Greetings, earthlings!

I'm jumping ship! To Wordpress! Kobuta is moving to gokobuta.wordpress.com.

Because:

a.) I hate having kobuta05.blogspot.com. It still rankles that someone stole kobuta.blogspot.com from me in the 10 seconds I was experimenting with this blog's publishing settings.

b.) I got bored. Am done working at the church (6 month contract whizzed by in a giddy blur of free food, key sorting and Metafilter Mondays). Am currently blissfully on vacation until school starts in September.

I made a muxtape

Listen to it here.

Muxtape title: I LOVE THESE LONG TIME (Current favourites)

Tracks:
Paloalto - Breathe In
Tanya Chua - Drops of Jupiter
Happy End - Kaze Wo Atsumete
Better Than Ezra - Good
Asian Kung-Fu Generation - Loop And Loop
The Go! Team - Huddle Formation
Catherine Durand - Peu Importe
Mice Parade - Focus on A Roller Coaster
Frou Frou - Breathe In
Big Sugar - Diggin' A Hole
Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
Ambulance LTD - Stay Where You Are

Kaerimashita!

My trip was way too good; the reality of work and daily routine pale in comparision. It was amazing to see some Japan buddies again, I owe them for showing me around their home cities and giving me a place to stay! More soon, when I have time to sit down and blog freely (as opposed to writing furtively at work).

You have GOT to be kidding me

Just got an email from Queen's Alumni. Am screaming in my head at missing this & at the (Alanis style) irony of the situation:

Alexander McCall Smith Lecture and Book Signing

Honorary degree recipient Dr. Alexander McCall Smith will deliver a public lecture and sign books following Convocation on behalf of the Kingston Grandmother's Connection, a Kingston-based fundraising organization in support of African grandmothers raising their grandchildren who have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Alexander McCall Smith is best known for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, set in Botswana, which has risen to the top of bestseller lists throughout the world. The fifth novel in the series, The Full Cupboard of Life, received the UK Saga Award for Wit. He is also the author of The Sunday Philosophy Club series. He has written more than 60 books, including specialist academic titles, short-story collections, and children's books.

Date: Thursday, June 5th at 5:30pm
Location: Chernoff Hall, 90 Bader Lane

I'm leaving for my trip tonight; a few days later, my favourite author will be lecturing & signing books at my alma mater, and I will be visiting his hometown of Edinburgh. The most interesting visitors to Queen's in my memory have been the Antiques Roadshow and Rick Mercer (okay, he's pretty interesting). But Alexander McCall Smith! I would have gone to Kingston for that one evening to attend that lecture. Argggggggh! Why why why why why?

I will drown my bitterness in crappy airline food and cheap red wine.

Jitensha!

I got a bike! Devinci Lifestyle in the dark blue colour. It's speedy and comfortable and actually appropriate for my height (unlike Mongo, my Japanese bike, which was made for, well, Japanese people). And, yes, I will think of a name for it...give me time.

For now, I have to buy a helmet (or perhaps even a hairmet) and some badass bike locks to protect my new baby.

Sad day

Harley, our beloved guinea pig, passed away a few days ago. I assume that she is now scarpering happily around rodent heaven. She can sleep, eat and popcorn unmolested by cats, dogs or vacuum heads.

Rest in peace Pig; your dander wreaked havoc on my eyes and sinuses but you were cute and squishy and made an excellent foot warmer. I'll miss you.

Curry Royal

Going to Ireland & Scotland! It's official, first a one week coach tour (Lord grant me patience) in Ireland, then a week on my own in Scotland. The tour is called Kerry Royal (which my mom mispronounces on a regular basis, see title of post), will be doing the Waterford-Blarney-Killarney Super Tourist route. Whatever, I intend to spend the whole time gorging on gut-busting Irish breakfasts, soaking in Guiness fumes and being a lazy pig while the bus trundles us around from place to place. I am the ideal tourist. I kid.

Then hopefully up to Belfast, then across to Edinburgh and Glasgow for the 2nd week. Hopefully will be able to see my ex-Nova peeps who live there now. Also, as a big Alexander McCall Smith fan, am interested to see if Edinburgh is at all like how he describes it. No Bruce please.

Other news:
- There is a whole family of foxes (foxen?) living next door! They have a den with 2 convenient exits, and regularly hop the fence to play in our yard. There are 6 or 7 babies (so cute that I could die) and a foxy mama who guards them while they try to eat each other. I'm not sure what my neighbours have planned for them, but they're sort of big for Animal Control to bundle in sacks and take away. Anyway, they are hilarious and beautiful and I love watching them, but it's not my yard they've dug up, so what I think doesn't matter.

- Damn you TTC! While I don't rely on it anymore to get to school/work, I used to and I will again soon, so I really feel for all those stranded commuters. It's one thing for service to be cancelled due to weather or emergency situations, but it stinks when it's because Bob Kinnear is being a prick. There are probably lots of TTC workers who didn't agree with the walk-off (35% I suppose), and the union has the right to strike for a better contract, but I've had too many experiences with jerk drivers and awful TTC service to be truly sympathetic. Anyway, my opinion doesn't matter but this space is for my ranting so there.

- I've been reading Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series, and after reading the Very Secret Diaries and some of her other work, am rather disappointed. Many elements seem to be salvaged from her unpublished online stories, Gary Stu abounds, and some of the names just plain make me giggle (Infernal Conversion! Consarnit.) but it's picking up during the second book, so am hoping book 3 is better. Again, who cares about my opinion anyway?

- Have just finished two slices of extremely fudgy ice cream cake (my counsins' combined birthday dessert). Am now in mild pain and am starting to believe that ice cream cake is not as wonderful as I previously thought. But no one else is having this problem so maybe I am mistaken.

Conclusion: My opinion has no bearing on the actual functioning of the world. This is probably for the best since what I think often only makes sense to me E.g. Mushrooms -- in my eyes, they are disgustingly and freakishly uniform, and I hate to eat them unless they are cooked into an unrecognizable pulp. Aren't you glad I'm not the queen of everything?

Disturbing

- The sticker on my McApplePie: "MUST USE BY 3:28PM, 4/14/2008." I only have an hour and a half to "use" it. Will it explode if I miss the deadline? Clearly, this pie was meant for Jack Bauer, and Jack Bauer alone.

- Return of the Jedi: oh, precocious Ewoks and their wacky defensive highjinks! But they're only cute until you realize that they are, in fact, gleefully smashing Stormtrooper skulls into hamburger meat with pointy rocks.

- Gordon Korman grew up! Impossible.

- Mushrooms

I couldn't take the pink anymore

So I cribbed a theme from Kuler. This will probably change again soon.

Too bad I can't do the same with my paisley-printed bedroom; this is the wallpaper that was here when we moved to this house, and it's too mah faan to change it. Bad: I dislike burgundy with a passion. Good: nice and dark at night.

My parents' home decor philosophy is to paint all the walls one shade of neutral, and carpet all the floors in another shade of neutral, so that when the time comes to sell the house, potential buyers will be impressed by the spaciousness of the rooms, and how easy it will be to repaint the walls when they move in (only five tablespoons of primer needed!) At least, that's what my mom keeps saying.

So I kind of like my tacky paisley room. And if anyone wants a comfortable ecru home, (with one eyeball rash of a bedroom), you know where to look.

(Hey, it's been a slow day, I have literally been staring at the walls, and was suddenly struck by the weirdness of all these blobby swirls. Man, I hate amoeba.)

Tweet

I woke up this morning to the sound of cardinal song; there's one (or more?) that's been in the neighbourhood for years. Very flashy, very cheeky, very red. The Ferrari of birds. Or maybe the Yaris of birds. Whatever.

Anyway, I realized that for over a year, (the duration of my stay in Japan plus this incredibly long winter), I didn't hear a single chirp. Youme Town always had artificial , pseudo-jungle sounds playing at the entrances, complete with waterfall sounds (lots of kids running into the mall and then straight for the bathroom) but I never heard anything from any real bird while I was living in Kumamoto.

It was really nice to hear it again today, made me giddy for warm weather and sunny days in my hometown. Of course, it's supposed to rain all day and get 10 degrees colder tomorrow, but that's not important. Today, and right now, I'm excited about summer plans of travelling, seeing old friends, and generally having fun before I go back to school.

(Ah yes, I'm starting at Centennial's Book & Magazine Publishing program in September; gonna learn to make books like a pro, and not like I did before, with glue oozing into my papercuts, cannibalizing magazines for pictures, snapping all my needles trying to sew signatures together and scrounging for cardboard to use for covers. And copyediting and layout and stuff.)

Backwards Mullet?

Dear Postmodern Youth,
Is this what they call "emo"?
Signed, Dazed and Confused

I must learn, but I fear my steps will never be small enough. Thus, a plea for guidance, in the form of a haiku, from those who are have greater wisdom, more soul-killing angst, and tighter pants than I.

Emo emo emo emo emo emo emo...

Cheap lazy blog post

'Low Functionality', 'Sightly Imaginative'...what the hell is that supposed to mean? Talk about damning with faint praise. Okay, I agree I can be kind of controlling/neurotic about details, so 'Slightly High Authoritarianism' is fitting, but I function perfectly fine.

'Very High Femininity': Maggie & Lyd decided that of the three of us, somehow I was the most girly. How? Why? This I don't understand.

Finally, 'Very High Trust'...in myself? In others? Very ambiguous and slightly worrying. After all, do not want to be a girly, non-functioning, gullible, and stodgy individual. Please don't tell me that's how people see me.

My genius is hard at work

Anyway, enough whining. This haiku is for Biku, as some may see on her Facebook wall:

"Tofu is yummy!
Soybean miracle in fridge!
SPLAT... Alas. No more."

Why

...do ladybugs find my room so enticing?

...can't I sleep?

...are drivers in Toronto such aggressive, tail-gating, non-signaling, swerving, speeding, lane-hogging, inattentive, irresponsible jerks?

...do I suck at life?

It's been a rough couple of weeks. Headspace not good and feeling very sorry for myself, for many inconsequential and childish reasons. Whinge, whine, complain. Just need to get it out of my system and to try to remember the good stuff in life. Like kittens.

They come in many forms

An idiot wearing a douchebag tie.

An idiot on a golf course.

The coolest idiots on the face of the planet.

Anyway, today's mammoth storm was mammoth fun...at least it was for me. Baked a cake, shoveled some snow, read some Naruto (God help me), hauled some snow, watched Utaban, climbed up the mountain of white stuff beside the driveway and fell into the 4ft snowdrift next to the house. Oops. Retreated back inside and nurtured my brain by watching Robot Chicken. Buk buk buk.

Well duh

My life is an abyss

I have failed yet again to rrroll up and win.

Thus, a drab, sad, little haiku, from the soul of a devastated double-double fan who will never win that 2009 Toyota Matrix dammit:

I rrroll up the rim
Doom, "Réessayez S.V.P."
A drained cup, drained heart.

Why, Tim, why?!

In other news...

My nephew is very cute.


He is also a mugger:

Very no!

I thought I had broken myself of the Engrish habits I picked up during my stay in Japan, but apparently some changes have embedded themselves in my subconciousness.

Me: (post meeting)Okay, I'll get started on this after lunch...see youuu! Bai bai!

On the other hand, the Japanese that I had learned is seeping out of my brain at an alarming rate. Hajimemathingumie? So so so so so.

I've been flipping through my Lonely Planet phrasebook to practice my reading and work on my vocabulary. Unfortunately, this only resulted in my learning how to say "I take mushrooms occasionally" and "I need a potty/putter/acupuncture." Maybe Lonely Planet isn't the best route.

いきましょう

I want to travel, to go somewhere and see something new and unfamiliar. Maybe it's because I'm in the middle of 20 straight days of being at my church (for work, a concert and a funeral). Or perhaps it's because my parents are going to Hawaii for a week without me in March. Probably it's because I am being pummeled by a classic Canadian winter that I haven't experienced in over a year.

But I've had dreams recently about my trip last August, towards the end of my year in Japan, where I traveled by myself around Kyushu & western Honshu; it was so damn fun and supremely liberating. Of course, the evenings were dull as tombs (Japanese nightlife not so fun for the single traveler), but it was probably the best trip I went on that year. I went from Kumamoto to Beppu, to Hiroshima, to Yamaguchi/Hagi, to Fukuoka and finally back to Kumamoto. I embarassed myself here, here, and here.

My favourite memory of my JR (Japan Rail) trip was renting a spiffy, old, red bicycle for 4 hours (150 yen per hour). Basically, I cycled around Hagi, biking non-stop with a ragged map in one hand, my bag in the basket, with a carton of lemon tea nestled beside it. It's not exactly a thrilling place, and didn't have many sights to see but I really enjoyed tearing around this old samurai town, with no schedule to follow, no train to catch, no destination in mind. Just sat on the beach, wandered into the city museum, dodged mutant dragonflies and watched the nuns pop some wheelies.

(I talked to this cat for about a minute before I realized that there was an obaasan around the corner, watering her plants and listening to me prattle in both English and Japanese. D'oh.)

When I got back to Kumamoto...
Me: "I went to Hagi last week"
Japanese friend: "....Why would you do that?"

Maybe later I'll write about my trip in more detail (attack of the giant okonimiyaki, drunk calling from my ryokan, etc.) but for now I am toying with the idea of going somewhere by me-self after my 6 months of work are over. Europe? Japan? & HK? Cross Canada road trip?

いきたい!

Pope X-ray Vision

Bwahaha.

The highlight of my day at katebeaton.com

"Why you gotta forgive?"
"That's just how I roll."
"You the real deal, John Paul."

JBJ + Curling = Fun for all!

Bon Jovi, the Boss considered for curling reality show: report
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/curling/story/2008/02/11/curling-rockstar-boss.html

"Sex, drugs, guitars — and curling?

The Toronto Star reported Monday that NBC has acquired exclusive rights to launch 10 episodes of a proposed television show called Rockstar Curling. Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi, apparently closet curlers, are among the megastar rockers being courted to host it.

Citing unnamed sources, the Star said the two rock stars are among a group of entertainment types who rent arena time on occasion to pick up brooms instead of guitars. Organizers are trying to negotiate a deal to get one of them involved in the proposed show, possibly as a host.

The series' winners could wind up with a berth at the U.S. championships and perhaps at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

...

Curling was a surprise hit for NBC during the last two Winter Olympics, once getting better ratings than an NHL playoff game at the same time the following day.

The show would begin with nationwide tryouts, continue with the 10 chosen contestants receiving six months of free training in Lake Placid, N.Y., and conclude with the Olympic trials in February 2009, according to the Star."

---------------------------------------------
In reality, the equation would probably be more like:

JBJ + Curling = Donuts + Beer = Somewhat Doughy, Rather Less Attractive Rockstar

I can live with that.

I's Back

A long 4 months of depressing non-employment, but now I'm working again, so what better way to really validate this new job by slacking off and posting to my dusty, neglected blog. Ha!