speach tree

After a quick meal, we continued... We used the stands to clamp down the studs that still needed cutting. Some Home Depots will do this for you but they were not very precise at the one we went to in Elmhurst.

We actually finished our table a couple of weeks ago, but I was waiting until we applied the finish to post the pictures. Doesn't look like I'll be doing that until spring, so I'll post the pictures one at a time and maybe by the time I'm done the finished product will be ready... Part 1: Home Depot Later we discovered that the HD in Flushing actually has a much better selection of wood and much better quality. At the time, though, we ended up buying a few studs. And so the table was destined to become a Stud Table...

things to acquire by hook or by crook: microwave $59 @ target food processor-ness $100-150 @ macy's george foreman grilleration $19.99 @ target (can it be!?) macbook $1000 @ black friday sale 2010 final cutty (studio) $1000 @ apple.com 007 camera-pen (or sth similar from veho) $100 @ J&R bathing suit $29 (-$20 w/coupon) @ old navy as part of an effort to develop problem-solving skills (big problem: save money) and also become more conscious of how i am moving through life, i have decided to help SF build new furniture for the living room. project 1 - coffee table 2 - bench 3 - kitchen island 4 - chairs 5 - bunk bed!?!?

i recently learned that one of my colleagues, XK, was a farmer in F__ province in China, quit after elementary school was a favorite with his boss and hates to read. he has one of the most assertive and clear speech of anyone i've met, and he has also helped to clear the air of a lot of bad energy with his presence. i'm going to try being more like him, more 前向き and more daring in the coming months...

Last night ND called me out of the blue as he was walking to the Rock to finish a paper for a class I never took but always wanted to take while at Brown, mostly to watch how Prof. DK taught the class. Everyone I know who has taken that class has said that DK is a Good Teacher, and I am inclined to believe them. They say he gets a class talking to each other about what they got out of the books, without imposing a lot of his own agenda. It is said that he asks a lot of good questions and listens to what students say. I had a lovely conversation about books, and I realized today that I love talking about books! Especially novels, I think. Maybe I should be a Lit teacher after all... But I like talking about what I like about books more than I like leading a discussion about books... and YT told me I should think about being an art teacher instead. In any case it was very nice to talk to ND about books we had read or wanted to read. If my spirit animal was not already a lion who is tryi...

too crazy high-tension to sleep, even though i must. i must! i got another offer to sit on a 2009 AWP panel, this time on the process of translation. i'm really interested in socialist women poets of the tokyo literary scene of the 1920's. want to get more into their stuff, but have no time. i feel kind of phony thinking about sitting on a translation panel when i haven't even finished any of my 3 translation projects, let alone new projects, however dreamy they may be. reading louise erdrich is both inspiring and paralyzing for a writer who suffers from chronic loneliness. close to yet just outside of reach of mythical homeland, a.k.a. "The Community." i am slowly getting to know my characters, during time stolen on train rides, between jobs, and long walks between here and there. sometimes it's their names that come to me first, other times, their histories. sometimes i recognize them through their faces, their scars, sometimes their speech patterns. i am tr...

mere hours after writing the below list of wonderful things i was going to do this summer, i spoke with MMH, who asked me to seriously consider working in maryland. she said that if i'm not making time to write and to translate and to draw right now , then will i really do it in my "free time"? she has a point. thus i have been reduced to the proverbial flip-flop of 2004 notoriety. my goal then is to post something on at least one of my blogs every week-day from now until... august. because i am going to japan in august. sigh.

I'm going to spend the summer writing and drawing my comic. I will have to dip into my savings but... that's what they're for, right!? Ahhh I feel so much better. Here is a list of what I WANT to do this summer*: - Work on translations of Jose Watanabe's un-translated poetry. - Prepare a presentation of Watanabe's work, based on my undergrad thesis. - Work on translations of Ryoko Sekiguchi's untranslated poetry. - Finish enough pages of my web-comic to launch in the fall. - Work on my speach tree poetry project. - Prepare for living in Japan in 2009. - Create a set of submissions from old poems - and actually submit them. - Practice and perfect my presentation on the history of anime reception in the US. - Prepare for the coming year so I don't have to scramble in the fall. - Do more for the Break the Chains campaign to repeal Employer Sanctions, restore equal rights for all workers, etc. - Do aikido on a regular basis and find a sparring partner. *Note: wh...