and so

it went. it wasn't that great. but it wasn't bad. but we'll see what everyone thought next week i suppose. the new stuff went fine, but i didn't feel like people were getting it. not like i would have liked. anyway. there's the update. and i'll be going now.

another post

Tomorrow i have to deliver a presentation to a bunch of people. I spent most of friday preparing for it but it's pretty stressful still. I think it's interesting i've not gotten better at public speaking faster. it's easy for me to sit and think about how it should be, but then doing it that way always seems to be a problem. I was glad to get the suggestion last time that i was using words people didn't know. that's a difficult thing to overcome. I don't understand who my audience is sometimes.

Once when i was at western i had just had a particularly interesting class on central asian history and i was ranting in front of Shannon's parents that i would have liked to know about that stuff earlier in my education. So Shannon's mom invited me to come speak to her classes about it, in light of them doing reports on countries for social studies. So i went. I had no idea I'd find it nerve-wracking and difficult. I thought i'd just tell them what i knew.

So i went to the morning class first, naturally. it was not easy at all. the kids had already done reports on all varieties of notable countries (none of which had been previously part of the USSR), and i was able to talk about some things like Japan, China, Iran and Turkey, as i recall. Japan was particularly popular with the kids, but i used the words "religiously affiliated" and the kids didn't know what that meant, but luckily one of them asked me what it meant... i was totally startled.. it never occured to me that they might not know the english words i was going to say.. the foreign language words that might come up, i could expect to explain.. but anyway.. that was a big revelation to me. ...

So i had to change my game plan, and the next class - after lunch- was much smoother. Shannon's mom wisely shared with me some tips for making the presentation flow, and told me some of the things they would and wouldn't understand and all in all i think the second one went much better. i was far less nervous, and i wasted no time on things they couldn't relate to.

Tomorrow's presentation has to be the same. people have to understand, and relate to it. and i'm going to have to use words they will understand, and speak in short, concise sentences. this is not really my style. as everyone knows. but i'm going to try. maybe, if it goes well, i'll tell you about it tomorrow night. anyway.. good night.

rather.

I would like to announce that the kind of burns i hate the most are boiling oil spatter burns. because then when a week later i see a spot on my hands and wonder what it is and where it came from remembering my fry-spatter burns is the last thing i do.

In related news, i cooked some fried tofu in advance of the final assembly of some tofu curry i'm making tomorrow night. i figured it would reduce my internal set-up, as it previously stood. now i've made it into external set-up and it will save me about 20 minutes of cooking time tomorrow.

Continuing along the cooking story, i also made the hot and sour soup for tomorrow night. it took me about 2.5 hours, and i think i've got the seasoning exactly right. not too hot, not too sour, but sour enough to know there's an assload of vinegar in it. i love vinegar. especially in this soup.. anyway. i think my team at work will enjoy them both. and whatever the hell else i'm making that i can't remember.

4 sundays

I have taken the last three days off. after Chinese new year's eve i have had 4 consecutive Sundays. It's been awesome. completely awesome. I got so much crap done that i've been wanting to do and it's so nice. i even got some exercise. I watched the rest of Curb your enthusiasm... 5th season. perfect ending to an awesome season, except season three is still my favorite.. This is the way things should always be. we should never have 3 parties again.. but taking these days off is really nice, and i learned that you shouldn't fry silken tofu because it takes twice as long and is totally unpredictable. unless you're going for a crispy fried blob as the finished product. i guess it worked out alright. i love fried tofu though... tomorrow i'm making hot and sour soup.. i got a bunch of chicken pieces... so i can boil them up and make the soup, i think it'll be pretty good. sgrud. crebulp. this blog post has no form or intention so far.. maybe i should give it one. i don't want to. maybe next time.

my car wouldn't start today. we had to push it into the garage to put it out of the way. it's nice to know it won't work before the day i need it. my mom suggested we should jumpstart it but if i start it just to let it sit forever again i don't see how it'll do much good. probably just about time for a different car. we'll see though.. it's definitely not in the budget as it stands today. well.. whatever. it's been a good run though, i think that car took us really really far.. i think something like a hundred thousand miles.. but i could be wrong.

i remember in college at one point having to read henry james. i considered it terribly inconsiderate writing at the time. ironically, that stream of consciousness crap sure is easy to spew.. takes almost no planning whatsoever.. unless you don't think that way.. which i suppose some don't. and you would also wonder what happens when the character doesn't think the same ambulatory way that you do.. some don't, i'm sure. perhaps most.

ok.. i'll go now.

Damn you, Tony. You will be compared to a rotten potato

Tony named names. and i will comply:

Here are the rules:

The game: Each player of this game starts off with ten weird things or habits or little known facts about yourself. People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs!

1. live music makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. not in a bad way, like in a thrilling way. occasionally, when recorded music is perfect, it does it too. those are the things i listen to over and over and over...
2. long ago, in fourth grade, my best friend kicked me in the balls. i have no evidence of lasting damage. it did knock me to the ground, however. i seem to recall this being within a week or two of meeting him...
3. contrary to what my consumption with Chinese culture in all aspects would imply, i have no familial Asian connections whatsoever. it remains to be demonstrated whether or not i have familial African connections. I am also way less Jewish than people assume. ...
4. I am fully aware of the fact that sometimes i come off as pretentious. but i honestly don't intend it.
5. I really need my food to be eaten at the temperature that it was intended to be. hot food needs to still be hot, cold food needs to still be cold.
6. I like to stare into my head or at things when i think.
7. I need to go to sleep and i can't generally sleep in past 7am no matter how late i stay up.
8. I don't drive very well. but i won't hear a word about it from any of you.
9. I hated being a massage practitioner. I still do.
10. I don't actually mind not being a practicing acupuncturist lately. the philosophy of flow and transformations is easily applied to what i currently do, and it inspires me to do things at work with awesome results.


ok.. done ..
I have to tag some of you. Tony got Cat and Shannon. but i think it's only fair that i get to get Cat.. I think Kim may read this, once in awhile. so i'll tag her. and Jon and Courtney will round out my four. however.. i'll not do six because it reminds me of dirty chain letters.

on my way to work

I just learned something new from shannon's blog. not her normal blog, but the one called "learn something new" or something like that..

anyway. there's this thing called initiative 957 that was accepted by the state legislature on january 26th 2007. here's the text of the wiki article:

Initiative 957 is a proposed ballot initiative in the state of Washington. It would require that all marriages recognized by the state have produced offspring within three years of their solemnization. The initiative was created by the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance, a gay rights group. The goal of Initiative 957 is to directly challenge Andersen v. King County, which holds that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples is a compelling state interest in order to encourage reproduction. The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance hopes to use this to create a test case in order to have a court strike down the measure and highlight what they perceive as weaknesses within the logic of Andersen. The initiative was accepted by the state on January 26, 2007.



This most brilliant thing i've ever seen... Just like the way that limiting domestic partnerships to prevent gay people from having the rights and privileges accorded to that, preventing straight people who aren't interested in having kids (right away or otherwise) from being married is hilarious... in 50 years we'll think of all this outright discrimination and segregation of marriage (separate is inherently not equal) as ridiculous as miscegenation laws were... and the thought today of preventing people of different races from getting married is relegated to the rapidly declining minds of the very old and confused. when I'm 77... i wonder what new groups of people will be asking for marriage then.. who else can't get married? oh! it'll be poly-amorous folks! i don't think they can all get married.. two within the group could, but in order for the rest to get in on the thing they'd need to change laws. i'm all for that too. those people deserve some kind of recognition. anyway.. maybe if they get added to the debate right now they can speed things up a bit... in honor of valentine's day coming up, i wish everyone in love the best. now i have to go to work.

to continue a blogging spree

Today I was recognizing that i've been waking up (meaning that i've felt like getting up) when it's time to get up. Today i woke up 3 minutes before my alarm was to go off... Just as an aside, the alarm was set for 5:34 am. Not for any particular reason, but I can't be bothered to set it any earlier since I'm not having any trouble getting to work on time.

So, it reminded me that I wanted to be working out more regularly than I had been for the past few months. A few months ago I was fairly regularly working out... regularly but not enough times a week. that being one time a week. anyway... i was inspired by Tony's reformation to do some of my own. It's way easier to start on your own terms than because of the results of some examination. Long story short, i worked out today. when i got home and while Cat was making the best dinner we've had all week. She made a frittata... with ham and broccoli and cheese... holy crap it was good. anyway. I'm going to be going to bed shortly. I like going to bed. I'm thinking about how awesome it'll be right now.

ok.. goodnight.

Bal, Petit Bal

If anyone remembers the soundtrack of Rushmore (which was really really cool)....
there's a French song called "rue st. Vincent" performed by Yves Montand. The song itself was written by Aristide Bruant and I always got a kick out of it. I had no idea what he was talking about, not knowing French at all. i could make out bits of words, but not having any idea what they meant, except i know crepuscules has something to do with twilight... because of the latin word that seems similar.

anyway. there's another song that i found that's been in my head all day. and it's really catchy. it shares it's title with this post. the reason i like it is because it reminds me of jeeves and wooster. the p.g. Wodehouse people. and that era, except in France instead of England. I also generally prefer to listen to words i don't understand. it makes the song better for me. i don't usually understand what people are singing anyway.. english or whatever language - makes no difference.

here's the funny part of the post. i told the translator thing to translate the words: first the French:
C'était le soir d'un quatorze juillet
Quelques lampions qui tremblaient sur un fil
Faisaient briller solitaire et discret
Un petit bal au milieu de la ville

Bal petit bal
Où je t'ai connue
Souviens-toi
Tu n'étais pour moi
Ce soir-là
Rien qu'une inconnue
Bleus ou bien verts
Tes yeux lumineux sont si clairs
Ils m'ont mis la tête à l'envers
Sur un air de fête
Je me souviens du patron sympathique
Qui disputait politique avec l'agent flegmatique
Et pour nous deux un seul musicien paresseux
Et le vent léger qui faisait voler tes cheveux

Et quand le dernier lampion s'est éteint
Un grand amour était né dans la ville
C'était le nôtre dansant au matin
Dans le petit bal devenu tranquille

Bal petit bal
Où je t'ai connue
Souviens-toi
Tu n'étais pour moi
Ce soir-là
Rien qu'une inconnue
Bleus ou bien verts
Tes yeux lumineux sont si clairs
Ils m'ont mis la tête à l'envers
Sur un air de fête
Ah! mes amis ce fut une belle noce
Le patron et ses huit gosses étaient venus en carrosse
Et maintenant nous voilà clients pour longtemps
De ce petit bal où l'amour un soir en dansant
Nous a réunis pour tout' la vie.

Now the English

It was the evening of one July fourteen
Some lampions which trembled on a wire
Made shine solitary and discrete a small ball in the medium of the city
ball small ball Where I knew you remember - you
You were not for me
This blue evening Only an unknown factor or greens
Your eyes luminous are so clear
They put the head to me at back
On a festive air I remember the owner sympathetic nerve
Who disputed political with the phlegmatic agent
And for us two only one lazy musician
And the light wind which made steal your hair
And when the last lampion died out
a great love had been born in the city
It ball become quiet ball small ball
Where I knew you remember - you
You were not for me
This evening Only an unknown factor blue or greens
Your eyes luminous are so clear
They put the head to me at back
On a festive air
Ah! my friends it was a beautiful wedding the owner and its eight kids had come fits with body some
And now us here are customers for a long time
Of this small ball where the love one evening while dancing joined together Us for all the life.


I'm not here to make fun of translator websites.... but it is funny when machines attempt it.

word

at work we greet each other with "word" ... occasionally we use the alternative: "word, yo." or "word up, bitch." it always entertains me. I'm looking forward to next week for some reason. I don't know why, but last week was so great... i perhaps should assume this next week will not be so awesome, but it could be.

I wanted to write about something in particular tonight on my way to bed. That would be the way people use different words in different company. I used the word "rife" at work in a written summary at work. I wrote something like "[this process] is rife with waste" which i thought was appropriate. what i found funny is that immediately everyone knew i had written it. they even went so far as to reword the sentence so as to not use a word people didn't know. I was really surprised at that. frankly, the context makes the meaning kind of irrelevant, which i said, and it remains in the edited form despite my surprise. I like using words that add flavor to the same old stuff. there are times i can't get around using some words, like "process" and "system" which irritates me to no end. so i have to make up for it by using phrases like 'suffer the indignity' when referring to inanimate objects. i like that stuff like that doesn't make sense. it entertains me.

Oh, and last night we sawr a play. it was very interesting. I enjoyed the performance very much. It was Shakespeare- which i don't care for, but it was a play shakespeare people consider one of his less good. perhaps it was, perhaps it wasn't. i can see how it was a bridge between his histories and his whatever comes later. I was thinking that because it was about romans and goths that he was making a point about how violent those cultures could be. but it has every kind of controversy ever.. did i say it was Titus Andronicus yet? i dont' think i did. so it was. anyway. the villain was a woman whose tribe of goths was conquered by a roman general who brought them back as prisoners. they sacrificed her oldest son because it was their custom, and when she begged for mercy received none. regardless, it was fun. strange how offended i was by the violence in pan's labyrinth... but the equally disturbing violence implied in this was not disturbing.. i think it was because i was more aware of my suspension of disbelief.. plus i wasn't watching anyone shoving any bottles into any faces. just cutting off hands and stuff behind a veil...
that's enough for tonight. we're painting tomorrow. word