Turning Japanese

I’ve been watching a lot of anime and finding various Asian dramas on Hulu recently, and I realized I was recognizing some Japanese words. Not big ones, or important ones, but still: Japanese!

So I decided to learn Japanese. I’ve been told that once I learn Japanese Max will go on a trip to Japan with me, so I have an clear end goal that should help keep me on track, but I also got this sweet folder to inspire me as well as to store my papers. Kawaii, no?

The Zhivago

I found some Stoli Blueberi Vodka for a great price at the grocery store today, and loving to try new liquors and new drinks, I bought it. The best part is that I just did a search for drinks using blueberry vodka and found this:

Marco Pasanella’s The Zhivago

• 1 large snowdrift
  1 crackling fire
  1 girl named Lara
  2 shots Stoli Blueberi, chilled
• Pre-freeze elegant shot glasses and carafe.
  Present two blueberries in each glass and serve on a silver tray.
  Caress gently.

In the middle of the zoo, there is so much to do….

I went to the San Francisco Zoo last week with Max, after wanting to go for over a year. I had planned on getting a membership, but it turns out the individual membership was more expensive than I thought ($75) and didn’t let you bring a friend. You’d have to go at least five times by yourself to make it worthwhile, plus if you wanted company you’d have to convince someone to come five times. Sounds hard, right? Especially compared to the individual membership at the California Academy of Sciences, which is $99 and includes a plus one. So it pays for itself if you go four times by yourself, or twice if you toss in the free friend.

As it turns out, I’m pretty glad I didn’t get a membership and just bought the $15 day ticket. It was depressing. I thought it would be more akin to the Academy or the Monterey Bay Aquarium – their missions are education and preservation of the earth’s creatures and environment, and they accomplish their goals through the display of some of those creatures. The zoo, however….

At least the giraffes look happy!

The zoo seems to be designed to simply exhibit animals. It was long on chain link fences and sad looking animals, including a tiger who just paced and paced and paced, and pretty short on information about the animals and how we can help them in the wild. Admittedly a lot of the zoo was under construction, so maybe they’re trying to fix it, but I felt like they could be doing a lot more in the meantime.

They did manage to have some signs about the history of locations and exhibits, including what’s currently known as Penguin Island. It’s a long reflecting pool with an island in the middle that houses a bunch of penguins who splash around, swim, and even just chill in the pool when they’re not on the island. Of interest though was the fact that the island used to house monkeys. The zookeepers at the time, in their wisdom, thought that they should install a working stove on the island to keep the monkeys warm. The monkeys, in their monkeyness, decided to knock the stove over and set fire to the island. Crazy monkeys!

This is just so horrifying.

And advertising like this actually worked. Bah!

from Oddee.com

I am the line
I hold you near
There is no burden left to bear
I can see clear
You’re in suspension
You know no love
There is no story left to tell
You have no wisdom to pass on

I am the soul of absolution
No man can hide his own illusion
My hands are crippled from the pain
You are the splinter in my vein
You put your head between your hands
And understand nothing it has
I feel the answers keep you scared
I’ve put the harm inside myself

Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmmmm

I am the line
I hold you near
There is no burden left to bear
I can see clear
I am perfected
I know no void
I have no conscience to keep clear
I understand there’s nothing more

You try to kid yourself with questions
Bleeding inside for some correction
I found you tied unto the cross
Your judgment owns your every thought
You know my words all mean the same
You’ve buried here to isolate
Into this prison in your mind
Where you were born without a spine

Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmmmm

When did you stop caring?

And in your summer sky and in the air:

I must be kind of nice. I’m not dictating how this is going down, not at all. It’s hard to dictate when you just allow it all to happen though. Not a good trait in an megalomanical genius trying to take over the world, but I’d settle for just taking over the refridgerator at this point.