quarterlife

I have to admit, I started watching quarterlife online after seeing the pilot episode on TV. In 1 day I watched all 36 episodes (like 10 minutes each). It was awesome. Next up, 90210! It's like reliving my teenage life. Freakin' hilarious.

facebook

How adorable is it when you can change your status on facebook to "in a relationship with..." and link right to that person's profile? Is that just so overwhelmingly and yet sickening cute!?! Excuse me... have to go puke now. ;)

technology

I was up in Rochester, NY last week visiting with family. Had a total blast - mom fed me well and kept me busy the whole time. Well here is the story. I was at Best Buy to drop off old cell phones and then did a little browsing. My cousin is looking for a new laptop, so I thought I would check the pricing there. This salesman was busy chatting up two customers. He was explaining to them that a Mac doesn't get viruses because, well see, the Macs don't get IP addresses cause they have mac addresses. I started to choke-laugh just then. I had to walk away cause if I heard any more, I might have had to step in. What really pisses me off about this whole thing is that people who don't know about technology go to a store for help and get fed even more bs. Got me thinking how I can help people learn about computers. As in like the truth. Without making it more confusing. After school is finally all done, I should take my free time to teach some of those community classes. I think I would be good at it.

Sushi

I'll admit it, I'm a total sushi snob. I really don't care for the fast-food prepackaged sushi rolls. On Friday I tried out a new restaurant for lunch. Looked like a good place, right in Korean Town. Ordered the sashimi box with green tea. It started with a salad of zucchini, carrots, and seaweed - fairly tasty. Then a light broth noodle soup with crab meat. Not much taste to it, but good for summer. Then the box came out. By the way, I asked for no mackerel. I got about 10 pieces of sashimi, 2 of the same kind since I asked for no mackerel, plus a California roll and green salad. The salad didn't taste good, so I gave up on that. The white rice looked good, but too hard. The sashimi pieces were ice cold. That means it's not fresh and obviously sitting on ice. Oh well, high hopes were not fulfilled. Guess I'm back to the place I usually go to for sushi.

natural and organic

Slowly but surely I've been replacing each product of my everyday life with natural, organic and/or eco-friendly products. Sometimes its harder than others. Today my sinuses were on a rampage, sneezing my brain out. I have to get soft Puff brand type tissues, otherwise my little nose will be red. I've tried the other recycled type brands, but they basically suck. So I kind of staggered out of the apartment to get a few things from the grocery store and allergy drugs. I didn't go the extra 3 blocks to the "nicer" grocery store, cause basically I was tired and my brain was a bit cloudy. Anyway, they didn't have the 7th Generation recycled garbage bags I usually get. They had all the major name brands, none of which say from recycled products. I had to swallow my guilt and suck it up to buy just plain old plastic bags. I did remember to bring my own bag to the store. I've been proud of myself on doing that. What I don't get is, when I mention to the cashier that I've got my own bag which I then put on the counter, they just like stop. I have to dig out my money and they don't even bother putting the stuff in the bag like they would if I hadn't stopped them from using a plastic bag. The world seems to run on the same method without room for change. My mom just switched over to reusable bags. Of course she lives in a place where plastic grocery bags will be recycled (not a single grocery store in my hood does this).

Products I love:
Shikai Color Reflect - shampoo and conditioner
Kiss My Face - shaving cream
7th Generation - paper towels, toilet paper, garbage bags
Mrs Meyers - counter top spray, good for cleaning Marley's paw prints
JASON tea tree- deodorant (no aluminum)
Nature's Gate hemp - body lotion
Lily of France bar soap - lavender

And yes, Marley is on natural, grain-free canned food by Wellness. No more dry food. He is also on a daily dose of liquid acidolphillus (for digestion) and Pawier (for his dirty eyes and ears). A street cat never had it so good.

iaido fun

I got a real treat in Iaido classes this week. I was the only student both nights. Which meant total one-on-one time with Sensei Dave. The 1st night was pretty awesome. We didn't start with jumping jacks... surprisingly. We did a lot of basics, like fixing up my position and such. My problems are that my front foot is not pointed straight, it keeps going to a slight slant. The other is my balance. I keep doing dancer (ballet) positions. Like putting my feet in line, instead of stepping out to have a better stance. Both things I have to work on. Then we did the first 4 katas. All need a lot more work.

On the second night of class, again no jumping jacks. We sat in seiza facing each other with our bokutos between us. Then he went over the parts of the katana. All Japanese words that I must learn and repeat when tested. I can get most of them, but I need like flash cards or something. I'm working on my own training manual. Basically pointing in the things that I have a tough time with. If I got it and can memorize it, then I don't need to write it down. I figure eventually my manual should be empty cause it's all moved into my head. Optimistic I know. Then we moved into the kamaes that I must also memorize. The 7th always stalls my thinking. Going to start saying them out loud as I ride the train. Let people look at me strange. :)

By the end of that class, well it ended short. My right foot had a blister and it ripped open. Believe me it didn't hurt a bit. Actually kind of awesome. But trying to shuffle on the floor is uncomfortable with a big piece of skin flapping about. So, I said "Excuse me Sensei Dave, my blister opened up". He asked if I wanted to fix or end the class. Since we went for like 2 1/2 hours on Tuesday, I requested we end the class. I think he was disappointed. He enjoys teaching very much. And I can't express the appreciation I feel for that real time and patience he spent on me. Now my duty is to gain much from it and do better next class.

Bikes in NYC

I can't even type the slew of words that come to mind when I watched this video. Makes me really sick and boiled up inside. I moved here about 6 years ago... no one rode a bike except the crazy bike messengers and the delivery dudes. Just this morning I saw 6 go by at 1(!) intersection. They were all people going to work. When I head out to the subway in Brooklyn there are at least 10 commuters on bikes headed to work.

The city has done such a great job putting in new and more bike lanes. Why not embrace Critical Mass? Let night parades be the new thing. Let it be a god-damned tourist attraction if you must. But don't be afraid of getting sued or what not. Cause the way the city is treating this organization has only put fuel to the fire. And guess what... this poor cyclist will sue the pants off the city and NYPD. AND he is gonna win.

Now my question is... this was videoed by a tourist in Times Square. What about the cameras posted all over Times Square... private and public? Anything on those? My only worry about cameras being put in all over the city is that they will be used to cover up these types of incidents. The cop in this video reportedly said that the cyclist rode into him. The truth is seen in the video. I bet there are like 20 other angles on that same strip of road to prove the point more. :)

By the way, I watched Brazil over the weekend. Fairly screwy movie. But it proves the point, the system will fail and more paperwork will clog advancement. As quoted from Empire Records, "Damn the man!"

TNR work is never done

Last night the girls and I went out for a feral cat trapping hunt. We started on Dean Street. When we pulled up, there was one cat just kind of laying out. I think he was trying to cool off by stretching out on the sidewalk. We put out the trap and he went in, like a good boy. But the trigger didn't go off and we had to watch with baited breath. He caught sight of us and actually shifted weight to go back to eating. Then bam, the trap closed. His face was like "What the hell was that? Oh, damn I'm trapped in here!" I've never actually seen them get trapped like that before. We usually have more than one trap out and need to just let them "soak" (as they say on Deadliest Catch). Anyway, we set out like 4 more, but only got 2 out of that.

Then we moved to Pacific and put down 3 traps. There was a tom boy and possibly a female, and then a little kitty came out (maybe like 3 months). Also the neighbors came out to ask what we were doing. I can only imagine what it looks like for 3 girls to be out at like 9 PM riding around in a Volvo (borrowed from a fellow cat lady) with steel traps and cans of tuna. I always love the question, "What are you going to do with the trapped cats?" I want to say "eat them in a stew with carrots", but that might be too sarcastic. At least they care. So one neighbor lady led us to a cat in their front stoop area. That kitty was easy, pick up and put in trap. All skin and bones. She'll be living large for a few days at least.

We were able to trap the 2 cats, but not the little kitty. That will be an early quick trap today. As we drove towards home, heading back on Dean, there was another black/white cat laying out on the sidewalk. We slowed down, made a plan and set the trap. He wasn't thrilled about the steel trap, so we had to do the drop trap. Took a little time, but he went in and started to chow down. In the end we got 7 cats in 1 night. The cat-girl doing this project got a total of 19 cats in like 3-4 days. That is totally insane! And can you believe we still saw cats hanging out on the sidewalk as we finally drove home (it was getting late and there is only so much you can do in one night).

Hope they all do well for surgery on Friday.

spirit from iaido

Where do I find my spirit? How do I grasp it and use it to my advantage? How do I get all the other crap in my head out and let my spirit take over? What really drives me? I've been thinking lately. I certainly had a calm mind last month. This month it's all over the place. I can't even list all of things I'm trying to do at once, or at least so it seems. Cause when it all comes down to it, I'm still just trying to figure it out. You know, understand the why, the what, the when. I've read about people finding their spirit from meditation ("Eat, Pray, Love"). Heard it through songs, some of those songs do invoke my spirit. Maybe even watched a few movies that moved my spirit. But I haven't done it myself. Not yet. It's coming though. Tonight I focused my eyes on a point, and it now blurs up that I don't even see anymore. I just move. I try to keep everything level, but what I see in the mirror is really like seeing out of the corner of my eye. Its not clear, only cause I'm focused so hard on that spot. It worked well at times. My problems still left to solve -- breathing needs to continue and I need to slow down. Not weaken, but slow it down. Make it strong. Make it powerful. And make it mean something when I do move. Tonight I actually got a bit pumped up by the end of class. I know when Hanshi Rico is not there I feel less nervous. Sometimes that helps me, sometimes it makes me a little lazy at points. Still I want to find my spirit. And find out what I am really capable of.

helvetica

Just finished watching the documentary movie about the typeface helvetica. It was actually pretty interesting. They had old dudes explain the history of it. And the new guys who were all for using the typeface on everything. And then the rebels who totally screwed with it. They interviewed the guy who did the Ray Gun magazine from the 90s. I forgot about that mag. It rocked back in the day. So he explained how an article written was really boring and he decided to use the wingdings font. It was too boring for others to have to read it. That's awesome. I will now be finding helvetica signs all over the city.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0847817/

July 5th

Looks like more rain today. Really sucks. Three-day weekends are not to be rainy. Unless it's cold or something, then who cares. I would like some sun please! Oh well... going to the city in a bit for Iaido class. Then going to Coney Island for the baseball game. Of course if it's pouring rain and/or lightning, no point going out that way.

Marley is doing well with this new diet. We have to keep all food tucked away. He attacked a loaf of bread the other day. Looked like a giant rat got it. Silly cat.

Happy 4th of July!

kitty care

This is totally going overboard, but it seems my little Marley has an allergy. Probably a food thing or something. The vet can only do so much and they have limited experience with dealing with nutrition for cats. So, I went to a Manhattan pet store called Whiskers that has a nutritionist dude there. I have to say, he was really nice and answered all of my questions (I asked a lot of them). He recommened what to cut out of his diet (dry food, fish, grains) and supplements to help boost his immune system. I'm using some medicated ear drops to clear up his ears for the next 10 days. He really hates the drops, but at least he doesn't run away while I put them in. Anyway, he also told me to take up the food after 1/2 hour, don't let it sit out. Which is a real good idea. On Monday he, Marley that is, was throwing up at like 4 AM. Seems he didn't eat all of his wet food and decided to eat some. Yuck! We shall see how it goes.

commitment

It seems that all of my friends are moving in with their significant others and enjoying the coffee/breakfast Sunday morning in bed deal. Mind you, I'm totally happy for them all. Best of luck to them, I hope to be invited to the wedding. But upon reflection of myself, been over thinking that situation. If I were to take a relationship to the step of living together, it would have to be with a real sense of commitment. I don't like my stuff mixing with other people's stuff. For example, I don't want to go through the process of my CDs mixing with my bf. I know that totally makes me a consumer and materialistic. That's how I grew up in this world, and kind of hard to break that habit. This is all assuming I have a bf to have a commitment with and then get a place together to enjoy breakfast in bed on a Sunday morning, will I actually have to deal with those issues of mine.

By the way, this is post 100. Yippie!

Res Firma Mitescere Nescit

Tomorrow is the 66-mile bike ride to LI. Wish me luck!