Funk City!

Once I get started, I just can't stop...

Remy Shand, more funk, more awesomeness. First song I heard was "Take A Message" that played pretty often on what is now VH1 on UBC in Thailand in 2001. He released a few since, but not much after that.

Remy Shand "Take A Message"



Nikka Costa, all I saw was this music video in 2001 (guess 2001 was a big year for me musically) and except for the screeching, it was pretty interesting, I mostly the clapping.

Nikka Costa "Like A Feather"



Okay, okay, I'm done for the day.

Compact Disc-Mania

One Christmas present I got last week was the Curious George soundtrack by Jack Johnson (and friends), which was a wonderful gift, except I already had it. So I had to take the task of going to Borders to exchange it. All I can say is, music has gotten hard to buy in CD format for me. I'm used to gettings songs one by one, so having to buy a whole 12-16 songs at a time is alot harder than I thought it would be, it took all of an hour.

So what did I end up getting instead? After much perusing, picking up and putting down of CD's I found two that I thought I might dig for a while before I got sick of them, the first one being:

Gin Blossoms "Major Lodge Victory"

Did you ever watch Empire Records with Liv Tyler and other assorted actors that played constantly on UBC HBO in Thailand seven or eight years ago? It was about the people working at this record store, drama, funny and a classic pop/rock song that was sweet, kind of happy and had a sad tinge on it called "Til I Hear It From You". This is a CD with basically that kind of music. More pop than emo, but still good to have a sad little croon to.

Gin Blossoms: Til I Hear It From You

Robin Thicke "The Evolution of Robin Thicke"

Did you watch Growing Pains? This is the (real) son of father (Alan Thicke) in the show. Now that we've got that out of the way, I like this CD, one because it was $10 for 16 songs, and two because it's got nice funk, r'n'b and he's talented. When I listen, do think Justin Timberlake once in a while, but at least I can listen to Thicke without cringing, not so much for former N'Sync-er. The reason I looked at this CD was because I loved a song from a while ago by him, "When I Get You Alone" which samples (let me quote some Amazon.com reviewer) "classical disco instrumental "Fifth Of Beethoven"..." That song was really cool, the music video got me going and I still listen and want to bike all over the city. The first song I actually skip becuase I can't be bothered to listen to it, but after that, it's so smooth and easy to sing along to. I haven't actually gotten through all of it yet, it's sitting in the rental car.

Track 4: Lost Without You


When I Get You Alone

Mission Accomplished

Okay. So when I lived in Fresno, I never really played CD's in my car, it was mostly the radio, because 1. I didn't have a CD player and 2. I didn't have many cassette tapes, and the ones I had sucked because they were free.

So I used to listen to the Fresno State radio station KFSR (FM 90.7), classic American music station KJEWL (FM 99.3) and oldies station KMGV (FM 97.9). Well, there was this instrumental song that they played on KJEWL practically daily, and I absolutely loved the steel guitar on it, but I never ever caught the name of the song, since they usually play three or more in a row and I have a very short attention span. Well, I was watching Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle yesterday and what comes on when Dylan walks into the bar in Mexico? THE SONG! So I wait until the credits, go through and note down songs that it could be and run to the computer to investigate. I go through each one on Amazon.com so I can listen to preview and I still can't find it. Go to imdb.com and look through soundtrack listings and keep trying and finally, I find Sleepwalk by Santo & Johnny, look them up in wikipedia.com and they have a video. Sweetness.



And since then I've been searching for better versions of the song, even the original recording, and the best I could find is a Final Fantasy video with two animated people making out and falling love in water. Kind of weird when its out of context, but don't let that affect your opinion of the song.



And then, there's this guy with a ukelele that's just cool.

Happy Festus Kwanmaskah!

Whew, the holiday season was hard this year, what with all the buying of the presents and the shopping with the christmas-mad people at Target. And you know that if Target was crazy in Fresno, Fashion Fair Mall must have been the epitome of insanity. Which was why I kept a 3 mile radius from it. I shudder at the thought. *huuugh*

Anyway, I wanted to post these two videos because I thought they were great, Tim from Ctrlaltdel-online.com posted him drawing his filler art for his comic, from pencil to finish, it's long, and in two videos, but it's pretty damn interesting if you're into that stuff. Like me.

Happy Holidays!

AAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA

So happy so relieved so gooooood. I'm so glad I lived through finals, yesterday I honestly didn't think I was going to make it through the day. And today, I was worried that my professor wasn't going to like the quality of work I did, I was first to present (which I like, I like getting things over and done with and no one is comparing me to anyone else, yet) and I blasted through (yet again) and he loved it. Woo hoo, I'm done, now time to chill for a bit and then clean the apartment.

Finals!

URGH. In case you didn't know, that's my unhappy noise.

I have one more final left, ONE, which I'm completely happy about, except for the fact that it's a presentation final and I have huge zits covering my face, and it's pretty hard for me to concentrate on getting my words out to talk about my project when I know people are thinking why I still suffer from acne. And on top of that, since we're winding down to the end of the semester, we're learning more about each other (I know, weird, but it takes me a whole semester to get to the nerve to talk to people I haven't already talked to during the semester) and then everyone that finds out that I'm 22 is in complete shock. Fun to know people think you look like you're in your late 20's/early 30's.

Anyway, I had to two presentations today, the first one, my green design project was so nerve wracking, right before, I was so mellow it was really weird, and then as soon as everyone was ready for me, THWACK nerves of fucking jelly. I blasted through the presentation, talking about as much as I could meanwhile sweating up a storm with my heart about to pop out of my chest to say hi, and didn't do too badly. My professor didn't seem pissed and the client was happy so woohoo.

Then my next final was sacred geometry and I had to talk about my final design of my sacred space using elements of sacred geometry, lots of golden sections, theta rectangles and root 2 rectangles. He seemed impressed, good so far.

I'll update tomorrow when I get through the last final and can start cleaning the explosion that went off in my room.

Jack Johnson

I don't know when this song came out, I'm so not with the times, I assume it was sometime recently since it was on the MSN front page, but here's Jack Johnson with Matt Costa and Zach Gill "Let It Be Sung" from "A Brokedown Melody"



So dug the Hawaiianess in the beginning.

Even though it doesn't appear in this song, I though it might be notable that I LOVE the sound of a steel guitar, especially in this song that I kept hearing on the oldies station in Fresno, but I never got the name and since it has no lyrics it's even harder to find. FOILED AGAIN!

Funny what you can do with 8 treadmills...

"Here It Goes Again" by OK Go

So simple, so wonderful, so entertaining.

Attack of the Atom Massager

Honestly, if you had a cat this cutalicious wouldn't you take endless pictures of her? Plus, she's totally photogenic (silent envy streams from me) and everyone must experience the fuzzy ball that is Moo. Honestly, besides school, eating, sleeping and sporadic trips, I have nothing to do but assault this cat poparazzi style.

Here's what happened last week:

Moo finds out the wonders of lying in my crinkly flimsy. Luckily I didn't need them anymore.

Moo's annoyed face after being disturbed during her mid-morning sun beam time.

I just got an Atom Massager, and found that Moo is unamused by it.

Her ears perk when it's turned on, and she shies away from it when it's within her "personal bubble".

The aftermath of trying to push the atom on Moo. Definition of the calm before the storm.

Post-Freakout Post

Whew. What washing your face and brushing your teeth can do to your mood.

So:
-Call bank to tell them that I'm a moron and cancel cards [check]
-Make appointment with DMV to get a new license [check]
-Get mad at myself for losing yet a another thing [check]

Well got my checklist done for the night.

Now onto CityCarShare (CCS). It's pretty easy to understand, and there's alot of these companies around, which I will not name, since I think that CCS is da bomb. Anyway, CCS has cars all over the city, and across on the east bay, that you pay a $10 monthly fee to rent. That $10 covers insurance, gas and maintenence. There's a $300 refundable deposit when you start, you pay an hourly rate of $4/hr and a mileage rate of 44c/mile. And if you're just travelling in the city, you don't really rack up the mileage too easily. It's really good for running errands, like when we go to Trader Joe's or when we want to do laundry at Brainwash (Folsom near 7th - laundromat/diner).

So that was pretty easy, no? Oh, and the best part. If you've got more than one person living under your roof that meet the requirements, you can all register as the same household and pay one monthly fee for all of you, and the deposit works the same.

When you register and are approved, you get a FOB, I have no idea what it stands for, I'm sure its in the manual, and that little remote allows you access to parking garages and the cars themselves. You make a reservation online or call and you go to the car when you reserved it, FOB in, and start driving. If it's not there, there's numbers to call. "FOB in?" you ask? You hold your FOB over the little mechanism on the dash and the car doors unlock. The mechanism records whose FOB that was and how much mileage you're rackin' up.

I'm done for the night. Good night, good riddence.

Lost. Fo' reals.

I just lost my wallet for the third time in the last three months. That's an average of once a month. That doesn't seem healthy. I had it when I went to lunch at 3:05 today. I had it right before I ate my lunch, it was still open, I checked to see everything was inside. Then...I remember NOTHING. Honestly, how does this keep happening? Am I so careless that the fates will endlessly conspire to make my wallet dematerialize? (That question was so beyond rhetorical.) Honestly, the first time, I left it in the rental car and the moron that rented it after me decided to take it and call me hours later after I had panicked and cancelled all my credit cards and checked the car twice. I got it back but the only useful thing in there was my driver's license.

The second time I didn't put it in my back pocket twice and it must have popped out and ran off to spend some time with the bubblegum machine in the mall. In that situation, my wallet also dematerialized, no one turned it in, it was no where that I went, it just POOFED. What the fuck, don't people know that going through the motions of cancelling cards and waiting for new ones is a pain? And on top of that, my driver's license was gone so I had to go to the DMV people. THE DMV. I had an appointment which cut down the annoyance potential quite a bit, except that I couldn't find the damn bus stop so I basically overshot twice before I figured out where the hell I was. That pretty much evened out my annoyance.

And now. I have nothing. Nada. No debit, no credit, no license to speak of. And I must go through the whole shebang all over again. This time, I will do it right, this time I will get a fucking chain the size of my cat to hang from my belt loop to the wallet, which I will only remove at the end of the day in my apartment before I go to bed. If even that.

My feverent posting isn't helped by the fact that I just spent the last hour crying and blubbering into the phone to W. I was fine at first, a little annoyed but not super upset. And then the Amtrak lady answered my call. To put things in context, I was planning to visit Fresno and couldn't now that I didn't have any ID, couldn't drive while I was in Fresno and that would just be a pain in the ass. Plus, I have no way of paying for anything or even getting my ticket since I need a credit card to start the process going. Anyway she was a bitch. Like capital bitch, which was so confounding because whenever I have called Amtrak previously, they've been grrrrreat. But this time, she was just mean. So I cut the call short, didn't ask her to do anything for me (like cancel my trip) and hung and basically burst into tears. I hate losing things. I hate being careless. I was so good. I checked every few minutes to see if I had my wallet, phone and keys. But today was no ordinary day. Today I had my big final presentation for one my classes, and although I had finished it days ago, I was nervous because I wasn't confident about how it looked. And although I had already done my presentation at this point, I still had more to sit through and I still have more projects to do for other classes.

So somehow, between the soup eating and searching for my wallet at home, I lost my wallet. Such a damn fucking pain. I realised what happened, frantically checked everywhere in the apartment, realised where I saw it last, grabbed a CityCarShare for an hour and a half and high-tailed it to school to crawl on the ground and search for this stupid wallet. Thank goodness for CityCarShare to give me peace of mind (or something close to it) And on top of that, I'm not going down to Fresno this weekend, because of this hoo-hah and because of this hoo-hah I realised that I have way too much shit to do before the end of the semester. (Hoo-hah.) The fates have a mysterious and annoying way of telling me that I need to keep my mind on school and off flaking. You can only procrastinate on a watercolor project for so long before it gets ridonkulous.

And of course right now it's 12:07 in the AM and I am wide-fucking-awake, so its a good thing I'm not travelling because usually I wake up at 5:15 to go. I would not have survived the trip out to Richmond to catch the Amtrak must less the train itself.

I'm going to take a shower and chill and if I'm still not tuckered, I'll post about CityCarShare to explain the wonder that it is.

Superfantastic Moo

I'm not sure if any of you have noticed that Moo has a "sleepy/squinty eye". If you hadn't, well, she does, and it's not because I'm constantly poking at her and once in a while get her in that particular eye. No, it's becuase she has a virus that many cats pick up from kitten hood, I'm not sure what its called but it causes secretions heavier than normal, so once every few hours she will have a tiny little goop of eye junk in the corner of her eye, which someone invariably picks out.

In other Moo news, she has really started to settle into her life in the apartment, she understands us better as we understand her better. We like!

If a cat could "baroo?" this is what it would look like.

I keel you, with my deadly uneven eyes.

Moo discovers the outside world.

Moo enjoys the outside world from her vantage point on the heating pad.

Moo and her view.

Crazy Shit

You know, I'm definately opposed to hard drugs, but watching this video on how cocaine is made makes me wonder even more why people would put this trash in their bodies. This is a documentary made by Matthew Bristow and it's a little long, over six minutes, but well worth it. Still reeling from it.

Moo Post

I really haven't got much exciting news to post about, so I will simply just post some Moo to fulfill your junkie need for the cutest cat.

Moo finds out the best place to be is under the covers.

More undercover Moo.

What I see when I walk into my room (excuse the mess), Moo in the duvet crater.

We have successfully found a Moo approved toy. String.

Videos

I was checking out my blog on someone else's computer (yes I am that obsessed about it) and noticed that videos weren't loading, there was just a blank space there, but it's fine on my computer. Let me know if that's what you're experiencing... If you are I will curse Google's aquisition of YouTube and try to fix it.

Good Music and Stupid Updates

So, I'm honestly too lazy to go through again and format the pictures from Big Sur, so I'll eventually post them on Flickr and you can watch the elephant seal video right here, very interesting shimmy:

He's actually shuffling towards a juvenile elephant seal, if you can't see him, see that dark spot in the middle of the screen? That's the shadow cast by his head. The great thing is, he is either shimmying to shoo the juvenile off or to (as the volunteer guy said) "make it" with the juvenile. Luckily the little sucker got away, unfortunately I didn't get video of that.

In other news, I installed the newest windows update and now I have Internet Explorer 7 and let me tell you, it's annoying. I wonder how long I can use my IE v.6 before it becomes defunct.

And then...Just wanted to let you good folks know what kind of music I play on my iPod. Here's something that I pulled up today, I always feel happy when listening to this song. So here's "Captain Kirk" by Bob Schneider:

Avoiding school work

I have this big project due on Wednesday, it's 11:56AM on Monday, I've got time, but no drive. I don't want to work on the project right at this moment so I decided to post.

Today I will post:
-Comics
-Bitching statements about my back pain
-Elephant seal videos
-Big Sur pictures
-Anything else that comes to mind later

First off...I'm going to throw in a curve ball and mess up the order because I must complain about my back NOW. It's in PAIN. I have no idea why, and I didn't bring my pain/aching balm with me to school because I was in a hurry this morning and Moo kept attacking my foot randomly, I was constantly looking around corners and doorways this morning to avoid having cat-sized cow attached to my leg intermittently bitting and releasing her claws into my foot. She's really quite a sweet cat, last night when I was sleeping on the couch she nuzzled up to my face and I pet her for quite a while before she fell asleep leaning on my face. Unfortunately the position wasn't too comfortable for me and I was forced to move and which point she used me as a catapult to the ground. But it seems that in the morning Moo takes a little bit of meth or crack or whateve street drug she has hidden in our house and then runs around the house constantly begging for attention even though we attempt to play with her with the toy. She is not amused by said toy.

Now...comics: Ctrl+Alt+Del is one of the comics I enjoy reading every Mon/Wed/Fri/Sat, sometimes it's hilarious and sometimes it flies over my head. That's what happens when you're a sporadic gamer. Here are some recent comics I enjoyed:

I remember when I was playing City of Heroes and morons would join the team, look to see if we had enough for a task force and leave if we didn't have 7. But then there's the idiots that join and go take a shit for and hour without telling us so we're stuck with this player that's just taking up space and of course he's the shooter and the rest of us are defenders. Can't get too far with a team full of defenders on a task force people. Remember that.

After Will explained this whole deal with the Wii and PS3 I realised that this was really funny. And would explain alot.

There's probably more, but I'm too lazy to look for them.

Post to be continued...at some point today.

Well I Am Ninja....

In case you haven't ever seen this, you NEED to, he's so hi-larious, he had me clutching my stomach and laughing in pain (positive I swear). Click here to visit the funniest ninja. His videos are in many different formats, including podcast so you can watch on your iPod video.

And below, my favorite video so far, Ninja explains Podcasting to people over the age of 12:

Daily Outlet...

WHY? Why won't my bluetooth device just be installed all the time from the first time I installed it? Why must I reinstall again? You know, everything in my mind is supposed to have it's place, installation CDs go together, all my art supplies in its box, YET because of my inherit laziness, I never seem to put things where they belong, and I put myself in the same situation where I am on the floor, under my desk searching through piles and piles of CDs trying to look for the right one. I swear, one of these days I will bog down and get my shit organized. Meanwhile, a book I am reading:


Dun-dun-dun! Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, one of about 11 books in the series. For at least a year this book had been sitting in my apartment in Fresno and then in San Francisco not doing anything. Will suggested I read something that he enjoyed reading and I finally got around to starting it a few weeks ago and after the initial scared-ded-ness because there was some seriously scary mojo going on in that book, I've actually started to enjoy it, expect a full review sometime in the far future. I read slow.
And noooow, more pictures of the famed Moo cat.

Moo messing with my materials stash.

Moo plays with her/my hanger.

Moo chasing her toy under the couch.

Moo plays with the hand.

Moo falls asleep still grasping said hand.

Sleeping in a duvet.

On her a-little-too-small bed, in the armchair.

And the kicker! Moo in a plastic bag.

Use Your Imagination

A vintage PSA that I saw on Dlisted

Does Moo...?

After learning that I got a cat, I've been getting alot of questions about her, so even though those people that asked the questions probably won't read this post, since they seldom use the internet for recreation, I'll answer them here, since they should be reading this blog daily anyway.

Q. Why Moo?
A. This question was answered in an earlier post, but for the sake of keeping things together, I'll answer it here too. She looks like a cow, who say "moo". And when you say moo a little differently, it's pig in Thai, and she is definately quite the piggy when it comes to her food bag being rustled *ears perk up*.

Q. What does Moo like to do in her spare time?
A. Well when she's not eating, sleeping or simply sitting there staring at her family members eat, Moo likes to play with her "interactive" toys, which are bells, streamers and feather tied to a string that is tied to a stick, which I wave around. Moo is definately the ground hunter and enjoys crouching behind the folded up sleeping bag that resides in the middle of the living room, waiting for her chance to pounce on her prey. She will run after said toy until she is panting heavily and indicates her "doneness" with playing by grabbing the toy, pulling out of my hand and taking into the hallway where I can't reach it.

Q. Is Moo a noisey cat?
A. No, Moo is relatively quiet, with the exception of in the morning when family members are waking up and getting ready. Unfortunately, we have yet to decipher the meows and don't know what the hell she wants.

Q. Why are you scared of Moo on a certain level?
A. You know that's a very personal question, asking me what scares me the the core when it comes to my beloved pet, but I'm devoted to answering honestly so: Yes, yes I am scared of my small, tiny Moo on a certain level. And you would be too if you were walking down a dark hallway and a cat sprung at you out of nowhere to attack your ankles, pant hem or just scare the bajimmles out of you. My *personal* favorite is when she attacks me after I've showered, still in a towel, dripping wet and she gets annoyed because now she's covered in water.

Q. Does Moo sleep in the same spot all day like the cat in the fabulous time lapse video? (Thanks Nabeel)

A. Something like that. When Moo sleeps, she sleeps in the bed-that-she-barely-fits-in, so where ever that bed is, you will find Moo. Unless no one is sitting on the armchair or couch in the living room, or my bedroom door is open, then she might be under my bed *cringe* or on my bed, or behind my door, waiting to pounce.

Q. Why do you cringe at the thought of being under your bed?
A. Because she loves it down there. That's where she went when she was introduced to the apartment, it's warm, comfy, cozy and no one can grab her to force snorgles on her there. Unfortunately, I have known cats and dogs to go to their "safe zone" when they're sick for comfort and to allow their excretions to "flow". Gross? I have carpet in my bedrom, try sleeping above that.

Q. Are you prejudiced against the sweet, luscious fat cat?
A. One, cats should not be luscious. Two, section A, I'm not against the fatties, I just didn't want to bring a fat cat, who's girth would cause my constant random grabbings and snorglings to be uncomfortable, into my home. Two, section B, since I have been guilty of constantly over feeding myself, I would heavily risk over feeding anyone under my care, and therefore would not want a cat that already had a head start on the over feeding, so that is three years I would have a cat that would have to dragged around my apartment in a wheelbarrow.

Q. Is Moo a he or a she?
A. Moo is very much a she. I've check multiple times, just to make sure since it's quite fuzzy down there and hard to see "bits".

Well. If you have more questions, I'll of course answer. And post more pictures (cat and non-cat related) soon.

Moo pt.2

If you're wondering how we came about to get Moo the cat in our lovely abode, here's our story.

On Sunday, October 15th the members of our home went to the SFSPCA two blocks from our house to look at kitten and puppies. My sister and I were looking around one of the kitten rooms and we met Spice, a little orange three month old that was cute and liked to be held. We fell in love with Spice but couldn't take her home because we couldn't get in touch with our landlord to get permission to have pets, we were sad but thought we would come back the next day to get her.

Once we got home I started to think and realised that if I got her on Monday, she would be by herself on Tuesday and Wednesday since I had to go to school. So I decided to get her on Thursday so I could be with her the whole weekend. But then on Tuesday I called and she had been adopted on Monday. Oh well.

We were thinking maybe it's not meant to be, maybe we weren't supposed to get a cat. Then on Wednesday a HUGE mouse ran through our apartment and that cemented the deal, we needed a cat. So on Thursday I got a car and drove to the SPCA intent on getting a cat. I spent two hours looking at cats and kittens and finding out which cats were mellow and cute and fun but still nice to have around.

I had specific criteria for a cat: Short hair, not all black, and not fat. He/she has to like cuddling, loveable and not super active or jumpy (our house isn't a quiet one).The first cat I saw was Clover, who roomed with Pookie. I sat on the floor and got cuddles from both cats, unfortunately Pookie was a longhair but Clover, she was super cute and loved head butting my face.

Clover's sheet

Clover looking out the window

Two kittens cuddling

A kitten chillin' in her litter box

I went with the volunteer to see a bunch of other cats, and finally decided that the only cat that I felt would fit in at our house was Clover.

And so the adoption process began, after filling out paper work, many calls to my sister and Sarah to make sure I was making the right decision, I got little Clover in a box. The poor baby was meowing so much on the way home, probably from my nervous driving, since that was the first time I had driven a Prius and was SO not used to it. I finally got Clover home, let her out of her box, she then jumped out and ran under my bed in the back corner for her safe haven.

I went to buy her a litter box and bowls, and came back as fast as I could. Then I had to return the car. Then I realised I bought the wrong kind of litter so I had to go get some normal litter. So I was in and out of the house, between trips I would get on the floor and take a look at her to see how she was doing. Finally I read the info that the SPCA gave me and found out I was supposed to leave her alone. I did and a few hours later went to check on her and she came out tentatively to eat a little bit and drink a little water. She started investigating my room, and by that evening was out walking in the hallway outside my room.

A few days later she's out and hanging out in the living room full time. A super mellow kitty she's doing really great. We have also renamed her Moo since we've been having trouble remember the name Clover and she's got big cow spots on her. And Moo means pig in Thai, and she's always very excited to hear the food bag rustling.

Moo the cat

So we have gotten a cat. She is three years old, has cow spots and was previously called Clover, but temporarily is known as Moo. Here are a few pictures of her so you get to know the new addition to our home.

Meet the Moo. Kiss the Moo. Love the Moo.

Moo kind of not fitting in her bed. But she likes it anyway.

Moo playing with her brush.

Moo loves her brush.

Here is Moo playing with her hair brush

Moo with her toys

More to come I promise!

This Damn Sidebar

Oooooh I am so not happy with this sidebar that refuses to release itself from the bottom of the page...I'm not even sure how to fix it, I'm sure it's because I've got too many oversized pictures on my blog, but I'm so not changing that.

In other news, I'm really full. I at penne with mushroom, zuchinni and turkey tomato sauce, with mini breaded turkey patties. Then for dessert, a granola muffin with vanilla ice cream and home made (not by me) boysenberry jam. So good.

Onward and upward!

Now that I've posted all the posts that aren't quizzes from my old myspace blog, I can start moving onward.

My first concern is why my profile toolbar is all the way at the bottom of the page. Definately a concern.

And the next is why I'm up so late at night, since it's 11:27. I'm now going to get some shut eye.

Later,
Asha

Picture-Takin'

Howdy everyone, I just recently got a brand spakin' new phone and finally gave in to having a phone that also has a camera in it, and it has come in quite handy since I've had it... I never realised how many pictures got un-taken simply because I didn't have the means to take a picture of it.

So here are some pictures that I've taken in the past few weeks, please pardon the under-par quality, it is a camera phone after all:

Here's a hilarious sign posted outside a parking garage. The fine print you can't really read at the bottom says: "You will also seriously piss off the bitch who pays good money for this garage. And nobody wants that."

A very fast moving, intense kitty named Bella.

The angry Boots.

Carter doesn't quite know where to lay his head, yet he insists on still sitting in.that.exact.spot. Right on the kick stand.

A weird new store in Bloomingdales. Not sure what store it will be, but it definately caught my eye.

Immigration Issues

So, for the past few days, I've basically been hyperventilating over the fact that my I-20 and my F-1 visa do not match. Before I continue, let me explain the whole "non-resident alien for the purpose of study" deal to you assholes with US citizenship (I mean it, you have it easy, and cheap too!).

So, I am from Thailand. When I decided I was going to study in the United States, I had to apply as an international student, recieve an I-20, which is a form that shows who I am, what my ID number at the school is, what and where the school is, and that I am going to the states to study. I then had to go to the U.S. Embassy in Thailand, with a shitload of paperwork, a visa photo and an application fee and apply. This was way back when in 2002 when the embassy hadn't yet gone overboard with the application process. I could be approved on the spot because I wasn't a punk and haven't done anything stupid as far the U.S. was concerned.

So now I have an I-20 and a visa, the visa says the school that I'm going to as an annotation so that the immigration officer can verify that I am who I say I am.

So now you know what both these forms are, let me start with what happened Tuesday, the day before I was set to go to Fresno to take my flight to Bangkok, I realised that I hadn't gotten my I-20 signed. If I want to travel outside the U.S. I need to have an endorsement on my I-20 from the Immigration Specialist at school so that Immigration knows when I come back in the country that I am in status and I'm going to study for the next semester. Well, I didn't have a signature, and the school had stressed that they need two weeks to process the I-20 when a student give it in to sign. Well fuck. It was already 6:30, and the International Student office was closed. So I panicked big time. I was on the phone with poor William bawling because I fucked up, and I didn't know how long it would take before I got my I-20. So I called the next day, went in and gave the I-20 and she said it could be signed the same day, probably by the afternoon. So I went home and finished packing, cleaned up, and took my suitcase to school to pick up my I-20 and started my journey to Fresno. I was only 9 hours behind schedule.

Well. I got home just fine, great flight, slept the whole way, ate a bunch and now I'm at home. My dad asks me about my I-20, I say I have it, endorsed, from the new school. Dad says that the new school I-20 won't work because my visa says the old school. FUCK. Now I'm scrambling to figure out what the hell I'm supposed to do, I get on the U.S. embassy website, my dad's calling the hotline, who were absolutely no help at all, I'm about to start filling out the online application when my dad looks at my passport and I-20 and notices that there are two numbers that match. My SEVIS ID number. The ID number that shows EVERYTHING about me regarding my status, travelling and student history in the U.S. And then we see a note on the I-20: "Pending transfer from CSU". That totally puts my mind at ease, there's a reference between the new school and the old school! This is great, that means that there should be no confusion, great great great!!!

The next day my dad is still worried and mentions that if I'm denied entry into the U.S. this time because of this complication, I'm screwed for five years because it stays on my record that I was denied and denied people don't get visas. Now I start freaking out again. I e-mailed the Immigration Specialist at school to get a definitive answer. A few minutes ago I checked my e-mail, I'm fine, everything's fine, my status will show up on the computer and there shouldn't be any problems. Shouldn't.

I'm going to go take a nap. This is way too much excitement for me.

Miss you all! Nighty-night!

Avoidance is Bliss

So, I have to write this paper on philosophy, and this semester, after taking this mandatory tag-team philosophy/art history class, I've learned that I REALLY, no-REALLY hate philosophy and art history. I mean, I couldn't care less about either one of these subjects, and in class, most of my energy is spent on not letting my mind wander and not falling asleep. It's really quite sad. What I loved about undergrad was that you never needed to take philosophy, unfortunately I was a major in the department of art and design and therefore had to take an art history class, it was pretty painless and I got a B, I was happy.

Honestly, I hate philosophy not only because it's excrutiating, but also because I really don't see how this factors into my life. My professor will ask "what do you think of Plato's theory of the tripartite soul?" If I could I'd reply that I really couldn't care less what caste I was in, as long as I didn't need to listen to Plato's bullshit about how the "form" is better than the "sensual object". Look, there's this stupid analogy of the "Bed" in Book X. It's ridiculous, he says that the "idea" or "form" of a bed is better than the bed itself. Look buddy. I sleep on a bed. I do not sleep on an idea. I can't use the idea for shit. It's a fucking idea in my mind, how is this better than a thing that serves it's purpose? Honestly.

AND. These people, when they write, even the contemporaries, they write in such elongated sentences, with confusing language, I honestly have to read each paragraph three times, three times, before I can comprehend and move on. I mean, check this out:

"Rather than doctrine formulae for describing man and clerical austerities for educating him, Petrarch turned to undgomatic introspection and observation for his insights into the human condition, and a full life of literature and action, as well as monastic solitude, for his education."

There are two words I don't understand in that sentence. That long sentence. And they're pivotal words. I don't want to read with a dictionary by my side, it inhibits my comprehension. It stops my flow. It throws off my groove! And I don't enjoy it.

On another note, after many months of not having a myspace link on my quick-link toolbar of internet explorer, it has finally resurfaced. Why you ask? Because in avoiding all work for classes I have taken to continuously logging onto myspace to check out people's pages and post nonsensical rantings like this one. If your page views have gone up considerably, you know why.

Have a happy weekend!

Figure Drawing

Originally Posted July 18, 2006

I went to Flax, a local art supply store, bought many boards for school, and for personal recreation, bought some papers to put on the wall and this figure drawing book:

And I love it! It actually shows all the bones and muscles in different positions, then with the skin in different positions, and then his actual sketches of relaxed positions, so it's way more fleshed out than the other books I saw, the others just had the artist's sketches. And it was only $12.95! Toa person that's paid over $100 for a textbook, that's way cheap.

So here are some drawings that were drawn today:

How did moving become so difficult?

I have had T-Mobile for almost two years. I have had absolutely no problems in Fresno. I have been in San Francisco for 8 days. Calls get dropped everyday. I find out today that I went 400 over my allowed minutes resulting in a $160 charge and a temporary shut down on my phone. I have no day time minutes until June 27th, except for the 100 minute bonus the awesome technician gave me. So I have come to this conclusion. No one is calling me, texting me, even thinking about me between the hours of 6am and 9pm on weekdays until June 27th.

Also. I sorted out my PG&E and AT&T the week before I moved. I told them to move my account to SF so that I didn't have to pay deposits or anything. PG&E, stellar job. No problem. AT&T, miniature problem. First time I called, I was told my building didn't exist, at this point, I was just calling to check that I could change the address if I needed to. Big panic, do I need to change to Comcast? I call again to see what's the deal, technician finds the new building no problem. Great. Phone service will transfer the 12th and DSL will transfer the 16th. No problem. Oh wait. The gracious previous resident ripped the jack out of the fucking wall. Hmm. The phone doesn't work.

Wednesday. Call the landlord. "No problem, I'll come take a look tomorrow after 6pm", great. 7pm he shows up, "Yup, I'll get you a new phone jack, bring it tomorrow and fix it, same time". Next day. No landlord. Next day. Still no landlord. Get a the number from the neighbor and call him Saturday. "No problem, be right there." Landlord shows, up, fixes phone, works great. Check e-mail, says DSL won't be in until 21st. Huh? Hook up computer, DSL works! Score.

Monday. Where'd the DSL go? Call AT&T, "Order says no DSL until 21st, don't know why you had it for two wonderful days, sucks to be you!" (not really, but that's how I felt). Have been using dial up the past two days. I don't know how I'm going to survive until tomorrow.

Oh yeah, school. School's great. First class had 5 students including me, really great for getting to know each other. Second class....hmm...philosophy... not quite my forte. And I found out I can't eat before that class because if I do, I'll fall asleep indefinately. San Francisco's nice, not as great as Fresno to be quite honest. I really miss not seeing a crackhead every few minutes. But at least there's great stores here. I went shopping today after class, loved it, bought some cute bowls and shirts.

Happy week to you all. Keep myspacing, it's the only way I keep track.

P.S.

I actually really like my landlord. He's super nice. But he owns alot of buildings, so he kinda forgets me sometimes.

Car Accident

Originally Posted May 5, 2006

So not many people know that I got in a car accident on Tuesday. Mainly because I've avoided calling people up and saying "Hey, how are you? Yeah, I totally fucked up my car the other day, good tiiiimes!" But yeah, I figured, I'll calm down, take a few days, and then post a blog telling the world that I'm not the best driver.

Yeah, I'm just...like almost still reeling from it. It happened so fast, and I was freaking out so much that it's just a huge blur. All I remember is, green light, I hit the dodge in front of me, and then the mustang hit me. The car is totalled, insurance will pay, and my poor poor Sherman (the car) is no more.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

Everyone's okay, no one got hurt, just the cars. Thank goodness.

Out Again In Fresno

Originally Posted Feb 11, 2006

Okay...so....I think this is how I start most of my blogs, thinking, typing, elipssissing...I have this little OCD this with my USB ports. Nothing sick, just...something that I need to have...I have two USB ports on my laptop, one on top of the other, and in the bottom one, I put the plug to my mouse, because I always need that one, and in the top I put my printer cable because sometimes I don't need my printer, and I'll switch it out to my camera link so I can upload photos, and since I always need my mouse, that one is untouched and on the bottom....

Until this semester...

On more than one occassion, such as a few minutes ago, I will go to unplug the top USB plug and it won't be the printer that comes unplugged, but my mouse! My precious mouse! Deemed USELESS! Quite upsetting I must assure you, and since I am so anal about this, and could not possibly mess this up myself...I have a theory...

Someone has been coming into my apartment and switching my USB cables. And stole one of my bubble spoons.Seriously, one's missing. And took some of my good tupperware. And one of my shirts. A a few socks.

I'm seriously considering this theory to be more than just speculation.

And now before any of you starts thinking I'm completely insane, I'll post some untouched (except for resizing)pictures I took today...can you guess where they were taken?