I totally made a huge pot of Japanese curry and deep fried some fresh tonkatsu as well. The occasion? Today is the midpoint between Nam’s birthday (Nov. 9) and her little sister Noon’s (Nov. 6), so we celebrated them together as they have done since they were little. The food was so good, none of the nine people at the table spoke much until the meal was done. I was very proud of stuffing everyone full of so much garlic and curry goodness, and forgot to take photos.
For some reason, I never actually made tonkatsu myself before tonight, but it was easy and turned out very well.
Category: Chillin’
Impending guerilla blogging
I’m back, I’m busy, and I have many things to post here…
I saw the remnants of a government chopper shot down by commies and possibly also the Ma Deuce used to do so. Don’t mess with the fifty cal, yo.
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To be continued, soon.
Tomorrow we are signing a home loan
Hurray!
I think.
I will be posting the first real building report for our house as soon as I have some time. Things have come together very nicely, and it only took a few months from start to finish for the actual building stage.
Korean Hostage Crisis as Seen by Overseas Korean Volunteers
Yesterday, I asked a group of four young Koreans who have come to teach our students computer skills the following questions:
- Were the Koreans who were taken hostage missionaries, or what? Is it important to make the distinction between missionaries and volunteer workers?
- Are average people in Korea blaming the US for what happened?
- Are you hopeful about a diplomatic solution?
Their answers were:
- Yes, and YES(!).
- No.
- ….
So there you go. The news says that progress is being made and the Taliban is promising release today or tomorrow. That would be nice. The Taliban ain’t exactly nice guys, though. I hope everything works out, but let me say this: If you aren’t prepared to sacrifice for your beliefs, why hold to them at all?
heine
Nam and I went out for steaks; it was the first t-bone I’ve had since god knows when. I drank a few or more beers and ended up back at home taking a shower in the rain. Nam even brought me a bar of soap, because it was pissing down. Taking a shower in the rain… I cannot recommend this highly enough.
Happy Hiroshima day!
3 is the magic number
…and I’d just like to point out I’m 33 today.
That’s right, I came into this world on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.
Just call me what I am, irreverent atom boy.
massively attacked
I laid down on my bed for a few minutes to watch this Massive Attack DVD that I brought from Japan. The beats were on and my mind went into caramel dreams mode… next thing I know, I’m laying in a pool of sweat and drool, and I’ve just had the best nap in recent memory – I even fell asleep on my stomach, and that like never happens (I also fell asleep on top of a pile of crap on my bed so I woke up with shapes of a pen, the TV remote, and several CDs imprinted on my body).
There are certain DVDs that have this tranquilizing effect on me, so I’m careful to hoard them and use them only when necessary. If I actually get through one of these DVDs, they never have the same effect on me again, so I have to be careful and use them wisely. Right now, there are 3 left in my metaphorical pill bottle:
- Wave Twisters: This is actually my brother Adam’s DVD and he used to claim it was one of his favorites… The thing is, I told him about how it makes me sleepy and how I’d tried to watch all the way through at least 4 or 5 times, but he couldn’t understand why (it is interesting; it just puts me asleep partway without fail), so we tried watching it together, and… He fell asleep, too.
- Letters from Iwo Jima: I cannot for the life of me get past the first fifteen minutes of this flick without falling asleep. I don’t know why. The subject matter is extremely interesting to me for several reasons, one of which is that the story concerns a war fought between my own country and that of my grandparents and whenever I think of that war, I wonder about how it must have made them feel living in America after having left Japan for good (oh yeah, they were probably more concerned about sleeping with rattlesnakes and giving birth in horse stables). Anyway.
- Massive Attack – Collected Bonus DVD: I’m going to be very careful not to watch this one when I’m totally awake, because of the quality of slumber it just provided me. I love going to sleep with music on, but haven’t been able to do it regularly since I was in college – mostly because with all the stress working in Japan, I needed relative silence in order to sleep. I may experiment with my favorite trip hop albums to see if I can start sleeping with music on again. One thing I remember very clearly about sleeping with music on is that it enables very lucid dreams and REM states for me. Yes, I think I’ll try it out again.
How about all of you? Can you sleep with music on? Does certain music act as a sedative for you? How about DVDs?
No fireworks this year
I’d like to say it was an intentional gesture to teach the students in my public speaking class the Gettysburg Address on the Fourth of July, but the truth is that I completely forgot about it. Dammit. For a sick pyro like me, forgetting about fireworks and barbecue is sacrilege.
In other news, we have decided to build a new house.
Happy Fourth!
Pot
Highlight of my weekend: Being told “wow, you really live out in the country” by a visitor from Wisconsin whose biggest complaint seems to be the complete lack of cheese wheels here.
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A close second: kidsincorporated.us (I don’t remember what channel we got Kids Incorporated on at home but that goddamn song is stuck in my head for another twenty five years now for sure)