We only wish to catch a fish, so juicy-sweeeeet!

WE bad. Uh huh. So the weather up here is still beautiful & sunny, and I just couldn't be happier. Got my tax refund today, and so did Braden, and last night we bought a blender, so... party time tonight! Smoothies by day, margaritas by night. doubleplusw00+!

And it's definitely (even if not officially) springtime here; yesterday I worked 11-7 and as I walked out to my car in the "morning" (which btw, up here at 11 it smells like camping does at 7am), the smell of fresh-cut grass was everywhere. I have this theory that each season actually starts on the 8th of the month previous to the equinox/solstice; for some reason on that day, every time, every year Feb 8th is the day it starts feeling like Spring, and May 8th it starts feeling like Summer, etc.

School still takes up all my free time, so not much else is new around here. Totally scored at the bookstore the other day though, H got a nice big + cheap Beatles book (she had none!) and a book full of artist's self-portraits, with explanation + exegesis. Then I went to the library & got the Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, which is REALLY cool; one by Hunter S. Thompson in there. *sigh*

Oh, and on President's Day we went to Whatcom Falls, which is really pretty, see for yo'self:


Current Music: John Lennon, "Dear Yoko" from Acoustic

wandering out a little far in the dark

It's all about smells, I'm convinced. Just doing my homework, reading Grendel for English (I've decided I like it, but it's a tough book), and the smell of stash triple ginseng brewed several hours ago just permeates everything - entirely unique, bringing back an entire set of perceptions from an earlier era. I love that. Doesn't matter where you are, how far away you go, there are olfactory keys to locked doors in your brain. It's just a matter of finding them.

Current Music: Miles Davis, Bitches Brew

OH NO! Their methods were too effective...

What have they done to Dane?!?

Oh wait, nevermind.

springtime? [please to bend down...]

Look! My cherry blossom brought me a sakura. ;-)

Current Music: XTC, Green Man

anno furnituri novae

We have a couch! And a comfy chair. My Mom & her manfriend drove them up saturday. Not the prettiest things, but as is usually the case for 70s furniture, they're incredibly comfy.



I never really realized how important a couch is. You could be living in a cardboard box behind an abandoned battery factory somewhere, but if you have a couch there, it's your box. Maybe it's that the couch is where you sit comfortably as an entertainment receptacle, as well as where your guests can sit and drink and talk and ultimately sleep if they need to. Anyway, our island feels more like an oasis now, less like a fueling station between work & classes.

School is going okay; the hardest thing for me (every time I go back) is getting back into the habit of homework, a.k.a doing insignificant tasks for other people that I'm supposed to appreciate for their learning value. Sometimes it's easy, like in my Astronomy class, where I'm assigned to check out the APOD every day, and always find out interesting stuff about the universe. But Business class is almost all against-the-grain stuff for me. Feh, I'm getting by.

So... the other day, H and I are at my place watching a movie around lunchtime when Braden comes home carrying this box, and has this big proud grin on, and he says, "my boxes are here." He only had the one box in his hand, so I ask where the rest are, to which he replies, "in the box." Okay. A little confused. But he just smiles bigger and goes over to the table and opens up the box...

...and explains: the US Postal Service apparently has this deal where you can get up to 24 flat rate shipping boxes for free. It's actually kind of a cool deal. So we all had a good laugh about that.


Current Music: Ravi Shankar, Master of the Sitar

they say god created bellingham/bremerton/lakewood/monterey to train the faithful

Today was Rashomon day! I've been meaning to sit down with H and watch all that Kurosawa in the monument/monolith (black dvd holder) for the longest time. Can't decide what's next... probably Yojimbo, or The Seven Samurai. I think we're gonna work up to Ikiru (which every human should watch). There's something about Kurosawa - maybe it's just that he's such a good storyteller, the way Shakespeare was a good storyteller, only with amazing visuals. It even feels like reading Plato sometimes, especially parts of Madadayo and the last half-hour of Ikiru.

God I hate my business class. The book especially - it's supposed to be written to help people start their own business, except it actually devotes a fair amount of time vilifying "Mom & Pop" businesses because they "sell mostly imported products." Everybody who knows anything about capitalism knows that in a free market small businesses are necessary because they promote competition, which promotes innovation, which advances society. Bah. Anyway I don't even want to start a business. Not sure what I was thinking.

Here's a keyboard:

And sweeeetie, at "Oriento" fine chinese cuisine: with a name like Oriento, how could you expect anything less than fine quality Mexican- I mean Chinese cuisine!

Current Music: Four-Tet, Pause

the ocean doesn't want me today

So... I finally saw the Piano. Stayed away from that one for years, but Hava's film class watched it Wednesday and I went along. It was stunningly beautiful at first, up until the moment I knew all along was coming, at which point "it's only a movie" meant nothing and YES like a little kid I closed my eyes. Oh, and I liked the ending. By which I mean the part 5 minutes before the credits, where the movie should have stopped.

I already decided that if I ever had my own religion, its sacred rites would include hot showers and (somehow) blue sky; this morning I had to add something: cold water on your face first thing in the morning. Also green tea will have to go in there somewhere... but back to the point, so simple, so refreshing. I also decided, with cold water running off my face, that we have to go to more guest lectures from interesting, intelligent people, like Chomsky or Cornell West. I'll have to look up who's coming to Western soon, and UW too - they seem to get some pretty interesting speakers. Meh, we'll see.

Current Music:John Coltrane, Coltrane's Sound


Look! Fountain Children!