random is one of my [many] middle names

i lied. no portraits yet. i have random stuff from today to post. and i did sort of do the next to the last assignment on my own, so i'll post some of those as they're not bad.

ok, so randomness for today...

1. i wish i had thought of this:

scanwiches!
HA!

2. i borrowed a co-worker's magazine at the school job today. it's actually really interesting--famous, creative people interviewing other famous, creative people. or sometimes journalists interviewing the famous, creative people.

random quotes i noted from the june/july 2009 issue of interview. sorry, no MLA- or APA-style citations as i didn't note volume number, page numbers, and all that jazz. some of them are bordering on cliché, but they were still inspiring to me today. too bad i'm still sitting on my butt surfting the internets this fine summer evening.

ann demeulemeester on starting her first line:

It's never been easy...I just thought, If I want to do something, let's do it. I had a lot of patience and went step-by-step...

...I believe that if you have something to say, then you just have to do it. Good work finds its way in whatever time you're in. If you want to start, then start, and don't find a million excuses not to. It's always a difficult time. When was it easy?

she and her interviewer, her musician-model muse dude jamie del moon, also spoke of the le corbusier house in antwerp that a seller pretty much gave to her and her husband when they were broke because of a dream. wtf? where's my free Modern masterpiece house?

after reading an interview of the screenwriters and watching the trailer, i want to see away we go. jim krasinski! plus the story sounds so sweet, and the background behind why and how the screenwriters wrote it (a married couple, while she was pregnant and they were locked in) is pretty sweet, too.



vendela vida, one of the writers:

With plays, they start at the last possible moment, and that's what I love about them. You just start with someone who walks into the room--something happens.

this is how i want my photos to look. like i caught someone or something at the last possible moment before it all changes or disappears.

stella mccartney:

I think it took me a little while to be true to myself as a designer, and in some ways I'm trying to do that. I have to choose things that come naturally to me. Whenever I challenge something too much or try too hard, it never quite works out.

so reassuring to "hear" someone this successful talk about what i'm struggling with and trying to discover at this life stage...and probably for the rest of my life.

another movie:
i want to see herb & dorothy. it's a megumi sasaki documentary on a postal clerk and librarian who collected art in their small 1-bedroom apartment. in 1992, when the works had appreciated to millions of dollars' worth, they donated it all to the national gallery of art in DC. "you don't have to be a rockefeller to collect art." nope, you just need to live modestly otherwise, not have kids, and have be greedy/have a passion for it.


it's playing at the landmark nuart this weekend. too bad my weekend is full. :(

that is all.

summer reading

i've recently rediscovered my local public libraries. i got a card awhile ago while studying for a certain standardized test in order to borrow some vocabulary CDs. i thought i would kill two birds with one stone--learn something and stay awake on the way to work. yeah, they didn't quite keep me awake. i did learn some words, but they are already long-forgotten.

anyway, here's my rundown of what i've read so far this summer. not reviews proper at all as after taking in all those words, i'm too exhausted (in a good way) to spit too many more out.

my sister's keeper, jodi picoult. finally. i know. but hey, i so don't keep up with bestsellers or current fiction usually unless i'm on a plane, so you're lucky i read this one. very good. makes you see such a difficult situation through each character's eyes pretty well. didn't cry as much as i was told i would, but was pretty consumed and emotionally disturbed by it. maybe it's all those korean dramas i watched growing up--i somehow predicted the melodramatic twist a couple of chapters ahead. definitely a page-turner and quick + interesting read. i read it in about a day as i am a crazy page gobbler.




julie & julia, julie powell. based on a blog that got the writer a book deal. read kind of like a blog. i prefer my real books not to read like blogs. a little too blog-like for a book without all the immediacy of a blog. honestly, while the premise was interesting, it fell a little flat. however, it was a quick, easy breezy read. i did appreciate and feel for the author as i'm in a similar life stage right now, but it didn't resonate as deeply as some other quarter-life, almost-30-crisising i've read by others.






kitchen confidential, anthony bourdain. loved this one. love his tone, sarcasm, and sense of humor. he's so bad, but i can't hate him. he's got that rascally charm that makes girls love bad boys. ok, so this one reads like a blog in that the voice is very personal, it's filled with colorful expletives and au courant slang, and there isn't much flow (each chapter is like a new blog entry...topically unified within, but not necessarily relating to the chapter that came before or after). ok, so maybe i don't mind my real books reading like blogs if they're this funny. i seriously LOL'ed at some stuff in here, which i rarely do while reading. some critics have said he gives an inaccurate, exaggeratedly depraved view of the pro cooking world, but even this outsider's sources have confirmed that it is fairly accurate of many if not most kitchens. my sources: the former executive chef of wegman's markets in a presentation he did to my "careers in nutrition" random college elective class (he was intent on warning all of us away and talking about how it had made him an alcoholic and had torn his family apart) and the chef de cuisine of a well-regarded LA restaurant who used to play basketball with the bear and still plays with ex-househusband.

my life in france, julia child with alex prud'homme. my favorite so far. i have been a julia child fan ever since we watched a few of her original the french chef shows in my high school french class. you can totally hear her distinct, screechy voice come through in the storytelling. love the overall life messages given along with the anecdotes from her life in france, finally finding her calling there at the age of thirty-seven, and memoir of her career afterward. even if they're a bit trite, they are palpably sincere and get even this jaded potato right there. she (and alex prud'homme) reinforced timeless lessons i've lately been learning about what's truly important in life, failure, and about the importance of process and completely experiencing something whether good or bad. again, i read this over a week but in just a couple of long, gorging sittings.

obviously, my reading style is all about gorging then starving for a long while. when i taste it again, this method does make reading quite yummy. now it's onto a more "real" summer reading list with rather drier content, since i've eased my way in with the above.

summer lovin' had me a blast

so i was all set to write about random stuff. like sexy cars, how it's feeling so summer-like even if the schizo weather is cooling a bit, and the random way the bear fixed my camera.

but then i came home to some not-so-good-news from the bear. in short, we are mostly on the same page about this catch-22 we are in, but we word and express it differently, which results in typical potatobear tiff-ing. one thing about us is that we are not one of those never-fight, never-get-loud couples. well, it's usually me getting loud; the bear's good at sounding mad even when silent. yeah, different fighting styles. hey, at least we're passionate and care/feel enough to get that riled up? anyway, i digress. all is good between us since we recognized we are on the same page and do feel for each other and each others' views on the sitch, but i am still sad and frustrated at the circumstances. i have faith that it will work out in the end, but it's not so fun right now.

i couldn't quite blog right after that, even though telling my car stories might cheer me up, so i wrote to someone in malawi instead. no, not just some random person. while writing, i realized how much blogging has affected my letter-writing style for the worse. sad but a good reminder that maybe i should really write again once in awhile.

and after that, i randomly felt ready to randomly blog again.

---

saturday night, our landlord and neighbor threw a birthday bash for his mother in his/our backyard. he invited us over for some food and drinks earlier that day, which we accepted somehow completely forgetting that the bear had a hockey game right when they were planning to eat. i was too shy to venture out by myself, but i left the window open as i enjoyed my own dinner, wine, and some homework. happy voices rising higher and higher, punctuated by almost constant laughter, less frequent squeals of kids, and the smell of really good food wafted in with the lovely breeze through our open window. then i heard the mariachi strike up. normally, i'd be annoyed by the noise while trying to get homework done. instead, the warm, summery-ness of everything just made me smile and feel so happy for landlord, his mother, and their family.

the bear finally got home, and we ventured out to say hello, apologize for flaking, and wish the señora "ifeliz cumpleaños!" ok, so the mariachi was actually a karaoke machine, the lyrics projected onto the side of the house, and some uncles singing. it still sounded pretty good and was pretty dang festive. both the bear and i, who have relatively small families with most of our extended family far away, enjoyed watching just a fraction of landlord's family together. we decided that maybe we did want to contribute toward a large family, after all.

then we came inside and decided nah, we'll take it one tot at a time, if any at all. ;)

why are summer-ish nights so magical? they make me lose my head. i first lost my head (and heart) to the bear in summer, too.

---

we're thinking we might still get a new camera, since we don't like this one anyway. apparently, google is ALSO the bear's other best friend (which i didn't know...google and i will be having some words about this later...she's so polybestfriendous). she told him that quite a few acquaintances of hers had the same problem with the same camera, and they fixed it by simply dropping it. he figured he had nothing to lose, so he dropped it. it worked! he celebrated by taking this photo:

go lakers!

---

today, on my way to the freeway from hell, something a beautiful shade of red and with some sexy lines caught my eye.

please excuse the horrible,
from-behind-a-dirty-windshield photo.

it turns out it was a bmw 135i. a what? yeah, that's the first i'd seen/heard of it. now i very highly doubt i will ever buy a bmw for a myriad of reasons i won't go into here, but so sexy! i'm not even a fan of most of bmw's late model body styles, even, but this turned my head. beautiful shade of red. not too candy apple/orangey/yellowy. not too sparkly/maroony/purply. it's hard to see here due to all the reflections, but the crisp creases and lines are placed just-so. i'm not a huge car-lover, but i can appreciate good design and great attention to proportion.

yeah, i'm from LA. why do you ask? this chick can even recognize the purr of a lotus' engine. mostly due to the fact i used to run into one about twice a week going west on olympic in the mornings.

we're almost done paying the bear's truck off, and my current car situation's a bit weird. he's been peeping subarus, so i randomly peeped them online today. i am so so so sad that they are so ugly-ily designed. they are safe, well-priced for what you get, perform well, and even their most basic models have four-wheel drive. if we continue to be snowbunnies like we were this winter, we'll need it. the truck, contrary to what you'd think, doesn't do so well in ice.

lastly, the not so sexy car that i was stuck behind in traffic sometime last week:

please click and view close up for the full effect.

now it's mochi ice cream time! i know, you true mochi lovers are thinking, "the horror!!!" whatevs, it makes me happy, and it makes it feel like summer. even if i'm shivering while eating it.

Lazy renaissance man settles for dilettantism.

six-word memoirs at npr.com. one of my favorites is the subject line, as i have felt that way when i thought more [unjustifiably] highly of myself.
also reading about spam, weenie royale, + other, more important matters on the same site.
lots of good stuff, that npr.

tomorrow i will be thankful,

but today i will whine a bit. one thing i am so thankful for is that this week is a short one, as i'm at that point. you know, that point where you are just done with it all. that point where you blow up at your sweet hubs for no reason. the point where every tiny thing certain people do drive you positively batty, and it takes every last ounce of strength not to roll your eyes or throw a snide comment in their faces.

i just naturally do this, and i think it might be time to go on strick strike.

[poster by anthony burrill. via swissmiss.]

for the most part, it works (as long as you don't translate "be nice" as "be a doormat." so not the same thing). but sometimes, it just gets dang tiring. even for someone who is naturally a hard worker and not so inherently nice.

alrighty, recap time. what i've been up to in the past week or so:

• sleeping an average of 4 hours a night. i know, at least i'm sleeping. i am so weak, though! in my ideal world, i'd have 8-9 hours a night and sleep through it no problemo.
  
• asking generous people to read my meh writing. producing 3 more customized versions of it. trying to finish it so i can move onto the next and most important step.
• rediscovering the postal service. such great heights is like sweet raindrops on my speakers and ears. too bad my car's cd player likes to play the tracks in the following order: 1, 10, 2, 6, 9, 11, 1, 4, 10. i made sure shuffle is not on, too. wtf.
• eating crumbs cupcakes. yay for pistachio! he's my number one. reese's also gets some sticky thumbs up. pumpkin will always hold a special place in my heart. the artie lange will be donated to cee's new kids. in this case, our tastes definitely differ.
• i'm usually not a fan of turquoise/teal/aqua + pink combos, but i love the new banners beverly hills has up for the holidays. i especially like the happy, shag-like illustrations. however, they need to wait until after thanksgiving to put those snowy suckas up, in my opinion. yes, scrooge tater has spoken. the little reindeer is tickling my cute bone, though.
• avoiding working on my thank you cards. i really need to get them out before year's end. my butt should be in that chair, but it hasn't touched it in months.
  
• being crabby (i am a cancer, after all) and squeezing lemons. too bad all i get is sour juice with some bitter pith mixed in, not lemonade. oh, and brunching or lunching with the bear on sundays, since we don't get to explore our neighborhood's culinary offerings during the week.
• enjoying a handful of changing leaves while coveting my neighbors' cute crafstman bungalows.

the dictionary, as written by potato

"what is the opposite of 'lessen,'" you ask? why, that would be greaten.

it just took me a good minute or so to figure out the right word. only after word so nicely underlined that word in green and noted "verb confusion" in the mouseover.

increase. or grow. duh.

writer's block

it's been years since i've attempted to write anything that doesn't fall in either one of two categories: (1) business writing, as in simple faxes or email, or (2) brain barfing on blogs.

i've been hunting, gathering, and spewing every thought that comes to mind, no matter how grammatically incorrect, into a now 10 page word document. i'm not really that much closer to the finished product after a full weekend of this. my true, honest answer to the question i am addressing right now is, "frankly, i don't care. i just need change and finally am taking active steps toward it, so why must you torture me so by making me write?"

on the other hand, i've forgotten and taken for granted how much i used to actually somewhat enjoy writing exercises. i also unearthed some of the most honest writing i've ever produced. it's seven years old, it's making me blush as i read, but i don't think i could do nearly as well now. too bad i can't just c&p it into my current assignment as it doesn't answer the question. do i really want to subject myself to this for 3.5 years?

oh, and the photo? my studio space almost exactly five years ago. somewhere under all that trace, gigantor research document, and drawing instruments is a real, old-fashioned drafting board with a parallel rule. it's crazy how time flies.

2 hours later, ETA:
in all honesty, this nerd is getting kinda sorta excited about the prospect of what the above piece will allow me to work on for the next few years, sleepless nights or not. God grant me the strength to make it through and not completely neglect my home life [and life outside of work, period] during it, if You so choose to open those doors to me.

oh! the fun part of my weekend that was spent outside of our place!

• we finally made it to church. early service, even.
• we went on a date afterward, at gladstone's, with a view of the oh-so-gray sky and water. yay for crab cake bennies (eggs benedict, sub the english muffin for spicy crab cakes instead) and seafood pasta!