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