fading pictures on the wall
I have no internet all week. What a crippling feeling- ever since my modem suddenly died, not responding to any revival effort- turning switch on and off, pressing the reset button, unplugging all the cables. I'm patiently waiting for a new modem while piggybacking on neighbor's router. Thus an excuse for not blogging enough these days. I had aquired a few more boxes of precious Polaroid film, which they ceased their production. Only 60 more pictures of Polaroids for the wall. Then it will all be a memory of good old days of analog, or 'the real thing.'
on february 24, 2009 @ 06:38 pm [link]
| February 2009 | ||||||
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
soy diary
Judgement
Last week, I was summoned to Health Department for my hearing. My appointment was 10am, which means that if I actually show up at 10 am I'll be waiting for two hours. So I got there at 9 am, and of course already dozens of people waiting, many of them lawyers (leeches!) with dozens of files. So I patiently waited for an hour to be called in. Then I was taken into a little room with an enormous desk, and sat in front of the health department judge. It's usually a mean old lady, but this time, she was not old, but truly the meanest looking lady. I was in trouble. Of course the first and the most serious item involved in the "animal present" incident, where Tomu the lost cat greeted the inspector at the door. The mean lady's face was skewered as she read the violation. "A cat!? Is that true??!!??" "Yes." "Would you pay money and eat at a restaurant with a live animal?!??!!?" That was a ridiculous question to me. I lived with cats and other animals almost all my life. I eat with my cat on the table, and I sometimes even share a spoon with her eating ice cream. Cats are very clean animal." I tried to make my case by saying that he practically walked in the door, and it was very cold and rainy outside I could not just kick him out. She didn't have an ear to listen anything. She was not convinced. She just went on scolding me, bullying me over a few other items, and I was almost in tears when she said to me at the end, "Do you have anything else to say?" I said, "I was just trying to be a good person. That's all." So I waited for the judgement in the waiting room, another hour passed, and the price I paid to be a good person: $200.
on february 12, 2009 @ 09:23 pm [link]
Last week, I was summoned to Health Department for my hearing. My appointment was 10am, which means that if I actually show up at 10 am I'll be waiting for two hours. So I got there at 9 am, and of course already dozens of people waiting, many of them lawyers (leeches!) with dozens of files. So I patiently waited for an hour to be called in. Then I was taken into a little room with an enormous desk, and sat in front of the health department judge. It's usually a mean old lady, but this time, she was not old, but truly the meanest looking lady. I was in trouble. Of course the first and the most serious item involved in the "animal present" incident, where Tomu the lost cat greeted the inspector at the door. The mean lady's face was skewered as she read the violation. "A cat!? Is that true??!!??" "Yes." "Would you pay money and eat at a restaurant with a live animal?!??!!?" That was a ridiculous question to me. I lived with cats and other animals almost all my life. I eat with my cat on the table, and I sometimes even share a spoon with her eating ice cream. Cats are very clean animal." I tried to make my case by saying that he practically walked in the door, and it was very cold and rainy outside I could not just kick him out. She didn't have an ear to listen anything. She was not convinced. She just went on scolding me, bullying me over a few other items, and I was almost in tears when she said to me at the end, "Do you have anything else to say?" I said, "I was just trying to be a good person. That's all." So I waited for the judgement in the waiting room, another hour passed, and the price I paid to be a good person: $200.
on february 12, 2009 @ 09:23 pm [link]
soybean day
Today is "Setsubun" in Japan. It's the day we throw soybeans to cleanse and drive evil out and bring luck into the house. When we were young, we had soybean wars in school, which left us with terrible mess to clean up afterwards. We also eat roasted soybeans, as many as our age to stay healthy for the year. We are also supposed to eat a big roll of sushi facing the year's lucky direction- east-northeast this year. Although my business is doing all right, in this gloomy economy I feel like doing more groundless things to get more luck to my way. I have people walking in looking for work every day now. As it was my mission when I opened SOY seven years ago, I would like to continue providing delicious and healthy food to nourish your body and soul. A little bit (or a lot of) pleasure and energy that we all need. And we have toys and puzzles to get your mind off your worries.
A great little news came from Bermuda yesterday. A year ago, I participated in the inaugural "Bermuda Triangle Challenge," three days of racing- a mile, 10k, then a half or full marathon on the third day. Although I was the first place female in the Half-marathon challenge, they didn't have any award for that. But I was happy enough to earn my first-ever prize money from running for the first place in age group for the half marathon. Now they send me email that they decided to give awards to the challenge winners after all. Yeay!
Our beloved Tomu had his pretty balls cut off, and his name is now changed to Freddy, Orly told me. His behavior problem hasn't been completely corrected, "But he's so cute, so handsome!" They seem to like him after all. Everyday people still ask me about Tomu- yes, he's been happily adopted.
on february 3, 2009 @ 07:39 pm [link]
Today is "Setsubun" in Japan. It's the day we throw soybeans to cleanse and drive evil out and bring luck into the house. When we were young, we had soybean wars in school, which left us with terrible mess to clean up afterwards. We also eat roasted soybeans, as many as our age to stay healthy for the year. We are also supposed to eat a big roll of sushi facing the year's lucky direction- east-northeast this year. Although my business is doing all right, in this gloomy economy I feel like doing more groundless things to get more luck to my way. I have people walking in looking for work every day now. As it was my mission when I opened SOY seven years ago, I would like to continue providing delicious and healthy food to nourish your body and soul. A little bit (or a lot of) pleasure and energy that we all need. And we have toys and puzzles to get your mind off your worries. A great little news came from Bermuda yesterday. A year ago, I participated in the inaugural "Bermuda Triangle Challenge," three days of racing- a mile, 10k, then a half or full marathon on the third day. Although I was the first place female in the Half-marathon challenge, they didn't have any award for that. But I was happy enough to earn my first-ever prize money from running for the first place in age group for the half marathon. Now they send me email that they decided to give awards to the challenge winners after all. Yeay!
Our beloved Tomu had his pretty balls cut off, and his name is now changed to Freddy, Orly told me. His behavior problem hasn't been completely corrected, "But he's so cute, so handsome!" They seem to like him after all. Everyday people still ask me about Tomu- yes, he's been happily adopted.
on february 3, 2009 @ 07:39 pm [link]