Heya. Kozue is bending to the light, which means she’s alive! Yayyy.
New 20-min drawing below the cut, but PG-13 for violence.
Archive for June, 2007
So yeah, one of the more overlooked animes of this season, judging by blog posts and buzz, is the anime adaptation of Les Miserables, which is, from what I read online, a mixture of the original book and the musical. I had avoided this title mainly because I was afraid they’d “dumb it down” – the character designs just looked too clean and cheerful.
However, after watching episode 1, I’ve concluded that while some of the details have been obscured by omission (eg, Fantine says that “her husband died,” and it is left to the viewer to catch that maybe she’s telling a white lie re: her relationship to Cosette’s father), it’s definitely not afraid to tread into dismal territory (true to its name ..).
I also thought they’d only be adapting Cosette’s portion of the story, but they seem to be going through it all, with the characters growing up so that they’re teenagers by ep. 26. I’ll probably watch this one slowly, but I think it’s going to turn out beautifully. I’m glad I gave it a try ..
… come pet my fluff friend d>_Georgebert Prime (I know, I know, I should’ve become a professional baby-name consultant; ah the regrets of adulthood! ~sigh~). I was going to name him Georgeathan, but there are too many existing hits for that @_@.
So yes. Pet Georgebert’. And you shall get good luck!
Is that really what some people use as a motto?! A seven-year-old boy just fatally shot his eight-year-old cousin. As far as I’m concerned, the gun just destroyed two lives.
The Red Cross nurses must be really bored these days or something … . So today, at my bi-monthly blood-letting, I ended up in a bed that was anti-parallel to my friend Emily’s (coincidence that we went at the same hour). The nurse – apparently of the fun-loving type, as evidenced by her announcement that she would take the boy she’s babysitting to a fun rock concert tonight – decided that Emily and I ought to have a blood race (to see who leaks blood faster ..). So we were started simultaneously and told to read off each others’ volume progress. At first, Emily was way ahead – by at least 30 mL. But uhuhu, I caught a second wind, and the nurse excitedly started reading out the numbers like the score of a basketball game when we were within 1 mL of each other. “That was lame,” my friend concluded after I was declared the winner – stated in her usual even, distant voice.
Afterwards, I was talking to Alexis (from MITSO) and her friend, who were mightily amused at just how much juice and water I could chug. Alexis asked me, at some point, whether or not it would be okay to wipe off some of the iodine surrounding the bandage, to which I replied that it was perfectly fine (because it is). And then, for fun, I added, “If you use the paper towels in the bathroom right outside, you can watch them turn blue because of the starch.” I was totally not expecting her to brighten with glee. After our mandatory sitting period, I saw her rush over to the bathroom. I hope she’s pleased with the results ^^. It is indeed quite interesting to watch, even though I’ve done it so many times! Yellow … transforming into blue … it’s a gorgeous metamorphosis (chromamorphing?).
… at this point, after seven test meals, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m eating better here than even at home. Quality-wise, it’s about the same, but the sheer variety is amazing. Even amongst Chinese foods, you see, family preferences sometimes preclude you trying out the whole spectrum. I never really had eggplant before at home. And now I’ve also had avocado .. plus there are plans for artichoke! You have people coming in with expertise in soup, or in vegetables, or in pasta, or in Korean vs. Chinese vs. Taiwanese vs. Japanese vs. Italian food (and soon to be Indian food, too!), or in fish. Some people love the stove, some love the oven, some love the microwave, some leave it raw.
Another interesting thing is considering dietary restrictions and preferences: we have an even split between those who prefer low-salt and high-salt foods, and we have a Seventh-Day Adventist and a vegetarian to take care of, too; and one person dislikes onion and carrot. So this means learning to be creative with recipes, and also making differently-flavored ones for different people, further forcing us to be flexible cooks.
This past week’s food; * = I cooked it; each separate dish has a separate number – we try to go for 3-4 dishes per day:
Sunday: (1) Tomato and scrambled eggs, (2) Si gua “soup”, (3) Sparerib soup with fishball, (4) Ginger tilapia
Monday: (1) Korean soba (Nang myun) – cold buckwheat noodles, fresh avocado, dried seaweed, pine-nut kimchi, hard-boiled egg with sesame oil + sesame seeds. (2) Kimchi pancakes!
Tuesday: (1) Green beans with garlic*, (2) bamboo shoot chicken with spiced dougan, (3) chicken curry, (4) ginger cod
Wednesday: (1) Honey pan-fried chicken, (2) steamed broccoli, (3) pan fried-steamed cabbage (really awesome combo technique)
Thursday: chicken dumplings with napa cabbage (also, tofu + chive vegetarian option)
Friday: (1) shrimp pasta or mushroom pasta, (2) Chinese soy sauce-sesame oil-pepper fresh pickles*, (3) pineapple teriyaki salmon*, (4) eggplant in spicy garlic chili sauce
Sunday: (1) beef and broccoli (oyster sauce)*, (2) chicken & cabbage fried rice, (3) corn egg-drop soup
Yesterday, on the Saferide back, I brought up a topic that resonated with everyone I was with – the observation that, basically, MIT made me loud.
I talked about how I used to be so shy and introverted, honestly rarely speaking at all .. not saying hi in the hallways, preferring to eat lunch alone somewhere, resisting all social functions of any type (dances, parties, etc.). I disliked anything to do with shopping or fashion, and was generally of that sort.
But coming to MIT, I’ve strangely enough had a complete change of heart, if you will … and that was the pattern that resonated – Kenny was the same way for all of his 12 years of primary and secondary education .. Jennifer mostly got along with guys, and was generally rather quiet. But now we’re exec on one of the most social and active groups on campus, and if there’s any shyness left, it definitely didn’t show in that karaoke room. I’m not sure if it’s a permanent change or not, but I really feel like all of us geeks / bookworms / tomboys / etc. gathering together here are finally “in our element,” and our interactive sides are finally catching up with all the other development in our minds.
Yesterday, our “summer cooking group” decided to go out to karaoke (DoReMi .. Korean-owned place over by Super 88) at Kenny’s behest, partially because Jennifer, Tejia, and I all admitted that we had never gone before. Given my past experiences with things of this sort in high school and earlier, I figured I’d probably get so nervous that I simply would sit there and let other people sing, and maybe get a bit of a feel for how it works … in preparation for next time?
Little did I expect to be singing a decent number of songs, some of which I knew, some of which I didn’t. For the songs that I honestly didn’t know, I just listened to the others for a verse, sort of trying to match their notes. It’s so much easier to “learn songs” like this when everyone you’re with is so talented and essentially on-pitch (they set some records on the “rating” system .. even getting over 100 once, which was unprecedented – I think you have to hit every note in tune to get that).
We mostly traded a pair of mikes, with non-microphone people singing along or providing backup as necessary. My “mike songs” were .. and don’t laugh .. “Yesterday” (Beatles), “I want it that way” (Backstreet Boys), All I Ask of You (Phantom of the Opera), “My Heart Will Go On” (Celine Dion), “I’m Not That Girl” (Wicked), “Fly Me to the Moon” (Frank Sinatra), a little bit of “Goodbye to You” (Michelle Branch), and “What a Wonderful World” (Louis Armstrong). It took around 2 songs to really solidify my pitch-grounding .. so the first two were pretty awful (in my opinion, anyway – I’m a little harsher in judging that than most). But I was really shocked, afterwards, to be complimented for my singing by none other than my BMES co-pres (maybe she was just trying to be encouraging?) .. apparently I sing really in tune .. . Nevertheless, I glowed a little bit after that :).
I called my mom for recipes afterwards and she said, “Why’s your voice so weird?” and I answered, “I was just karaoke-ing for two hours straight.” I swear if I saw her, I’d have seen her eyes boggle. “You can sing??” she asked. Hahahaha! It’s easier when you’re with a crowd that’s into the ooooold songs .. plus musicals!
I planted three cuttings from the larger of the two halves of Midori. If they survive to the end of summer (this is my first time trying this), I’ll let other people adopt them (and rename them if they so choose).
Keeping with my previous naming scheme, here are the new plants’ names:
Mayumi (真由美)
Kotone (琴音)
Kozue (梢)
It’s always fun finding common ground with friends where you never thought you’d find any. I announced how I would say, “Ouch!” for objects I drop or hit that, if sentient, would indeed be hurt by the impact. But little did I expect a newfound friend to agree, telling me how, when she crashes into a table, she pets it to make sure it’s okay. It was so cute! And plus, three other completely dry people at MIT? Woow .. it was really shocking to me (in a pleasing way) … people here drink wayyyy too much .. such a turn-off sometimes ^^;;. Speaking of drinking, I told another friend that I was spending most of the summer cooking, but she misheard it as drinking, and yet admitted that, in light of it being me, she took that to imply that I was drinking lots of water. =) Nice to know what I’m internally consistent on *something*.
I really love cooking … . So today, I brought the raw salmon and a bag of ingredients with me in the morning, parking the salmon in the lab lounge fridge and the ingredients in the BMES lounge. After lunch, I skipped down to marinate the salmon (was aiming for a 4~5 hour incubation marination period), but I had forgotten my detergent, so after slicing the salmon (to distribute it evenly into the high-salt and low-salt containers – gotta be sensitive to peoples’ tastes, ya know!), I carried the knife through the lab-filled hallway. Strangely, no one seemed to care (or notice) that I was wielding a big sharp knife with my hand covered in some strange glistening substance.
Afterwards, I bumped into my ATS little sis (wow, good job Jen and Kenny! You really paired us up well – we talk all the time now =) ) and she asked me why my shirt was wet around the belly. I answered, “So I was in the BMES lounge cutting [raw] salmon, and a piece of it got on my shirt.” She just sort of looked at me quizzically. It was rather amusing =P. I told her I was on my way to Pearl to get some materials for an art project (heehee, it’s for a very special person ;) ;) ). She advised me to go across the street to a run-down looking place simply labeled “Art Supply.”
Indeed! Not only was there such a store, but their products were considerably cheaper and varied in ways I didn’t expect. For instance, they had many racks of cheap hand-made paper (huge — like 3′ x 4′). They also had matte board of all colors, precut foam, etc. etc. I was really astounded, not expecting such a place in a crumbling basement of sorts. I bought a decent paintbrush on clearance for a buck. Highly recommended! The true artist, after all, is starving and therefore must be frugal =P. Half-kidding ~_^.