Into to the Kotatsu

It is extremely cold in Chicago. It is time to whip out the kotatsu, a heated table with blankets to contain the warmth and holy goodness.

Chiaki of "Nodame Cantabile" believes that the kotatsu is the evil of the world, because it leads to laziness and procrastination. Being no stranger to either of these things, and in fact best friends with them, I, like Nodame, embrace and endorse the use of a kotatsu during the winter. But Chiaki is right--one tends not to want to leave the kotatsu, things (both useful and garbage) tend to accumulate on and around it, and one tends to start using back-scratchers, pens, and so on, to reach for things slightly far away. In the photo above, you'll notice Frege lying at the corner (he's not allowed in, mostly because he's a hater and he poses a fire hazard inside), some other books and notebooks on the other side, garbage gathering behind my computer, an old can of Coke, some old tea, chocolate, and my DS. You can see where my head goes, where the pillows are. Here is how I nest:

Here is the inside--some people are afraid of getting burnt, but I assure you there is nothing but love inside:

It keeps you warm, it heals your illnesses, it makes no moral judgments about you and your behavior, and therefore genuinely loves you for everything you are.

Mister Donuts in Chicago, if briefly!

Mordecai's friend Kota came back from Japan today. He brought back fresh Mister Donuts "Pon de Ring" donuts. They are a little chewy and mochi-like in texture, and they are lightly sweet. Unfortunately, this is as close as it gets between me and Japan at this time of the year, but we will be reunited soon.

Costco Mascot

I went to Costco last week with my mom to get some contact lenses. After my exam, my mom and I went to the register to pay for the lenses. My mom started freaking out about something, staring at the ground, without telling me or pointing to anything. I soon realized why she was trying to be inconspicuous when I looked at the bottom of a shopping cart:

I guess no one really realized that we were fussing because we speak in Japanese to each other. Let's take a closer look (click for full, albeit camera phone, size):

There were some remarkable things about this rat--it looked quite real; it looked like it was alive not too long before appearing before the optical department in its form; and assuming it was alive, it was most certainly not a starved rat. Another angle:


Optical people started noticing, and we were still the only customers freaking out/laughing about this. They started calling employees in other departments, who would call other people, but no one would move the cart to the side, away from potential customer eyes. Maybe they were calling in for a coroner's report--how did it die like that??? My Agent Cooper skills tell me that it got stuck between two carts when someone corralled the carts up.

Belated Post

In honor of Jenni's birthday last week, I had a Chicken McNugget Happy Meal. In Chicken McNuggetland, my Bionic "boys' toy" tried to attack my last McNugget and sauce.

And then I tried to play Pikmin (the McDonald's on Fullerton has a kiddie zone with four N64s) but the controller wouldn't allow my character to move left to right, only up and down. And then Mordecai reminded me of how dirty the controllers might be.

My love for mochi

It goes on and on.

O-mochi-san

Bye, 2007!

I'm going to pause and reflect on 2007 only because it is ending on a pretty high note (that was a Wesley joke). High- and lowlights of the year:

-First couple weeks of 2007 spent in Japan
-Acquisition of the Wii
-Spontaneous pneumothorax
-Awesome boss, good times at JRL 170
-Spontaneously started up piano
-Upgraded materialistic living conditions
-Engagement
-OMG graduate school
-Zelda, Mario Galaxy, Animal Crossing, Phoenix Wright, Guitar Hero, Rock Band
-Lost my signing-in-public virginity to the Rock Band vocal part of the Killer's "When You Were Young"

And now I'll be stocking that Belgian raspberry beer at Trader Joe's for whatever might be in store for tonight.

LOL this cat.

I've been using Photo Booth to take pictures with the cats. Emu responds well to the screen, but Morgan is too fussy. I like the one above where Emu is stting the way Scottish Folds often sit, but that's just because I caught him in a weird position while he was licking himself. He looks like he's busy researching how to express deliver sardines and scoffing at all of the inferior cats on the LOL cat sites.

Here's another good one where he's looking curious. He's quite handsome.

It rained on and off today on Strong Island, so there weren't many opportunities to take pictures. Tomorrow it is supposed to be colder, but sunny, and we are supposed to go into the city for a field trip. Perhaps some outdoor pictures to come.

BOSS.

On Strong Island, there lives an Emperor. His name is Emu. Once a year, Memu pays homage. And lying next to His Holiness is Carlos, who looks like a miniature combination of Emu and Sponge Bob. The Emperor likes milk and cream cheese.

Recent Acquisition

I bought a piano recently, and it was delivered today. It is a 1977 Baldwin with light action, but a nice sound.

I still hate Nintendo

But, meanwhile...

Did you know Carleton listens to music? Did you know he sings? His vibrato is pretty impressive.

Coming soon: the contents of my bag on any given day.

Nintendo Algorithms vs. My Heart

It's 3AM, and as custom goes, I play Animal Crossing before going to bed. I get a letter, sans present, from Cube. He left. GONE.

Today in my discussion sections, I talked about atheism and morality. There was a short Nietzsche reading, the famous passage where the madman runs around saying "God is dead! We killed him!" and so on. This is obviously a rejection of theistic morality, where moral right and wrong are defined by a monotheistic god's approval or disapproval. To an extent, this means that we are free to come up with our own value systems. Morality isn't universal, we should appreciate this material life, and so on.

This freedom entails both awful and awesome consequences. One might think, Oh no, God doesn't exist? Everything I know ceases to have meaning. I'm scared. Or, one might think, Oh really? God doesn't exist? Well...to each his own! I'm going to create new meaning. How exciting!

In some sense, I have really lost meaning in my Animal Crossing life. At the moment, I really hate Nintendo. They have created algorithms that seriously fuck with my heart. It cannot be totally random. I even tried to time travel (Ultimate Sin), but the game knows. Yet in another sense, Cube was not everything in Animal Crossing, so it'd be stupid to reject the entire game for this one travesty. I could rationalize Cube's departure and move on with my Animal Crossing life. I could make Mordecai try to get Cube in his neglected town; he'd have more incentive to play, with an almighty Cube + Static combo. I certainly almost cried.

What do I do?

Zelda: Twilight Princess Spoilers

I finally beat Zelda: Twilight Princess the other day. I gave up about 45-50 hours of my time over the course of 8 months to play the whole thing. I will not deny that I used a walkthrough--in fact, I used two, one with images and one just text. A lot of the game was scary as hell; I was screaming and sweating (I don't sweat that much) at some points with scary enemies and bosses (i.e. I was swinging the remote and nunchuck around like mad). The feeling of finishing Zelda was sort of like finishing Phoenix Wright--I feel a sense of great accomplishment, but also subsequent emptiness. Now what?

So here's Ganondorf, the main villain. I liked him a lot because of his face--he's basically a Japanese mythical ogre (oni) with some samurai-looking armor and a bigass, fancy sword. I wasn't too crazy about his name, because it sounds like a ripoff of a famous fictitious name, "Gandalf." But other than that, he was pretty cool--used Zelda as a puppet (I thought I was gonna have to fight Midna), turned into a boar with a weak belly scar, rode around on a horse with red eyes, and then decided to battle simple and old-school, man to man, with swords, so I could FINISH HIM. And then the rest of the ending was a blur--Midna turned into some tall lady with a lot of makeup and an exposed midriff, wandered back into her realm, and then busted the shit out the twilight mirror.

Next up on my list of things to distract me from productivity: Super Mario Galaxy. I've only played a little bit so far, but it is looking pretty sweet. I'm not sure if I'm ready to embark on another epic Zelda adventure (I gave up on Link to the Past because I couldn't find where I was in the walkthrough guide), Phantom Hourglass for the DS. I was interested in Pokemon, but then Jamie made fun of me. Still, those monsters look awesome. Winter break is coming up soon though...hmm.

Boyz II Men!

They're back (again)! They have a Motown cover album, including a new rendition of "End of the Road." I only heard about this album as a result of downloading a Japanese music show, Music Fair, last week. I thought I'd provide some screen caps, because no one does musical performance sets like the Japanese. (Maybe it's just Americans who don't have shows like this, and therefore sets like this.)

They performed a snippet of "Just My Imagination," where Wanya got the line "Every night, on my knees I pray..." Here he is on his knees, while Nathan and Shawn console and provide backup coos.

They translated the lyrics at the bottom of the screen. Here is Wanya singing "But in reality, she doesn't even know me..." I had to get a close up of his buttery head and neck. I was instantly reminded of when Cedric the Entertainer sings and dances on stage in Spike Lee's "Kings of Comedy" (or "Kangs," as one might say).

Here they're performing "Reach Out I'll Be There" originally by the Four Tops. I hear this song a lot on peripheral, adult-oriented radio stations like 100.3 Love FM or 106.3 and 102.7, who play a lot of old school stuff. All their vocals and dance moves are on point, so much that I wished they released a DVD instead of a CD. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they'll be touring in Chicago anytime soon :(

Unfortunately, Nathan forgot to keep his legs apart at the end. It's okay, Boss! They also performed "I'll Make Love to You" with AI but I'll save everyone the horror of having to look at her face (it's all in the bangs). She was alright, but clearly nervous and awkward singing about making love in the presence candles, wine, and clothes thrown on the floor. Instead I have bonus footage of lame-o Exile, who looked and sounded especially pathetic next to the Almighty Boyz II Men:

Mordecai asked, "Did that guy get brain surgery or something?" of the right singer. That man needs to take those damn sunglasses off, grow his hair back and wipe that soy sauce off his upper lip.

Understanding McDonaldsese

This morning, Mordecai and I went to McDonald's. I love love love McDonald's breakfast. I know people (i.e. Joe) find their Minute Maid orange juice offensive, but I love it with my sausage egg McMuffin.

Anyway we were looking at the receipt's claim that there are "WINNER$ EVERY WEEK!" and Mordecai noticed something interesting in the fine print. It reads:

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Sweepstakes consists of individual weekly Entry Periods. Open only to legal residents of the US and Canada (other than the Province of Quebec), 15 years of age and older. In order to win, a Canadian resident must correctly answer a skill testing question. See Official Rules at www.mcdonalds-survey.com. Void where prohibited. Limit one entry per person per Entry Period. (Emphasis mine)

One odd thing is that the Quebecois are excluded, but I'm not shedding any tears or anything. What we thought was strange is this emphasized line. What is this "skill testing" question? How are Americans automatically skilled; are we skilled in virtue of being American? But then I also realized that this sentence is poorly structured. I think it wants to say, "In order for a non-Quebecois Canadian to win, he or she must correctly answer a skill testing question." But as it is, the sentence reads, "For anyone to win, some Canadian resident must correctly answer some skill testing question [as selected by McDonald's]." Could a Canadian refuse to answer this skill-testing question on the grounds that the sentence is ambiguous, and still win $1000 "or other weekly prizes"?

Forgotten Houndstooth Item

When writing about how Animal Crossing got me to notice houndstooth, I forgot to mention that I also bought these shoes for their houndstooth-ness (not quite visible in the picture below; trust me).

I neglected to mention them because I've worn them once since buying them in September on a random/impulse trip to Meijer (after dinner at Culver's) with Mordecai and Joe. They damn near destroyed my feet, and I've been scared to try them again.

Carleton's new hat

I'm not so obsessed with acorns anymore, but under the only oak tree I know of in the neighborhood on Sacramento and Schubert, I found an acorn hat. My guess is that the squirrels get all the acorns. Further, they probably get to them before they can fall. I can't climb trees, but maybe I could if I weren't a biped.

So now Carleton has a new hat. He doesn't get out much, but at least he's always stylish at home.

Matcher!

I'd like to point out to the world that I have the same boots as Michelle Tanner:

I really don't know which Olsen twin that is, but who cares! We have the same boots!

Chicago (Glencoe) Botanic Garden

There's an oak tree in the neighborhood, but no acorns. Surely the Chicago Botanic Garden must have some oak trees that actually yield acorns, I thought. So we went there this past weekend with Mordecai's mom, and happened to park next to an oak tree with plenty of acorns below it. Some had lost their "hats" or whatever those caps are. They were generally all brown, dusty, and round, very much unlike the ones in this picture I posted earlier, and unlike the ones that the Totoros collect. I might have to ask my grandma to send some from Japan, as environmentally questionable as that might be.

There were no acorns inside the gardens, but there were some other things to note.

Though I'm not a big fan, I think Kant likes these. I'm not sure he'd like this yellow and pink one. It reminded me of strawberry-banana flavored things, like yogurt and smoothies, a classic fruit combo in my book.

Mordecai crossed the railings and searched for acorns, but only retrieved some sorry caps. He also rolled around in some weird patch of low-growing plants, only to crush the leaves and to come up smelling like urine.

Chipmunks are everywhere in the gardens. They are jittery and fast, as if they're on speed. Maybe all the humans make them nervous, though you'd expect that they'd get used to us by now.

Some people got really into the Japanese zen gardens.

Someone left these sunglasses behind. They were kinda greasy and well-used. I like how I could safely assume that an elderly person left them behind; in any other situation, I'd probably have to assume that they belonged to some awful mustached male hipster or his female counterpart.

Unless I become obsessed with acorns again in the coming autumns, and the oak trees in Logan Square don't produce them, I think I've satisfied my every-ten-years-quota for making a trip to the Botanic Gardens. Enjoying those gardens is a sign of growing up or aging!

Animal Crossing Influences: Fashion edition

I thought I'd share some more recent Animal-Crossing inspirations, specifically related to fashion.

Ever since I started taking Gracie the fashion-police-giraffe's surveys and receiving "Fashionista Badges," I've become quite obsessed with the houndstooth pattern. One of the first questions she asked me was what print I considered to be classic--I think plaid and some other unmemorable things were on this list. The only thing I didn't recognize was houndstooth, and since I didn't like the other options, I selected it. Her immediate response was somewhat positive, so I thought, hmm, I better check this out. It turned out that I had seen houndstooth before, but just assumed it would fall under the umbrella of tweed, which at the time I took to be a generic term for multiple wool prints. Now, houndstooth haunts me left and right. I'm not sure if it is indeed classic as Gracie seemed to have indicated, or if I'm just noticing it all of a sudden now (especially in the fall).

[Gracie]

At the end of this past summer, I bought a winter coat on sale at Bloomingdale's. It wasn't just any coat--it was the last one on the floor; it fit me perfectly; I got the salespeople to help me scheme to get it at a reduced price (apply for their credit card, come back in a week to readjust the price during a card-holder exclusive sales event); and above all, it was HOUNDSTOOTH. All factors read as DESTINY to me.

[I like to think Nodame would wear a similar coat]

And just the other day at Target, I was wondering what color tights I should get. I've been seeing opaque colors on many women now, and since I wear a lot of black, I thought that might work. But then I looked beyond the opaque color selection, and noticed a black and dark gray houndstooth-y print. DESTINY!

[Knobby knees]

I also bought some leftover houndstooth fabric a while back, but my sewing projects have been put on indefinite hiatus for now. Eventually, I'll make something...a DS case? An acorn-collecting pouch?

The other Animal Crossing character who has inspired me to seek certain prints is Blathers, museum-curator-owl. I always meant to further investigate the acquisition of argyle clothing, like a sweater, but who wants to wear argyle or a sweater in the spring and summer? Finally, this fall, J. Crew answered my calls with a multitude of argyle sweaters. Unfortunately, some were cashmere (=expensive), but I found some merino wool cardigans in a different section. DESTINY!

[Maybe I should've become a museum curator...]

Much like last fall and winter, my wardrobe consists of black, gray, and white. This could be the influence of Mordecai, but these are also the easiest colors to work with. Now, if only I could make and save money in my normal life the way I do in Animal Crossing life, I could fund more houndstooth and argyle investments...and so much more...

To be continued.

Acorn Festival

I feel lame blogging from a tea cafe, but at least I had a relatively productive day. Plato and I are buddies--I know he don't hate on women.

Across a plethora of DS consoles world-wide this week, many Animal Crossing players are celebrating the Acorn Festival. I've been looking forward to this for a long time because I like festivals, and for this one, you have access to special "mush" items (so you can make a "mush-room" in your house--GET IT?!). Tortimer, dressed as "Cornimer," gives you the items for gathering a certain number of the acorns. There are a variety of acorns, who knew? Round, small, large, normal, and rotten. If you give him a rotten one, he gets mad.

[Some Japanese acorns from some Japanese blog]

[Rotten acorn!]

Tipper, my big-headed cow neighbor, pointed out that there aren't any oak trees in our town, so where do the acorns come from? Turns out that huge head isn't for nothing. In any case, now I want to find and collect real acorns.

[I could make Totoro acorns]

In the Japanese classic "Totoro," Mei collects acorns that the mini-Totoros have left behind. Where can I get acorns in Chicago?! Could there be Chicagoan Totoros?!

[From the "Republic of Acorns"]

The arrival of the Acorn Festival means that my anniversary with Animal Crossing is approaching. Joe started playing before me, around this time now. He then told me that Animal Crossing was the shit, and I decided to give it a second try after giving up half a year before. I'm not sure whe the exact day was that I started playing again, but since that date X, I've never gone a day without playing for at least a few minutes. The vicissitudes of life in Humania are sometimes just as extreme and harsh as "real life," but holy crap, this is the greatest game ever.