Meanies.

Ugh, I hate election time. People can be so personal. Especially when you’re a conservative; paint a bullseye on my forehead. . Understand, I’m mostly Republican, but it depends on the issue. Some things like social welfare, the environment, etc. I tend more toward the middle. I’m used to people being condescending. I “cling” to my guns and religion. (F*ck you, btw.)

But this election has just revealed a whole ‘nother side to nasty.  Without bringing it up, starting a ‘discussion’ or argument, or anything – I’ve been straight-up told I’m uneducated, ignorant, war-mongering, and a failed female (apparently I let people tell me what to do with my body?).  Aren’t conservatives the ones who are supposed to be preachy and abrasive? Those were men, by the way, who said that.

Understand also, I like Sarah Palin. She’s attractive, and smart, and conservative. A good role model. Apparently it’s now ok to say shes a VPILF. At the same time she’s a bulldog with lipstick. You’d “do her”?? Now that really sounds educated. Can she be “a good mother” and still be VP?  Feminists asked this question???? Hello?  Did I miss something?

Unfortunately, as much as I try to give groups the benefit of the doubt, everything I hear and see brings it home once again that liberals can really be insufferable pricks. Elitism doesn’t look good on anyone. It’s not enlightened to look down from your tower of infinite wisdom and assume the burden of telling other people they are ignorant, and need to read more books.

I have to hand it to John McCain for working with people on both sides of the aisle who spit venom on a daily basis. In a time where ‘respect’ is a joke (he’s a “senile Vietnam vet” don’t you know?) he still believes in what he’s doing and gives it his best.

In sum, I hope McCain and Palin stick their boot up 50% of America’s ass.

L.A. Journal: day 1

Yesterday we had an awesome 5 hour marathon airplane trip.  De-to the-layed.

We’re staying in the heart of Little Toyko, at the Miyako Inn. And I know it’s authentic because the toilets are fancy. Yes, they are the butt-carwash kind. I’ve always been too chicken to try them, even in Japan. There’s a button that says massage on it. Nope, I don’t know either.

Today I went with Greyson to Siggraph, which is THE international design convention. We went to the class on how to attend Siggraph. It’s that huge. Unfortunately, the exhibits don’t start till tomorrow, so I didn’t get to see the booths and the swag. However, I DID get to see the art exhibits and the new inventions section. Which basically turned my day in Japan day =)  

Several young, genius robot inventors grinned widely when I said their inventions were “sugoku kakkooii.” I took the special Siggraph shuttle back to the hotel at around noon. Greyson stayed and joined in the worship of Ed Catmull – president of Pixar. Pretty cool stuff. 

After he got back, and I woke from my nap, we walked around Little Tokyo. The place is pretty awesome. There is more than one Japanese market here *gasp* The shops range from crappy campy touristy (American tourist) stuff, to the Japanese bakery in the shopping center. Mmm. I keep being paranoid that I’ll start speaking Japanese only to realize the people are Korean. Yet it seems that this place is really a little Tokyo – you can hear Japanese conversations on the streets. Greyson freaked over the import stuff. Especially the Mario spitter-power flower pillow. ^^ I want it too – I ain’t gonna lie. I’m experienced in the heart of being sorely tempted by countless cute thing, so my tolerance is pretty high. Plus, Disneyland is coming on Thur & Fri ^^ 

*sigh* If I can find a friggin ethernet cable I’ll upload the pics I took =)

uuuAAAALLLLEEEEeeee!!

This movie had: Serious. Fat people. Hate.

Now, by way of disclaimer, I have to say that I loved Wall-E. I want an action figure. I want to play the game. (Despite the fact that movie-games almost always blow.)

But I couldn’t quite enjoy the movie as much as I desperately wanted to. Because as it went on, it got weirder, and preachier. (And at a few points – just downright crass.)

I won’t reveal plot points, for those of you sad creatures who haven’t got out there and watched it yet! (Pixar = gods of animation. FYI)

It was as if an awesome movie w/ an amazing environment, adorable & engaging character, and fresh vibe suddenly devolved into a public service announcement. Replete with enormously fat white people on hovering chairs, who sip their meals from a cup, utter phrases like “I didn’t know we had a jogging trail,” and talk to screens rather than each other. Anti-consumerism is also RAMPANT in this movie.  (haha, type ‘wall-e’ into Ebay). So is environmental sanctimony. I’m pretty sure it was the fat people thing, though, that I found the most disturbing.

But, since I’m trying to be less negative:

• I <3 M-O.
• I love Wall-E’s bachelor pad.
• I want a Wall-E action figure, buy me one. *update* I bought one. Buy me this instead.
• EVE looked mysteriously Japanese & Apple-like, all at the same time. And it was beautiful.
• The nods to all the sci-fi movies – they made me smile =)
• Look out for Rockband in the background!

Can't say much more w/o giving stuff away =)

w00h! My bro is an internet magician.

So I bought a new harddrive. And despite the fact that UPS had played a few plucky rounds of dodgeball with the box it came in, the thing still functions. Alas, the internet refused to word. I spent hours – nay, days trying to fix the @&!*@%!! network. Xbox 360, Mom’s macbook, bros computers. All those were playing just fine with the network. But mine just wasn’t invited to the party, apparently. I ran over a few more pedestrians than usual in GTAIV, and even listened to the Beat radio channel, though my dad hates it.

Patrick took the torch from me when I lacked the strength to go on. He made it work. All hail.

Hard Drive croaked *cry*

So yeah, it’s been a while since I’ve written in my blog. And I haven’t given it up, I promise. But either my life really is that boring, and I don’t have anything to write – OR my harddrive is broken. Or both.

Xbox360 rants ahead. You’ve been warned. Just gotta wait till I get the new hdd in…

Would you want to try to craft a blog with people walking by, pestering you or looking over your shoulder? Not so much.

Lord help us, it’s a space ship.

So I’m slow, but I get there eventually. I managed to finally graduate, see Indiana Jones IV, and play GTA4 on my new Xbox360.

Not every one of those gave me thrills of joy, let me tell you.

Enough! Enouuugh!! *flaming eyeholes* Gee, Mutt was his son. I didn’t guess that when I saw his face on a coke can months ago, or anything like that. That movie was like 2 sixth graders trying to one-up each other. “Umm, so in my story, theres like these aliens – but after the atomic explosion, and-then-and-then there was a fight, and the giant ants came! But the crystal skeletons went woosh! And the kungfu natives went wham and the jungle car chase sword fight was awwwesome! ” -_-

Happily, the Xbox thing turned out better. I had a graduation partay the day before yesterday. It was pretty cool, for real. Truth be told I wasn’t all that excited about getting my BA, cuz it’s sorta worthless. I mean, what am I gonna do with a BA in Asian Studies, except hand it to the ticket-taker at Rice University? But the moral of this story is that my family took time out of their Memorial Day weekend to come to our house and congratulate me! Everyone was so excited, and said they were proud. I started to believe them =) AND they rained gifts upon me.

My birthday isn’t until December, so it felt super-weird opening a gift. I got an Arcade Xbox pack! It’s pretty bare-bones, but it came with a wireless controller in lieu of the usual wired one in the core system. I think I’ll have to buy a HDD, but I haven’t decided yet. I’m not that big of an online gamer. I’m sorta sensitive, so I can take some trash talk, but it makes me feel frustrated after a while. Good thing I got some money, cuz honey that Xbox shiz is expensive. Not quite as bad as Wii-motes, but close. The controller is SOOOOO much better than the old-school Xbox ones.

For the first (and last) time [$9, choke], I rented a game: GTA4. I’m a convert, I must say. That game is fun. I haven’t played much, so the novelty hasn’t quite worn off yet. I’m not acclimated to the Xbox vibe, so I’m not sure what all games are good. Research! Greyson is going in with me to get Rock Band, but I have dibs on the drums. I’ve always wanted to play drums. And violin. And sometimes guitar. Somehow I’ll have to get Greyson to sing, cuz I don’t think Patrick’s gonna.

Oh yeah, one of the best parts of the party was when my dad told me the story of when he was a young cop in the 70s, he was pissed – literally – at the police chief, so he decided to pee on the handles of the police chief-mobile ^^ My Uncle brought it up, so my dad had to tell me ^^ Now I know he has spicier stories I haven’t wheedled out of him yet…

Patapon headache!

Rawr! I feel all woozy and bleary-eyed… That Patapon game should come with a warning. Actually it probably does say not to play for 4 hours at a time.

For my $20, it’s a pretty decent PSP title. My dad and I went to 3 places in Austin looking for MediEvil: Resurrection. Finally when he got so tired of driving that he ordered a Whataburger junior from Burger King, I just settled for Patapon. Cmon Austin, your vidyagame selection can’t be that bad…

I fear that the next time I get mad at someone I’ll end up screaming PON PON PATA PON!!!! (Which is the patapon-command for ATTACK!!)

Sometimes, when I made my little patapon army attack, they cry out: “Spank them bottoms!” I wonder what that was in the original Japanese…

So yeah if you combine Parrappa the Rappa weirdness in a bowl with a dash of Samurai Jack design, and a whole lot of square-square-square-triangle rhythmic mashing, you’d get a mess. But it might look a bit like Patapon.

The ‘gap’ zone

My ‘the gap’ is going to be short. In fact, just the summer. No glamorous tours of Europe for me. No year off to sew wild oats (or do only men do that?)   I’m perfectly content to kick back and enjoy my family. My parents are awesome, and  bored a lot lol. They just retired. My dad is thrilled with his new garden, and my mom is reveling in the joys of her new Macbook.  My brothers are like my best friends, though I’m not entirely certain they think of their tyrannical older-sister as such, haha.

Today we went to the Houston Galleria and spent the parent’s retirement funds on haircuts and clothes. It is my unofficial job to be my bros’ personal stylist. They are 19 and 21 (in a week). Yep. It’s fun though. Except I only spent money on them… I’d feel too guilty buying clothes for me =)

I feel a little bit numb inside… for the first time in a year I don’t have some assignment or thesis or research hovering over my head. As much as I whined over hippies and bad food, I will miss Austin. I regret that I wasn’t there for graduate school – I just didn’t have the time or means to enjoy what the ‘heart of Texas’ can offer.

Plus, my friends don’t live in Houston. My best friend moved away last year to Tennessee. I’m much more a quality person than a quantity person, and so I only walked away from Austin with a handful of friends, but I’ll certainly miss them as well.

I tried reading some new books the other day. I started Anne of Green Gables. All I could think of was that I wished Alice of Wonderland would walk up and slap Anne of Green Gables and tell her to shut the frick up. Perhaps I’m not in a suitable mood…

Can’t seem to get all that excited about commencement. I feel like my life has been one long parade of school. Not that I mind it much, it just seems silly to make such a fuss on what feels like such an arbitrary spot in a lifelong grind. I’d really rather stay home and sleep or revel in the flatscreen TV/Tivo combo. Alas, the parents are entitled to see their daughter walk, it apparently thrills them so.

Back at base

While I’m happy to be home, I have in fact landed on the shores of allergy hell. My room is a wasteland of dust and random crap I just need to throw away but haven’t because I only spent 2 days at a time at home for the past several months. It is a total craphole. And I’m not being charmingly female, where ‘craphole’ means a few knick-knacks out of place, with an errant perfume bottle here and there. Plus, there are weiner-dogs rooting through all my unpacked stuff. *sadface* AND I just found out my long-time friend and neighbor got married to a Chinese girl he met on a trip to Beijing.  No one talks to me anymore…*sniff sniff, whine whine*

Things at UT, in Austin, that I will miss.

On this, the last day of my time here at UT, in this, the capitol city of Texas, I will now reflect on the things that have made the last 2 1/2 years of my life so…what it was.

1) The fact that it’s less humid than Houston, and that there are breezes.

2) The fact that the water in the water fountain doesn’t taste like a swimming pool.

3) The fact that squirrels aren’t snobby.

4) The days that I can pretend I’m walking around outside in my own music video, even if it’s one with really awful live vocals, and over-worked drums.

5) The fact that my tiny TV perches perfectly on top of my tiny microwave.

6) The fact that Nestea Raspberry is offered in JCL, the market, AND Wendys.

7) The fact that I’ve learned there are places where you won’t be raped, robbed, then killed for using public transportation.

The fact that people in Austin think theres traffic – it always makes me giggle.

9) The fact that people in Austin think they have a hip-hop radiostation – also good for a chuckle.

10) The feeling of actually noticing middle-age and older people, as if they were an endangered species.

11) Being flirted with by the jackass at CVS pharmacy, and the jackass at Walgreens.  Oh wait. Yes please, joke about women’s hygiene products. I hope you develop hemorrhoids. And an enlarged prostate.

12) The fact that there is a mass psychology experiment in which the young are made to believe the 80s wasn’t an ugly, ugly time in fashion history.

13) The fact that people here think recycling actually does something positive. Doesn’t anyone ever watch Penn & Tellers Bullshit??

14) The fact that the students are being experimented on with gas that smells like maple syrup. I know you know what I’m talking about.

15) The fact that the campus looks like crap-in-a-can most of the time, until, of course, the parents come into town. Yes, that fountain certainly is glorious, isn’t it.

16) The fact that the street people coordinate their pet’s ratty camo accessories to match their ratty camo outfits.

17) The fact that the street-art with the rabbit putting its paw in the chicks mouth looks obscene, but no matter how long you look at it, you can’t find a material reason to accuse it of being obscene.

18) The fact that everyone thinks they are a hipster. E-f-f  y-o-u. Die in an emo-tastic fire. In front of Urbanoutfitters.

19) The fact that people strut in and out of the GRE like health makes them so much better than me. Pssh.

20) The fact that the only form of entertainment I have is making up stupid lists on my blog that only 3 1/2 people read.

and lastly,

the fact that it only takes 2 1/2 hours from Austin to get the hell back to Houston. Deuce!