I found my Comic-Con verification code in my pile of mail. I am now officially registered. My sister is my free guest and my bro-in-law is my paid guest. Hotel room is booked as well. I had Laura work on that on Thursday morning. I gave her my credit card number so she can use it to charge the room on it.
It’s going to be a very geeky weekend.
Ugly Bento, originally uploaded by mouriran.
So here it is, folks. The ugly bento I was talking about. The koya tofu was pretty nasty and ruined the flavor of the rice. I tried to make a face out of the radishes and the tomatoes, but it didn’t come out right. The konnyaku should have gone in the middle so they’d look like brown teeth. It didn’t help that the radishes look like freakin’ boobs.
Oh well. You learn from your mistakes, and I surely did on this one.
I made an ugly bento lunch for tomorrow.
When I made this bento earlier this week, I noticed during lunch that I didn’t put any protein in it. That was no good. So this time I decided to add something. What did I choose? Koya tofu. Yes, the tasteless spongy freeze dried tofu. I even tried to add some flavor to it by sautéing it in a bit of soy sauce and mirin.
I don’t think it worked. The koya tofu still tasted kinda nasty. So I arranged it so it’d look like it has an ugly face on it. I’m hoping the taste will mellow out during the night, but it’ll probably still taste gross, too. I’ll find out for sure tomorrow when I eat my lunch.
While surfing the web, I came across Gero Onsen bath salts. I was like, COOL! That’s where I went to for my hot spring experience while in Japan.
I might have to pick a package up if I ever come across it while shopping.
However, I’ll probably feel guilty about using that much water, so I’ll probably only use once in a while.
Today was one of those days. You wake up knowing it’s going to be crappy. You go through the day and crappy things happen. Some things resolve themselves, but not before you feel like bashing your head into something. And the day ends, with the crappy feeling intensifying simply because crappy compounds hourly.
For some incredibly shortsighted reason, default coverage for vision during the insurance election process was set to waive IF you wanted something other than basic HMO. Let’s also tell the employees that enrollment in vision insurance is automatic, which is contrary to what actually happens. It’s an awesome move if you want to make sure the nearly blind employees who like PPO insurance don’t get any vision insurance. It’s not awesome if you have an eye doctor’s appointment the next week. So that’s what happened to me. Eventually, it got resolved, but not before I felt like bashing my head into something.
Ugh.
Like my friend Ardith says, tomorrow is a new day.
Say I have a beautiful voice and I’ve been asked to sing the national anthem in front of a group of people at a college basketball game, do I accept or do I decline? The correct answer is, if only I know how to sing the Star Spangled Banner.
So today, the singer with the amazing voice did not know the Star Spangled Banner. Now, if you’re a normal regular person with a crappy voice like me, one might expect you to at least recognize your own national anthem. Knowing the lyrics wouldn’t be an important part of your daily routine. However, if you’ve been asked to sing the national anthem in front of a few hundred or more group of people, then I think it’s very important to know the lyrics. Just because you’re a good at karaoke doesn’t mean you’re a good singer. It just doesn’t work that way. I’m sorry.
If you don’t know the lyrics, then there’s this nifty site that’ll search the lyrics for you. Also, ‘o’er’ isn’t pronouced as ‘and’. It’s ‘over’ but without the ‘v’ sound.
Once, there was a singer that asked me to play the B or some random note on my flute right before the basketball game. I’m like, uh, sure. I play the requested note and move on. A few minutes later, the lady the asked for the B note goes to the center of the basketball court to sing a horribly off key rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. It was embarrassing to listen to.
First of all, every single version of the Star Spangled Banner I’ve played is in the key of B flat, not B. For those of you who read my blog and don’t know what the difference is, the key of B flat has 2 flats: B flat and E flat. The key of B has 5 sharps: C sharp, D sharp, F sharp, G sharp, and A sharp. I imagine the lady listened to the B note, went to center court, and then had wild internal conflicts with all the B flat versions she had listened to in the past.
Hey, it’s not my fault the lady needed a note played to her to figure out where to start. If she was a professional, then she wouldn’t even need such a thing.
For those of you that are wondering, I can play the Star Spangled Banner by heart on my flute AND I can sing the lyrics. However, if I knew I had to play/sing the song in front of a huge audience solo, I would be practicing until it’s completely perfect in every single way, as flubbing is not an option.
This is a test post from 
, a fancy photo sharing thing.
Well, it’s not quite as exciting as some would expect from a Friday night, but considering that I don’t do much these days, it was quite fun. A break from my usual routine of going straight home.
One of my coworkers wanted to go get some Korean tacos after work at a bar in Culver City. Now, I know you’re thinking, Korean tacos?! Seriously?? It sounds weird, but I was like, hey, that sounds interesting. It could either be delicious or really bad. And I’m always up for something new when it comes to food. If it turns out disgusting, then I can just warn people off. If it turns out delicious, then I can say with confidence, ‘yes, sounds weird, but don’t diss until you try it.’
But before I could partake in the bar atmosphere and the Korean tacos, I needed to buy some books to prepare myself for the level 2 JLPT. I passed the level 3 with flying colors… Rather makes me wish I signed up for level 2. Meh! The lady at Asahiya bookstores told me that level 2 is hard even for the Japanese. I was thinking, it might be like the TOEFL for Americans. Anyway, I bought 3 books on it, and they were expensive. If I don’t freakin’ pass this test, I’m going to be angry at myself.
Luckily, it’s multiple choice.
I know a friend that failed level 2 by about 10 points, and I read something about most foreigners in Japan learn Japanese up to level 2. They don’t go for level 1. Well, I’m not a foreigner (well, technically I am, but I can fool them for a while), so I’m going to take level 1 and pass. One day. In the not so near future.
Anyways….
After I bought my books, I stopped by Hyper Game to buy a game. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals: Rings of Fate. Maybe my friends will play with me. …They’ll probably want to play Left 4 Dead instead. :P
Anyways, again…
To the bar. The Korean tacos were served at a bar called Alibi Room on Washington Blvd. The place was packed with an unusually high number of Asians. I ordered spicy pork tacos and Koshihikari Echigo (I think) beer. They were all out of Sapporo. Darn. The tacos took a while, but they were good. Had another beer. Some of my coworkers decided to move to another bar called the Other Room, but I needed to sober up before I could drive and I wasn’t going to be drinking anymore.
Kandarp needed to take his dog out, so another coworker and I accompanied him back to his place. Hyper is a good word that would describe Buggy. After chatting, and playing with Buggy till 1 AM, it was time to go home.
And that was my exciting Friday night.
I hope not, but it’s been acting a bit weird lately. And by weird I mean slow and half broken. Trying to stream YouTube videos is a pain. Burning CDs leads to half of them being coasters. My keychain access deleted itself. It definitely hasn’t been fun.
In preparation for a sudden death or something equally painful, I’ve started to back up my stuff. Currently backing up my software keys. I buy most of my software off the internet. If anything should happen to my computer before my keys are safely tucked somewhere else, I would be very, VERY unhappy.
Kinda tempted to buy a new computer. A new version of Mac Pro just came out… I drool, but I don’t want to spend just yet. My G5 still has life left in it. No need to get rid of it before it’s time.
I caught Sen destroying the carpet. She was totally red handed (or pawed). I admonished her since I caught her in the act, but seriously, she’s going to get destructive when she gets bored again.
So I did what any good rabbit owner does. Buy more toys and treats for them. While I was shopping, I bought them some nail clippers, too. I can’t seem to cut their toe nails very well with my own toe nail clipper. It was kinda expensive, but hopefully well worth it.