13 Face Sculpture

Alien Registration

SP: The Lazy Alternative

Nationalism

Classic Clutter

Melons are worth more points.

Slow Heal

花見 (Flower Watching)

My Spoon is Too Big!

Rejected Cartoons?... Anyone?

No one?! Damn, anyway, look up Don Hertzfeldt. Or, more convenient yet, just watch the video at the end of this post.

Anyway, I guess my apartment comes with three different types of pots/pans, a fork, two knives, a tea kettle, and two cups, but no spoon... no spoon except a ladle. Of course! A ladle is sooooo useful!...

Please sense my sarcasm.

I ate my yogurt with a ladle.
I ate my yogurt with a ladle.
I had to wash my face again once breakfast was over.

Shitty

I've had the shits. I know, ewwww, gross, TMI!

Fuck that. I spit the truth!

Ok fine I don't rap or rhyme at all... but still...

Anyway, I shit three times before leaving my place. With each successive shit, I noticed a decrease in duration, solidity, and PH.

Ok, maybe too much information.

Shibuya

I ventured to Shibuya to find the Aoyama Gakuin campus. The map says it takes 10 minutes of walking from Shibuya station. I spend 2 hours finding the place. There's even a map...

Okay okay, granted I stopped at a grocery store.

Scotch

4 hours later, after buying supplies at 4 different stores and spending over 4 hours walking briskly around Shibuya, I had a backpack full of random essentials, a false sense of security in terms of my ability to navigate Shibuya, and a minor abdominal cramp.

When I arrived home, my arm hurt. I took acetaminophen, it didn't work. I took a glass of scotch, it worked.

Cheers!

Enjoy the animation.

Sunny Side Up

Breakfast

I ate spaghetti for breakfast. And what came on top of my spaghetti? A sunny side up.

The night before, after drinking for several hours, I stumbled home in a not-drunk-at-all stupor of jet lag induced fatigue. Seriously, am I a robot? Why didn't I get drunk off of what was probably 6+ drinks? Anyway, I stopped at a convenience store and bought OJ and food. "Food" like heat-and-eat spaghetti.

Meander

I wandered around the areas surrounding my apartment today for many many many hours. It's a nice town with lots of vegetation. There's even a large park area by the river. However, it's still Tokyo, so high rise is the name of the game.

In my quaint little town there lies a quaint little mall: 2 buildings, 11 stories, 3 skywalks, 400+ stores/restaurants, and rooftop gardens.

I needed a bath towel, but the cheapest one I could find was still over $30. Yes, this city is known for it's affluent populace.

The top of the mall had a spectacular view, so I took some photos. Photos like my photo of the day. The restaurants up there look amazing, but are wayyyyyy out of my price range; a meal started at 3000 Yen ($30)... one restaurant had prices over $300 a meal... gotta find me's a suga mommas...

Dinner

Since I skipped lunch to meander, I was deliriously hungry. Hopefully my low caloric intake will prolong my lifespan, as suggested by many research studies.

I stumbled upon a place called "Draft King," which had reasonable prices on food and a nice drink menu.

I ordered the Cajun Chicken Jambalaya and a "400ml glass" of Heineken. The beer cost 600 Yen, which is just over $6. The food was 950 Yen, which is close to $10.

The food was really good. I justified my second beer by the realization that I hadn't eaten lunch, and thus had extra "food money" to spend on dinner.

An American walked into the restaurant and sat down in the table in front of me. I gave him a silent nod, as if because we were both foreigners in Japan, we should somehow stick up for eachother.

Five minutes after his awkward nod back, another American male joined him. The first guy ordered a cosmo... and then another cosmo... and then a beer. Gay? Probably. Does it really matter? No.

But, the whole thing got me thinking...
There's definitely two types of foreigners in Japan: those who are friendly with other foreigners and are down to go out for a drink, and those who are so obsessed with "being Japanese" that they scoff at other foreigners. It's true.

As I walked home with a mild buzz (which didn't make sense given last night's events), I began to contemplate a story I recently read. A close friend of mine had wrote it and submitted it to be entered in the Norton Anthologies. Her story was accepted, which is a big deal.

Anyway, as I walked home, I started a Yes/No conversation with myself. Do you ever do that? It goes like this:

Am I cold? Yes.
Do I wish I brought a jacket? Yes.
Is it a big deal? No.
Am I lost? Maybe.
Am I worried? No.
Do I feel "unsafe" walking home at night? No.
Are other foreigners the people I most "fear" in Japan? Yes.
Is it because they are the most likely to do something rash/stupid? Yes.
etc...

My schizo self convo lasted the whole 20 minutes home.

Guess what came on top of my Cajun Chicken Jambalaya? Yep... a sunny side up.

Tokyo Apartment :: Shit a Rainbow

LAME!

Ok, first and foremost, I'm not sure why I thought this photo would even qualify as "keepable," but I guess I did and it's the only photo I took so... I guess it's my photo for the day.

Move-In

Kaori helped me move in to my apartment today, which entailed picking up my key in Shinjuku, doing paperwork, then lugging my luggage to Futako-Tamagawa. The website said my apartment was a 15 min walk from the station. It took us 25 minutes. The whole ordeal capped at around 4 hours, I think.

Nik :: Shit a Rainbow

In the evening, Kaori and I met with Nik and Miki for drinks. I know Nik from ISU, but this was a first encounter with Miki.

Nik and I split a bottle of Shouchu, which is about 50 proof. I think Nik was pretty drunk by the end of the night, but I barely copped a buzz. Damn Irish genetics.

Nik ordered some food, which was good cuz I hadn't eaten in forever. He ordered squid and cow intestine (cooked and seasoned). These were OK, but not really what I had in mind. Kaori ordered some "nankotsu," which is basically deep fried cartilage. Nankotsu is really really tasty, but since the entirety of my meal consisted of intestine, cartilage, and squid, I had a feeling I would be shitting a rainbow tomorrow.

Tokyo Anonymity

The Black Sea

About 30 seconds from the famous Shibuya Crossing. (photo)

Kaori and I had gotten drinks and dinner at a bar/izakaya up the street and were now headed back.

Jet lag still had me by the balls.

Exhausted, I fell asleep standing up on the train ride home. My rude awakening came as my legs gave out from under me. I didn't hit the ground; I caught myself halfway to the floor.

Silly foreigner.

Tokyo Arrival

Surreality

After about 11 hours on a plane, I awoke from another nap of unknown length. My breath stunk of scotch, vodka, and sleep. The bad taste in my mouth was distracting, but not a priority. My priority was ending the pain in my elbow. I had to kill that little demon... maybe I can poison it with Oxycontin... success!

Time was mocking me. My first "nap" lasted over 4 hours, but only felt like a few minutes. Subsequent naps felt long but only lasted an hour at most. How long have I been on this plane? 8 hours? 5 hours? 12 hours?!

Arrival

Hmmm. I don't feel different... but something has definitely changed.
Wait... why can't I understand anyone...

Yuri & Kaori

After another 2 hours of trains and waiting for trains, I met with Yuri at Shinagawa station. From there, we immediately started drinking (and eating). An hour point five later, Kaori arrived and we had a lovely reunion. Around midnight Kaori and I parted ways from Yuri and made our way back to Kaori's, an arduous hour of crowded trains and lugging luggage.
More to come, over and out.


PS: I'm finally getting my act together; I won't neglect the blog like I did in February and March ever again. I'm sorry baby.

Royal Flush

Vegas Baby!

Playing on River Ice

A Talkie with Jodie, and how!

Melanie

EP Mall Rail

Ran across some super cool snowboarders filming for a vid.

The Gas Station by My House

Intervalometer

Inspiration

Results

Jesse

Kinsey

Saw an old friend today. It was refreshing to see how people change, yet somehow still retain that familiar essence you remember them by.

Have fun in the Caribbean, Kinz :]

I gotta get out more.

iPhoto '09 :: Microsoft Photosynth

Oh god.

I spent hours. hours! HOURS!! tagging photos in iPhoto'09 today.

The facial recognition is pretty good, except for some reason it refused to recognize my little buddy Yuka's face. She has like the most distinctive look ever. However, it has NO TROUBLE differentiating between the twins in Iowa (identical). Weird.

If that wasn't enough, there's geotagging to be done. Now I want an 'auto-geotagger' add-on for my camera, even though the only purpose would be to feed my lust for properly organized and tagged information, in this case photos.

Segue! With all the tagging, especially auto-tagging via AI systems like image recognition, images may finally get attention from webcrawlers. What I mean is, true image searching, based on the image itself, not just the text associated with it. What does this mean? Searching for your face will turn up A LOT more photos. Ever wondered how many strangers' photos you're in the background of? This technology will help you find out.

Manager of McDonalds ?

Wow. Not sure what to think, say, or do.

McDonalds offered me the manager position at the EP location.

As flattered as I am, I don't have 5 months to do manager training so I can make $9.50/hr and hate my life. I'll pass, thank you.

A Sucker's Life

Spent the day job hunting.

I have an interview at McDonalds tomorrow and an optimistic response at Office Depot.

Blog Update - Mon 1/26/09

I'm sorry baby

Sorry I neglected you for over a week.

• January 25, Sunday: I Cleaned Up
• January 24, Saturday: Four Hours at the Gym :: Jesus Camp
• January 23, Friday: Vodka Hidden Beneath Frozen Tofu Burgers
• January 22, Thursday: The Bowling Alley Pub
• January 21, Wednesday: Days Go By and Still I Think About...
• January 20, Tuesday: XBOX to Home Media Center
• January 19, Monday: Dead Computer Reincarnated
• January 18, Sunday: Diamond Joe
• January 17, Saturday: Girltalk
• January 16, Friday: Religious Views: "I Kill People."

My back hurts and I'm tired. Feast.

I Cleaned Up

It's time to get up now. Out of this slump.

Tomorrow I job hunt.

Four Hours at the Gym :: Jesus Camp

Tumbling was fine. No hangover (likely due to my 4+ glasses of water). I spent 4 hours at the gym.

The afternoon was fuzzy, again. I'm not sure what I did or where the time went.

Jesus Camp. I watched it. Oh shit. The real life horror story of RIGHT NOW.

Vodka Hidden Beneath Frozen Tofu Burgers

Another day as Hermit Steve.

Woke up at one - Spent several blurry hours at the computer - Went out to eat at Punch with the sister and mother because Mel goes back to school tomorrow (around 6pm? where did the time go?).

After Punch, I watched a couple episodes of Skins (season 2) on my new spiffy entertainmet system. I discovered a bottle of Absolut hidden under frozen tofu burgers and Lean Pockets in the freezer.

I love vodka. (and scotch!)

I also love Skins. Watching that show really makes me want to let go. Take a pill. Go dancing. Embrace a fuzzy stop motion kaleidoscopic dream world.

That 'thing' in the photo is apparently called "chipped beef."

It was another one of my discoveries, alongside the vodka. I couldn't possibly fathom how anyone could eat that stuff without 4 vodkas in them. It must have been invented by the vodka industry.

Trampoline/tumbling is going to be... difficult... tomorrow morning.

The Bowling Alley Pub

Met with Erika and Beth at the bowling alley's pub for a drink. It was very refreshing to leave the house.

Luckily, since classes have started for most, the bar wasn't a premature high school reunion (as it apparently was during winter holiday).

Days Go By and Still I Think About...

Dark. The last couple days have been a fuzzy fog of computer screens and me in my pajamas.

I watch the shadows in my house change as the day ages.

What day is it?

XBOX to Home Media Center

I converted my XBOX into a home media server running UnleashX. (photo)

All it cost me was a $2 copy of Splinter Cell and a couple hours of combined research and setup time.

With my spiffy new Ubuntu server, I can now stream all my music and videos from the Ubuntu Box to the XBOX wirelessly. XBOX Media Center (XBMC) automatically looks up video, TV, and Music metadata so I can see reviews, plot synopsis, and thumbnails from IMDB and other online databases. It's truly a thing of beauty.

What's that? It gets better? Oh yes - I have a Super Nintendo emulator installed too. This plus my full catalog of ROMs means I can play any SNES game ever released in any country all on my XBOX.

The downside? I can't use XBOX Live anymore from that specific XBOX. Cost-Benefit? Worth it!

Dead Computer Reincarnated

I ordered a new motherboard for $30. With it now in hand, I was able to bring the old black box back to life.

Dual boot: Windows / Linux (Ubuntu)

I also installed MacOS 10.5 on the sisters laptop.

It was a healthy day of sore fingertips, dilated pupils, caffeine, and that healthy pale skin you can only get from bathing in computer light.

Diamond Joe

After watching Wayne's World, Erika and I drove back to Minnesota.

The weather got shitty. Good thing I'm the best driver in the world with no history of totaling cars.

We stopped at Diamond Joe's Casino on 35. It's a truly surreal place. Maybe I'll go inside someday.

Girltalk

Morning

Made Erika and Elizabeth some eggs.

Day

Ate Spaghettios, pizza, and pickles.

Sat on a couch.

Night

Party at The Donald.

Played several games of beerpong, but gave up my winning position to Brian because we were playing in the garage and I couldn't feel my fingers anymore.

Talked with Yumi for awhile on the phone.

Decided to find where all the cool kids went; I found them upstairs. They were all girls, but the situation didn't strike me as a dick stomping conversation, so I joined them. We talked about What The Bleep Do We Know? and other existential 'stuff'.

Religious Views: "I kill people."

It was nice to see my ranger friend again. He kills people in the middle east for a living.

I played the 1st floor foosball champ 1-on-1 in a 3 game tourney. I won - by 1 point.

I got a nice big fat newborn-sized burrito at The Flying Burrito at like 2AM; it brought back drunken memories.

At like 3:30AM, after finishing the whiskey, I walked to HyVee and bought 18 eggs, 2 cans of Princess Spaghettios, 1 can of pickles, and 1 frozen pizza.

I ate 6 eggs when I got back.

Content with my indulgence, I slept.

Childhood Neighbor

Known her about 9 years now. We went to the same private middle school, the same public high school, and the same university (for a year or two). I usually only get to see her two or three times per year. I was thrilled.

We ate out at D'Amico & Sons, watched Tropic Thunder, then talked for hours.

Six Eggs & Whiskey Chapstick

Day

Grant and I finished this crossword puzzle with no outside help. I'd never finished a crossword puzzle before.

Night

Drank at Dana's. I ate 6 eggs and a gas station hot dog.

The next morning, my scarf smelt like ketchup and my chapstick tasted like whiskey - ugh.

Dirty Countertops?

Morning

What did I wake up to? Suspicion. I wondered, as I ate my cereal, if I should worry about how sanitary the countertops were.

Evening

Went to the gym. This Sunday the team is competing, so gym hours have been extended, which is great because the extra practice has definitely helped me get back my skills. Tonight, I re-learned piked front somis (front flip with legs straight).

24+ Hours in My Room

Morning/Day/Night/Late Night

Fuck, my eyes hurt. I've been teaching myself PHP and CSS over the last week. I spent all of today updating my mom's site's CSS and structure, which isn't really saying much cuz I still suck at this stuff.

Since I finally bought my own domain name about a week ago, this blog will likely be migrated there within the month, depending on how quickly I can learn PHP. And maybe Flash too, ugh. Since this blog is more of a photo log, I want more control over the visual structure. I think I'll display my image for each day as a thumbnail on a calendar, which makes much more sense. Don't understand? You'll see later.

Finally updated the blog. I apologize to my daily 14 visitors that I've lagged in my posting :)

New Posts:

• Sunday - 1/11/09 - Climate Control
• Saturday - 1/10/09 - Through the Springs
• Friday - 1/9/09 - New Litter Box

PS: This post isn't being made at 10PM. I lied. It's 5:21 AM.

Climate Control

I have two new best friends. And guess what?

They're machines.

Does this make me some sort of weird machine fetishist?

Regardless, Minnesota winters are long underwear and chapstick season. I've been sleeping under four blankets because my room doesn't get much heat from the furnace and I've gone through multiple sticks of the sweet stuff.

No longer! So long as I never leave my room, I can bask in the warmth of Ms. Space Heater and Dr. Humidifier.

I feel like the Land of Delusional Happiness might not be such a bad place. It's likely to be similar to La La Land or The Land of Green Ginger.

Through the Springs

Morning

Today started out retarded. Within 5 minutes of entering the gym, I landed in the springs. For those who don't understand - this hurts both the body and pride. My socks got destroyed and my shins have bright red vertical stripes now. The tramp suffers from a disfigured spring. If that wasn't enough, within 5 minutes of that, I lost a contact. Fuck.

After getting a new contact, the session was great. I got back a lot of my old skills and had a lot of fun. I was, however, pretty paranoid the rest of the session.

Night

No photoshop on the above photo - long exposure.

New Litter Box

You know my life's been anything but exciting when I'm talking about making a new (and improved) litter box. Fuck, what have I come to? Anyway, the old setup is on the left; the new one is one the right. In the old setup, there was litter everywhere and even some shit and piss on the wall - seriously. Now, however, all that shit's contained in a large tupperware. I cut a nice pretty hole in the side with a jigsaw.

Trampoline | Tumbling

Coach had me open the gym today cuz she was out eating dinner. I supervised about 5 students for a little over an hour; it was a jolly good time. Unfortunately, since it's fucking frigid these days, it takes forever to warm up. If I sat down for more than 5 or 6 minutes, I started feeling cold...

I'll leave you with a funny photo I found.

They Come at Night

Woke up at twilight.

Went to Twisters for the first time in like 5 months, till about 20:00.

I will be up all night.