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20 most recent journal entries: recorded in
invisibelle's livejournal:
| wednesday, 8-20-08 | |
| 5:37 pm | R.I.P. 이언 omg, I just found out that lee eon died in a motorcycle accident today. so sad... he was leaving the wrap party for Strongest Chil-Woo, says Javabeans.  It's pretty ridiculous how many famous people have died in Korea just in the last year in accidents. They need to do something about this - aren't they having to take safety classes or anything to get the license? :( |
| 2:57 pm | So, a couple of nights ago, I decided that duet synchronized swimming was the weirdest thing I'd ever seen. (No, seriously.) But then, just now, I discovered this video of tree-climbing goats: It's pretty scary, actually. I mean, if they can learn to climb trees, then what next? After further thought, however, I've still decided that the synchronized swimming is weirder, as it has nothing to do with foraging for food. |
| tuesday, 8-19-08 | |
| 5:04 pm | there's nothing quite so futile as raging against the government bureaucracy, but nevertheless, I am doing so. ( ranting ) damn it, I just realized, I totally forgot that I was going to mail the letter to the postmaster via the drop box at their own post office. current mood:  angry |
| 1:14 pm | My lunchtime research has devolved into old finding clips of actors I had crushes on as a pre-teen. I was an odd child (surprise) and didn't really go for the Bop magazine types. First and foremost is definitely Jon Stewart, of The Jon Stewart Show fame. This clip is from 1994, which is right around the time that I would've decided I ♥'d him. ( more ) The Daniel Day-Lewis thing also eventually segued into a Ralph Fiennes thing, but suffice it to say, none of these fascinations lasted. Though, I admit pride that one of my biggest (b-list) celebrity crushes from those years in which such things are unavoidable is now one of the coolest people in the world. heh. I saw something in him even when his show was getting canceled, even if "something" was just that I thought he was dreamy. |
| monday, 8-18-08 | |
| 10:03 am | I'm debating whether or not to sign up for Korean classes this fall semester at a Dallas community college. I'm leaning toward just doing it, because it's only about $160. I know I'll end up missing a huge portion of the classes... but then I think of how much I was kicking myself for not signing up in January. But there's also the conflict of the other classes I'm taking in the fall, no idea how much time that's going to take up. Part of me is saying "do it, it's totally cheap" and "if I don't do this now, will I ever?" but part of me is thinking I'll never have time to fit it in. |
| 12:14 am | hooray, as of today we're completely done moving. now we can move on to concentrating on getting everything permanently set up at home, not just the stopgaps we've had going for the past 9 days. I left my phone sitting in the same spot almost all weekend and didn't touch it. this was mostly accidental, and I feel bad because I missed about a zillion calls, and I have like 14 voice mails waiting for me as of last night. hopefully everyone gave up after that. sorry if you're one of the folks who tried to call :( nevertheless, I'm glad that my family suddenly decided to have a party yesterday (which is why my phone got left behind), because the weather was gorgeous and we all sat outside for hours and hours until it was completely dark. that happens in august in texas about once every never. in conclusion, I think guo jing jing and kareena kapoor totally look alike.   |
| friday, 8-15-08 | |
| 7:20 pm | Something I mean to post about every time I hear Kabhi Kabhi, Aditi on the radio... someone please tell me you hear the similarities between this song and Aye Udi Udi from Saathiya. They're like, the same dang song. (the new one, the old one) Don't get me wrong, I love both songs, and I think anything A.R. Rahman does with guitars is always pure brilliance, but... man, I can't hear the new song without thinking I'm going to hear Adnan Sami bust through any second. I kinda wonder if Rahman felt like Aye Udi Udi was underrated and deserved another chance at popularity, so he redid it. heh. |
| 4:51 pm | Wow. I didn't think much of the fake fireworks or the lip-synching little girl in the Olympic opening ceremony last week; that sort of stuff is pretty normal in Asia. But then today, after reading about the paralyzed dancer, I wondered to myself how it could really get any worse than a story like that. But then I saw this - Olympic artists angry - in which they're saying all those tai chi kids were mistreated for the year prior to the ceremony. I'm not sure of the reliability of Aftenposten as a news source, and I know accidents happen... but given China's human rights record, it's all too easy to believe. All I can say is, I really, really hope it isn't true, and I really, really hope that it doesn't get any worse. |
| thursday, 8-14-08 | |
| 2:55 pm | amber alerts, emergency broadasting system I'm in one of those moods today. The fark thread surrounding this article referenced a similar instance in American history in the 70s in which there was an accidental non-test emergency broadcast sent out that indicated an actual attack. It reminded me of the creepy lists of message-authentication words that were sent out on a quarterly basis back then. It generally got me thinking about the EBS and Amber Alerts, too. Did you know that Wikipedia has an entire category of Murdered Children articles? I do, now! I haven't read them all, though... yet. Another interesting discovery, from one of the Emergency Broadcasting System fansites, was a link to this site full of old Dallas-related photos from the 1960s. Many of them involve what was originally the KRLD radio tower, which is right outside the window to my left. (Earlier this year, I used video of the tower out my window on a cold winter night to back David Sylvian's song Wanderlust, because nobody else had posted the original song on youtube yet.) Some of the photos on the site really blew my mind. This one is where my building currently stands, but obviously it's not in the photo, and neither is the one that would be in front of my building in the photo. Just strange to see. The most interesting discovery, however: apparently, the disturbing sound they play when there's an Amber Alert isn't played everywhere. In fact, none of the videos I looked at on youtube had the sound, except for the ones that were from the Dallas area. It's incredibly disturbing. Here, check it out: Isn't that just horrible? Wow, I wish I'd known that these didn't sound like this everywhere. It's just... bone-chilling. yeesh. I've pondered the sound quite a bit, actually, (who created it? what were they thinking? why is there a big BANG at the end of it?) and had always assumed that it was made that way on purpose to REALLY get people's attention. (Found even better audio of it here, but warning - listen at the risk of seriously creeping yourself out.) (I take exception with the criticism of KRLD's sound quality as an AM station, btw, at the beginning of the video. I listen to them every day, and the quality is always excellent as long as I'm not inside my parking garage. And more importantly, in my mind, they are the finest broadcast journalists in the city.) |
| wednesday, 8-13-08 | |
| 3:51 pm | the post office saga continues So, more phone calls were made today during the times that we were asked to call. Naturally this did not produce the results that we were told they would (we were to call between certain times to talk to our specific carrier -- of course, he/she supposedly wasn't there). Instead, whoever S talked to told him that we could not have mail delivered on our street, because our street is not 75% occupied. ...huh? I could understand how this would make sense if it meant that the route would have to change dramatically just for one house that was unreasonably far from the route or something like that. But here, let me illustrate:  Mailboxes 1 and 2 are ones that are already on a delivery route. The red arrows are the direction that we observed a mail truck going, on the morning we closed on the house. Mailbox 3 is our mailbox. Now, there is no construction going on in our neighborhood at all right now. It's going to be at least a year, maybe more, before this place is 75% occupied. Moreover, there wouldn't even be a route change - he's already driving right by our mailbox every day. It's infuriating. The worst part is that it completely does not even begin to explain why they were returning our mail prior to us calling and asking what was going on. Why would they do that?? slkdfjalf! so yes, now I am angry and on the warpath. this is only going to end when our mail is being delivered in our mailbox. current mood:  irate |
| tuesday, 8-12-08 | |
| 2:59 pm | Ugh. So, have I mentioned that home ownership is not fun yet? We haven't received any mail at our new place yet, which is definitely not good. I've already had AT&T call me telling me that they've had mail returned, so that is confirmation that mail should've arrived but didn't. After 3 phone calls to 3 separate USPS numbers, still nobody has been able to help with the problem. fucking lazy government workers, I swear. How much of a jerk am I if I make a big sign that says "ATTENTION MAIL CARRIER, MAIL GOES HERE <-------" and tape it up on the mailbox? 'Cause I know I've seen the truck come by every day... Then again, I'm not sure I'd like to incur the vengeful wrath of the regular mail carrier. hmph. current mood:  argh. |
| sunday, 8-10-08 | |
| 7:17 pm | Uhh, so... I bought a steel wok, and I intend to season it. Anyone got any tips? Do I need to open the windows for this? |
| 10:07 am | yay korea gold medal in archery! daaaae han minguk! |
| saturday, 8-9-08 | |
| 11:17 pm | Wow, now he's snoring loudly through men's gymnastics. I think this has something to do with his habit of falling asleep to sports and sportscenter all the time. Haha, okay, he just started awake. "Did my typing wake you up?" "Hah, no. To have woken me up, I would've had to be asleep in the first place." "...You seriously think you weren't asleep, just now?" "Was I?" I guess I won't be getting any tonight. Oh well. I love listening to these announcers botch all the ethnic names. |
| 10:05 am | I don't think it's really dawning on me yet that we live here, now. I was just unpacking my stuff from my overnight bag and realized that I was doing so as if I were going to have to repack it. I don't know what it is that I'm waiting for... there must be something in my mind that I'm waiting for, in order to officially feel like we live here. Maybe my first commute to work will fix it. Japan is playing really well in Women's Volleyball right now... I think they're psyching out USA. The Japan players look absolutely tiny next to the USA ladies. It's pretty funny. Our U-Verse DVR box emits a high-pitched squealing noise when it gets too warm. It's maddening. They're supposed to come replace it today, but according to various forums around the 'net, some people have had boxes replaced 2 or 3 times without a fix. Suck. It's pretty horrible that AT&T is going to get so much of my money every month :( Pretty shrewd of them to help the government spy on all of us so they wouldn't be hit with antitrust. sigh. |
| friday, 8-8-08 | |
| 4:18 pm | The big push is done; we sleep in the new place tonight. Naturally, it's an unbelievably humid August day. Most importantly, though, we made it before the start of Olympics broadcasting. Nothing can possibly go smoothly in this whole deal, though; our dryer vent is the skinny kind, and we can't find an adapter for it. We brought one home a little while ago, but it's way too long. I was hearing a tremendous amount of clanging upstairs about 5 minutes ago, but S has now come down and declared he is going back to Home Depot. Have I mentioned that we have no living room seating? I'm sitting on a comforter on the floor right now. The earliest any of our furniture will be delivered is possibly next Wednesday, when only a chaise and an ottoman will come in. Then, on the 25th, they *might* have the rest of it. They don't know. They've given us a bunch of lip about how it's coming on a boat from Italy and they can't call the boat and ask where they are or anything like that. Assholes. So yeah, let's recap... Things that have gone wrong so far: - macy's can't deliver any of our living room furniture on time. - the underframe we bought for our tv stand didn't fit. - our refrigerator was delivered with a broken door hinge - at&t u-verse installation took 8 hours - our water heater had its interior breaker trip, causing confusion - the movers broke my bookshelf - no dryer vent adapter, yay duct tape for its intended use - have I mentioned no furniture? yeah. no furniture. I also have a couple of things that I need to research out about the new house: - what to put on the granite countertops, if anything, to seal them? - do a/v selectors with remote controls exist, is there one to use with hd tvs? - push-reel mower... should we or shouldn't we? - sealing grout: worth it? I'm sure there's more to research that I haven't even thought about, too. anyway, omg have y'all seen the photos of this bus crash in Sherman? how does such a huge vehicle get crushed like this? http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/fro so, um... t-minus 2 hours until olympics broadcast time!@#!@# we switched to hdtv just in time :D |
| wednesday, 8-6-08 | |
| 9:58 pm | All you need to know about how much today sucked is that our cable installation timeframe was scheduled noon to 2, but the installation ended at 7:30 pm. :( At least it got done, though, which means it still wasn't as bad as a couple of my experiences with Comcast were... Our installer was that really unfortunate kind of nerd, though, who takes any opportunity to brag about things that are really lame, like being friends with a lot of strippers, or the lengthy conversations he had with anime voice actors at the last convention. sigh. anyway, it's over now, and tomorrow is the last day of packing. movers arrive 8am on Friday. woo. |
| 12:10 am | I wish I could've somehow planned this all better so that our first day of home ownership hadn't been so grueling. (We rented a pickup and went furniture shopping.) I physically feel exactly like I would after a full day at Disneyland, except without that happy satisfaction of having had a bunch of fun. After I had that realization a while ago, I haven't been able to shake this terrible feeling that every vacation I take for the entire rest of my life is going to be like this - in some way incredibly nervewracking or tiring or, more likely, both. I put so much pressure on myself, when I take time off, to run on maximum efficiency. I am really going to challenge my liver with the amount of drugs I'm about to input. |
| monday, 8-4-08 | |
| 9:09 pm | I went to Sonic today as part of my hydration plan while sick and packing to move. Cranberry slush for vitamin C, and Powerade slush for electrolytes. haha. It makes a great excuse. I looked up and saw this ad, and seriously, the first thought that came to my mind was actually shock at how suggestive it is. Then I realized that I probably was just taking it completely wrong...  Poll #1235303 Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All Is this ad suggestive, or is that just me? Anywho, this time tomorrow, we'll be homeowners. Fun! The packing panic is just barely starting to creep in. |
| 4:33 pm | I conclude: Pajama Party is the cutest video since Haengbok! ( random screencaps ) dear internet, please hurry with a super HQ version! |
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