Fantasmagorical Sight-Seeing

I want my apartment to perpetually smell of cinnamon raisin toast

kgb — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:32:41 +0000

So, these past few days have been one real whiz bang of a fall day after another–leaves falling, crunching under my feet, the drifting smell of woodsmoke, and the sky taking on the slightest appearance of winter. I think it’s the clouds that give the greatest indication of the season. Recently I’ve been waking to an overcast sky, an endless sea of waves all frozen in mid-undulation so that I feel I’m suspended upside down in midair. Or maybe it’s more like being in a giant ice cavern, me just an old fossil buried miles and miles below Earth’s surface. Then when the sky opens up to that crystal clear blue I rise up to the surface and take a huge breath. I’m coming to think my nerves are best tempered to autumn; other seasons fatigue and exhaust me, but fall just soothes my whole being. It’s probably a matter of humidity, or absence thereof, that keeps me from tiring as quickly.

…

This entry has been simmering for a week or so now, but instead of having some great tale to spin all I can say is we’ve had a warm spell so those beautifully cloudy days have retreated for the moment. Actually, I did go to a lecture yesterday that was pretty interesting. Naturally I can’t remember the speaker’s name, but he discussed the plight of the present day as the absolute necessity to know what is occurring at every second of the day, while it is occurring. If it’s happening, everyone, myself included, must know about it, no question. The problem here being that we no longer give consideration to ourselves, so wrapped up in technology and the like as we are. So, in an effort to regain that focus on our inner thoughts and motivations, I am taking part in the Unplug initiative, which basically entails giving up some form of social networking/technology for at least a 24 hour period. I went with Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube; kind of the Big Three, if you will. In all honesty, the most difficult is probably Youtube, since there are just so many terrific videos available in an instant.

I also just realized the irony to this whole talk of mine is that I’ll be posting this and Twitter will automatically tweet about it. There’s no escape.

October comes around

kgb — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 06:07:01 +0000

The eighteenth day of the tenth month, a poetic sort of autumn Tuesday. I haven’t been paying much attention, but the leaves are suddenly all ablaze, most likely in preparation for this here fall recess which could not be happening at a more convenient time. As of now there are no spectacular plans for this vacation, just hanging about while avoiding any classwork-related responsibility. Though I admit to actually having thought I would devote these few days to reading and such, partly as something to fill the hours, and partly because I do find myself genuinely interested in a lot of the things I’ve been learning this semester. I guess it is something of a luxury being able to take classes about which I have more than a modicum of interest, even when they are simply part of the curriculum necessary to complete my undergraduate degree.

School aside, I’m listening to a lot of new music these days; good and bad alike, since I see no reason to give everything a listen at least once (whether this constitutes a complete and thorough listening is another story). So far, I’ve come across several that I find quite charming, then a variety of other things I’m just ho-hum about. It is amazing the sheer amount of music that exists and is being made/produced all the time. And that’s just in the vague indie catch-all category. I think I’m going to check out country/folk/bluegrass next, to get back to those Southern roots of mine. Even country-pop is intriguing to a certain degree, mostly for the ridiculous lyrics and involved, soap-opera style dramatic narratives.

So to wrap things up, a photo taken in my apartment the other day:

: Attempted plant suicide

Continuing adventures, new toilet included

kgb — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 03:04:57 +0000

As of this most current update, several new things have occurred. These include the addition of my flatmate to the apartment, the reconvening of class, and the very recent acquisition of one beta fish which we refer to as Rudy. Oh, plus getting a new toilet that is not made out of plastic. I would say we’re moving up in the world (though at the time of writing there seems to be a slight hiccup as the toilet won’t stop running).

So far classes have been on the whole interesting and enjoyable, but that of course is subject to change. It’s great to be back in a Japanese class, but it has involved some adjusting compared to my class while in Japan, namely we’re not divided by skill level. Of course I don’t mean to assume I’m some genius of the language, it was simply a different learning environment and my classmates were called upon more often to share their opinions.

The other noteworthy happening is that I also now have wireless internet, meaning I can effectively waste hours at a time doing things like looking up photos of cute animals and videos of babies falling. Honestly, I don’t know how I spent my time before having access to such luxury. I guess I played a lot of video games.

Anyway, it’s roughly 11 pm on a Saturday evening, and going to bed sounds very enticing.

Living quarters

kgb — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:39:58 +0000

I have taken up new residence! It makes me feel like a rather capable person from the perspective of a young student who hasn’t really lived outside of home/dorm situation. So far I have amassed two minor personal injuries: the first, a slight mishap with the opening and closing foot mechanism on my trash can resulting in a nice head scrape; the second, a lack of the study of physics and the understanding of the line of an arc of steaming hot water being poured into a smallish mug resulting in having it go onto my hand instead. It’s all been great fun, really, and I am actually just more relieved that no one has been around to witness my moments of complete idiocy.

Anyhow, I figure I can manage just a few more days until my flatmate (roommate has too many connotations with the stuffy, smelly dormitory) shows up and the real celebration begins. We might give the place a proper settling in party which I also hope involves getting a cute little turtle with tricked out terrarium. When I was younger, we had a small wooden box with a hinged screen known as the “toad house” that stayed out on the porch and sometimes served the purpose for which it was named, but mostly I just stuck leaves in the box trying to make it look as luxurious and enticing to my many bufo bufo; alas, it was no terrarium.

Amphibian homes aside, there are still a few things to be done in this new abode, namely get furniture or a plant or something for that extra room whose function is undecided but has quite a few windows so maybe a conservatory. We could turn it into a bonafide jungle and let our turtle run loose within the 4×9 confines! Positively exotic! While I’m headed in this direction of thought, I also think we should throw in some animal skin rugs for effect, then host a dinner-murder party and imagine we’re all characters from Parker Brothers Clue. I pretty much had my eye out for Mrs. White, that crafty maid with her duster. Though come to think of it, a feather duster was missing from the weapons cache–a glaring oversight if you ask me. Colonel Mustard was in cahoots and fancied the rope, while Professor Plum was “reading his books” in the study to an eager Miss Scarlett. The only other board game with so much intrigue was probably Sorry!, but I never owned that game so that’s only speculation based on commercial advertisements.

I feel that I’ve strayed from some original point, but it probably wasn’t that interesting in the first place.

a weekend excursion does wonders for the restless

kgb — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:18:15 +0000

This weekend I took myself away on a mini respite to visit with a friend. It’s amazing how even just getting a few miles afield of my everyday experience rejuvenates a wearied spirit. Not that I have recently (or ever, really) had a tremendously taxing set of responsibilities that weighs me down. At any rate, seeing those lovely Appalachians from a slightly different angle does remind me of what a really splendid part of the world I’ve found myself settled by the powers that be, and that just fills me up with a sense of ease.

So, on this little weekend tour, my dear friend and I went out to see the sites of her more metropolitan residence, which included to our greatest pleasure a cereal bar. It was a really cozy little spot, especially for the faintly inebriated folks such as my friend and myself who wandered in at a progressed hour to discover an unrivaled selection of all the best breakfast cereals (I say unrivaled because I’ve yet only heard of this single cereal bar, though that may be on account of my limited experience in such a field). I’d actually had Kellogg’s Corn Pops on my mind for a better part of the evening, then in a splendid twist of fate, on the shelf directly below the Pops was yet another of Kellogg’s steadfast: Honey Smacks. So, I married the two in a delightful sugar coated dream, barely able to contain my excitement as I prepared to take the bowl. As it was this bowl was near perfect, but the genius man behind the counter asked me, almost as an afterthought, “Would you like whipped cream on that?” and as a person with even half a brain knows, there is never any thoroughly good reason to forego a whipped cream flourish, so I watched as he skillfully garnished my Pops and Smacks with the stuff that to my half-dormant child’s memories was the signifier of a true dessert.

I can’t describe well the experience of eating such a thing, because I was really too caught up in the moment to worry over memorizing every single spoonful, but now as a general memory of the experience I would simply say it was delectable.

Why hey there, you

kgb — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 20:39:33 +0000

I don’t have much in particular to talk about today, but I figured I needed to work toward positive behaviors, writing a lot of nonsense blogs being a positive behavior in my view of things. That said, I did take a bit of a trip yesterday: I ventured outside city limits. Not only that, I crossed into another city’s limits. I know, it sounds like I’m living pretty dangerously, and while I assure you that there is some level of peril driving on roads around here it’s not really enough to constitute a dangerous lifestyle. Anyhow, on this excursion I made a point to stop at an Asian foods market and see what kind of things they were offering up for purchase. Turns out, it pretty much had all my favorite things I’d been missing from my recent travels to the East, so it ended up to be a very fruitful expedition. This morning I enjoyed some of my bounty in the form of キムチたくわん (kimchi takuan) and its delicious spiciness has left me feeling energized all day. Thanks pickled vegetables!!

and life just gets shinier

kgb — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:21:01 +0000

Though I would hardly consider myself a tech savvy type, I am one of those who likes to pretend I am competent and aware of all the latest gadgetry and technological doodads. This I accomplish through more or less impulse purchases (I would say I spend a lot of time deliberating, sometimes 3 whole days) then mull over whether it was a good idea, if I’m the kind of person who really needs a lot of fancy accessories and such, but lemme just put it out there that whoever, whatever, an iPhone 4 is absolutely an incredible piece of hardware. Don’t assume that simply because it’s never crossed your mind to have an application that allows you to know what the constellations are floating above your head that it is unnecessary–you will soon find it IS necessary and you’ll wonder why you’ve been such an idiot to have waited around this long only being able to identify the Big Dipper with your measly childhood astronomy knowledge. Yes, with the iPhone 4, you’re no longer a wimpy, sniffly nosed kid. You’re an adult. With an iPhone 4.

I may need to be wary; if I feel this powerful only having possessed an iPhone for several hours I may start trying to tinker with the very fabric of our reality, and from every science fiction story I’ve ever encountered that’s when things can get a little bit weird.

almost july and little to show for it

kgb — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:21:07 +0000

Well, I guess this blog needs a little dusting off. I left it for greener pastures when I trotted off to Japan for 8 months, so prompting the creation of a new blog (link can be found in previous post) to record down to the tiniest detail my adventures overseas. However, as is often the case, and quite apparent from a cursory look at the pattern of this blog’s archives, I am a poor excuse of a conscientious writer. At any rate, this summer has felt quite different from previous ones, which is likely a direct result of having been in a place that I absolutely loved and wasn’t too keen on leaving, so my homecoming has been lackluster and dull at best. My brain still seems to be trying to sort things in ways that make sense, but generally my head is full of half-thoughts of english and japanese.

If there is a single aspect of this summer worth noting, it is as my summer of True Blood. I have been watching this show fanatically, without pause, for the past few weeks, and have managed to get myself so raveled up in this fictitious tale that every second thought is somehow related to the show. To be unequivocally clear, I am really smitten with the character Eric Northman as portrayed by Alexander Skarsgård. Ho boy, does that vampire have a compelling physique. And his story is pretty interesting too. Apologies to Edward Cullen, but he and all the rest of the Twilight vampires really seem like a bunch of sissy-willows. I mean even the more emotionally prone Bill Compton still maintains extreme levels of badassery when pushed to his limits.

Oh, I also saw Super 8 today with my brother. It was a great little story, I thought. Definitely got my full $5′s worth of entertainment value. Plus, there was a really great preview for Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which I inadvertently called when I whispered to my brother that the whole thing felt like Planet of the Apes mere seconds before the film title flashed up at the preview’s conclusion. I won’t lie, I felt very cool. But yeah, Super 8 was, well, great. I have also decided that anything set in the 1970s and involving aliens is destined to receive Steven Spielberg’s approval. If I were anything of a mathematician it might be kind of fun to come up with some function that describes this behavior, but as I am an idiot with numbers and equations I’ll stick to my meager arsenal of words.

One more thing: nostalgia is the arbiter of apathetic individuals’ decisions.

And sleeplessness is the reason behind every vaguely philosophical utterance of the adolescent mouth.

That’s all. Off to bed now, chitlins.

Progressed Summer Mind Dredging

kgb — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 04:21:51 +0000

The summer is reaching its climax, and with it the end of my living-at-home-with-parents time. Perhaps it’s a bit sad, but because I am a selfish youth I can only think of how great it will be living not only not with my parents but in a foreign country. I’m sure after several months, once I’m settled in I’ll think more about them. For the moment, however, the near future is endless possibility, a notion I find terrifically thrilling. All that remains is to actually prepare for traveling, something I never do more than 12 hours prior to departure; otherwise, the whole reality of what I’m doing hits me and I get all anxious and nervous and suchlike. Doing it all at once gets my momentum going for the long trip to my ultimate destination, while distracting me from thinking about a lot of unnecessary yet stressful details.

Anyhow, this’ll most likely be the last update on this page for a while, but mosey over to yet another of my blogs to continue hearing the absolutely enthralling tales of my adventures here, yonder, and elsewhere.

Summer of my discontent, or so it has appeared thus far

kgb — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:01:49 +0000

I’ve been on summer vacation for over a full week, and I feel as if I’ve mostly exhausted what small entertainments my hometown has to offer. But in all honesty, I haven’t been trying very hard either. My laziness overcomes me so I end up dallying about the house all day. The weather recently has also been no help–absurdly hot and miserable and muggy, it’s just not the kind that makes me want to be outside. Then being confined to the indoors, that’s also about as horrible when I can’t seem to manage a single conversation with my parents without getting worked up over something.

…

Well, it’s been about a month now since I’ve been home, and I’ll say that conditions have improved. The weather is still bordering on intolerable, but there was something of a good rainstorm day before yesterday. As for being bored out of my mind, I’m still not doing much with my days, but I’ve at least cleaned a few closets out (read: made huge piles of things in the hallways) to pass away the time. This has also been a summer for books. Over the past month I read four books, which is certainly an accomplishment as I’m more of the type to only read comic books and magazines.

At any rate, I’m midway through my summer break and for the moment I am content; though thinking back an immediate cure for my back-to-home doldrums would’ve been a swimming pool in the backyard.