Two Fireflies: 2008

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Years Eve :: Aubrey's

"Morning"

Woke up at about 3PM, so the label "morning" is debatable. I was slow to prepare for the day/night, the grande finale of another holiday season.

Night

Aubrey's. A healthy night full chemical distortion: visual, temporal, tactile, and aural; all my favorite flavors. It was great to see old faces, but I was especially excited to speak with "Partenaire;" I suspect it had been over a year since we last spoke.

Slurry conversations were bountiful moments before the ball drop. (above)

2.5 hours after the drop, creepers, who I knew would be an inevitable element of the night, made themselves known. yuck. The guy leaning against the dorm frame in the above photo was caught fishing around in Aubrey's room... repeatedly. To make things more unsettling, he was silent throughout the entire night, including when confronted about his creepiness. What the fuck. (above)

5 hours after the drop, at about 4:55, only close friends and/or the ultra-drunk remained. (above)

Then we walked home. I couldn't tell which was more saturated, the city with slush or our brains with booze.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Curry! :: 妹はチョウ馬鹿

Afternoon

Woke up at noon. In less than an hour I was in a car bound for Moto-i, a new Japanese restaurant in uptown. It's not sushi though; it's modeled after 居酒屋, so my breakfast basically consisted of appetizers meant to be eaten while drinking. All in all, it was fucking tasty and you should go there. Just like you should go to Kinhdo... Yes, I love eating. Yes, I am a chronic overeater; I'm insatiable. Yes, I know I am skinny. Yes, I know my metabolism will betray me in less than ten years and I'll probably gain 50+ lbs in a depressingly short period of time and no one will recognize me anymore and I'll cry.

PS: They have their own sake brewery, which scores them a thousand points.

Night

Made curry (photo). Since I promised Asahi and Kimi I'd share the recipe, I'll post it soon.
Talked with Giang about photography & life.
Picked mom up from her friend's house cuz she was drunk.

Late Night

妹は友達と家で飲んでてめっちゃうるさくて馬鹿だった。３時ごろ、母は起きて妹に「何してる？！」って言った。その時、誰が着いた？妹の彼氏が。彼が母を見てめっちゃびっくりしてた。写真を撮ればよかった。俺は笑ってた。

PS: The time stamps on most of my posts are totally fucked cuz I usually post a day late on each post, so until I find a way to remove the time stamps, I'm setting the time to 10:00. Ignore it.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Blurry Morning :: Kinhdo

Early Morning

Fuzzy. Blurry. Confused. I woke up sitting in a chair in Erika's parents' condo's kitchen. The photo (above) is the actual view I woke up to. You can even see my knee in the frame. No, I don't remember taking this photo. I woke up around 6:00 to Casey and Brussel returning, who apparently left the party and went gambling sometime in the night. At the time, I couldn't think strait. I remember very little of the conversation we had except that all my responses were scripted. automatic. default. mindless. The conversation's outlook was "endless;" there would be no rest here. I collected my things and left. And, in the midst of my hangover and morning headfog, I forgot Erika's presents. ばか。

In retrospect, two things stand out...

How did they got back inside the apartment building? The building is locked, and I know no one from the party let them back in; everyone was passed out.
Why did they even come back? Did they expect anyone to be awake? They must have. And I suspect that when they only found sleepers, they chose me as the lucky victim to wake up and relate their "extremely interesting" night to.

Fuck, I'm getting sick of waking up early after a night of drinking.

My phone is officially broken. The screen is a permanent white rectangle - beautiful.

Morning - Early Afternoon

...spent sleeping...

Afternoon

Updated the blog while simultaneously playing Fable. (below)

Met my sisters boyfriend in person for the first time... I was an asshole. What else is new?

Evening

Went out to eat at Kinhdo with Superman and Eric, I hadn't seen either of them since one of the first days they moved in to their uptown apartment. Coincidentally, this was their last weekend in the apartment. It's funny that the two times I met with them were the beginning and end of their 8-ish month stay in uptown.

The food was good. Go there and eat something. Just do it.

View Larger Map

Yea... I just wanted an excuse to embed a google map.

Blog Update

I finally updated the blog, here are the newest posts:

I'll post today's official post either later tonight or tomorrow.

Also, if anyone doesn't want me to mention their names in the blog, send me a message. I'll never use last names, but I have been using first names.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Erika's Party :: Topless Girls

Day

Drove back up to Minnesota. Again, I slept the entire 2 hour drive.

Night

I hadn't been in touch with Erika for some time, so I was pretty much elated to hear I was invited to her little shindig. Erika had bought me a little bottle of tequila, a shot glass, and a little sombrero when she was in Cozumel, Mexico (photo).

The party goers were an interesting mix. I hadn't seen some of them since high school graduation, practically 4 years ago! Some people change, others don't. For some reason, two girls got topless while playing beer pong. I left the room and contemplated what I had just seen - a room of about 10 guys encircling 2 topless girls - upsetting to say the least. One of the guys actually refused to give one of the girls their bra back right away. I might have been ok with the situation if there were an equal number of men and women and the men were also undressing. Although I don't know these two girls' motives, it's depressing that some women feel they need to show skin in order to get the attention of men. Do they feel they have no other marketable qualities aside from their breasts? And what does this do to the men watching? The whole situation just felt like psychological rape or something. Both The Faint's Worked Up So Sexual and gogreen18's Sexy Chick-On-Chick Action instantly came to mind. I've embedded both for your convenience.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Grandma's House

Morning

Yep, since the plan was to drive the Grandma's at 9:00, I tore myself off Dana's couch at 8:00 after a night of binge eating/drinking. My head felt hollow.

Day

All for naught! We didn't leave until much after 9:00 - the woman known as mother had assumed neither my sister or I would be ready at 9:00, but we were, and I had fought through a hangover just to make it home on time. Annoyed.

I slept through the entire 2 hour drive down to Iowa.

Nothing very spectacular to say about the rest of the day - we had hamburger soup for lunch, talked about what everyone had been doing since we last saw each other (photo), and ate dinner at an ultra generic restaurant called Whiskey Creek (hearing the name of which made me nauseous, a flashback to drinking Jim Beam the night before).

Friday, December 26, 2008

Burrito's at 2AM

Day

I woke up at 3pm. Spent the day in the house playing video games - cozy, sheltered.

Night

Then, Grant shattered my perfect little world by inviting me to Dunn Bros, where he and Dana were enjoying a cup of coffee. It was great to see Dana again, I hadn't seen her in ages. Soon a loose plan for the night emerged - drinking.

After picking up Tron, buying booze, and driving to Dana's in uptown, we drank... and we ate. We scarfed through two Galaxy pizzas, but I'm insatiable, so Grant and I walked to a gas station at maybe 2am-ish.

Although it was freezing, the streets were alive. The gas station was like a mecca for wasted people. It was like a fucking circus freakshow. Some random guy started a conversation with me by standing beside me and saying "SHIT! Now what the fuck did she want? I know she wanted chips, but what was the other thing? Shit!" He surprised me. I wasn't sure how to respond, aside from "Uh, who? I'm not sure..." Then he talked for about 5 minutes about how women like snacks and how he can never remember "things." I was pretty much silent.

I bought hard boiled eggs and a burrito dubbed "The Bomb." Disgusting? I enjoyed both, but everyone else looked disturbed by my choice of food.

In fact, Grant was so upset and sure I would vomit that he felt it necessary to take a photo of me eating the burrito so he could say something along the lines of "I told you so" the next morning.

At some point during the night, Grant showed me the following video on Slabup.com's post. It's beautiful. Thank you Grant. Thank you Slabup.com. Thank you Eduardo Wydler.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Santa

Christmas Morning

Nikon D60. Thrilled, I am. Also received a scrapbook from Celine in France, which may have been the most meaningful gift I received this year (for Christmas). She collected photos from our days studying at Kansai Gaidai and put them in a little book. Touched, I am.

Why I am talking like Yoda? Unsure, I am.

Christmas Day

Watched The Day the Earth Stood Still with the father and the sister. I really liked it, but I also downed a massive iced coffee and had to piss for like 3/4 of the movie. After the first hour or so of eminent urination pain, I think the muscle(s) involved went numb and cramped up or something, cuz it stopped hurting.

Night

Funny. My バカプル post/photo is the top hit on an Google search for "バカプル".

Talked with Yumi on Skype for an hour or two. It was great to hear and see her again. :)

Late Night

Played Fable till like 2AM cuz I couldn't sleep. Damn jet lag. Damn video game addiction.

Then I took this photo because I thought it fitting. As a cyborg, I've obtained a new optic component. Red Eye. Mirror. Myspace Flashback. Sleep Deprived Giddiness.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas Eve

Day

ばか。I waited till Christmas eve to run to the mall and buy my dad's xmas gift. After warming up in the car, I quick took this photo; it's too fucking cold to stand around outside.

Night

Ate a nice non traditional xmas dinner and talked about existential theory.

Played an hour or two of FFX (yes, I know... leave me alone, I like it).

Tried to video chat with まなみ, but failed - it kept crashing. We had to resort to text only, which really isn't the same.

Finally updated the blog. I'd been busy/lazy the last week or so, so I didn't update it. My bad.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Father's Birthday

Morning

Woke up after a night of drinking with old friends. 懐かしかったよ。I saw the above scene the moment I stepped outside. It had snowed last night. Fuck it's cold. Steve want go Hawaii now!

Evening

After napping, we celebrated the old man's birthday. We went out to Campiello's, a nice local restaurant. I really should have taken a photo related to dad's birthday, not two houses with snow on them... whatever fuck it.

My phone died; the screen had been acting funny lately. Lovely.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Hello Minnesota

I think the photos speak for themselves. I went from 80ºF Hawaii to -10ºF Minnesota in 7 hours. For the logical world, that's about 26.6ºC to -23.3ºC. やばい。

I arrived in MN at about 6AM. My head was still fuzzy full of meds from the flight.

Evening/Night

After a nap, I met some friends at Dunn Bros.

After Dunn Bros, we stuffed ourselves at the Great Mandarin.

After dinner, we went out for Appletizers; saw probably 30 old friends.

After Appletizers, I went to a friend's drinking party.

Above: This girl was druuuuuunk! Holy shit. She was definitely that girl. She danced on a "table," thought my name was John, and probably embarrassed her friends.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Goodbye Hawaii

At Hilo airport. めっちゃ悲しかったよ。

After I arrived in Oahu, I had a 4 hour layover. So I ate. Airport prices + Hawaii prices = Madness.

<--Evidence of my $9 chicken tenders meal.

Later, once at cruising altitude, one of the flight attendants gave me a free $5 snack box cuz I didn't have any cash. My hunger was mollified and my faith in humanity slightly revived... slightly.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Last Night in Hilo

Do you see that creepy ass Teletubby? What the fuck.

Day

Yumi and I spent the day at the farmers market downtown. There was this weird store full of creepy shit. Here's another photo:

<--See all that shit? Weird as fuck.

Night

Went to Sebu's; ate pizza; made merry.

Friday, December 19, 2008

Finals Friday

Morning

Woke Up. Got Up. Round 11 Oclock. The semester is officially over.

Day

Sold back my books to the school, about $80 dollars - what an insult.

Went to the mall with Yumi and Kiana; ate McDonalds; bought presents for the sister and mother.

<--Kiana & her Happy Meal.

<--Kiana's gift to me.

Read some funny scary religious quotations that my top contact in Iowa sent me via StumbleUpon. Read on...

There are a lot of things I have concluded to be wrong, without studying them in-depth. Evolution is one of them. The fact that I don't know that much about it does not bother me in the least.
AV1611VET, Christian Forums [2006-Sep-12]

I often debate with evolutionists because I believe that they are narrow mindedly and dogmatically accepting evolution without questioning it. I don't really care how God did what He did. I know He did it.
TexasSky, Christian Forums [2006-Aug-24]

Make sure your answer uses Scripture, not logic.
cdevidal, CARM [2007-Apr-01]

To say the Bible was written by men and may contain inaccuracies completely contradicts the word of the Bible.
Ia Orana, MSN Miss Manners [2008-Jan-01]

>>Source

Night

After saying my goodbyes to the roommates and visiting Yumi's roommate's birthday party, Yumi and I eventually made our way to Sebu's to watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a movie every Japanese person should see lol.

<--Last goodbye to the roommates.

<--Yumi's roommate's birthday party.

またね

Another morning day spent banging my fingers on the letter button board. Brutish. Foolish. Content to stare at a glowing 1440x900 grid of dancing colored dots. Binge Introversion. What do I have to show of it? Twelve lines of CSS and a disabled sense of social awareness. Grunts, rather than coherent responses.

Helped Justin carry his baggage from the dorms to Tohbi.

Drank Beer. Watched Elf. Ate Taco Bell. Said some long goodbyes.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Entire Day in Bedroom

today.health {
wakeup-time: 13:00;
breakfast: dextro-amphetamine 20mg;
}

today.todo {
tests: none;
classes: none;
study: soc365 final;
social: none;
forfriend: fixcomputer;
}

I left my bed occasionally. Amazing how fixing a computer can entertain/stress me for a good 6+ hours.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Going Away Party/Present

I was told I was going to two of my friends' going away party, but I guess it was mine as well. The guy in a purple shirt and black hat had a personal photo/memory album made for each of us. Each page has a photo of one of my friends and a personal note they wrote. Basically a yearbook, but only with photos of friends. It's possibly the most meaningful gift I've ever received. Damn. And to do this for us during finals week? I'm truly indebted to Mr. Purple Shirt.

I am truly loved.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Finals Round 1

The sad climax of my day came when I finished the second half of my Italian BMT. I still felt sick from drinking two days ago, which likely means I did permanent damage to my body - lovely. I took two finals today - Early Japanese History 310 and Japanese Language 301. I really had no motivation to "live up to my potential" on these tests; even if I get a 0% on the Japanese Language final, I'll still pull nearly an 80% in the class. If I get a 0% on the History final, I'll still pass, but barely. Where's the motivation?

PS: I got accepted to study at Aoyama Gakuin in Tokyo next semester! Fuck yea! The campus is located in Shibuya... SHIBUYA! 渋谷！Shibuya... I wonder how long it will take that place to overstimulate my senses to the point of spontaneous schizophrenia... The semester starts in early April, so I have about three months to kill in the meantime.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

二日酔い

I payed for drinking that vodka (and later Tequila - yikes). I was so fucking hungover, it was terrible. On my way home that night, I saw this road block. It had been struck last night - I could relate.

Curry & Vodka

See that bottle of Stoli's he's holding? The two of us killed it. I can't even look at that brown cup on the armrest anymore, it makes me sick. We also made curry and got fat - lovely. We were watching Skins, a fantastic show.