Open publication - Free publishing - More women

Open publication - Free publishing - More women

Open publication - Free publishing - More boudoir

Open publication - Free publishing - More women

Most fantastically pompous ad ever:

"Aesthete, bibliophile, castle-builder, chronicler, collector, cosmopolite, epicure, optimistic pessimist, pacifist, pedant, philomath, not-quite-polyglot but contemplating fixing that. Incorrigible dreamer. Denizen of museums, art-house cinemas, libraries, concert halls, universities, cities of exceptional grandeur and antiquity, prodigious landscapes of uncommon splendor. Indefatigably curious, active cultivator of mind and body. Impelled by overwhelming internal compulsions: to muse abundantly, to render other-worldly imaginations, to voyage and wander hither and yon. Engrossed in the study of sciences, languages, history, philosophy, and the arts. Repelled by any bondslave of dogmas, superstition, religion, material anxiety, resignation or despair. Reckless, sometimes careless, never uncaring. Disciple of a crowded pantheon: exempli gratia, JS Bach, D Shostakovich, W Furtwängler, T Beecham, S Lem, L Tolstoy, A Kurosawa, I Bergman, A Tarkovksy, L Bunuel, B Keaton, G Marx, K Hamsun, T Bernhard, P O'Brian, A Damasio, D Dennett, C Darwin, M Holub, W Shakespeare, H Melville, A Akhmatova, TE Lawrence, M de Montaigne, K Issa, H Zinn, P Casals. Afflicted by Unamuno's sentimiento tragico de la vida. Dressed in order not to stand out in the Boulevard St-Michel or the Staré Mesto. Inclined to subject all things in life to a process of aesthetic refinement: dress, cuisine, speech, deportment, and every inhabited space, among others. Most fond of the light that arrives shortly after dawn and in the hours before dusk, when shadows are long. Enchanted by mysteries. Invigorated by rains."

Hey, I've had over 10,000 hits. That's pretty cool, especially given all of the ignoring of this blog I've done over this past year or year-and-a-half!

Recently, Jordon, Yo-chan, their friend Ed, and potentially some others have come together on flickr. Each day, we have to upload a picture of something that makes us happy. We started on March 1, so it's been about eight photos each so far. You can see what makes us tick here. My poor camera phone doesn't live up to the iphone-iness of the others, but so far I can't find anyone who wants to take over an iphone in August, so I'm waiting till I move home. That's how I'm bribing myself to go back. (and seeing you all, of course). Anyway...back to the topic. Finding things that make you happy when work is 8-16 hours of unfortunate-ness these days (not BAB, other work), is a challenge. I've noticed that many of my posts revolve around food. Well, what can you say, you all know me. Check out the ahmazing veggie lasagne though. That was the weekend's project (along with white/chocolate chunk cookies, which, incidentally, also made the official happy list). The lasagne involved roasted red and green peppers, onions, shallots, zucchinis, egg plant, and probably some other stuff, plus fresh tomatoes in the sauce, and lots of other yummy stuff--cheese, eggs, etc. Yum :)

I'm hoping to make a carrot cake tomorrow to complete a week of living with an oven and taking full advantage of that. (Peter and Hitomi are in Hawaii these days so I'm house sitting until thursday).

Speaking of Thursday, this weekend I should have plenty of things to make the happy list--Amy and I are flying to Hokkaido to go to Niseko to go snowboarding for a couple of days. Here's hoping I don't break anything! Niseko should be interesting--there are loads of Aussies up there and from all reports it feels very foreign. Yay accents!

School starts again in a couple of weeks (oh god) which is stressful beyond belief. I barely have time to cook twice a week or run that much (all about the small, achievable goals these days), nevermind go to school full time. The only good thing is that I'm only going to be taking the same level of Japanese as I did last semester. That is a bit of a cop out but on the other hand, hopefully I won't be as stressed and I'll actually better learn some of the content. I'm studying as much as I can (or, well, like an hour a week) these days and I've forgotten sooo much. It sucks!

Anyway, not much of a report, but I need to get back to work, of course.

oxo
d

A random collection of happenings from between October and February (oy how the overzealous bloggers have fallen!)

1. I took on way, way too much. Two magazines and full time school, and too-hard Japanese, and a long commute=crappy. However, I have fab friends who either cooked for me, distracted me, studied with me, taught me how to conjugate adjectives, or spirited me away to America for concentrated work sessions with Chili's or cheap movies or cookies to look forward to. A big big hug to Jac, Hoka, and Amy!

2. Weekender got sold, and completely revamped. Marie moved back to the UK to start the next stage of her life, and Ulara came on as editor. Lots and lots and lots of changes. We all know how much I love change. In January, we had a party @ SDLX.

3. I officially don't know what I would do without Amy. (())

4. I was Juno for Halloween. Meanwhile, Jac was an '80s fitness instructor, rocking my awesome vaulting spandies, and Hoka was (an increasingly convincing as the night went on) Lily Allen. Highlights included a sock in Hoka's hair, a large pillow up my shirt, and people giving me their seat on the train as I looked pregnant enough. Most people didn't know the movie and seemed to mostly think I was just preggers. However, I will def. be re-using this costume in N. America so I can say things like 'hang on, i'm on my hamburger phone' and 'honest to blog?' and people will know what I mean.

5. Jac, Hoka, Hoka's friend Nadine, Jensen, and I headed to Kyoto for a weekend after school finished. It was lots of fun and we stayed in a great hostel that was convenient and cheap. We did the touristy things--Gion (geisha stalking!!!), the golden temple, a couple of castles, etc. As well as karaoke (where I fell fast asleep!). We did the trip the uni way. Ie: cheap and took 8 hours to get there on local (or rapid local) trains. Unfortunately, Jac and I (who were coming back up alone) managed to miss our first train from Kyoto on the way back, causing a chain reaction leading to sleeping in a station somewhere outside Atami and vaguely lying our way back through the ticket gates in Tokyo as technically we had one-day tickets but weren't about to pay for the trip that we didn't get to use the day before. Good times. We discovered that there are many freight trains at night, 1/2 a granola bar goes a long way, and corn soup in a can isn't so bad.

6. I went home for Christmas, which was great! There was tons of snow, my first real white Christmas, a proper break, and a new cousin (Zoe). It was fairly quiet as Williams family Christmases go, but so nice to be back and see everyone. And have Tim Hortons.

7. I took my mom to (bible) horse camp for Christmas. We went for 4 days after boxing day. It was quite the experience. It all started when I got the plague (due, no doubt, to my burning loins getting over worked [though I would debate that point at the moment, sadly]) and literally couldn't stay awake for more than a few hours at a time. Unfortunate when the camp schedule ran full-on from 7am-after midnight (on New Years). Despite being ridick sick and freeezing in the snow while outside, it was lots of fun with trail riding, vaulting (in an ice rink, basically), archery, ping pong, hanging out with Julie/perspy, mounted games, an awesome private lesson, etc. We'll have to go back!

8. Helen came to visit. Love! So good to see her looking soooo happy :)

9. Amy and Zach and I went to the opening of ZED, Cirque's permanent show in Maihama/Disney. It was amazing!!! After the show, I went to the opening party in Shin Kiba. Also loads of fun! I want to join the circus!

9a) I got circus lessons for Christmas!

10) Amy and I got to go to Corteo, Cirque's traveling show in Yoyogi Koen. I got to live out a dream and go backstage, conduct interviews, and eat in the artist caf. I'm not sure who I would chose to interview over Cirque...Maybe Coldplay but it would be close. I was fairly close to hyperventiliation, but throughouly enjoyed myself and the show. I want to join the circus!

11) In an effort to do something (anything) involving mats and chalk, I seem to have taken up bouldering. I've only gone twice, but so far its been lots of fun, if frustrating when I can't finish the pink (kiddy) routes, and painful...my forearms are seriously protesting! However, its lots of fun and as a bonus I'm sure the arm workout will help my mounts in vaulting and the rough grippy things will suitably abuse my hands so I don't rip so much when I finally get back into gymnastics. Good things all around.

12. I moved today. Again. All the girls moved today, all the boys move tomorrow. This is pretty communal-style dorm living, which will take some getting used to. I'd so far managed to avoid the '21 girls and 4 shower stalls in the basement when the rooms are on the 3rd floor' thing, but we'll see how this goes. On the major plus side, no more curfew, and we live in civilisation again. In a ku! in a good ku at that (setagaya). we're near jiyugaoka and ookayama, which puts me only one train away from work (instead of three) and a 10 minute walk to a proper shotengai. yay! Pics to come cos the cable is at work. boo!

AFAIK, this is house number 17 or so for me, but I'm kind of losing track (is this right, anyone?). (Saltspring, Victoria, Johnathon Harbor, Myrtle Beach, Ft. Lauderdale x2, Chaucer, Myrtle, Sidney, Hampshire, Dowler, Wellsview, York, Oyama-cho, Vancouver, Higashi-Kanagawa, and now Setagaya). This was def. the easiest move, as though I'd packed about 1/2 my stuff, the moving company packed/unpacked everything else for us, and loaded/unloaded the truck, etc. No lifting of boxes or anything. V. easy!

However, a long day so def. time for bed...back to work tomorrow. meh.
xo
d

In my last, very very long ago post (maybe I can do some kind of highlights post or something to recap in a list form...?) I mentioned how I was just starting sumi-e class and afterwards we were going to have 'an exhibition of sorts' well here it is--second floor of the shokudou (caf)--and and exhibition by everyone in the two classes. In the picture above, on the very left is ms. hoka's super-cute penguin, that ended up looking very suica-ish :)
This is my peacock. The kanji for peacock is 'many colors bird' and I stamped the first half of it onto the piece. (Basically: many colors)
Ms. Jac's Tiny Dancer. I love the tutu/skirt :)

Pictures from the first day of sumi-e.

I know, I know, I know. I'm the most delinquent blogger; ever. Let's just say it has been busy! Shortly after my last post, we started intensive, which was 4 hours a day, 4 days a week, of Japanese. Added to a 8 hour a day, 4 days a week job, a 2 hour a day commute, and a couple of hours a day of homework, and it's no wonder that week is a blur!

I had three teachers, two of which were lovely, and one of which was a little bit...not. I was (and still am, really) way behind my class as the level one was much to easy for me, but realistically, level two was too hard. A level 1.5 would have been perfect, but I guess this is a good way to jump right in there! I'm catching up OK, I think, but I need to get going on the kanji I missed in the middle (there are about 6 lessons that I did in 3 weeks. in comparison, we'll do 8 lessons between now and January, so a few things slipped through the cracks!)

Regular classes started three weeks later, and so far I've been sleeping more than 4 hours a night, so that's lovely! We have Japanese 2/days a week as well as 4 (or more) classes. I'm taking: marriage in japan, gender dynamics, education, and sumi-e. I've had all but education (the prof just randomly didn't show up on the first day) and I enjoy all of them. Sumi-e is fun and practical (well in the sense of sumi-e being practical), as we were given large kits of stuff and we get to actually paint--around the end of semester we'll be having an exhibition of sorts.

Marriage is fun too, we have to do a 15-20 minute presentation on some aspect of marriage in our home country. I'm going to do gay marriage, being from the west coast and all, and I need to get on that soon--I'm going at the next of next week.

So far, I've been impressed with the classes and lecturers, they're very small, and it's interesting to have the small-class sizes with our profs, which we don't get at home. (There are only 8-10 kids in marriage, gender, and education, 5 in japanese, and 15-20 in sumi-e).

Work has been going well, if hectically, as well. I got another BAB to print last week and we have some new people in the office which is fun and also easing the strain a little bit while I'm in class...We've recently had a couple of BAB events as well. For instance, two weeks ago we had another clothes' swap, which was good fun and I think everyone had/got some good stuff. It was a smaller turnout than last year, but everyone agreed the quality of clothing was way better. I got a couple of cute black dresses and a black top that I just adore, plus some black stilletos that were impulse to the extreme!

There were also some bits and pieces from last year's clothes swap. I suppose that's the good thing about having them regularly! (I brought a few bits back as well, including dress pants that I loved dearly, but would never fit in to (they pretty much just fell off me) ...good, but bad in thi particular case!

On Wednesday, Amy, Zach, and I all went to the opening gala night of Cirque du Soleil's first permanent show in Japan--ZED. It was BRILLIANT. I definitely want to see it again, and if possible, run away and join the cirque! I went to the after party as well, at Ageha in Shin Kiba, which was fun, if a bit strange--many of the cast members had children who came to the club; it was cute, if odd, to see so many toddlers at Ageha!

But go, go, go to see ZED. It is amazing! I'm so excited to see Corteo, as well, which hits Tokyo in the new year.

Yesterday, we had a joint event with Paddy Foley's--speed dating. I have to say that I was basically forced into attendance, but it was more entertaining than I expected. While overall the guys were older than I'd want to date (despite everyone's claims to the contrary), I met some funny people (well as much as you can tell in 4 minutes), as well as some strange people.

For instance, I had this conversation:

Me: "Hey, how's it going?"
Him: "good, i'm (insert name here). i'm a little drunk."
"oh yea?"
"yea, i was a little nervous so i started drinking a lot when i got here and now i'm kind of drunk."
"mmm...so how's that going for you?"
"i'm drunk. my name is (insert name here)."
I know.
"I'm from mississippi"
you don't say...
ding!

After that, we headed over to the TAB 4th anniversary party at Super Deluxe, which featured free cotton candy, cool tshirts, and some so-so 30 second pitches (nothing beats Pecha Kucha). Then, it was back to BMT, as I'm house sitting for Peter and hitomi who are off to Hawaii. Venus is sulking, but she'll survive, even if I did make her go for a walk in the rain.

xoxo
D

Senso-ji (wiki) pictures here.