sidenote

(i hope it isn't too terribly wrong that i'm really quite looking fwd to LaraCroftTombRaiderCradleOfLife. and if it is, well...it is what it is. XD)

lo, i am a sad, sad girl. but! Mlle. Jolie! doing her own stunts! i have much wub in my heart for well-executed stuntwork done (well, mostly) not by doubles. i have respect for people going out and learning things in order to know how they work and do them themselves for the acting roles they take on. well, to a degree. there are obv. instances in which such things would just be, well, dumb.

...and if i hear Kate Pierson's voice one more time today, i swear someone is going to pay. *.*;;;;;

*stabstabstabstab*

in other news, my yarn hates me. well, a specific sort of yarn. >.<;;;;; i think i need sleep.

jitensha part deux

Sony's w.ear headphones are quite nice. especially now that it seems their prices have come down to a more reasonable level. they're open and airy, and yet the music sounds great and is quite easy to hear over people/road noise/etc. if you turn the volume up.

but since they're so open and airy, and since you can hear the outside world perfectly fine while wearing them (provided you've attenuated your levels correctly), they can also be worn while biking. it's not something i'd suggest doing on busy streets or while in a hurry to get somewhere, but in quiet, secluded areas, it's quite nice.

did so on the way home, in fact---and in doing so, became quite possibly the biggest dork ever.

what was i listening to, you ask?

why, none other than Card Captor Sakura, Original Soundtrack Number Two.

XDXDXD

you know what this means, don't you?

i SO need to make a summer biking comp.

(and it is SO gonna have the Pocket Monsters bicycle music on it---game boy version, of course. XDXDXD)

reading, writing, rhythmatic....

when i get more of a moment, will write about the following:

1.) stuff re-listened to lately.

2.) the comic superheroes two-hour special on the History channel the other night, which apparently Sarah Dyer and Evan Dorkin and Neil Gaiman were all watching too. was particularly amused at Mssr. Gaiman's reaction to watching himself from a year ago. XD special was interesting.

3.) can't talk about OotP yet. haven't read it. have unfortunately been spoiled, even though i tried not to. d'oh. ;.; but at least i'll be getting my copy for free, for Mariam has taken pity on me. as she'd only read it once, she told me yesterday that if i can wait a week while she finishes it (she just bought it yesterday, and she's a more normally-paced slower reader than i and many of my more freakish friends tend to be), she'll mail it to me. and hey, what's another week? XD

4.) ack. there's more, but i can't remember...sorry...>.<;;;

5.) have been awfully, awfully busy. eyeballs about to pop out of head. need serious help. and tea. XD

fweee!

just in time for summer, i've posted up one of my favourite salad recipes of all time; if you'd like to try your hand at making salad kaek (Thai southern salad), go check out Licking the Spoon right now. don't walk; run. ^^

the true tale of quentin cappuccino

once upon a time, there was a girl.

as some girls and boys do, she had a habit of going to a job every day in order to earn money to fund insignificant things such as a roof (to put over her head), clothing (to keep her from freezing and/or burning), and food (to fill out the clothes and keep death from occurring).

occasionally, she would be more exhausted than she had any right to be, and it was in those times she would turn to some form of a substance known as 'caffeine' for much-needed assistance.

of late, she had not been imbibing much. on those rare occasions that she had, it was usually in the form of a small tin of iced coffee. enter Mr. Brown.

Mr. Brown was both cheap and good, and also small and convenient. therefore, the girl had taken to carrying a can of Mr. Brown with her in her lunchbag, for emergencies. the discovery of Mr. Brown had proved a great boon to the girl, and was saving her much money that she might otherwise have spent on coffee at 7-11 or Dunkin Donuts. in short, although she did not partake of Mr. Brown on a regular basis, she was very happy with Mr. Brown, and a good symbiotic relationship was formed (in much the way that tired girls and decent iced coffee are wont to do).

one day, the girl was exceedingly exhausted on her way to work. as she hadn't done in awhile, she decided to try a new place which she passed often, and which always smelled incredibly good. no fancy coffee---simple small cafe au lait and she would surely be feeling much better-equipped to deal with her day.

but alas and alack, for this was not a union of girl and pleasantly hot caffeinated beverage that was meant to be, for when she chanced to use the shaker provided to sprinkle a teensy bit of cocoa into her coffee, the lid fell off.

SPLOOOSH!!! went the coffee.

AIEEEEEE! %&#*$&@#)@*)!!!!! went the girl.

and coffee was absolutely everywhere.

had the girl not been wearing her customary black hooded fleece (long-sleeved), her arm would probably have had a nice burn on it. as circumstances were, she merely walked around smelling rather strongly of cocoa and cinnamon for the remainder of the day. the girl cleaned up as much of the mess as she could, and then informed the proprietresses of the establishment of what had happened.

the proprietresses of the coffee establishment apologised profusely and provided the girl with a new cup of coffee, but the girl had learnt her lesson and learnt it well.

Mr. Brown is apparently a caffeinated beverage not to be trifled with. when one forsakes Mr. Brown, one ends up with cocoa and cinnamon and steamed milk and hot espresso all over one. never underestimate Mr. Brown.

(this message was in no way brought to you by the manufacturers of Mr. Brown, and is entirely a product of the high-pitched fevers regularly running throughout Janaki's brain. any resemblance to persons living, dead, undead, existing on other planes, spindled, mutilated, crushed, pashed or otherwise is entirely coincidental, excepting when it isn't.)

in other news, why's it already Sunday? ;.;

things learnt...

1) when in doubt, Trust Mr. Brown.

will explain later. it involves cinnamon, cocoa, a big mess, me, and a scaldingly hot beverage.

also, it was not my fault. for once.

(i know some of you might find this last a bit difficult to believe, but since when do i take pains to lie about how clumsy i often sometimes am? XD)

beeru-chan's summer vacation

the one and only Beeru-chan would like for us all to think that she's away from school on summer vacation, happily whiling away her hours playing various bits of the Suikoden saga.

but really, i've discovered the truth.

she's been secretly manufacturing semi-wholesome sparkling juice beverages containing 70% fruit juice and 30% sparkling water. (only, y'know, how secret can it really be when she goes and puts her name all over the thing, complete with a pronunciation guide on the back?!!?)

i'm just saying, is all. XD

REJOICE!

thanks to Rob for this; apparently, the OED has now added such fine staples of modern English as "buggeration," "cocksmanship," "bitch-slap," and "skeevy" to its records.

you think i'm joking?

XD

as Krissy said, today is truly a great day for humankind. XDXDXD

hungry hungry hoodscoops

we spent most of the day on a fairly futile search for a stupid AC adapter for my camera. which was unfortunate.

but it also put valuable miles on the STi.

and it was a gorgeous day out. and we saw a nicely kept old burgundy-ish Triumph and a bright white bug-eyed Sprite. which, unfortunately, i wasn't quick enough to take pictures of.

however, it was still a day fairly nicely spent.

and finally, qualifying for the F1 GP of Canada and...Diesel! what more could one want in one's day? ^^

(well, we also went to the library. and stocked up on got more books. Cart and Cwidder and i have an appointment...^^)

federn?

in the course of events last night, we met this guy with a very, very nice '91 Honda CRX. incredibly, incredibly clean.

and also very, very light. i mean, i'd heard of how CRXs are supposed to be incredibly light. but if he's to be believed, this car (with the original engine swapped out and replaced with a VTEC one) is approximately 2200 lbs. with full interior intact. O.O;;

...wow. O.O;;; someone else a few weeks ago commented that for being called a MINI, the new ones sure weigh an awful lot. the New MINI Cooper S weighs in around 2700 lbs. it's 2 feet shorter than a VW Golf, and i bet it's shorter than the CRX by a not-too-dissimilar amount, too. should look into that.

the older Cooper S cars never got much above 1535 lbs stock. quite a bit of weight to put on. granted, the newer ones also have a LOT more power, but they also NEED a lot more power in order to move all that extra weight around!

hrrm. interesting, the going-forward-by-going-backwards aspects...XD

take it back....

i take back the previous entry. partially, anyway.

$27.50?

...$27.50??!?!?!?

dude. OUCH. :P

(i mean, that's more than the cost of seeing Gollum Mark E. Smith & Friends. or attempting to see them, i should say. XD)

eep.

mocked!

i now consider myself mocked by the one known as Dirty Damon.

>E~~~

please, consider for a moment the following:

1) my absolute and complete love for Think Tank. which i haven't exactly gone on about here, but which i've gone on about at length elsewhere, and which several of you who read this already know about. may ramble on about it here at some point, but quite simply i think it's the best thing they've done in ages, and maybe the best full album they've ever put together. Blur have done some great things, yes, but they generally aren't terribly strong in the album department---with them, it's more a game of singles and excellent b-sides than anything.

2) this led me to dig out things i haven't listened to in ages. including Bustin' and Dronin', which is this weird 2-CD Japan-only set comprised of one disc of odd remixes of a handful of songs off of the self-titled album, and the second disc all live stuff from around that era. had picked it up years ago in a used CD store on a whim. hadn't really liked it much then, but hadn't disliked it either---just felt i wasn't really in the mood. put it away. didn't think much about it until recently, when i dug it up again. found i liked it MUCH more now. have listened to it quite a bit more, as a result. the live stuff is quite fun (unsurprisingly)---whee, "Popscene"! ^^ depending on my mood, i also like the remixes okay---some more than others. will have to peruse liner notes before prattling on further, as i can't get very specific about what version of what with who doing what i'm talking about (esp. as regards remixes) without them. ^^ hence, no prattling here, other than what i've already done. nyah. XD

3) of course, Think Tank leads to touring. Chicago date is 14th July, at the Congress Theatre. the Congress is a pretty good place---again, provided you're up front, it's perfectly fine. haven't been there in years, but i suspect it'd be fine. except it's a Monday.

>E~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dirty Damon, why do you mock me? WHY??!?! Mariam's got tickets already. hopefully she'll be able to tell me about it, at least. ;.;

(oh well, it's not like i've never seen them this time, at least. not like Sleater-Kinney, whom the fates have determined that i shall never, ever see. --;;;;;;;;;;;;;;)

true matriculation

congrats to our time-travelling, many-voice-imbued friend Jazzler upon completing her final paper for law school.

the bar shouldn't be too terribly hard now, should it?

just remember, the Legos have much wub for you, even if your voices do not.

LegoDraco: I do? *arches eyebrow*
Janni: dude, i'm sending monkeypox-infested prairie dogs over to munch on your head if you don't. put it that way. *halos*
LegoDraco:...please?
Janni: --;;;;;

reconsideration

listened to quite a bit of Don Davis' score from The Matrix: Reloaded this weekend. in doing so, i came to a new conclusion (as opposed to this one).

this score is vastly more satisfying and entertaining than the movie itself.

honestly? you'd probably do yourself more of a favour if you plunked your money down on the score rather than the movie ticket. if you play your cards right, they'll cost about the same anyway. buy the score and imagine yourself up a sequel and you'll probably be much happier. ^^

(although i still stand by my original pronouncement about the last 10 minutes of the movie AND will add that really, what i said would improve it EXPONENTIALLY. not fix everything, of course, but it'd help a lot.)

i'm sick of nearly getting tornadoed. can we stop now? please? :P

have been listening to loads of stuff lately which i'd kinda like to write about, and maybe might have time to later this week...

note to self, others:

please remember that every other weekend (when F1 isn't on) is when F1 Decade is. at 8pm, on Sunday (unless they happen to change it.

don't forget.

and in a note to everyone else, Williams Street is apparently working on new episodes of The Brak Show right now

...REJOICE!!!

(although it's quite possible nothing will ever beat pimpin' Frylock...XD)

o.o;;;

Red, Hot + Rhapsody : Gershwin Groove?

Sarah Cracknell + Kid Loco's version of "The Man I Love" was just on satellite radio a bit ago. (BTW, MC seems to think "sounds of the season" is analogous to how "Channel X" used to be. erm.)

UM.

Angelo Badalamenti?!?!?

<3 <3 <3

a little less more and more

saw The Animatrix yesterday.

liked it far better than Reloaded. except probably the first segment, with the Osiris. the one Mr. Final Fantasy did. that one was rather weak. the rest, though, was mostly a whole lot better.

and i <3 Shinichirou Watanabe. <3 <3 <3

also, the Death in Vegas song on the soundtrack sounds like Adult. ripped off the bassline from Blur's "Girls and Boys." seriously.

finally, you and i obviously have no other recourse than to change our respective names to Rob, right?

(and to the Rob i work with...nope, not you. although it's a fine name, and i hope you don't mind sharing. XD)

that will be all.

rumblerumble!

Subaru get-together last night; we went and it was quite fun. people as a whole seemed very nice, and there were some very nice cars there. plus i got to provide Mini info. hee. XD

but i got thirsty after awhile, and so wandered into a Borders nearby, since i knew they had that in-store coffeeshop thing and i wasn't about to hit the $tarbucks that was also nearby. fully intended on some tea or something similar, but got no further than the door.

they were SO TARGETING ME. XD

not kidding. seemed like a large number of different (really nice) cookbooks remaindered and part of the bargain books section just inside the door. HUGE, oversize books, with lovely photography. yes, they're flexis, but. $5.99/ea.

...and it was in this way i was completely waylaid while meaning only to go and get something to drink. XD THEY KNEW. THEY KNEW I WAS COMING.

so i got the curry one, the Thai one (cos, y'know, i really need another Thai cookbook), the Japanese one, and the Chinese one. there were at least two others i was considering, but i had to show some restraint after all. XD

there was also a sale going on that ended yesterday wherein customers were to take a special bag and put whatever they wanted (minus periodicals and foodstuffs) inside to receive 10% off. the sign specified "everything inside the store," however---the bargain books were all in the vestibule along with the sign and the bags, so i didn't know how literal they meant it to be. i asked when i got up to the counter---and the discount indeed applied. only 10%, which isn't much---took care of slightly more than tax, though. so it was even nicer.

see? you think i was joking about being targeted? XD

(as for the thirst-quencher of choice, i ended up with a raspberry italian soda. decided against warm beverage. was too flushed with geeky bookish excitement for warm beverages. XD)

the phrase that slays

so there's this girl i see a lot; she rides the same train i (usually) do both in the morning and the evening. something about her is rather off-putting. not in a bad way, but just...off.

i think it's that she seems very likely to be what would happen if someone were to mash Fi and Daidouji together. Fionayo*. i'll call her that from now on. XD

she's always very fashionable, but not in a sort of trend-jumping way. she just is. she's one of those people who knows how to fit---not just with clothing, but with everything. she's got this very regal bearing to the way she walks, the way she moves---as though she belongs anywhere she is. and she very well might. but it reminds me a bit of exactly what i said above---if Tomoyo grew up and became more like Fi, maybe. she also seems to have the sort of unearthly beauty common to both mentioned above. can't explain---you just know these people when you see them. i've seen men with it too---Fi will be happy to know both instances i can recall were wearing very nicely fitted, non-icky suits! XD

i'm babbling, i know---but i've very rarely seen someone with a very nice umbrella in this very nice plum colour that so perfectly matches their very nice plum corduroy trenchcoat before. please forgive me. XD

in other news, any list of conversational constructs that really, really irk me would have to include the phrase "i says" at the top of my list. seriously. i cannot BEGIN to say how very much i just want to stab someone when i hear that particular set of words together! ARGH!

</anal-retentive language babbling>

* = much like Deodato, except not at all. ^^

er, whaaa?

watched the F1 Grand Prix of Monaco this weekend. and while i'm not about to spoil it mostly because i really have nothing to say about the result (excepting a small "yay!"), i will mention that one of our always-eloquent commentators on Speed had a Special moment.

when talking about something-or-other that Jacques Villeneuve had done, erstwhile amazing twitboy Rick DeBruhl referred to him as "Jacque's Villeneuve." thus leading to Spaz snarking "really? where does he keep his Villeneuve?" and other similar comments.

more amusing while there, i know, but still at least somewhat funny...? XD

and dude, the new McLaren is spectacularly pretty (rear end) and spectacularly ugly (front end) all at the same time. if it gets the job done, however---of course, that's the main thing. i really like the back end, though---the lines flow so nicely! ^^

might have known what you would find...

on The Matrix: Reloaded. probably short, and definitely spoilery. You Have Been Warned.

went to see this with more than slight trepidation---i mean, it's usual for trailers and such to present a movie in a way that some-marketing-group-or-other thinks will make the most people go to see it, and not necessarily in a way that actually represents the movie itself. however, the trailers we've seen do essentially make it look like one gigantic effects-driven music video, possibly the long-lost-and-should-have-stayed-there conjoined (not-so-secret) twin of Blade 2.

i'm pleased to say that at least, on that front, it far exceeded expectations. no overly-intrusive usage of the "Hey! This Is Our Big Hit Soundtrack Song! Whatcha Think?!?!?" sort. scoring (once again by Don Davis). yay. and there was a plot, which put another bit of fear to rest. didn't like it in the way i liked the first one, but that may or may not change depending on where the third one goes---if the third one is done really well, it may cast this bit in a more flattering light. if it completely sucks, it will more than likely take my opinion of this second chapter down with it, causing me to disavow all but the first.

this second chapter is that kind of movie. definitely doesn't stand on its own, but also wasn't meant to, so it's unfair to judge it that way. although it stands in the first one's favour that it, conversely, could very well stand on its own if necessary. hrrm.

(not that i adore the first as much as some people i know, but i did think it was quite good, particularly in light of being a Major Hollywood Motion Picture. XD)

also, the ending of Reloaded? if i would have been the one to do it, i would've ended it about 10 minutes before the ending they chose. right as Trinity's falling. no comatose telenovela ending (which frankly wasn't as cliffhangery as i'd expected).

that could also be because i'm mean. XD

(and dude, i swear Fishburne was talking like he thought he was recast as Agent Elrond---particularly at the beginning. don't remember Morpheus having speech patterns like that in the first one. XD)