4.27.2008

The Little Ones

The Little Ones at the Ottobar in Baltimore [04.22.08]

The Little Ones!!

OK, I've never heard of them until the day we went to see the live performance of Ra Ra Riot.
Their songs were cute! That was my very first impression. Some of them have the tropical rhythms. It's really up-beat and you just wanna sing and dance along with their fine tunes.

I love the sound of the vocalist too. Somehow their songs reminded me of Tahiti 80.

They are currently on a tour with Ra Ra Riot.

>>More photos

RaRa ♥

Ra Ra Riot at the Ottobar in Baltimore [04.22.2008]

Ra Ra Riot!!!

Finally, I had the chance to go see the live performance!
I totally fell in love with their music when I first listened to them.
Their songs are amazing! I love the different instrumental sounds combined.

There were 3 different bands before them, so I was drunk. Lol
I think I did alright shooting despite of being tipsy and not being able to handle my strobe.

>>More photos
They are currently on a tour with The Little Ones. Check HERE to find out where you can go see them!

Little Red Riding Hood ♪

Grandma, I'll bring my precious Easter Raccat Pie
when I come visit you!
Pie's so cute.
This is one of his new favorite spots to sit and take a nap :)

4.24.2008

Love Letter ♥♥♥

Dear R.

I
Call you up
Every night
Telephone
Wow
You're singing there
Every night
With the microphone
My
Favorite place
Fall asleep
Next to you
So
I wait at home
Patiently
Don't be late
Alright

(part of) Nighttiming, Coconut Records

______________________________

I don't know how to get a hold of you anymore.
This is a shame.
I was so happy we became close when we went to Vietnam.
I always had so much fun doing silly stuff with you.

I really need to get in touch.

I miss you dearly.

I love you and will always.
xoxo

4.22.2008

The Best Zombie Award Goes To..... (drumline)

Best Zombie Couple (photo enhanced image, created by noob me xD)

OK. Baltimore offers some interesting activities to go to during weekends. This past Sunday, it was the Baltimore Zombie Walk.

I was having way too much fun (sort of ) joining the event, so on the other hand I did a pretty poor job in terms of shooting the event. Meh, photos I shot look pretty crappy.

I didn't dress up like a zombie, but walked down the streets while fellow zombies were searching for human brains to fulfill their appetites. They scared some "live" human beings too. It was hilarious.

I didn't get the girl's name, but I agreed with what she said. This event was awesome. Fun fun fun. The zombies didn't care what other people think of them, they were just out there to have fun. People should chill and enjoy their lives as much as they can!

To cover my blog title, here comes the best zombie award... (I'm the only and one judge! This is more like my personal favorite zombies...)

His zombie makeup was awesome. The best Zombie expression too :)

Zombie Father: He had a shovel stabbed into his back. He was there with his Zombie Wife and their Zombie Daughter.

I like her expression. She looks like a classic zombie.

Blood looks still fairly fresh. Maybe he killed himself to join the zombie walk.

Doc Brain. He was one of my favorite zombies. If I ever have to get brain surgery, I hope he won't be doing the operation for me...

She looks like a heroine zombie. Amazing makeup!

I said awards, but it was too hard to pick zombies in order. Other zombies whom I didn't get photos of... they were great too.

>>More Photos

p.s. thanks for reading until the end of the blog.
i noticed that it was fairly long.

yum.

01.Taco Rice

Before

After (私は混ぜ混ぜして食べるのがスキ)

最近、アキちゃんとのメッセージ交換やら、彼女の事を考えていたら教えてもらった一品、『タコライス』が食べたくなった。初めて聞いたとき、タコ・・ライス?!思いっきり、シーフードのタコとご飯を創造した。が、実はこれは、メキシカンのタコスSeasoningでひき肉を炒め、ご飯に生の玉ねぎ・レタス・マヨネーズ・チーズをのせて出来上がり。(久し振りに作ったから、何か入れ忘れたかな?!)

意外な組み合わせ(私にとっては)なので、味はどんなもんかぁ?!と初めて食べたときは思ったが、意外にも全ての具材がマッチしておいしいのです♪ お試しあれ:)

02.納豆 In USA (Natto:fermented soybeans)


I love Natto! というくらい、私は納豆が好き。白米&納豆だけでも生きていける、というくらいいくら納豆を食べてもあきません。アメリカでも時々、凍った物を買い前日の晩に冷蔵庫にいれといて、Defrostされた物を食べます★ フレッシュな方が美味しいにこした事はないが・・・せめても納豆がこうやってアメリカでも食べられるので満足です。

4.17.2008

既にナツばて

春が来た!と思ってたら、もうとたんに夏の様な今日。
真夏の暑さまではいかないが、とりあえず蒸し暑い。
3階に住んでるからかな?
飼い猫たちも、普段はHyperで家中走りまわってるのに今日は朝から晩まで寝てばっか。

暑いといってもShoniはいつもの毛布の上でのお昼ね。
Pieは涼しい所でお腹を目一杯にだして仰向け状態。
既に、夏ばてのような2匹です。
注!いじめてる訳ではございません(汗)ゴロゴロいってたので、喉を撫でています★

4.16.2008

Love Letter ♥♥

Love 2004 (Photo Enhanced Image 2008)

Dear N.

We kid around a lot,
and that's a big part of what
makes me look forward to the times we share.

But all the joking wouldn't mean much
if there weren't something deeper beneath it.

Because the laughter between us
means more than just having fun.
It's really an expression of what happens
when two people let down their guards
and just trust and accept each other...

I don't have that kind of relationship with everyone,
but I have it with you- and I love you for it.

_____________

I am pretty horrible at expressing my true feelings, so I found a perfect poem (?!) for me to describe how I feel about you.

I love you and will always do.
xoxo

P.S. This is my new blog project. I will write love letters to my special folks from time to time.

4.15.2008

マタタビ一家 (catnip fam)

taken on 04.15.2008

...is growing :)

03.16.2008
I've been wanted to use this bowl for something since the day I got it (Pot 1 in the photo below). I finally bought more soil and catnip seeds, so decided to sow. Last time I bought the grown-up catnip, my cats loved it. They ate the leaves and rolled around after. I thought it would be nice to have a small catnip paradise for my babies. I think I sowed seeds a few weeks earlier than I was supposed to.

My catnip diary on the wall

Pot 01

Pot 02

Pot 03: I had an extra pot and (expired) leftover seeds. Why not.
I have more soil, therefore another pot.


03.21.2008
Despite the weather and my worries, Pot 03 had the first buds coming out. I didn't expect these seeds to grow since they were already expired. I've never had much of a "green thumb," so I was EXCITED! I think that caused me to leave the pot on the windowsill which is within Shoni's range. I just wanted Pot 03 to get more sunlight to help them grow stronger. After a few hours, all the new buds were gone. Before they became fully grown, Shoni had a sampling...

Pot 03. Look at the cute new lives :)

03.25.2008
Now, Pot 02 has a bud coming out. I carefully place it, so Shoni won't destroy it before I can really have the catnip paradise for the two of them. I still haven't seen anything happening on Pot 01. It started making me worried. Maybe I watered it too much.

04.15.2008
I noticed that Pot 01 finally had a few buds coming out. Yesterday while I was half wasted, I noticed there's SO MANY buds! (First picture on top of this entry) I didn't really believe myself since I wasn't exactly feeling right. I took a look again this morning. Whoooo! Pot 01 finally has lots of buds.

To be continued...

Love Letter ♥

credits: My A!

Dear A.

No matter how many months we won't speak to each other, you are always in my mind.
No matter how many times I moved to different places, I am always with you in spirit.

You are my inspiration, dear friend, and one of the most important people in this whole universe.

Do you remember giving me these two pictures you drew? They never left my side ever since.
When I was in need of help, looking at the pictures helped me.

You can never imagine how amazing, caring, and loving you are.

I always admire your personality, the way of dealing with things and everything about you.

(My words are not good enough to describe. I want to be clever and write something extraordinary.)


I'm glad we became friends and still are. Thanks for becoming my friend.

I love you and will always do.
xoxo

P.S.I know these aren't Chupa Chups, but blow pop candies always remind me of you. Guess what?! When I felt sad for some reason, you gave me the Strawberry Cream flavor Chupa Chups. I still have it :) It expired in April 2002 (Ha-ha).

4.13.2008

"From now on you don't exist in my life."

When she was born, her mom couldn't put her down.
When she was two, her mom joined Scientology staff.
When she was fourteen, she cried as she signed a billion-year "Sea Org" contract.

When she left the "church" at 16, her mother "disconnected" from her.


They never spoke again...

a direct quote from one of the flyers at the April protest

Tom Cruise, OT 7 :)

Scientology is a "body of beliefs and related practices" originally created by a science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard in the early 50's. This is a brief introduction of Scientology from www.urbandictionary.com (ah-ha) : "This area of the galaxy was once ruled by an alien warlord named Xenu. 65 million years ago his empire was overpopulated horribly, so to combat the overpopulation he had trillions of citizens called in for psychiatric evaluations and tax audits, where they were given paralytic drugs, loaded onto space planes, and flown to Planet Teegeeack."

Scientology sounds a lot like Aum Shinrikyo (オウム真理教)to me.
Aum Sinrikyo, now known as Aleph, was a Japanese new religious movement organization, found by Shoko Asahara in 1984. It carried out a Sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subways in 1995 and became internationally well-known so-called "cult" religious group.

What are common traits between Church of Scientology and Aum Shinrikyo? One of the reasons I felt they are similar was that they disconnect its members from their family, friends, society, and anything you wanna name.

"Disconnection is a Scientology practice of cutting all ties and all communication with someone who is declared a Suppressive Person or SP (evil) by the Church of Scientology."

Simply people who dislike and disagree with the aims of the CoS and have relationship with CoS members, they are labeled as SP. Scientology management doesn't openly recommend its members to disconnect from anyone. They use threats and social isolation to convince them to disconnect which is their decisions, not Scientology management's.

There was an Anonymous "anons" protest in Washington, DC on April 12. Anonymous are the people who disagree with CoS beliefs. They hide their identities and wear masks to protect themselves. CoS is known as a group for its Mafia-like manner. If they find out who these anons are, they will harm them.

>>Further Reading and Video
Tom Cruise and Scientology
Xenu
Enturbulation
xenu-directory
whyaretheydead
youfoundthecard
TIME arcicle
exscn
scientologydisconnection
exscientologykids

>>More Photos

Reflection of the Church of Scientology in Washington, DC on an Anons' sunglasses.

Just out of curiosity, why does the Church of Scientology also have the cross as its symbol?!
I guess it's because Scientology wants to look like a real church!?


"$cientology: IT'S A TARP!" as he is dressed up like a lady in front of the Church of Scientology.

One of the members from the Church of Scientology started handing out their DVDs near where all the anons were.

After a few minute, he walked away with a Scientology DVD in his hand.


As I have learned more about Scientology and why the anons are against it, I am indeed afraid of making this post. People who try to reveal the CoS's secrets and what they do get attacked. I really hope I won't be dead after posting this. Laugh at me :) I am scared! I should have worn a mask to protect my identity =x

*If any of people in the photos posted in this blog do not feel comfortable seeing yourself here, please feel free to let me know. I will gladly remove photos from the site. Leave me a comment :)