Reminiscing...

These are my photos, by the way :-)
(Also, if you're having trouble viewing the above video, CLICK HERE.)

We discussed MP3 players in one of my classes today.

Mine looked just like the one in the book!

Waiting to hear from me? Don't hold your breath.

This is a public service announcement. Are you waiting to hear from me? Have you sent me an email but received no reply? Did you message me on MySpace but got no answer? Are you still waiting for me to reply to your comment on my blog? Let your breath out people. See, even though my addiction to the internet continues unabated, my previous willingness to reply ASAP to any online message seems to have vanished. There are currently 73 unanswered messages sitting in my inbox. There are only 18 in my MySpace inbox, but most people actually email me directly (for all the good that's doing them). I would like to blame this on my busy schedule, but as my schedule only got busy 13 days ago and my oldest unanswered message dates from September... well, you do the math. Please, don't take this personally. I do intend to reply to all of these messages. Or at least the ones which are still relevant by the time I get off my ass and do this. I am not ignoring you. There are only a very, very few to whom I always reply; to the rest of you: my response will come eventually.

Of all the luck...

Last year, my native-Floridian ass was living in Russia. Now, don't get me wrong, I *loved* the time I spent there. I would have loved to have gone back for another tour of duty at the American Home, but obviously I didn't. One of the main things holding me back (well, aside from the "salary") was the weather. See, last winter was one of the coldest Russia had seen in decades - even the Russians were complaining about the cold. I didn't think I could do that to myself again. Wouldn't you know this winter is the warmest EVER recorded in Russia! NPR has the story (be sure to listen!).

PS - This week's topic at BlogSupergroup is Fear...

Not my day.

I am a sleep addict. If I don't set an alarm, I will sleep for twelve straight hours, if not more. Usually I set my alarm on the weekends, just so as not to sleep away my free time. I didn't do that this weekend, feeling that after a full week of waking up ass early for 12 hour workdays, I'd reward myself with (as Moosh put it) a 48 hour coma. You'd think that after such a restful weekend (and after going to bed before eleven) I wouldn't have had any trouble waking up this morning. I remember both (yes, I said both) of my alarms going off... I remember hitting snooze (I am incapable of waking up without first hitting snooze repeatedly) - and after that I remember nothing but a warm, blissful dreamworld, followed by the shrill ringing of the telephone. It was Gwen calling to see where I was, as it was 9:25, and my first class was set to start in five minutes. Fifteen minutes later I was standing in front of my first class, no makeup, no deoderant, hair uncombed, no breakfast, no caffeine.... Ugh. What a way to start the week.

I love Bill Moyers... Hooray for Net Neutrality!

I would like to say that I did something with my day other than sleep and buy groceries...

...but that would be a lie. Even these few photographs won't really make up for it, but look at them anyway.

Happy Year of the Golden Pig from E-Mart

A bank near my house has this as its mascot

My new COSTCO lamp.

Sorry for the dearth of posts of late...

This intensive month at work is killing me. My body seriously requires substantially more sleep than it is currently able to receive. Instead of rolling out of bed around 11:00, I now get up three hours earlier, and it's amazing what missing out on those extra three hours is doing to me. Not to mention being at work for 12 hour stretches every day (as opposed to 7 1/2). Okay, so I *have* been taking naps at my desk at work during my lengthy between-class breaks, but somehow that's not the same as curling up at home. I've also noticed that there's definitely a correlation between fewer hours of sleep and more frequent headaches. Yuck. I've essentially been getting up, going to work, coming home, going to bed. Yes, I *am* going to pull in a lot of extra money in OT pay, but I don't think that compensates at all for my loss of physical and psychological wellbeing. Don't get me wrong, I knew all about these intensive hell months when I signed on... it's just serving to remind me that I made the right decision with this whole hermit thing. I would definitely rather have less money, more free time and less stress.

I slept until almost noon today. I was laying in bed, with Mia curled up next to me, encouraging me to continue laying there, when Mr. Yu (my landlord) came a knocking at my door. I stumbled over and received an invitation to accompany his family to "a market." To be fair, I think he did say the name of the market, I just wasn't quite coherent enough to catch that. So there I was an hour later, expecting some sort of traditional Korean market, when the Yu family and I rolled up to Costco! Anyway, Costco was having a special day where you anyone could join for free (well, you had to pay the $35 membership fee, but in return you got a coupon for $35 worth of free stuff from the store, plus a coupon for a free dozen and a half of eggs), and the place was packed. It took us over an hour to get our membership cards, the line was so long. Shopping with the Yus was definitely an experience. Mrs. Yu was a total free-sample hound. She made sure that each of us got at least two of every sample offered, sometimes more. Not the most exciting of excursions, I'll grant you, but I did come away with a new (non-flourescent) lamp and a very large amount of cheese - both items which are rather tough to come by over here.

My Costco membership card: Leeler? Well, at least it wasn't Killer!

That's pretty much all I've got for today,
so I'll leave you with some shots of Mia.

Black noodles, Banyawol, Mia, and Troy

Today I took my newly acquired and newly stocked ipod and set off for my Sunday errands, namely a trip to E-Mart in order to re-stock Mia's imported Japanese catfood, and a trip to Nais Mart in order to re-stock my fridge. Yeah, not the most exciting of days, I know. I must say that my ipod has exceeded my expectations - I am absolutely infatuated with it, and with the fact that I can now walk around with the entire collected works of Jack White in my pocket. Not to mention Chorny Glaza and Pei Pivo. That little lime green wonder is one of the best purchases I've ever made. I'm sure the locals must think the Banyawol waygook's even weirder, now that I'm walking around dancing like those silhouette-people in the ipod commercials. And occasionally singing along, badly.

On my way from E-Mart to Nais Mart I stopped in at one of my favorite restaurants. It's just west of the Banyawol subway station, if any of you are ever in the area. (I've included its picture below in case you want to eat there.) It's a Chinese restaurant, serving the *best* jiajiangmyun I have ever eaten. Jiajiangmyun (or "black noodles" as my friends and I tend to call them) consists of noodles topped with a delicious black bean sauce. They hand make the noodles at this place... and you get to watch them make your noodles by tossing the dough up in the air. It's really quite amazing to watch this guy start with a long, fat hunk of dough and end with a handful of noodles. And the noodle-making guy is HOT. I could stare at him for hours. (Actually, there are two noodle-making dudes, and sadly guy number two is somewhat overweight and unattractive. Always kind of a let-down when the chubby guy's the one making the noodles.) The hotty was there today, although I did notice that he was wearing a wedding ring. Sigh. Perhaps someday I'll work up the nerve to snap you guys a picture of this fellow working his noodle magic. Yum.

This is the place!


Still life with ipod


Jiajiangmyun. Okay, so this picture doesn't make it look that great,
but trust me, it's delicious!

After Nais Mart, I decided that it was too nice a day to spend it running errands, so I went for a walk around my neighborhood and took some pictures :-)

Somebunny has been restricted to his cage since it got cold.
Poor Toto. I think he's lonely.
He's always so happy when I pay attention to him.


My villa, reflected in the windows of the apartment across the street.


A Banyawol alleyway


Trees and rooftops


An old door-knocker


Colorful gates


Blue gate and mailbox

Want to see some videos of my silly cat? Sure you do!

And oh yeah, I said I'd write about Troy. You see, the movie was on OCN last night. I'd never bothered to see it when it came out; why bother seeing a film when you know how it's going to end? (Obviously not everyone can know how it ends, or Trojan condoms wouldn't be such high sellers. I mean, who wants that kind of defense? Troy fell. The little bastards got inside. But I digress.) Anyway, I just wanted to ask what the hell were they thinking when they cast Diane Kruger as Helen of Troy? I mean she's very attractive, but a legendary beauty? The face that launched a thousand ships? If the face of anyone in that movie would be launching a thousand ships, it would be Orlando's (even if his Paris was rather weak). Hell, Brad Pitt's hot naked ass would have launched more ships. In fact, I expect that Rose Bryne's face (Byrne's character being the reason we got to see Brad Pitt's hot naked ass) would have launched more ships than Kruger's. But that's just me. I don't know who I would have chosen to play Helen, although Kruger wouldn't have been my choice. Who would you have chosen?

kitties and ipods

I took Mia to her fabulous vet today for her last vaccination. There are three or four gigantic white Persians which live in the waiting area of the clinic, as well as one adorable grey shorthair. Today two of the Persians tried to befriend Mia as she sat in her kitty-bag awaiting her turn with the vet. She didn't do like a certain tri-colored feline currently living in WA, and try to kill the other kitties through the bag, although she did emit a loud and steady growl. But, the vet gave us two free bags of kitty treats, so perhaps that made up for the indignity of being sniffed up by two Persians twice her size.

I wish there were something in this picture to give it some scale...
This cat is enormous!

After taking Mia home, I went downtown and bought a lime green ipod nano. I saw it two weeks ago, and it's been preying on my mind ever since... Yesterday was payday, so I figured it was time to go and by the thing. I love it, and have been dancing around my apartment for hours now.

So little. So green. So awesome.


Nap time with Mia


Aww :-)