Coheed and Cambria - "Welcome Home"
So I saw this neat artsy fartsy calendar on photojojo.com and decided that Eric's blank condo walls could use a little bit of pizzaz. a) it's functional and b) it's easy — two qualities that are essential to the lazy wannabe crafty person like me.
Neat way to add some spice to an otherwise dull wall, and it's just awesome on so many levels.
All you have to do is take your camera out with you and take pictures of any number you see between 1-31. Get a few clips and put it all together, and throw in a few extra photos that are meaningful to you for the blank days of the month. Every time the month changes, you just rearrange the numbers. It's a simple matter of swapping the columns around since certain numbers will always be in the same column like 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 and 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, etc...
If anyone else tries it, let me know how it turns out!
D'espairsRay - "R.E.M-fuyu no genchou"
Given the infatuation all men (and women) have with the ladies boasting a nice, large set of breasts, I think it's time to give us small-boobed women some love.
I'll be the first to admit that I do not have boobs the size of watermelons. Even for an Asian I'm relatively flat. And yes, sometimes it sucks. But you know what, spring is raining its way in and that means I'm coming out of my winter funk and I'm starting to feel better about myself.
So be proud of your size, oh ye of little breast!
- Can you sleep on your stomach comfortably? 'Cause I can. It's awesome.
- Perky, perky, perky.
- When I run, i don't need to worry about my uniboob hitting me in the face.
- Heck, any kind of exercise is a lot easier.
- Pfft, back pain? What back pain?
- I can play up my legs and not look like trash
- What, I'm compact. Can you squeeze through tight spaces?
- I can be the androgynously hot female
- Or slip on an awesome push-up and titillate others (teehee)
NoGoD - "Kono ame no mokou ni"
Alive? yes.
Life is teaching me some invaluable lessons and I'm carefully taking notes. Or taking careful notes. Or listening to musical notes. And boy, oh boy, does NoGoD have some awesome musical notes. I think I've rediscovered the joy behind rocking out.
Scratch the first bit of this post. I think life is throwing a chalk brush at me and I'm sitting behind my desk staring out the window at the sunshine that's almost within arm's reach listening to some awesome music dreaming of the day when I can go out and touch the cool waters of Yosemite's glaciers don't you love run-on sentences?
Either way, I'm paying attention to something.
Dir en grey - "doukoku to sarinu"
A week and a half ago, my coworker asked me to water her plants while she went on vacation. I promptly forgot until 2 days ago when my mom gleefully pointed to the African Violet in my room and exclaimed that she'd brought it back to life (again).
Today, thinking that I could get to work earlier than my coworker and save the plant before she got in, I grabbed the dried up leaves, threw them into a bucket of water and proceeded to let the roots soak. I felt awful. My coworker was sweet and forgave me for almost killing her plants.
They perked up a little by the end of the day. The goal was to remove them from the water and then revive them with regular watering.
For the entire day, I sat at my desk, checking on the greens every few hours, singing to them, talking to them, petting the leaves. I wrote post-it notes and stuck them to my monitor, "take plants out!"
At 5 o' clock, I grabbed my jacket and left the building, plants still drowning in water.
And this is why I should never have kids.
ps. My mom was a florist when I was younger, and brought home a variety of neat flowers when I was kid. How I managed to kill all of them including two cactii is beyond me. The only exception is the African Violent which my mom repeatedly brings back to life.
Enchanter - "marilyn dream road"
Today, the blogosphere will learn a whole lot more about me than they really want to know because Yukiko dared me to post a picture of my desk,
The reason why I hate people moving my things around:
Wait for it....
wait for it....
wait for it....
Interesting things to note: yes, I am currently reading The Game by Neil Strauss. Very entertaining and enjoyable. Also, he's a writer for the New York Times, which means he's somewhat adept at storytelling. And he is. Good read. And there's the Watchmen under it.
Also, blackcurrant candies? DELICIOUS.
I'm still trendy and cool 'cause I'm on Facebook.
And there's a green gift-wrapped box from the days that I was a professional gift-wrapper.
The coolest part here? The toy kitchen sitting way in the background with the stuffed bears on top. It shows my inner child. :)
You can mouse over and see every front page of every newspaper in the world! And then read it if you want!
There's my afternoon. Thanks Dad, for killing all productivity for the day.
Cinema Bizarre - "Forever or never"
I can't tell what's hotter: The girl or the shirt.
Sorry boys, but sometimes, females are just so much more attractive and interesting to look at. If I had the balls, I'd love to cut my hair like that.
Gazette - "Filth in the beauty"
About a week ago, I went and finally zapped my eyes. And I found that in the process of trying to do some research and see other people's takes on the experience, well, there were none. Except for gushing testimonials that really told me nothing.
So instead of my usual snarky post, I'm going to do something serious, and walk everyone through the procedure. Hopefully anyone else who's thinking of doing it will stumble upon this and get some insight on the world of laser eye surgery — at least from a Torontonian perspective. Whatever, the world revolves around us anyways.
Long story (and I mean really long story plus a bonus picture of my creepy post-surgical eye) short: it's pricey but so worth it.
Before
I'd been meaning to get laser eye surgery for a while. It wasn't something that I did on a whim. My eyes don't handle contacts well, and I was sick of running my schedule on when I could wear them and when I couldn't. Vacations were a hassle, sports were worse, and nights that I wanted to go out turned into squinty fun times. In fact, by the time I was in 2nd year of undergrad, I was wearing glasses almost all the time unless I was playing sports or going out. Then there was the added bonus of snow, sleet, rain, fog, and people making fingerprint smudges on my glasses for fun.
I talked to anyone and everyone who had done it, I searched online for as much information I could absorb about the procedure and the risks, I went to see my optometrist to get her opinion and she referred me to the more reputable surgeons. I went to two different clinics and an opthamologist to get a third opinion from someone who wasn't trying to sell me new eyes.
In essence, I did a lot of running around. And you should too.
I finally decided on Herzig Eye Institute. I'd heard nothing but good things about them, and they made me feel the most comfortable. They charged about $5,000 but price wasn't about to be an issue for a lifetime of good eyesight. So bam, appointment booked.
During
On the day of the surgery, I was told that I'd be at the office for about an hour and a half to two hours. I got there, testing was done, I got a free massage, and an offer for valium (which I declined) and whoosh, there I was, lying on my back, taking my glasses off for the last time.
The procedure wasn't painful, but it definitely wasn't pleasant either. The doctors were really good about telling me what to expect throughout the 15 minutes. It started with a million different eye drops, some to clean, some to lubricate, some to numb. One eye was covered, and I felt this uncomfortable pressure around my eyeball. My eyesight was gone for about 20 seconds. When it came back, I was told to focus on a flashing light while the laser did its work. This was probably the weirdest part because I could see something scraping over my eye and every nerve in my body was tingling, telling me that this should be very very painful, but it wasn't.
Then it was done. I got up, and I could see....sort of. Things were blurry and hazy. It wasn't like being nearsighted or farsighted, it was more like everything had an airbrushed quality to it. I got a quick checkup, instructions on how and when to put a bunch of different drops in my eyes, and then I was out.
Here's something useful to think about: don't take the subway. That was a mistake. Before the surgery, I'd insisted that Eric leave his car at work so that he didn't have to pay for parking twice. As we were leaving the surgeon's office, the anasthetic started to wear off. And my eyes started to burn. Like, really burn. Like when you leave your eyes open too long and they burn before you blink. Eric had to navigate me through downtown Toronto and the subway while I sported some awesomely cool giant shades, courtesy of Herzig, and squeezed my eyes shut in a futile attempt to alleviate the burning.
It's probably good that I had the shades. My eyes were not a pretty sight.
After
By the time I had my follow up appointment the next day, my eyes felt fine. The only uncomfortable part was having to wear sunglasses because of the HIDEOUS BRUISING. I looked like one of those kids that are too cool for school wearing shades on the subway. And at night. My eyes weren't sensitive to light, nor did they feel dry or gritty. They were just aesthetically so very unappealing.
One week later I have 20/20 vision. Creepy bloodshot eyes aside, I see a lot of glare at night, and I have trouble focusing up close, but this is all supposed to pass and it's nothing debilitating. I only missed a day of work, and I started taking classes and playing volleyball right on schedule. I'm done with all of the eyedrops except for the ones that moisten my eyeballs. I'm not completely out of the woods yet - my eyes will take about one to three months to stabilize completely, but the doc says everything's healing as it should. So thumbs up chum.
It's awesome. And liberating. And totally worth it. I still reach for my glasses in the morning, and I'll occasionally poke the bridge of nose thinking that I need to readjust my glasses. But hey, I've been bespectacled for the better part of my life and old habits die hard.