Midori, sans liqueur.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:50:31 -0500

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (The Little Prince)

One of my favorite quotes ever.

Oh hell no.

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:04:00 -0500

Oh hell no.

Makin’ sweet potato pie :D

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:21:27 -0500

Makin’ sweet potato pie :D

Short stories.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:15:00 -0500

I just finished reading “Nocturnes” by Kazuo Ishiguro and…

It just feels incomplete.

“Nocturnes” is a collection of five short stories centering around musicians and their love for music/their love in general [Right up my alley, no?]. In my (illiterate) opinion, all of the stories are written beautifully by Ishiguro. Each moment is captured onto paper in a way that seems no more than appropriate for each of the settings. But when it ends, I’m left thinking, “…That’s it? After all that, that’s all you had to say?”

Do I just not get the function of the short story? Worse: Am I so Disney-ified that I need perfect, final endings for everything?

"Of course all life is a process of breaking down, but the blows that do the dramatic side of the..."

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:59:16 -0500

“Of course all life is a process of breaking down, but the blows that do the dramatic side of the work - the big sudden blows that come, or seem to come, from outside - The ones you remember and blame things on and, in moments of weakness, tell your friends about, don’t show their effect all at once. There is another sort of blow that comes from within - That you don’t feel until it’s too late to do anything about it, until you realize with finality that in some regard, you will never be as good a man again. The first sort of breakage seems to happen quick. The second kind happens almost without your knowing it, but is realized suddenly indeed.”

- F. Scott Fitzgerald

Dungeoness Crab season in SF!

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:38:08 -0500

Dungeoness Crab season in SF!:

I am so jealous. *pout* :’(

(This Christmas, you can bet your butt I will be stuffing my face full of タラバガニ <3)

"The truth hurts."

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:56:00 -0500

AT&T just lost it’s case against Verizon Wireless (not surprised) - Good job on the judge for denying the TRO. Seriously, what a ludicrous complaint: “Our customers can’t discern ‘3G coverage’ from coverage in general. Wah.”

Like, really?

Check out Verizon’s legal response to AT&T though. Ouch:

(You can find the whole response here. It’s a pretty interesting read…For a legal document, that is.)

Also…Shouldn’t there be a comma after “true”, or am I just being too comma-happy?

AW.

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:21:00 -0500

This is SO. Cute. Congratulations, you two :)

(For those of you not on Tumblr, this is what showed up on top of everyone’s dashboard today)

But seriously. I can only [kind of] hope someone has that many nice things to say about me someday AND make an adorable video about it. Final Cut Pro = Massive biiiiiiitch.

em:loremipsumbooks: Help Lorem Ipsum Out For the past 6...

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:41:28 -0500

em:loremipsumbooks:

Help Lorem Ipsum Out

For the past 6 years, our small independent bookstore in Inman Square, Cambridge has been a place for books, community, and innovation. We now face a difficult hurdle in a difficult industry in a difficult economy: the store must move—or close.

Luckily, we found a better space (more books! room for events!) but we need the funds to make it happen. Maybe you’ve sold books when you’ve had a cash crunch — well, that’s exactly what we’re looking to do now, only on a bit bigger scale:

Ten days. Five thousand books.

That’s right — selling five thousand books in our inventory (of 19,000) will raise the cash we need to fund the move, hire staff, and set up bigger and better than before in a new location a few blocks away. (Don’t worry, still in Inman Square area, and we’ll bring the Chicken Machine with us.)

Here’s how it works:

Buy certificates online via Google Checkout in handy $10 amounts.

Starting December 1, redeem each certificate for any book (priced at $20 or less — see what an awesome deal this is?) at the store or online.

» Participate by visiting this page which will take you to Google to buy the certificate. We’ll email you the certificate soon after your order is processed.

We don’t have much time, so help us get the word out!

Please spread the word—in order for this flash sale to work, we need as many people as possible to know about it. Once you purchase your certificate, please spread the word by telling your friends about us. Use Twitter, Facebook, semaphores, or any other form of gossip to get the word out.

Many thanks for your support,

Lorem Ipsum Books

poetry as tonic, #11

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:38:06 -0500

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

- Derek Walcott

prettyfoods: mcfearless: dirtyprettything: strawberry crepes...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:05:55 -0500

prettyfoods:

mcfearless:

dirtyprettything:

strawberry crepes (via baostar)

craving!

…I would kill for this right now. Craving^2!

On recording.

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:13:00 -0500

So I just delivered our recordings from Sunday to the Music Dept, and am now set up to participate in at least one, perhaps two, more gigs in the next month. Yay :D

————————————————

It’s funny. I thought I’d gotten over this part of my life, too - I haven’t recorded in over a year. Yet, as soon as I was once again nitpicking at mic placement, soon as I had those headphones on… I couldn’t help wanting to obsess over capturing this performance perfectly like I had in high school.

I didn’t try seriously getting into recording because I assumed that when I got to university, I wouldn’t have time for recording anymore among the myriad of extracurriculars I planned to participate in. That was a good call, and I was right about that much. But my main reason for not trying was that I assumed there’d be people much better than I already doing it, and I would never get to actually have my hands on a project again.

…Well, I kinda lied on that one. I didn’t just assume, I actually knew there were going to be people as passionate as me AND better than me before I even got here: I’d been talking to Ben for months before I’d arrived at Northeastern, and even from the start I knew he had one-ups on me. He had $XX amount of equipment that I could only really dream of having (because I admittedly spend my money on food, instruments, dresses, and shoes > recording gear). He had a more efficient set up that didn’t require a mixer, DAT deck, DAT tape, and an Alesis. He knew how to use Logic, and after having switched to Mac OSX only a year ago, I was still struggling with it.

And I knew he was going to go after it as one of his main activities at university. I was done for.

Basically, I didn’t bother trying because I thought it was going to break my heart: I would never be able to top Ben, or anyone else, at their own game. I wouldn’t be able to deal with just sitting, watching, or sitting second fiddle after all that I had done at Pingry. Ugly as it sounds, I also knew I’d kind of hate not being in charge.

I decided to bow out, live vicariously through Ben and just deal with it.

But the fact of the matter is, I can’t. I can’t have mics unevenly set up. I can’t leave footsteps, or ambient noise, or even flies buzzing past mics once I’ve heard it in the recording (Even if that means whining loudly at Ben and pouting til he teaches me how to remove it, or just does it himself). I can’t not fill in every ID3 tag possible. I can’t not physically label CDs and archival DVDs with sharpie and pack it up all nice and neat.

So I was right about myself in that I couldn’t just sit and take it… but I was dead wrong about getting my heart broken. I should have known I’d end up getting involved anyway - That’s just who I am. This is just what I love.

And in the end, Ben will probably want to strangle me because I strive for a level of nearly unattainable perfection, and I will probably want to smash his amazing gear out of spite that it sounds better than mine ever did… But at least I’m back to doing what I still love.

That’s what counts, right?

“Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair.”

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:30:00 -0500

“Happiness is the greatest hiding place for despair.” :

These days, confide to someone that you are in despair and he or she will likely suggest that you seek out professional help for your depression. While despair used to be classified as one of the seven deadly sins, it has now been medicalized and folded into the concept of clinical depression. If Kierkegaard were on Facebook or could post a You Tube video, he would certainly complain that we, who have listened to Prozac, have become deaf to the ancient distinction between psychological and spiritual disorders, between depression and despair.

Interesting article. Love Kierkegaard.

we're in a loving relationship.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:08:00 -0500

Ben: My binary brain sees an impossible set of states.
Ben: I just cannot solve the contradictions.
Midori: Sigh. Can I just stuff you in a box and call you a computer?
Ben: You would prefer me box-shaped? A companion cube?
Midori: Yeah.
Midori: Quieter. Calmer. Cuter.
Midori: Actually opens doors for me.
Midori: (kidding.)
Ben: (mostly, sort of, a little bit)

mixtapes = love.

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:07:24 -0500

So this post will basically out me and my inner 15 year old, but whatever.

I love mixtapes and informally trading songs. I love listening to what makes peoples’ souls tick and stir. And when someone (un)intentionally sends you something so perfect for your mood, you’re just like, “Yes. Exactly.”?

Best. Ever.

b always sends me amazing indie music (and I think it’s part of the reason I have a girlcrush on her, but shh). I thought I had let that genre/musical crush of mine rot away with a past relationship, but the fact of the matter is, pretentious, calming indie/folk/acoustic music is totally my shindig sometimes.

And yes, I squeal over Sam Beam’s voice & guitar. Judge me.

Kind of sad, but in my mind, justifiable:

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:27:00 -0500

How happy I am to get an A+ on a major exam - Especially when it’s so in both ranking and point value. Nothing but smiles today on my way out of morning Econ…Let’s hope I keep it up.

Recording again at the Fenway Center :)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:41:12 -0500

Recording again at the Fenway Center :)

dinner with a non-foodie/the importance of the capitalization of proper nouns.

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:36:00 -0500

Ben: Opentable says 9:30 - that okay?
Midori: Omg that's late. Do you want to try calling them again and see if you can get an earlier spot?
Midori: There's also ten tables - it's Boston's "best affordable romantic restaurant", apparently? But if you're sold on the burger, I won't try and change that.
Ben: Haha you think that would be offputting to me? A little simple "romantic" restaurant?
Midori: ?
Ben: We went to Haru last week, I've had my mass market glitz/glam fix.
Midori: I agree.
Ben: So why would telling me that it's little and romantic make me not want to go?
Midori: No, I didn't think that...? I thought that it not having a burger would.
Ben: But it has a burger, the best burger, no?
Midori: Yes, Radius does. So I thought since Ten Tables doesn't, you wouldn't want to go
Ben: Oh oh oh. "ten tables" is a restaurant - I thought Radius only had ten tables in it or something.
Midori: LOL no. Hahaha. Aw, cutie.
Ben: What!
Midori: HAHAHA. I see what happened.
Ben: "There's also ten tables"
Ben: To a non-foodie that sounds like, "The room contains only ten tables"
Ben: Foodie to normal person communication fail.

Nine Tips to Help You Avoid Unnecessary Battles.

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:27:50 -0500

Don’t fight over something that’s none of your business, or that you can’t do anything about.
Think about the consequences of the argument. Are they worth it?
Determine what the conflict is really about. Once you do this, then decide if it’s worth bringing up. If it is, address the underlying issue, not the superficial one.
Make sure the argument is going to solve something.
Don’t fight just because you “feel you’ve been challenged.”
Ask yourself, “Is it really a big deal?” Chances are that it’s not.
Realize that you don’t always have to have the last word, and often it takes the “bigger person” to simply let the conflict go.
Ask yourself, “Am I really right? Does it matter if I’m right? Is there really a ‘right or wrong’ for this issue?”
Is this an issue you’ll remember in five years? In one year or six months, even? If not, don’t fight it.

Wise words.

goodolddays: nikkieoberg: suicideblonde: librarysciences:[via ...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:33:54 -0500

goodolddays:

nikkieoberg:

suicideblonde:

librarysciences:[via uhhinternet, blackandwtf].

Just started following a blog (goodolddays) whose writer has a penchant for old 1940’s-50’s American culture like I do. This is incredibly exciting in a way that’s so geeky I could only blog about it myself.

I would go so far as to say that I wish I could go back in time and be a 19 year old either in the ’20s or ’40s, but then I realize that I’m Japanese and neither of those timeframes really work out… :/ But why my obsession?

I didn’t grow up in an “American household” - English wasn’t even my first language. No one in Japan was ever like, “Hey, look at these, these are cool” because they were obsessed with modern American culture, something I didn’t particularly care for. I loved going to the library and seeing what my town looked like then, what people looked like then, what music they listened to (my oldies collection is EPIC). I loved Grease. I loved black and white. When I got dial up, I surfed photos of my favorite places as they were… on 28.8kbps. How is it that a little Japanese kid becomes so generationally and culturally displaced? A lot of families in America have personal memorabilia from these era and really don’t see how interesting it can be which bums me out a lot, because I would kill for glimpses like that from my own family (whose photos/records lay destroyed - thank you WWII carpetbombs).

Nevertheless, I love this girl’s blog.