Electric Ladyland

make insomnia work for you

for some reason i've had trouble sleeping the last two nights.  ok, maybe last night had something to do with the jumbo chocolate chip cookies i wolfed at midnight (ya think?)... but tonight i'm not really sure what the story is.  last night i tossed and turned in vain but tonight i figured hey, if i'm awake and that's that i'll make the most of it. 

i learned how to set up kanji recognition on my canon v80 thanks to the helpful video at thejapanshop.com.  those people really take trouble to make sure you'll get the most out of what you have.  now i can use the stylus to write part of a kanji i don't know and it'll help me find what i'm looking for.  terrific feature.

i then finished my homework for tomorrow's kanji class.  didn't take very long -- i'd already finished about 80% and there wasn't much left since i'd been chipping away at it all week. 

in other news, a friend of mine is teaching me tohoku-ben and it's a blast.  it started when we were getting ready to leave calligraphy class for beer and fried yummies at our favorite izakaya and she unconsciously blurted "行くべ!"  (行くべ＝行こう) ... i didn't really catch it because i wasn't paying that close attention but when she repeated it i was like えっ？ so i got a snap lesson in tohoku-ben. 

i forget how 行こう would end up in enshuu-ben, the local dialect spoken where i lived in western shizuoka.  i do remember hearing "先生、書くだ？" for "書くの？"  and of course there's the ら、ずら and so on.  not that i can really use it, but i sure heard it a lot along with copious amounts of じゃん.  i was tickled to see so many familiar expressions in the japanese wikipedia entry for enshuu-ben when i looked it up. 

of course, for good measure, i had to look up massachusetts-ben (which they lump into an entry for "boston slang" as if boston were all of massachusetts... sigh).  sure enough i know most of them although the geographical and irish ones are pretty boston-specific.  of course everybody knows the tell-tale wicked, which i grew up using without a trace of irony.  i remember getting funny looks when trying to order a grinder in other parts of the country.  most of this stuff i didn't even know was regional and i never did sort out what was new englandese, what was southern speech i picked up from my texan mom, and what west coast miscellanea (not much) i got from my californian dad.  what a hodgepodge.  language is interesting, multilayered stuff.

WWJD? smite the yankees, that's what

nothing much to say today, just that i found this brilliant t-shirt at busted tees today.  if i were going to be an intolerant religious nutjob this is probably the form it would take.  those pinstriped heathens are going to hell, yeah!

hell's kitchen: garrett gets the sack

ok.  low on time so i'm going to write up a few random thoughts i have floating around in my head after watching tonight's episode of hell's kitchen:

• chef came out with a few real good jabs.  among them, "that's why it's called a @*#&^! NO-stick pan!" and, upon encountering garrett's raw chicken, "you could've killed someone!"  also, to J-P, "what are you trying to do, lose your virginity?"  oww...
• what was up with the cleavage attack?  that lady with the huge tracts of land swooped in out of nowhere and totally trashed several perfectly good dishes of food.  i would've loved to have seen chef jump the counter and go after her.
• so now the sous-chefs are helping out?  i guess so because we were down to a crew of five tonight but i was still a little surprised.
• isn't this the fourth time virginia has been up on the chopping block only to survive?  wow.
• and:  keith was really rocking out.  that veal chop of his looked so good it made me hungry.  who knew the chef was money all along? 

still:  does any of us think any of the four remaining contenders has what it takes to run a restaurant in las vegas?  sadly, i still am not convinced.  i am beginning to see mild dashes of creativity but that's a far cry from excellence as i'm sure chef would say.  well, to next week then.  when's sara gonna get the boot!?

con ed: on it. especially if the tv crews are on it too.

as i walked home today i saw con ed trucks all along my block, guys in blue hats dropping coiled wires into the ground.  odd, i thought, because i've been fine all week.  went over to the corner laundry joint to do my laundry and saw the NY1 van parked outside.  hmmm... and as i happened to be tuned in just a few moments ago, there was dean meminger reporting live a stone's throw away from my house!  he mentioned something i didn't even know, that the big building at the end of the block is still without power.  gee... con ed shows up just as NY1's about to do a report from the area?  hm...

mayor mike saying we should thank con ed is really priceless.  i'd thank the workers, you bet.  but con ed as a whole?  not going to happen anytime soon.  you walk around my neighborhood and take a snap poll as to how many people are thanking con ed right now.  apparently giuliani was on a radio show today and when someone asked him what he would have said to con ed were he still the mayor, he replied "i don't think i can say that on your show." 

power outage fiasco in con ed's own backyard

oh boy has it been a crazy week.  things have been breaking down left and right.  now that my internet's back up (for now) i've been catching up on the news.  my favorite headline so far is from the daily news:  "have you seen this man?" 

first off, i've been luckier than most in my area, astoria.  i've had power all week unlike scores of my neighbors, who now are hearing that the problem may not even be fixed by the end of the weekend.  train service has been affected several times this week with the MTA being forced to cut back or even shut down certain routes between manhattan and queens.  on tuesday night i got the heads up from a friend who was stranded at queensboro plaza so i was able to call the MTA hotline, which i had programmed into my phone (718-330-1234) and find out that the E was a better bet.  on wednesday night a coworker and i took the 7 train from grand central to queensboro plaza and caught the N there.  i got off at broadway and walked home, noticing cops directing traffic all the way up the street since the traffic lights were out of commission. 

i lost my internet access later that night as i was just about to sit down and crunch some japanese homework using wwwjdic since my wordtank hadn't arrived yet.  i was in the middle of searching for a word when it bombed out.  time warner wasn't divulging, but i'm pretty sure they got hit by the con ed situation too.  my access was down when i got home last night too but it's up again now.  cell phone access has been a little spotty with more dropped calls than usual and some people over at astorians.com have been speculating that also has something to do with the power outages and low voltage situations. 

yesterday morning as i was on my way to work i saw a cavalcade of no less than 10 con ed trucks proceeding north to the areas where my friends are really having trouble with their power.  one's got power in one half of her apartment but not the other;  the other friend has been out straight since tuesday and in really dire straits.  far worse off are the elderly people trapped in high-rise buildings or dependent on electricity for their medical equipment. 

so yeah, i've been really lucky but there's a catch there too.  my private theory is that i'm only really lucky at all in the first place because i went through a mini version of this last summer, when there was an explosion on our block related to feeder cables and we went without power for a day.  it was only our block, too, and they had to dig everything up and install new equipment.  i think that saved us from bearing the brunt of this far worse blackout.  a former coworker of mine who lives a couple of blocks over from my apartment reportedly has been out straight since everything began.  i am really thankful that we're doing ok.  yeesh.

hell's kitchen: let's get creative, people

back at work today and it was a welcome change -- peaceful for the most part.  stayed a little late to wrap things up and then hit whole foods for some grocery shopping.  picked up some yellow mini roses.  they're warming up my apartment now.  also finally broke down and bought the fresh mozzarella whole foods has been showcasing downstairs in the produce section.  got pesto and fresh tomatoes.  tasted some of that when i got home and it was gooood.

watched hell's kitchen tonight again, of course.  what is up with sara?  she really doesn't seem to ever talk about the food now does she?  it's all about the cattiness (rowwwrrr!).  i'm beginning to think they're just keeping her there to spice things up because they deep-sixed maribel instead of her today.  (i do agree that maribel wasn't much of a leader, though.)  shouldn't it be interesting enough watching these supposedly promising (cough cough) young chefs duke it out?  they were weak on the inspiration and creativity front today to say the least. 

virginia had been showing some style until that bit with the "oh, sushi is easy!"  (warning!  warning!  absolutely dumbo comment there!)  never mind that sushi is not sashimi and sashimi isn't even what she was making -- that was tataki for all those of you keeping score at home.  virginia honey, i don't think so.

i'm beginning to see the light where keith is concerned.  i guess i was just distracted by his calling everything money.  he was turning out some good (and good-looking) food.  i actually wanted to try that steak!  garrett just completely fell off, though.  flipping off chef?  way to go genius.  meanwhile, heather had been my favorite but she keeps getting more and more stressed out with every episode to the point where i want to check her blood pressure.  she hangs in there, i've got to give her credit for that, but i'm getting a little worried about her and wonder if she's going to be able to keep it together.  it was nice to finally see jean-phillippe for a moment.  no sooner had i been wondering if we were going to hear from him then he had enough and walked out.  assez!

so next week it's keith, garrett, virginia, sara and heather.  any guesses as to who they're going to bump off?  i'm hoping sara so we can focus on the food instead of her faux-machiavellian repartee.  i'm not convinced she even likes food because the subject never seems to cross her lips.  pshaw.

donating your tech

i've been taking care of some loose ends around the house.  one item i had on my list was to find a good place to donate my old cell phone.  it works perfectly fine and for environmental reasons i don't want to just throw it in the garbage.  google helped me find this yahoo article on where to donate used cell phones and now i'm mailing mine off to a domestic violence prevention center. 

somewhat related:  anya kamenetz's generation debt blog has an interesting article on how more and more people are going into the nonprofit sector to pursue social change than ever before.  i think it even references an organization that has links to the nonprofit where i work.  i didn't think of myself as part of a phenomenon but there you are.

back on the path

today was a clearing-out day, a day when things got back on track.  no potholes here, just nicely paved roads to cruise on.

a lot of "me" things got done today and i am feeling much happier.  to start off, i bought my canon v80 wordtank today and cannot wait to have that arrive so i can start looking things up in it left and right.  one term i would have looked up had i had it already would have been 雅号（がごう), which wwwjdic translates as "alias; pseudonym; pen name; nom de plume."  in my case it means my calligraphy pen name, one which i will be entitled to use upon filling out the paperwork (and paying the fee) now that i have reached shodan.  at the same time i will also become certified to teach basic calligraphy.  two happy steps along the way.  i am looking forward to finding out what my name will be.

stopped at kinokuniya with my study partner today so we could select a textbook for our joint effort to "level up" our reading comprehension skills.  it'll help him for level 2 of the JLPT and it'll help me for level 1 of the same test when i take it this december, no doubt.  this is additional bonus work as far as i am concerned since i'm already doing some reading comprehension work in my kanji class at japan society.  who knows?  i might have a chance of passing the test after all.  as marc pointed out, "that's what you said last year and you passed the test!"  good point, but it's not a foregone conclusion either... one actually has to put in the time studying for that to be possible.

while at kinokuniya we also picked up a book called writing emails in japanese (日本語Eメールの書き方) which we both think would be very valuable for learning the set phrases one uses in correspondence.  i've been doing a lot of emailing to friends in japanese all of a sudden and although it's the kind of thing where i'm just jumping in and doing it and learning as i go along, it's nice to have a reference guide handy in case i get stumped as to how to close out my message or include a fitting greeting. 

also picked up volume one of a manga on abe no seimei, the central character of the onmyouji films i really dig.  reading novels in japanese is a bit much for where i am right now (hence the reading comprehension skills building work i'm doing) but manga is rewarding reading for my level.  should be fun train reading.  i sometimes feel a little conspicuous reading japanese on the train (along the lines of monty python's "noooo one expects the japanese inquisition!" it could be a "noooo one expects the american girl reading japanese!" kind of thing) but it's good to keep forward momentum on this sort of thing.  i'm never going to be able to read substantial works in japanese if i don't, um, start reading. 

other than that i had a good session at home clearing out my room and tidying things up.  there's a sense of enhanced order to my life and i feel more relaxed.  going to be a nice night and rest of the weekend -- i can feel it.

rojira strikes

today was payday (rejoice).  i just ordered this shirt for myself -- tee hee.  anyone who's lived in japan knows that this shirt is not far off the mark.  i was only a moderate threat to tokyo when i arrived but i'm sure i garnered at least a respectable yellow alert.  the next purchase i'm making post-payday is most likely going to be this, the canon v80 wordtank.  i've done some shopping around and i'm about settled on this particular model.  tonight's kanji class went well and i've begun to notice that i'm getting most of my answers right now.  a few weeks ago i felt like i was screwing up pretty much everything, but i seem to have gotten the hang of it.  meanwhile, however, i'm tearing my kanji learner's dictionary apart -- there's a rip in the binding that doesn't bode well -- and that wordtank does seem in order.  so chances are i'm going to finally spring for my first wordtank.  woohoo!

speaking of things japanese, i went for karaoke last night with some friends and it was a blast!  it was billed as a karaoke taikai (battle), team USA versus team japan.  team USA came out in force with some great group efforts and i was blown away by everybody's singing on both sides.  we've got some serious crooners in our midst and i never even knew it!  i sang a couple of japanese songs and so team japan thought i was in their camp but they had plenty of members so i pledged my allegiance to, well, team USA.  and i think we carried the evening.  there was some serious snackage going on too -- i've never seen such a spread of goodies at a karaoke-a-thon in all my life.  we really outdid ourselves.  yum.  i've got some leftover otsumami and beer tonight and that works for TGIF commencement ceremonies as far as i'm concerned.  let the weekend begin.

not la vie en rose

everybody i know seems to be having a tough week.  they come by every so often like a giant pothole in the road.  i'd been having a tough week when i heard from a family member who was confronting serious life questions and then, last night, i got a call from a dear friend who had been screwed over big time just before taking the bar and really had a right to cry uncle.  man!  what is is with some weeks?  cosmic biorhythms, what? 

my dad advised me to spend about ten minutes of quality time in my reclining chair at the beginning and the end of each day.  good advice.  grounds you, puts the perspective back where it should be.  while he was tapping out the email with that advice i was in fact doing just that, watching a french movie called caché starring one of my favorite actors, daniel auteuil.  i was watching it for three reasons:  (1) i've got a thing for daniel auteuil (2) i was wanting to get back in touch with things french after running into another french-american girl over the weekend and making a brief connection and (3) i was curious about france's history with algeria, especially after this past weekend's episode with zidane reportedly getting called a harki at the world cup. 

so i watched it.  i sensed there was far more going on in that movie than i understood looking in from the outside as an american.  hard-hitting movie to say the least.  caché is a fitting title because things came to light in this film i knew nothing about, like the 1961 massacre of up to 200 algerians in paris.  their bodies were tossed in the seine just like the huguenots were during the saint bartholomew's day massacre (the anniversary's coming up).  barbaric, challenging to one's received notion of western civility.  it was also interesting to see auteuil in an algerian-themed movie since he is a pied-noir himself and the subject matter would have to have special resonance for him.  i recognized maurice bénichou from somewhere and IMDB helped me out:  he was dominique bretodeau in amélie, admittedly a far cheerier movie than caché.

i still have the battle of algiers waiting to be watched this weekend.  i think it'll pair well with caché and hopefully between the two i'll get more of a sense of french-algerian history.