to jason re: kyoto

yeah, kyoto's mostly about temples. i really like kiyomizudera which i saw again this time after seeing it first on the exchange trip. also, arashiyama is really cool (i think that's what it's called)--it's kind of in a river valley, and there are a lot of temples just randomly around the mountain and you can rent bikes and bike through all the bamboo lined trails. you can also take a boat ride in the canyon thing but i felt bad for the person poling the boat. there's also this place that serves naga-somen (i think) which is when they give you cold noodles that you dip in sauce and eat; the only thing is, instead of just giving it to you in a bowl, they kind of slide it down a little tiny waterslide and you have to pick up the noodles from the little stream of water as they slide down the slide by you. it's really fun. also, kyoto has lots of warabimochi which i like but i don't know if you're into that. haha, alright, enough about japan before the rest of you die.

stalin

planning for dk's return

sunday's not good for me, nor is saturday night. that's my input.

StaLin

plan something!!

ack!, project... i'm totally lacking sleep right now, so if this blog doesnt make sense i have something to blame on. anyway i'm going to be back july 1st earlying in the morning, and leaving july 4th late at night. i have my uncle and his family over so i cant really go out that often, so i would like to plan something ahead. so on with planning!!
i wanna watch superman and nacho.
i wanna eat chipotle... mmmm...
and i wanna see everyone.

-DK

fricking naked ppl... its bad enough i have to see them everyday, i have a shelf load of naked ppl books.

i am back!

time to be jetlagged. zzzzzzzzz.

stalin

everything is fuzzy

so last night my coworkers and boss threw a welcome party for me and and 4 other interns (all japanese) this party involved okinawan food, revelations on the subejct of dragon ball, and drinking too much. first, okinawan food, its really weird. even the japanese, who eat weird food, think the okinawan`s food is weird. i ate everything, and could identify nothing, when i asked other people what stuff was, they didnt know either. one thing was a really bitter vegetable that the okinawans like. it wasnt half bad except there was nothing to wash the taste out of your mouth except beer which is also bitter. also shochu which taste roughly like what i imagine an alcoholic horse`s piss would taste like. i do not recommend it, its also pretty strong. id been told theyd cut mine with water, but they didnt stir it so i drank half a cup of booze first and then had some nice water to wash it down with. but more about drinking too much with your boss later.

the next item to address is the true meaning of the word saiya-in (how the japanese say sayen) saiya is an anagram for the word yasai which means vegetable and in means person. the truth is all the sayens names were a type of vegetable, except gohan who was half human and thus is named after rice which isnt quite a vegetable. for instance vejita is the king of sayens and thus his name is actually how the japanese pronounce teh word vgetable without the ble (no pun intended {say it out loud if you still dont get it}) also there was vejita`s friend radishu i dont think i need to explain that one. name a sayen and youll name a vegetable, its genius. goku being the exception because thats a human name and his real sayen name is some sort of vegetable, but i forget what it is. maybe all this is way more interesting after a glass of shoyu and a beer, but i though it was awesome.

anyway so after we left the restraunt i assumed we were all going home because it was 10 and we all had work the next day and since i usually get up at 6 i try and be in bed by 10. but no, no we were going to a bar. while there i had another beer to be polite and nursed it for a while. unfortunaltly not quite long enough. when the next round was ordered my boss discovered that i had never had whiskey, and that he was going to remedy this oversight. anyway, a grand malt whiskey was about the last thing i needed at that point and seeing no way to refuse wihtout incident, i slipped rapidly and gracefully into the realm of slightly drunk. i then proceeded to have a in depth discussion with my boss about the meaning of his name "pine bear *growl and clawing motion following*" and the subtle difference in the two japanese words for regretting a past mistake. one apparently implies that you regret but have learned for it, put it behind you and moved forward. the other means that you are constantly haunted by it and never get over it. trying stumbling through that litte nuance discussion while both parties are drunk and butchering the opposing parties language. it involved a lot of diagrams and onamonopea (speaking of butchering languages, im pretty sure i spelled that wrong...) in anycase i woke up in time to be an hour late for work this morning and my headache is finally starting to ease up. i thought i managed to drink enough water last night when i got home (sometime after midnight) to avoid a hangover, but i seem to have misjudged the potency of said whiskey. anyway, this only confirms my belief that drinking on weekdays is a poor decision.

-Jason

concept art.

i'm gonna start uploading my concept work to facebook, because its not ready for public yet. but u guys can go check it out. leave comments on my wall, i dunno, what else is facebook for?

-DK
ps. jason you are not my pimp.

i`ll figure out the team blogging thing soon, really, when everything isn`t in japanese anymore

first off: jason, i don`t know what kind of bathrooms you`ve been patronizing, but for the most part most of the ones i`ve been in have actually been fragrant, like, in a good way. in fact, one of the ones i was in recently actually had a button labelled `strong deodorizer` which amused me greatly, as well as three different types of butt washing streams, with adjustable jet strength. however, at the other end of the spectrum, a couple of the toilets have been the old style ones (read: the toilet is a porcelain bowl in the ground). yesterday, i visited a bunch of really pretty gorgeous temples in kyoto which h repeatedly pointed out were featured in multiple animes. today i bought lots of candy. that is all.

StaLin

facebook

i just registed to face book, and then i found out that no one actualy use the damn thing. man i put in photo too... blah you
guys suck.

-DK

is there a place where we can put photo in here? cuz that would be cool.

One more week!

Sorry I haven't been posting here more regularly, but I underestimated how much time I would spend doing homework for only two classes.

Summer session finals are next Monday, 6/26, and I will be back early on Tuesday, around 1 AM.

-Alex

yay im not poor anymore

yay i got to an atm that worked this weekend and now i have money. i also have books in english. woohoo. though that has kinda done a number on my sleeping, but sacrifices must be made. i also met a man who claimed to be a rising rap star in japan currently lamenting the fact that his pregnant girlfriend had run off on him and had apparently been sleeping with other men to make money (i.e. literally a prostitute or any other not nice names you can think of) because her boss called him to find out which of her clients had gotten her preggers. he also claimed to have previously been on the run from the yakuza (though they worked things out) and now was lying low while the government obsereved his apartment from across the street because it had been a while since hed done those pesky tax things. luckily hed just closed a record deal for a 100 k and would get teh money soon. if hed tried to scam me i woulda sworn it was all bs, but he didnt ask me for anything except financial advice, which onec i gave he mentioned that he had a position open in his office for an office manager and would i be interested in making 3 k a month? (i politely declined) anyway whether or not half the crap he told me was true or not it was still a good story and thus i payed for his beer and his cd (which he didnt try to sell me, i asked for) though i havent gotten a chance to listen to it yet cus my cd players batteries are dead.

anyway its now been 3 work days since ive had any work to do. i honestly took a nap in the bathroom the other day cus i was so bored, unfortunatley due to the high fiber diet of the japanese their bathrooms tend to be uh... fragrant? pungent? malodious even? what im trying to say is they smell like shit so i was unable to really enjoy my cat nap. in anycase thats it for now, nothing exciting. im planning some weekend trips around japan so maybe thatll give me something to talk about soon. peace out in the mean time. also uh stacy... i think i deleted your post on accident... sorry the japanese is confusing... i feel pretty awful about it. anywho enough of my jewish guilt. talk to you all later.

-jason

Adios

I'm taking off tomorrow morning, flying back to Boston for the summer (and rest of the year). It's been a lot of fun at home. I'm really dreading leaving and working at this place, and it sucks that I wasn't able to see the UC people. Maybe I can come back for a weekend before the summer ends.

-chris

P.S. I would like to let you all know that you live in a world where digital cable with HBO is cheaper than normal cable, but you can't hook up digital cable to a computer so it is, in one very important way, less useful than normal cable.

McSweeney's is hilarious

courtesy of McSweeney's Internet Tendency


"POSSIBLE 'SURPRISE' ENDINGS TO THE NEW SAMUEL L. JACKSON FILM SNAKES ON A PLANE.

By Marc Keinath and Kyle Nuske

...

Scenario Two

After single-handedly killing all snakes on board and landing the plane, Jackson steps onto the tarmac and removes his trench coat only to reveal that he is, in fact, made entirely out of snakes.

...

Scenario Four

As the plane is landing, Samuel Jackson is battling the last snake on the plane: a giant anaconda named Nancy. When he is about to let Nancy live by trapping her in a large duffle bag, he notices his father's wristwatch around her neck. Realizing that this is the snake that killed the man who raised him, Sam entangles Nancy's tail in the landing gear, simultaneously puréeing the beast and attaining the vengeance he has sought since age 13.

Scenario Five

All the snakes on the plane have been killed, and the only thing left to do is land the plane. That is, of course, until an Arabic man strapped with C4 explosives says he is going to crash the plane into the Golden Gate Bridge. Knowing he would rather die than risk bringing this monster to the mainland, Samuel L. Jackson decides to crash the plane into an offshore nitroglycerin plant. Unfortunately, the resulting explosion from the plane, terrorist, and nitroglycerin combo creates a tidal wave that destroys San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge stands, however, and is renamed the Jackson Bridge. "

I think I might post hilarious things I find on the internet here.

-chris

off to the land of ninjas

i'm leaving for japan tomorrow morning and coming back on the 24th. jas, if you want to meet up with me this weekend or something, i'll be in nagoya on the 17th and kyoto on the 18th. i'm guessing that might be a bit difficult given your financial situation so don't worry about it if it's too much of a hassle :P. anyways, i expect to see all you uc people back by the time i return.

StaLin

o man im so poor

so apparently my atm cards dont work here... this is bad. i have about 180 bucks left for 3 weeks of living, which wouldnt be so bad if i didnt absolutely have to spend 100 bucks on a bus card within the next two days and at least 40 bucks on lunch due to a prepaid card for work. that leaves me 40 bucks for 3 weeks... that includes 6 meals and i have no kitchen so they must be bought meals. this blows. my only hope is that the bus station will take credit cards, but no where else has. but uh pay day in 3 weeks right? thats not so bad right? besides being poor will be good experience for me im sure. or something.

in other news i have nothing to do at work. ive finished designing these silly brackets i was working on and unless my boss finds any mistakes they are done. of course my boss doesnt ever show up til 930 (work starts at 830 for me, go figure) so i have another half hour at least of guaranteed nothing to do. woohoo. o god im bored.

anyway enough bitching from me. things are actually going pretty well here. im drawing everyday and working out 4 times a week (i know its crazy, im confused too) im trying to decide whether putting up posters advertising myself as an english tutor would be a good idea or not. it might make me some more money and fill up some free time, but im not sure i could actually do it. anywho. peace out for now i guess.

-Jason (I cant figure out team blogging in kanji) Glasser

Robot - 1, Jason - 0

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7001829
hopefully jason won't be one of them, but he does have a talent to partially killing himself in weird ways...

-mike

road trip

anyone wants to road trip down here to see me? plan somthing! thats why we got the blog anyway. right?

-DK

Chipotle tonight

I'm not sure if people read this blog often enough that we can effectively use it to coordinate meetings, but here we go.

Chiptole tonight at 7-ish. RSVP in the comments.

-chris "gotta have the guac" yang

SF trip

Sounds fun, what day? I'm probably going to be volunteering at the SJ Gay Pride Parade at the Plannned Parenthood booth for part of the weekend so you guys should decide on Saturday or Sunday so I can plan around stuff.

-StaLin

p.s. sorry, forgot to put this under the comments section. oops.

meat...

mmm... steak...

-DK

p.s. i'm not spaming, just pissing off thomas.

Weekend SF Trip

Jayant is proposing a day-trip somewhere this weekend. How does SF sound? We were thinking going to the Exploratorium and "maybe looking at some art or something." RSVP now in the comments section, if you will.

Also, suggestions for restaurants and other interesting locations would be appreciated.

-chris

In the event DK randomly dies...

I claim his computer and tablet.

That is all.

-tytl

p.s. and I most certainly did not do it.

Me being in China

Yeah, so I'm leaving on the 18th for an unspecified communist country which speaks Chinese as its primary language. I won't be back until July 2007.

i'm back, baby

Alrighty, I'm back in California!

-chris

Whee

Michael's Law of Awesomeness
----------------------------

I = Me (I am Me)
I > U (I am greater than You)
(U - Me) < 0 (Without Me, You are less than Nothing)

I'm sure Stockholm will be calling me any day now =)

-mike

sorry david kau

My mistake has been remedied, 1984 style... never existed :P. Oh right, team blogging... I'll figure that out soon...

a man walks into a ... what?

so this weekend i tried to go out to a bar (note the tried) not because i particularly wanted to drink, i could visit a vending machine if that were the case, but because i figured it would be a good place to meet some interesting people. so i wander off into downtown and begin searching for a bar. and i search... and i search... and i cant find a decent pub on the main street, or an indecent one for that matter, the indecency comes later. so after finding nothing on the main street i decide to wander off down a side street. as i ambled along i took the time to wave to the man peeing on the wall and figure im probably headed in the right direction. after a brief jaunt i find myself in what looks to be the right part of town. in fact just about everything looks like its a bar. but just to be sure i start trying to read the signs... that was probably a good idea. at first i couldnt figure out why all the bars had such exspensive cover charges or alternativley were completely abandoned. then i noticed the pictures of young ladies wearing `outfits`that really werent appropriate for a youngun like myself to see. slowly... very slowly, it dawned on me that these were not in fact bars, but strip clubs, and perhaps a few brothels judging from the prices. im sure some of them were in fact the bars that i was so futiley searching for, but i decided that i really didnt want to embarass myself and have to explain to some of the rather large bouncers that no i didnt mean to buy that young lady`s company and that yes im sure she`s very interesting and a sparkling conversationalist too, but i`d really just been trying to buy a drink and could i please have my money back. im sure it would have made for an interesting night, but i`ve had my fill of hospitals and i can`t imagine prison being that interesting. in any case after about an hour`s search and a few akward moments i decided to cut my losses, head home, grab some poky and a coke and enjoyed my book for a while. the moral of the story kiddies is, um... i dunno but im sure there is one. alright back to my lack of work, peace out for now.

-Jason

re: to thomas

Actually, still up. Was hanging out with Yap and some friends of his in the area. Yap also already told me you're coming here, so ya.

-tytl

to thomas

um blah blah blah, the day long.. blah blah blah

hey thomas i'm going over tomorrow, i would call you right now but its late and i dont like to call ppl late. um yeah lunch tomorrow. i'll give u a call when i'm out side ur dorm.

-David Kau

stacy its david kau.. maybe i'll sign as DK now...

on another note....

new hitman == good. get it. play it.

damn finals coming up. and i'm still procrastinating. oh well. there's always the hour before the final. it's great. procrastination, the great art of keeping up with yesterday.

fucking gas costs $3.459 now!! *grrrr* i'm so poor right now:(

yeah. um, party time. byes

kevin.

Goddamn its hard to figure this out when all the buttons are labeled in friggin english

It's midnight and I got a project due tomorrow and now I'm wasting time with this. Man, I must really hate myself.

This is more or less a test of the team blogging feature, so ya.

And David, we've seen enough of your ugly mug. Chris deleting your post was actually a blessing for us. And we don't need to see your face either Jason. There's enough ugly flying around. Literally.

I still need a job. Though really at this point I should just resign myself to being unemployed, seeing as how it's a month out of job fair season, though there's one this weekend for some reason. Pity I'm too lazy to go to that one. Not to mention I think I hate computer science. Well, meh.

Okay, time to go back to writing more test cases for the TA that probably won't read them.

-tytl

dK's (sorry sorry) ex-post

You can still find your message in draft form under the posting tab in the dashboard thing. Picture's there, too.

stacy

stupid chris, deleting my post :/

yeah, i'm sure it was an "accident" chris.

i'm in my photoshop class and right now i'm learning how to select.. great...
anyway prior to the deleting the post i had a picture of me holding a shot gun. and now i dont know where to get that picture again. :/
um.. i'm gonna be back july 4th-ish for like 3 days, so i'd like to have a lunchen or something.
yeah...

-David Kau
p.s. chris sux. oh and if i sound cranky thats because i've been drawing for 14 hours. and my teacher is still talking about selection... wait wait.. now to the brushes!!

To Jason and his Ridiculous Green Uniform:

Pictures! Pictures! The questions line answering thing is going pretty well for me--I've heard a bunch of interesting ones already... including "I have a question about virgin pregnancies" and "I'm pregnant and I want to kill my baby...you mean I can't do it at home?" <--exact words but it was a crank call. I'm also looking for some sort of part-time grunt-labor job, as I have no applicable skills. So far I've only noticed that Safeway's hiring but that sounds a bit depressing.

Stacy

elevator music sucks

man they play elevator music til works starts, i have got to stop getting here early. the last song was some bad nineties song redone into elevator muzak just to piss me off. now its fake jazz. also the button on this keyboard where the space bar should be turns my typing into japanese. friggin annoying.

they gave me my own computer at work today. i think its the nicest computer ive ever had. 150 gb hardrive with 4gb of ram and a super cool graphics card. i dont think i get to keep it though, sad day. also　i seem to have aquired a cat, or more the other way around. it sits outside my window and meows for hours straight while staring at me, i keep hoping it will go away, but it seems to like making it hard for me to sleep. ok work time, i might actually have something other than busy work today, cross your fingers.

-Jason

Goddamn its hard to figure this out when all the buttons are labeled in friggin chinese

Holy fucking shit - I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out how to make a new post, and I think I accidentally deleted David's post. Um, I'm sorry man - you should try and get that back up if you can.

Anyways, I'm blogging from Taiwan right now. I have this computer for the next 14 minutes, so I'm going to be speedy.

It's surprisingly cool here, for everyone who has actually been to Taiwan before. It rained almost non-stop the first few days we were here, but it's settled into an almost-comfortable humid-heat thing. I've basically been eating every single waking moment, but that seems to be balanced out by walking every single goddamn waking moment too. I've seen a few cousins I haven't seen in a long time. They are both absurdly skinny Asian girls. In fact, I'd forgotten how freaking small Asian people are in general. For the first time in my life, I feel big. Strange - I know.

I regret being unable to visit Japan. I am sure Jason is not actually doing well, and his previous post was coerced at the hands of his Japanese oppressors. As you read this, I am sure our once vibrant, healthy companion is having the very essence of his being wrenched out of him, in a series of twisted Japanese experiments, the demented ends of which we cannot even begin to fathom.

On a completely unrelated note, have you ever wondered what's in curry?

Anyways, if anyone wants anything from Taiwan, you're nearing your final chance to ask anything of me. Let your needs be known by whatever means necessary.

It's good to know that I'll see at least a few of you before I take off for New England.

-chris

P.S. Thomas, your idea is precisely what I had in mind - I just had no idea they'd already gotten around to implementing such a thing. Can I suggest to all of you that you, say, get your own damn accounts and Thomas can approve you as posters?