Thoughts

- The only place you can go on the Internet and not read nasty comments–literally, the ONLY place–is The Daily Puppy. For realz. There are about 200 comments with every puppy and everyone just says a variation of the same thing: “Eeeeeeeee, you are so precious I want to EAT YOU UP!!!” or “OMG you CANNOT be this CUTE!!! LOLZ .” Stuff like that. It’s comforting, in this vitriolic world of totally crazy and aggressive online commenters; dare I say, it is a breath of fresh virtual air.

- Thanks, Twinings! I learned how to pronounce “rooibos” tea. Want to know? It’s “roy-BOSS.” Now I won’t sound stupid when I get it at the Tea Bazaar.

- I want to be friends with the cool girls at work.

- I am going to walk home tomorrow from work. This is because Obama is coming for a visit (stumping for Tom Periello), and all of the roads are going to be shut down near our house. He’s coming to speak at the Pavilion, which we can see from our bedroom window. We want to go hear him, but I’m worried I’m going to miss it. According to Google Maps, it’s going to take me 1 hour and 7 minutes to walk home. Adventure! I’m actually kind of looking forward to it.

- Have I mentioned that I can’t wait to see my family?

- Confession: I probably look at the “Pets” section of Charlottesville Craigslist and/or the Charlottesville SPCA once a week. Just to tempt myself with the love I can’t have.

- Hannah and I talked about Japan last night again at The Local and my longing to return was reinvigorated. I think I’d like to live there for a year. Teach English, maybe? We’ll reevaluate this plan after Guion gets his degree.

- Coworker: Calling yourself Jim Halpert would be inaccurate. We are not that cool.

- Hear me, ye Interwebs: I am NOT PREGNANT.

- I kind of want to be Very Mary Kate for Halloween. Anybody know where I can buy a sweet blond wig?

Monday Snax

So, yeah, not a lot of time for blogging this past week. But a lot of time for browsing blogs, apparently!

We had a nice, peaceful weekend, got to see some old UNC friends who came up for the UNC-UVA football game. And I got to read for hours and hours on Sunday, and that was lovely. I have missed being the triumphant reader. I’m plowing through three large books (The Corrections, The Feminine Mystique, and Love in the Ruins) at a breakneck pace, since they’re all due back to the library fairly soon and I don’t think I can renew them. The first two are great; the third I’m reading for book club and I’m really not liking it. Percy’s racism and sexism is kind of unforgivable. At first, I chalked it up to the protagonist’s bigotry, but now I’m not so sure.

I also finished another calligraphy job for my dear Katherine’s wedding! You can check it out here.

Easily digestible snax for your Monday afternoon. Flurgh. Smaller than usual, because my post got deleted again. Oh, well. Guess you’ll never know what interesting things are on the Internet this week.

Writing on the Wall. Grace painted this verse from Galatians on the wall of Brandi’s baby’s nursery. Amazing! She free-handed it, too. I think my calligraphy business is in danger… (Como Say What?)

Visual List Maker. Again. This child amazes me. Why didn’t I inherit this talent? So cool. (Only by Grace)

From Japan: Colors and Prints. One of my favorite days in Tokyo was wandering around the art museum, looking at historic prints. These are lovely; they remind me of how totally enamored I am with Japanese art. (Oh Joy!)

Last Night I Had This Dream. Angela is dreaming that Guion and I have doppelgangers–who are unfaithful to one another! What could this mean? (Wxtchou)

I Would Make This Face Too If Someone Handed Me a Wolf Puppy. This is not an intelligent link; I just think it’s funny. Who is handing Hayden Panettiere a wolf puppy? Where does one obtain a wolf puppy that one may subsequently pass off to a young starlet?? These are the enduring questions of my life. (Best Week Ever)

Anatolian Shepherd Puppies for Sale. Will you just look at some of these faces? Man. This woman is a friend of my boss’s. I need one of her puppies. (Bay Haven Farm)

Between Two Ferns with Bruce Willis. “Did you know that some actors turn down roles?” (Best Week Ever)

The Zach Galifianakis Swimsuit Calendar. On a related note: I’m so glad this happened. (Vanity Fair)

The Definitive Gossip Girl Hookup Chart. Again, I would like to reiterate that I do not actually watch this show, but I know enough about it to find it hilarious. This flowchart in particular demonstrates the extreme absurdity of this production. Courtney, you had better study this like it’s a midterm before you go to Manhattan. (New York Mag)

A Micnic! Our utterly fabulous wedding photographer, Meredith, just got a Mini Cooper and took this adorable outing (Mini + picnic = micnic) with her boyfriend and sweet Lab, Orvis. Wish I could have been there! Looks divine.  (And Unlimited)

Rubber Stamp Business Cards. Dang. If I only had $64 to throw away… (Oh, So Beautiful Paper)

A Zadie Friday. I’ve always liked Zadie Smith, even though I never really love her novels when I finish. I think she’s a great writer, though. I read the piece “Sweet Charity” in The New Yorker this morning over my muesli. (The Book Bench)

Berlin #4. I’ve never been much interested in traveling to Germany until I saw this post. So charming and autumnal. (Ida Nielsen)

Monday Snax

A Braeburn, or a Winesap, perhaps?

Yesterday afternoon, we went on an adventure with Sam to Carter Mountain Orchard. I think the entire town of Charlottesville was there, but it was lots of fun; we picked nearly 9 pounds of apples, including some varieties I have never heard of/tried before (Winesap, York, Stayman). I am looking forward to making an apple pie tonight. I will post pictures of our adventure shortly, possibly later tonight. So much to do, though! Three big books to read and finish by the end of the month, a large calligraphy job for my dear Katherine’s wedding, and many letters to write!

Snax, with just a hint of autumn weather:

Nettles at The Garage, October 23: Guion is playing a concert at The Garage in Charlottesville, and it’s FREE! So you should totally come. I’m so pumped! (Nettles)

Why Do Japanese People Live So Long? This is great. I got to witness a lot of these things while living in Tokyo for a summer, and have tried to adopt some of them to my life. I was particularly convicted by the point this article made about rejecting dairy. Japanese people believe that adults shouldn’t drink milk. They’re catching onto something, because they have the longest lifespans in the world. (Tofugu)

Scientists and Soldiers Solve a Bee Mystery. Not just “a” bee mystery, THE bee mystery! At long last, we have discovered the cause of the vanishing honeybee hives across America. This is interesting stuff. Now we just need to find a cure. Keep fighting for the bees! (New York Times)

Indian bicycle, by Grace. A recent painting Grace finished; based on a photograph of a bicycle she took in Hyderabad. I’m so impressed by my siblings! They exceed me. (Como Say What?)

Cliff Asness, Superhero. I exchange e-mails with this guy at work. Craaazy. (Daily Intel)

Most Unnecessarily Dramatic Quote in New York Times History. It’s true. This is so hilarious. I hope this woman can laugh at herself, but I’m doubting it. (Best Week Ever)

Disgraced Hedge-Fund Manager Forced to Sell Teddy Bear Collection. I’m SO happy they made the Victor Nightingale reference. Anyone else get it? (Daily Intel)

Troy, the Great Pyrenees. I HAVE to get one of these one day. HAVE to. (Daily Puppy)

Could You Zoom Out, Please. OK, just one more puppy link. Must. Snuggle. (Cute Overload)

The World’s Most Honest Journalism Job Ad. Sad, but true. Also hilarious. The Illinois Valley News is looking for a reporter, and they aren’t sugar-coating the position. (Gawker)

5 Simple Ways to Cut Your Car Expenses. Good tips. Thankfully, we have inherited some of these from Granddad Tillman after we inherited the Jeep. We are doing the best we can to keep it in top shape! Aside from the battery mishap, it’s been solid. (Wise Bread)

42 Things You Didn’t Know about Thom Yorke. I’ve been in a real Radiohead mood lately, so this was fun to read. (Flavorwire)

Closet Visit: Bo Carney. Blogger Jeana Sohn raids trendy women’s closets; this is one of my favorites. Bo Carney owns a vintage store in Los Angeles and I really want to hang out with her and be her BFF. (Jeana Sohn)

Wishful to-do list

My Japanese host sisters. Felt like this fit the post.

Things I Want To Do for Deep, Inexplicable Reasons

* Walk a dog. Any dog. For a long time.

* Cross-stitch something.

* Volunteer at the Charlottesville SPCA.

* Make pumpkin pies. Multiple pies!

* Use a typewriter.

* Ride a horse. For a long time. And then spend a few hours in the stables. I actually really didn’t mind muck-raking.

* Play with a puppy and/or puppies.

* Use all that gouache I have lying around and do something pretty and useful with it.

* Eat lots of authentic Japanese food.

* Babysit cute kids.

* Re-learn how to draw. Or, actually learn.

* Start running weekly.

* Teach Reuben how to cuddle.

* Buy weird clothes at Goodwill.

I need to read more books. There are too many books to be read! Too many, I say! I also really need a dog. If I can’t have a dog in at least two years, all of my life may have been for naught.

Jokes. (Maybe…)

All of this is really just preliminary introduction to my new feature, My Life List. Inspired my many cool lady bloggers, I thought I’d make my own. It’s a surprising adventure in personal ambition! I highly recommend it–even if you don’t plan on doing anything on your list, I think it’s definitely worth making. Courtney was planning out her bucket list months ago. I’ll be haphazardly chronicling progress here. I wonder how many of those I can accomplish before I actually die… I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Optimism

Barn burnt down.
Now I can see the moon.

– Japanese poet Masahide, 1657-1723

In an unrelated note, I need your vote, O readers.

Which of the following should Guion and I adopt?

One of these…

or one of these?

Or none of the above? Please leave your rationale in the comments. And no, babies are NOT one of the options.

Monday Snax

We had another fabulous weekend with guests: Emily and Jonathan came to stay, eat lemon fusilli, wander in Mallory’s giant and beautiful house, and watch animal videos on YouTube. Mostly of giant snakes. I was sad to see them both leave, but heartened by the fact that we’ll all be together again in Mom’s Dream Keeper for Rose and Kemp’s wedding. Yay!

I woke up this morning with one very distinct thought in my head, as if someone was repeating it over and over: “Geisha do not have spiritual weight.” Somehow it made a lot of sense to me when I woke up.

So, my 365 Project is now over, but I won’t be abandoning Flickr entirely. I’ll still post intermittently, so long as my laptop keeps working… which may not be very long at all, unfortunately.

Monday snax are here!

What Advice Do Financial Planners Have for Members of Gen Y? This is really great. I do think that my generation–myself included!–has a staggering lack of knowledge about managing money. These sage tips are a great place to start. (Gen Y Wealth)

A Book By Any Other Name. What if popular books were re-titled with the plot summary? Of course, Mrs. Dalloway‘s new moniker is my favorite. (The New Yorker)

Simple Invites. I will always love her work. It’s so lovely and unfettered. (Betsy Dunlap)

So, It’s Not the Phone? One of my new favorite humor blogs. Correspondence with your mom. (Postcards from Yo Momma)

Predominately vs. Predominantly. I’ve never really understood the difference either… until now. (Mighty Red Pen)

50 Best Websites of 2010. Time releases its list; makes Monday Snax feel somewhat small and obsolete. (Time)

Obento book. It’s so lovely; I wish I could find it somewhere. Watching my host mom create obento each morning for her kids was one of the more interesting aspects of daily life in Tokyo. I think the title of this book is literally translated to, “It’s Obento Time!” Cutesies. (Anna Gleeson)

I Will Never Be the Next Renee Zellweger. A letter from Zach Galifianakis. (Letters of Note)

Hungover Owls. This site is blocked by my work computer for containing “adult material”–e.g., photos of owls with snarky/drunk captions. (Hungover Owls)

The Barkvies. Stock photography of dogs. Yeah, I could look at it all day. So what’s the big deal? (The Barkvies)

Ame ni mo makezu. My host mother once ended a letter to me with the injunction from this famous Japanese poem. It has such a simple and beautiful message. I think I’d like to try to memorize it. (Wikipedia)

Monday Snax

Another lovely weekend. Quite a social one, in fact. We spent a lot of time going to parties with and for our two groups of friends (church folk and MFA people) and eating pizza. It was practically an all-pizza weekend. But sometimes those are the best.

Here’s your pizza-free dose of snax!

Northern Lake Baptism. These photos… wow. You can almost hear the water in every shot. Really, really beautiful. Reminds me of the siren scene in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” (Clever Nettle)

Mt. Fuji Climb. Photo diary of a fun blogger, now living in Tokyo, of her trek up Japan’s most famous rock. It looks a lot harder than I expected! Two of the guys in my program did it while we were there, and had a miserable time, due to a series of unfortunate events. But this journey looks pretty fun. Japanese tourists are the best. (Hello Sandwich)

Be an Unbeatable Person and Avenge My Death. More Japanese toughness. A letter from a Japanese pilot, killed in WWII, to his children. The Land of the Rising Sun does not play around with legacy. (Letters of Note)

China Passes Japan to Become No. 2 Economy. The times, they are a changing. (New York Times)

Somehow, Only One Person Died When This Happened. No, really. That’s what I thought when I saw this picture. (Daily Intel)

The World’s Best Mayor Asks: Do I Exist? Amazing. Yet another reason why I MUST go to Scandinavia/all Nordic hinterlands soon. (Related: In an unsurprising contest, Finland tops Newsweek’s list of the Best Countries in the World. And Sweden is no. 3.) (Gawker)

Male Drivers Way More Likely to Kill You. A fact that I feel like most women have instinctively known for a long time. We women get a lot of crap for being bad drivers, so next time someone tells you that, remind them of this study. (Jezebel)

Kindle: Most Highlighted Books of All Time. Amazon’s Kindle aggregates the most highlighted books of “all time” (i.e., since the Kindle has existed). The consensus? Christians really like to highlight stuff. (Amazon)

August Is the Most Popular Month for Births. Which means that most babies are conceived in November. But the most cheering fact of them all? This one: “The State of Virginia has the lowest birth rate, with 10 babies born for every 1,000 people.” (Broken Secrets)

Classic Gwenyth. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to inhabit a celebrity more than this one. Grace, what do you think? Our modern Grace Kelly? (Dress, Design, Decor)

Dude Watchin’ with the Brontes. She will never stop making me laugh. (Hark, a Vagrant!)

Monday Snax

The casualty of a great weekend is that it passes with alarming rapidity. However, Monday is not so bad. Looking forward to this coming weekend, though: Grace and Kelsey are returning from Europe and we’ll be trekking down to Davidson to chill with the fam for a few days. Can’t wait!

I’ve read a lot of fabulous things on the Interwebs this week apparently, so here’s a hearty dose of Snax for you:

Why I’ll Miss a World Where Books Make the First Move. Jamie sent this article to me, and I feel that painful stab of nostalgia for old media when I read it. (Slate)

Now & Then: Redesigned Book Covers. This is one of the main reasons why e-Books are so depressing: We all miss out on the sincerely beautiful and engaging graphic design of book covers. Flavorwire creates a slideshow of some creative redesigns of classic titles. (Flavorwire)

Yo it looks the same as all your other pics. Won’t miss this about college. (Hark, a Vagrant!)

A Country House in Ireland. I’m dying; can we please scrounge up $2.1 million and live here?? (Great Homes and Destinations, The New York Times)

10 Ways to Make Your Marriage Divorce-Proof. A funny piece from comedians Samantha Bee (from The Daily Show) and husband, Jason Jones. Tongue-in-cheek, but as far as I can tell, it’s very sound advice. This one particularly applies to our marriage: “If you’re irritated with your partner, imagine him as a small child.” (Real Simple)

Seals in Love. Do I even have to say anything? (Daily Intel)

Wobble Soup for the Soul. As everyone knows–especially my husband–I am in NO RUSH to bear children. But the first picture of this post makes me melt a little. I can’t wait to carry a baby around in a pashmina/sling. (Ink on My Fingers)

What Makes You Think I Hate the British? In this typewritten letter to a fan on July 25, 1925, Gandhi reminds us that he still rocks. But really, if anyone had license to hate the British, Gandhi and the rest of India did. Wisely, he writes, “That love which is blind is no love.” (Letters of Note)

Japan Has Somehow Misplaced Most of its Extremely Old People. I don’t know if this is funny, sad, or simply indicative of the failings of the Japanese government? (Daily Intel)

Living in Amelie. A Design Sponge feature, in which one of their writers puts together a collage of home decor/fashion items from beautiful films, this one being one of my all-time favorites. The film, that is. (Design Sponge)

Baby Sunday School. Having taught preschoolers at my former church for nearly five years, I can attest that all of this is TOTALLY TRUE. (Stuff Christians Like)

Timmy and Grey. GUION. How can you look at these pictures and tell me that I can’t have bunnies?? HOW?! Do you even have FEELINGS?! (Maura Grace)

Western Diet Kills Good Bugs in Stomach. What little people in third-world countries have to eat is actually better for the human body than all the crap that we Westerners ingest, apparently. Our diet is making us fat and literally killing us. We just have advanced medicine that’s keeping us alive longer than we should be living. Fascinating study. (Take Part)

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Most Successful Monkey Performers of All Time. For Angela. (Best Week Ever)

Two years ago

Chuzenjiko

Two years ago today, I was here: Chuzenjiko, a beautiful lake in the mountains of southern Japan. Diane and I stayed just across the street from here in a hostel run by an Indian/Japanese family. One of these days, I will get back here.

UPDATE: Unrelated note… I have updated AFP Calligraphy to include a page for my “portfolio.” I added Rose & Kemp’s invitations, which finally made it to Topsail!

Sugoi!

Best day of work so far, probably, for a totally nerdy reason… I heard one of my coworkers complain that there was another difficult transcription to do. I just received the transcribing software and pedal, and so I offered to do it for her. “Are you sure you want to do it? The guy’s Japanese, so it’s kind of hard to understand.” I smiled. “I actually speak Japanese, so I would love to!” She shrugged and handed it over.

You can imagine my delight when I discovered that almost half of the tape is the subject speaking back and forth with his translator: in my almost-mother-tongue (i.e., Nihongo). Absolutely delightful. I feel like my head is going to explode. It’s great. All of these old vocabulary words that I used to know are coming back. Even though it’s rather difficult to understand–nothing like listening to a foreign language you’re still a bit rusty in when the conversation hinges on financial market examinations–I’m loving it.

I really need to get all of my old Japanese textbooks and dictionaries from home. I’m going to get better at this! I am. I wonder if I could audit basic Japanese classes at UVA? Is that allowed?