Living Seoul

Though it was weeks ago when I first saw it, it’s still been on my mind…Air’s music video for “Sing Sang Sung” off their new album Love 2. I like to watch it every few days. There are always new things I notice. The video reminds me of pinball mixed with Super Mario mixed with some kind of hallucination. My favorite parts are:

• mouth that eats the ball and pops it out
• tapping shoe
• cake with dripping frosting and cherries
• beautiful floating diamonds
• singing profiles
• mass of eyeballs

I can feel this music video as I watch it. It’s not often that a truly enjoy animations, but this is definitely one of my favorites. (Blah, I can’t find any videos that will embed, but go watch it on YouTube. Worth it!)

Since the beginning of the year I’ve been watching the TV series Six Feet Under at the recommendation of a co-worker who let me borrow the first two seasons. I was quickly absorbed by the first season and have continued on with the second. It’s no Mad Men but it’s engaging and has kept my interest so far. The setting and even some of the plots aren’t what really hook me. I love the characters. My favorite, by far, is the matriarch, Ruth. Her spurts of emotion are hilarious. There’s some part of her personality I can identify with. When I first saw her I thought she was totally boring. She’s so plain and modest looking. But then I realized how beautiful she is. I want long hair when I’m older. (I’ll have long , GRAY hair.) My other thought about the show is Michael C. Hall’s character, David Fisher. I’d first seen Michael  C. Hall as Dexter. After comparing the two character, I actually prefer him as a gay undertaker. Hmmm…

This past week I watched Me and You and Everyone We Know. The main character was too much of a cliché but was still cute enough to make me smile. I thought she could have been any quirky indie type character that Zooey Deschanel would play in a movie, but I think this came out before Zooey became the star of every indie type rom com. My favorite part of the movie was the “poop back and forth” story line.

It’s not a life-changing movie, but I found it well worth my time and strange enough to keep my interest. Miranda July wrote, directed and acted (main character) in it. And one quick fact from Wikipedia:

*Roger Ebert cited the film as the 5th best film of the decade.

I got a subscption to the New Yorker for Christmas. I’d often buy a copy when I needed something to read in the airport. The articles always impressed me and I love what they decide to write about. It seems like every time I get an issue there are stories relating to subjects I’ve just talked about with other people. I want to rip them out and send them to friends. The downside is that the writing really intimidates me. I could only wish to ever write that well. And it’s weekly! And the cartoons make me laugh. Though every time I think about New Yorker cartoons I remember the Seinfeld where Elaine desperately tries to get one published and no one really even knows why any of them are funny.

My fav cartoon from the most recent issue. LOL at the lady's rotten face.

Other things on my radar:

-The new Magnetics Fields album “Realism”.

-Jim Cramer (Dad is requesting that I read his book “Real Money” as preparation for my future investing.)

-Movies about ballet—I have a fascination with ballerinas. I think in another life where I have longer legs and less boobs I’d definitely be a ballerina.

…that Amanda Bynes and Steven Cojocaru look kinda similar for the same unfortunate reasons.

(The highlights make me a little sick.)

Real post coming soon!

I was terrified of males until I was in tenth grade. It’s probably because I was terrorized by them for most of my childhood and adolescence. I recalled one of the most scarring experiences to one of my co-workers the other evening. In retrospect it’s almost an amusing story, but I’ll never ever forget how humiliated and upset I was at the time.

This experience came after a number of other bad experiences I’d had with boys up until then. There was the boy in kindergarten who used to chase me around the playground EVERY morning before they opened the doors for school. He’d pucker his lips and make kissing noises while he chased me. One day he got me. I probably cried. Then there was the boy in first grade (who has a rat tail I might add) who used to call me “Gorilla” because I had hairy arms and legs. The town I grew up in was mostly white and Asian people. People always commented on my dark hair and light skin when I lived there because most white kids were blonde. I was so jealous of the other girls who only had a blonde fuzz on their arms and legs. I felt cursed because my hair was almost black on a background of pale skin. My arm and leg hairs were long. I hated it and felt ugly because of it. Being called “Gorilla” by rat tail boy didn’t help. Around the same time there was an incident on the playground. I was hanging upside down on the jungle gym with my friends when a boy ran up to me, pulled my shirt away from my body and threw wood chips into my clothes. I got down, astonished, and had to pick bits of wood from inside my shirt and out of my hair. I had never even spoken to the boy that did it.

The dreaded "Star Crunch".

This all led up to third grade. There was a boy in my class that started a rumor that I castrated other boys in my class when they were asleep, cooked the remains and brought them in my lunch. Of course, he was more graphic about what happened. I was MORTIFIED. I was intimidated and unfamiliar the male anatomy when I was that age. So to have a classmate running around the room screaming my name with the word “penis” in the same sentence was appalling. I had no idea how to handle it except denial. I hoped the other kids in my class knew he was crazy. Each day I wished that no boys would be absent so he couldn’t bring it up. He’d always say, “Oh, I know why XXXX is absent today! Melinda must have broken into his house last night!” And then he’d laugh maniacally. I think it went on most of the school year. My Mom started packing a Little Debbie snack in my lunch called a “Star Crunch”. When the boy saw that I was eating it he immediately claimed it was evidence of my night time activities. He claimed that is what it looked like when I fried them and added nuts. (“Star Crunch” is actually made with puffed rice, duh.) I ate my dessert in shame those days, while continuing to  deny I’d done anything harmful to the other boys in my class.

At the end of the year a new girl joined our class. The evil boy also decided to terrorize her. He used to threaten to prank call our houses after he learned we didn’t have caller ID. The new girl and I became friends because of our mutual dislike for the boy that terrorized us and our interest on softball. It became much more bearable when there was someone to commiserate with. We later figured out that he was probably so mean to us because he liked us. I moved away after that school year but will never forget what happened.

The boys in Texas weren’t as bad. There was a boy in fifth grade that sent me letters through the school post office saying that he hated me. (After I didn’t respond to his “check yes or no” request to be my boyfriend, haha.) He drew pictures of me swinging a sword around trying to kill people. I just thought he was really strange. Boys continued to tease and embarrass me all the way through ninth grade. Finally in tenth grade a boy tried to get to know me without making a fool of himself and we dated for almost four years. Now, for the most part, I enjoy the company of males. But I had to put a lot behind me to get to this point.

Little boys are weird. It must be a law of nature.

In the full burn garb (and Dad's shoes). Had to wear a special stocking to keep everything in place.

Today I was telling someone the story of my burn. Quite honestly, there are a lot of holes in my version. I was one-year-old when it happened. I remember nothing. So, I called Mom for the rest of the details.

Where/When: I was 15 months old when I was burned, so it would probably be March of 1987. My parents and I were living in a little house in Oak Forest in Houston (no sister yet). My grandparents were visiting from New Jersey.

Background: We were all about to go out to dinner. Mom was in the kitchen cooking a pot of pasta sauce to prepare for the next day’s meal. She left me in the living room with Dad, Grandma and Grandpa who were waiting for her to finish.

The Moment: I snuck back into the kitchen with my Mom. Then I came up from behind her and tried to inch my way through her legs as she was putting the pot of pasta sauce in the refrigerator. She was taken by surprise. The pot of sauce fell and landed on us. It was not boiling but had come off the stove. My Mom was splattered and got minor burns. I received the majority of it. I am told there were some feelings of guilt since I no one noticed me wander off into the kitchen.

Months of regular bandages.

Hospital: Mom remained calm and told my Dad to leave my clothes on and get me under cold water. My grandparents were trying to rub butter on me but my Mom wouldn’t allow them, haha. She said the scariest part was in the car on the way to the hospital. There was a sheet draped over my body and when she lifted it up she could already see huge blisters forming on my legs. I had first, second and third degree burns that covered over 10% of my body. It was mainly the lower part of my left leg, both ankles and splatters on my upper legs, abdomen and elbow. The burns were so severe because I had weak baby skin. I had to stay in the hospital for a week. I was able to talk a little bit by this age, but my Mom claims I never told her I was in pain or cried. She says I was possibly too drugged to know that anything hurt or maybe it actually didn’t hurt that bad. When you have third degree burns it apparently burns off some of the nerve endings. The pediatric burn specialist, Dr. Basil (“Like the herb,” says Mom.) was considering a skin graft because some of the third degree burns were not healing fast enough. Miraculously the day before they were going to do the surgery the burn healed enough to call it off. By the way, the procedure of skin grafting, basically transplanting skin, looks terrifying.

Final stages of healing. Goat?

Aftermath: I went home after a week but had to return every day for two more weeks for hydrotherapy. I guess they want really deep burns to heal from the inside out so they try to slough off the top layer of skin in a big whirlpool. Gross. After hydrotherapy I had to wear a pressure stocking over the burns for many more months. They had to pay special attention to control the way the burns were scarring over my ankles because they were worried it could affect the joint movement.  After the pressure bandage I had to wear regular bandages until the end of autumn. Basically my left leg was all messed up for 1987.

Now: Growing up I was kinda conscious of the scars. There were times in elementary school that I wished my leg looked normal, but I knew worse problems existed. Plus, as I got older and grew the scar stretched out with my skin. You can still see where the tongue of my shoe met my leg and the ribbing in my socks. It’s all burned in to me! Overall it looks much better than it did when I was a kid. It’s still wrinkly and weird and no hair grows and it won’t get sunburned. I definitely got lucky that only part of my leg was burned. It could have been so much worse.

Last night I watched the Golden Globes with a friend and actually found myself yelling and cheering at the television. I guess it’s been a while since I’ve watched a whole awards show; I felt particularly invested in it. More than anything I wanted Mad Men to win, which it did. Though I wish January Jones and Jon Hamm had one for Best Actor/Actress for Drama TV Series. (But I was proud that Michael C. Hall won Best Actor. He was my second choice and definitely deserving of it.) I was really upset Gabourey Sidibe didn’t win for Precious. Sandra Bullock actually looked like she felt bad when she accepted the award. I also was upset Coraline didn’t win for Animated Picture. My friend said she thought the old man in Up looks like Martin Scorsese, haha. Avatar won so many awards, blah blah blah. I was supposed to see it during the holidays but plans fell through. I still want to get myself to a theater before I’m unable to see it in IMAX 3D anymore. Ricky Gervais as host, whatever. I don’t think his style of humor is funny.

Now for the pictures! I love seeing what everyone wears. Overall, this year there were NOT any dresses that blew me away. There were actresses that I thought looked beautiful, but it didn’t have much to do with their costume. Here’s what I think:

BEST DRESS Jennifer Garner

Usually Jennifer Garner doesn’t do much for me. Most of the photos I see her in she’s dressed in really casual “Mom” clothes. But she chose a beautiful gown. I like the clean lines and simplicity. And I’m not the only one, I know she made most of the “Best Dressed” lists from this event.

WORST DRESS Fergie

It’s true, this isn’t a monstrosity of a gown by any stretch. Fergie actually made some of the “Best Dressed” lists. However, I HATE this dress because it looks like a prom dress. It’s boring and uninspired. I think the color looks bad with her hair and skin tone. She doesn’t look magical; she just looks blah.

MOST BEAUTIFUL Christina Hendricks & Rose Byrne

Christina Hendricks almost always oozes glamour and sex appeal. I love her for this. But more importantly she keeps it classy. This is a perfect example. The dress isn’t one of my favorites (too many ruffles) but she totally owns it. And the color makes her glow. I like Rose Byrne’s dress, I don’t love her accessories, but she looks so elegant. The color is lovely and so is she.

MOST SOPHISTICATED Sophia Loren & Helen Mirren

I love these ladies! Hands down, they’re the most beautiful, well-kept women over 60. Sophia Loren has an exceptionally marvelous dress.

MOST INTERESTING Tina Fey

Tina Fey really got called out for wearing this dress. She made a lot of the “Worst Dressed” lists. I don’t think it’s fair. I like it! I would have chosen simpler shoes, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. It suits Tina Fey just fine.

HOLY SH*T AWARD Mo’Nique

Um, this isn’t for her dress. If you don’t want to shave your legs that’s your own deal, but if you give a glimpse of them at the Golden Globes everyone is going to know about it, hahaha. (I’m wincing.)

Is Trader Joe’s just a slightly less yuppie version of Whole Foods/Central Market?

I’ve never been. I’ve heard about it for years, friends rave about it; they even tell me I’d like it. I came close to entering one in Palo Alto, California but it never happened. So what’s all the fuss about?

I follow this online community/forum about Austin-related stuff. The other day someone posted that they’d heard a Trader Joe’s was coming to Austin in the 183/Mopac area. The post immediately exploded with comments. I’m pretty sure it’s just a rumor, but one of the comments said they’re supposed to inhabit the Whole Foods space at the Arboretum and Whole Foods is moving to the Domain. Isn’t this store a lot like a Whole Foods or Central Market anyway? Austin is already flooded with epicurean/gourmet/organic/health type grocery stores. Based on comments it seems like Trader Joe’s must be cheaper than Whole Foods. It would surely become more attractive to me for this reason alone.

Another commenter posted a link to a NY Times Freakonomics column about Trader Joe’s from about a year ago. It’s owned by ALDI, a huge German discount grocery chain. (Um, German Wal-Mart?) Actually the article says Aldi “is so good at selling cheap goods that Wal-Mart couldn’t compete with it in Germany.” But I guess it’s because they try to sell their own brand in their store, which is apparently the same thing Trader Joe’s does. It’s the same concept for both stores, but aimed toward different demographics.

(SIDE NOTE: There was a time when I was a kid that an Aldi opened up outside Chicago, close to the suburb I lived in at the time. My mom wanted to see what it was all about. My sister and I were really young. I remember that we were all so disgusted and irritated because you had to leave a deposit (like $$$) to use a shopping cart. My young mind could hardly understand why a person would have to pay for a cart. The store was also weirdly small. We never went back.)

I checked out Trader Joe’s web site…it’s a little unfortunate looking. Not that I could create something better. I just read on Wikipedia that they prescribe to a “South Seas motif”. Hahaha, I thought I was at the wrong web site at first. And they use Times New Roman on the home page. Maybe their site is trying to be more about content than design.

So, is Austin getting a Trader Joe’s? My guess is probably not any time soon. There was one last comment I just noticed on the original post saying that, indeed, they probably won’t open a store here until they build a new distribution center somewhere in the vicinity. Currently the nearest one is all the way the California.

(Following up from January 14 post “Bunches of Lunches”)

Today I called the firm that designed the restaurant. The architect laughed when I asked about the creepy mirror…he knew exactly what I was talking about! He didn’t have any real explanation; it’s just what the owner wanted. Uh, weird. All of the Mighty Fine locations have a creepy mirror. I told him about being able to see a sink faucet through the mirror as I was eating and he said something about having to keep the lighting levels “just right” so people can’t see through the glass, hahaha. I might have to take this to the owner. My co-workers tell me that the people who own Mighty Fine are the same people who own Rudy’s BBQ. Hmmm…

I feel wrong for not addressing the Haiti situation on this blog or my Twitter sooner. It’s sort of silly to be posting about hamburgers and crazy Tetris games when there’s a major crisis happening. Then again, I’m not in Haiti bringing you new information. The most I could do is repost news stories or tell you that I donated money and that you can, too. It’s not like there’s a shortage of news about it.

What am I curious about that I haven’t really seen addressed? Some sort of comparison to other natural disasters. I’ve heard all kinds of death toll estimates for HaitiQuake. Ranging from 30,000 to 500,000. I tried to remember how many people perished during Hurricane Katrina. Or the tsunami in Asia in 2004. How does this disaster compare?

*Katrina killed about 1,800 people. Another 700 went missing. That’s at least 2,500 people.
*The 2004 tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people. (5th deadliest natural disaster in history)

I didn’t realize so many people died as a result of the tsunami. Hurricane Katrina seems at least as tragic in my memory, but it’s probably because I live so close to where disaster struck. If the death toll from the earthquake is actually as high as 500,000 it would come much closer to being one of the deadliest natural disasters in the world’s history. Excluding things like disease and famine, floods have actually been one of the most deadly natural disasters in history, killing millions of people. The largest death toll from an earthquake was 850,000 in China in the 1500s. To me, it’s been interesting to look at these lists on Wikipedia.

Back to some numbers.

*The estimated damage from Katrina was about $91 billion as of 2009.
*Nations from all over the world donated an estimated $7 billion after the tsunami. That’s just what was donated though, not how much it would actually take to fix everything.

I can only imagine the amount of money it could take to practically rebuild Haiti. I suppose by doing a little research I wanted to gain some perspective on how bad this is compared to what’s happened in the past. Either way it’s a tragedy RIGHT NOW and Haiti needs serious help. I haven’t donated money for natural disaster relief in the past. I probably felt like I didn’t matter because I wasn’t an adult anyway and didn’t have enough money to make a difference. I was listening to NPR’s coverage yesterday and they were talking about how far $10 can go in Haiti. For some reason it made all the difference in my mind. For me, $10 will buy dinner. Once. That’s it. But this is different. The latest reports I’ve seen say people have donated more than $3 million via the Red Cross’ text message campaign. It’s an awesome idea and is obviously effective.

“The Boston Globe” often puts together photos for major events like this. I think they do an excellent job. Here’s their latest for the Haiti earthquake.

I’m watching Brian Williams reporting from Haiti right now. He says the latest death toll is 50,000. Such a tragedy.

This is the most I’ve ever enjoyed lunch. Rather, going out to lunch with my co-workers. It allows me to try new restaurants while escaping the confines of my cube. Almost every day the conversation between Nickie (friend/co-worker) and I turns to food. We can schedule places to eat lunch based on our weekly cravings. It’s also helpful that we spend the day researching construction in Texas, which means it’s not uncommon for us to find out about new restaurants opening in Austin.

Last week we went to the new “Cajun Pizza Place” at McNeil & 183. What seems to set it apart from any other pizza joint in a strip mall is that many of their pizzas come with shrimp, jalapeños and/or Cajun seasoning. Steaming out of the oven it was delicious. Our pizza was “Andy’s Favorite” with shrimp, hamburger, pepperoni, onion and jalapeño. However, the next day the leftovers were kinda raunchy. It probably didn’t help that I ate it for breakfast. I’d go back, but sparingly.

Today I tried “Mighty Fine Burgers“. Eh. There wasn’t really anything wrong with it, but nothing really stood out either. I had the junior cheeseburger. The meat seemed really fresh; there were lots of fresh vegetables on it too. I liked that. The burger alone came to $4.30-something. I thought it seemed a little overpriced. I mean, it’s probably better than a Whataburger (love them) but it wasn’t any better than P. Terry’s. And a P. Terry’s junior cheeeeezeburger is less than $4.30-whatever. Right??? I didn’t get any fries because I heard they’re bland-o.

Another thing about Mighty Fine…but not related to the food…they have an extremely weird mirror situation going on. We sat next to this huge mirror. It was next the to the entrance to the restrooms. But it was a two-way mirror. I could vaguely make out the shape of a sink through the glass. My co-worker went in and told us he could have looked through the glass at us while he was peeing. Why? Why would you design a restaurant like this? At least the men are facing away from the dining area when they’re at the urinals in there, but GROSS! I want to know what the point is. The mirror is also a little upsetting because if you’re a woman in a short skirt sitting or standing too close to that perv mirror someone could totally see things. Maybe tomorrow at work I’ll try to look up which architect designs the Mighty Fines and give him/her a call about these awkward mirrors.

Friday we’re headed to the NEW Torchy’s Tacos location in NW Austin. For months Nickie and I had been wondering why there wasn’t a Torchy’s location up north. I think we actually squealed when our boss told us the new one was opening close to the office. I’m know I’m going to have a taco stomachache on Friday afternoon. Yum.

This game freaks me out so much.

It’s not a formal resolution or anything but I do want to (and should) utilize this web site more than I have been. I blogged through most of college, so at first it felt weird not to publish anything online anymore but eventually I got used to it. I started a Twitter account in April-ish which allowed me some degree of online expression without spending up to an hour writing and editing a blog post. I’m rusty. It’s been more than a year since I’ve blogged regularly. It used to be a whirlwind of typing when I sat down at the computer and now it’s just slow clicking of keys. Thinking. Typing. Deleting. Thinking. Typing.

There were two main reasons I stopped blogging.

1. I felt like I didn’t write about anything important and I didn’t have any kind of specific niche. My audience was too broad. My entries were mostly about my own experiences, observations…stuff I’d read or heard that interested me, maybe some news. I felt like it wasn’t serving a purpose for anyone except me. No one was really benefiting from my blog. What was the point?

2. Issues of privacy and censorship. I started working full-time at an office in July 2008. I wasn’t just some goofy journalism student with a blog anymore. My employer could easily see anything I published, duh. Granted, I don’t think there was anything I wrote or would write that would get me fired; I just want to be careful. (Especially because of a past experience. I could spend a whole entry on that later.) I worry that I don’t always realize what people find questionable or offensive. I’d also put my URL on resumes. I still don’t know whether it’s considered too unprofessional to allow a potential employer to see your blog. What if you’re applying for a writing job? What if you’re not? What if you just need to show that you can design/maintain a web site?

It stinks that I stopped blogging all together. It became too overwhelming to try to be so careful and define some sort of purpose after almost four years. It would have been nice to have the past 1 ½ of my life documented in some way. It’s NOT because I pretty much quit blogging. (Though I did take more pictures than I used to!) As lame as it might be I’m glad I wrote about my years in college. I would have forgotten about so many experiences, feelings and situations. It’s interesting to see how I dealt with stuff then and what worried me most. And definitely how much I changed between the ages of 18 and 22! It’s probably not the best writing and definitely not the most professional, but was real. I communicated the best I could. I realize now that I’d rather be writing for myself than not writing at all.