked me where i was from and i said seattle, and he said he’d lived there before for a while. then i was asking about yosemite lodge, because that was where we were going to rent our bikes. then he said, “we’re going to be at yosemite lodge at 5, 5:15… you should meet us there. eat a meal with us.” and i said, “okay,” thinking i would never see him again. and before he left, he said, “oh, and you ARE very beautiful.” then i was like, “man, did i just get hit on by an 80 year old?” and this mom with three kids… asian husband, white wife… was nodding and laughing, lol. he gave me his seat after the bus got more crowded, and he said, “i was brought up to give ladies the seat,” and i very closely said, “i was brought up to give old people seats,” but i didn’t. haha. she was saying, how she used to think that it was mean to ignore people who hit on you like that, but then she discovered that they are the ones who are out of line. lol. interesting. i was like, “alright! i still got it!” and then sherry was like, wait, maybe he’s the one who’s still got it. hmm! true! anyway, made some more friendly conversation with her, and she had super cute kids, one of whom i took a pic of (even though i felt kinda bad for the older son, because he got like, no attention, since the younger two kids were getting all the attention of the parents… and they were all super cute kids). on the way back on the shuttle, after we had dropped off our bicycles three hours later, he got on the shuttle again. shit. what are the chances?!! bad luck, too, cause we had accidentally taken the wrong bus and he happened to be coming onto it. and even more bad luck, or is it fate? but i was standing RIGHT near the door because the bus was so full. ruht roh. so sherry and i were wearing tank tops. first thing he said to me when he got on was, “i told you i’d see you again,” and i was just like heh, heh…………………………….. he kept like, staring at sherry and i’s chests. not our faces. our chests. trying to look down our shirts, basically, and we kept trying to cover ourselves up nonchalantly. GROSS. at some point, he handed me a piece of paper and was like, “you should come visit me sometime,” and i managed to stutter out, “i… don’t get down here that often,” and eventually we got to a stop and people left so we quickly scurried to the back of the bus. eeps. luckily, after that, he stopped chasing and eventually left. gag.

anyway, on the way back, we stopped by in-n-out, and it was overall a very good trip, albeit an exhausting one. more people need to indulge in nature. yet another reason i wouldn’t live in the bay area — not enough nature. sherry and i were wondering… how did they find natural parks? how does water in waterfalls last for so long? how many other places are equally as beautiful yet never are turned into parks because they were ransacked by man?… guess we will never know.

this bug fucking bounced off my hand and into sherry’s coffee.

wow, can we say expensive?

it looks like a man with a hat.

i brought chocolate. it felt the sun’s wrath.

our fucking mini bikes. death. so tiring when they’re so tiny.