Dear NSF,
Your search engine makes me smile: Whenever I type in the acronym for one of your programs (EAPSI) you always ask, "Did you mean 'pepsi'?" How is 'pepsi' somehow more relevant? How much were you paid to endorse this product? I'm very curious.
Love,
Me
Dear Mother Nature,
It was like a 30 second preview - "Winter! It's coming!" Next time, more snow, less slush. Otherwise, loved it!
Love,
Me
Dear Wolves,
You tried so hard. I could feel your strong effort all the way over here in America, despite the two minute lag on the ticker and the live German broadcast. Mandzukic was left utterly confused. Me too. We had better possession and more shots on goal. I still believe in you.
Love,
Me
Dear Yoshida-san,
You're a dear and a doll. Can we be friends? No, seriously. No? Seriously?
Love,
Me
Dear UK,
You get to set your clocks back an hour tonight. The problem with living a global community is that sometimes you think that such things apply to you too. I was excited for a few minutes before I got set straight. Only 1 week to go and counting...
Love,
Me
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
Tidying Up
Every so often our lab has one big all hands on-deck clean-up. Today was such a day.
Each time I tackle a part of the lab that probably hasn't been touched in about 20 years. It always ends in finding some very interesting items that I never quite know what to do with. Today I found an electric pencil engraver (say what?), a mat cutter without a blade, and this...
For those curious, the package contained some screws. I'm sure they were very special screws to be from one or more of those countries.
Also, the other day, I went and got my car inspected. While I waited, I went to World Market and designed my house. Actually, I didn't design my house. I only found two pieces of furniture that I wanted to own. One of them is this adorable chair. It just had my name on it.
No, it really did.
The other was a cute little table that opened up into a vanity. It's going in my spare bedroom. It could go in the master bedroom too. I'm just not sure if it would match the futon's frame. I think it would. I would have to check.
And, no, I don't actually have a spare bedroom. Or a master bedroom for that matter. Or a futon. I really don't have much. But it was fun to pretend.
I also chose a really cute set of china made in Japan. They were cherry blossoms on a blue background.
And I was talked out of some fabric dining room chairs. Upkeep of cloth with those kids I hope to have in the future is just so difficult. But they were fabulous chairs. Bright yellow!
The End.
Each time I tackle a part of the lab that probably hasn't been touched in about 20 years. It always ends in finding some very interesting items that I never quite know what to do with. Today I found an electric pencil engraver (say what?), a mat cutter without a blade, and this...
Also, the other day, I went and got my car inspected. While I waited, I went to World Market and designed my house. Actually, I didn't design my house. I only found two pieces of furniture that I wanted to own. One of them is this adorable chair. It just had my name on it.
I also chose a really cute set of china made in Japan. They were cherry blossoms on a blue background.
The End.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
質問
If you were to meet <insert famous person's name here>, what would you ask him/her?
But how can you express or get a glimpse of a person in a few moments? Do famous people themselves ever feel misrepresented and misunderstood? Do they ever scream that they want a person who sees them for themselves and not just as a tool to impress others at social events? (You know, my friend the...)
Even those of us who aren't famous, don't we also sometimes feel misrepresented and misunderstood? Can't people see beyond my exterior to find that I am a person with dreams and hopes and aspirations that cannot be grasped with mere formalities and polite conversation?
What questions can we ask to find the heart of a person? Or is that something that words cannot reach?
Listening to this on repeat. Seriously, amazing.
This situation has confronted me at multiple times in my life: posing questions to the President of the United States, posing questions to the President (and other General Authorities) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, posing questions to the President of Brigham Young University, posing questions to the newest President of The University of Virginia, posing questions to big famous guys at NASA, posing questions to Makoto Hasebe.
 |
| "Beer?" "Of course not :)" Makoto, today, at his facebook chat |
Okay, so the Makoto Hasebe one never really happened; I only found out that he was answering questions on facebook after he already finished. But the rest of the above situations really occurred.
I'm not good with important people. I get tongue-tied and my mind goes blank.
Exhibit A: Meeting L. Tom Perry: He's one of the nicest men in the world and he came to a meeting at which I participated in the choir. After the meeting, he came over to personally shake all the choir member's hands. It was exciting. After the meeting, I ran into a friend I hadn't seen in a while and stopped to chat with her. She was standing in a line waiting to get the chance to shake Perry's hand and as we chatted the line gradually moved closer and closer until my friend was suddenly shaking his hand. He turned to me to shake my hand and I blushed, "Oh! But I already shook your hand!" It wasn't meant to be, "I only shake famous people's hands once." It was really meant to be, "Your hand will get tired from shaking so many hands. I will give you a break." But alas, I'm VA (verbally awkward) so it came off poorly.
My friends have never stopped laughing about that encounter.
I could include many, many more such examples, all of them verbally awkward and not impressive.
The first time that Homer Hickam met John F. Kennedy, it had the makings of a potentially awkward encounter. The glamorous Kennedy in wild and backwoods West Virginia coming face to face with a kid about to win the National Science Fair sporting a bright orange suit. But what could potentially have become a comedy act turned into a real conversation when Hickam asked Kennedy his thoughts on outer space. (Meanwhile, my own meeting with Homer Hickam does belong in a comedy act - the irony of it all still makes me laugh)
In some way, I think, I want my meetings with people to be meaningful. An autograph, a picture, maybe a question or a comment. That's all you get. I don't like autographs. What would I ever do with it once I got it? Pictures are so impersonal. (I once got my picture taken next to an Indy 500 pace car. It was as special as the 500 people who went before me.) And you still don't know what to do with it. Somehow it seems the tokens we get from such encounters merely work as bragging stories for those who we really associate with. But I want something more: an encounter where somehow people truly meet and see, person-to-person.
But how can you express or get a glimpse of a person in a few moments? Do famous people themselves ever feel misrepresented and misunderstood? Do they ever scream that they want a person who sees them for themselves and not just as a tool to impress others at social events? (You know, my friend the...)
Even those of us who aren't famous, don't we also sometimes feel misrepresented and misunderstood? Can't people see beyond my exterior to find that I am a person with dreams and hopes and aspirations that cannot be grasped with mere formalities and polite conversation?
What questions can we ask to find the heart of a person? Or is that something that words cannot reach?
Listening to this on repeat. Seriously, amazing.
Cat Nap
I fell asleep this afternoon and had a series of random dreams in quick succession. They are fascinating but left me feeling like my subconscious had just taken me on a journey.
Dream 1: I was at church. My friends and I (including Sarah from Alaska) had made a banquet of food for the other congregation that attends in the same building as us. I kept asking Linds for her opinion on the food and Sarah too as we anxiously awaited for their church meetings to end so we could serve them dinner. But as we went in to taste some of the food for appropriate spices, we discovered that people had been sneaking taste tests all during their meetings. So, laughingly, we wondered if we should just end meetings early and sit down with both congregations together to eat in the bounty of food.
Dream 2: I was a family reunion. It was a distant family member. At one point my grandma mentioned that we were in, "Some cousin's kid's house" which just goes to show you how random it was that we were there. They had this very large setup for all the many children they had that included a rather fun jungle gym type room. Somehow, my entire family ventured up there. (My oldest sister had to give me specific instructions to get onto the swinging platform and then she joined me up there as well) There we were, perched on various little ledges and seats in this room, all of my siblings and my mother. We were having an intelligent adult conversation (my brother was on his iPad and one of my sisters had a phone that folded out into a tablet as well) about our interactions with other people and how we have addressed specific cultural, political, and social differences only to find that we really all handled things in the same way.
Dream 3: I was in a professional restaurant kitchen where the chef and sous chef were barking out orders for the day's tasks. They gave some special sauce assignment to a really cute, excited pregnant girl who immediately skipped over and started in. I watched as she carefully put in all the ingredients into this very large pot and stirred and stirred and stirred. Then with a shaking hand she took a spoon and tasted it very carefully. She pondered for a moment and then said, "It's missing something."
Cue the music.
No, really, my mind cued the first few notes and then continued to play out the song as I came into consciousness. And I lay there, listening to this odd soundtrack in my head thinking, "Something is missing."
If only I could figure it out what ingredient is missing from my life.
Dream 1: I was at church. My friends and I (including Sarah from Alaska) had made a banquet of food for the other congregation that attends in the same building as us. I kept asking Linds for her opinion on the food and Sarah too as we anxiously awaited for their church meetings to end so we could serve them dinner. But as we went in to taste some of the food for appropriate spices, we discovered that people had been sneaking taste tests all during their meetings. So, laughingly, we wondered if we should just end meetings early and sit down with both congregations together to eat in the bounty of food.
Dream 2: I was a family reunion. It was a distant family member. At one point my grandma mentioned that we were in, "Some cousin's kid's house" which just goes to show you how random it was that we were there. They had this very large setup for all the many children they had that included a rather fun jungle gym type room. Somehow, my entire family ventured up there. (My oldest sister had to give me specific instructions to get onto the swinging platform and then she joined me up there as well) There we were, perched on various little ledges and seats in this room, all of my siblings and my mother. We were having an intelligent adult conversation (my brother was on his iPad and one of my sisters had a phone that folded out into a tablet as well) about our interactions with other people and how we have addressed specific cultural, political, and social differences only to find that we really all handled things in the same way.
Dream 3: I was in a professional restaurant kitchen where the chef and sous chef were barking out orders for the day's tasks. They gave some special sauce assignment to a really cute, excited pregnant girl who immediately skipped over and started in. I watched as she carefully put in all the ingredients into this very large pot and stirred and stirred and stirred. Then with a shaking hand she took a spoon and tasted it very carefully. She pondered for a moment and then said, "It's missing something."
Cue the music.
No, really, my mind cued the first few notes and then continued to play out the song as I came into consciousness. And I lay there, listening to this odd soundtrack in my head thinking, "Something is missing."
If only I could figure it out what ingredient is missing from my life.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
James and Edgar
Today for English class, I started searching through American literature for Halloween appropriate literature. While searching, I was reminded how beautiful and eloquent the English language is.
While the time before class' beginning ticked down, I sat on my bed, with books of poetry all around me, as though I was suddenly meeting old friends once again.
Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, James Whitcomb Riley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allen Poe, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, etc.
There we were, gathered all together, in one happy little conglomeration of thoughts and opinions and ideas.
It was long overdue. Sometimes, I get so caught up in expanding my knowledge of other languages that I forget the simple joy in understanding, loving and basking in your native tongue.
It's nice to come home again.
While the time before class' beginning ticked down, I sat on my bed, with books of poetry all around me, as though I was suddenly meeting old friends once again.
Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, James Whitcomb Riley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Edgar Allen Poe, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, etc.
There we were, gathered all together, in one happy little conglomeration of thoughts and opinions and ideas.
It was long overdue. Sometimes, I get so caught up in expanding my knowledge of other languages that I forget the simple joy in understanding, loving and basking in your native tongue.
It's nice to come home again.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Blue Monday
The world is achingly beautiful today. And I'm in my lab, trying to motivate myself to work.
Dear Ashin,
I realize that life is sometimes beyond description that doesn't mean you can just make up acronyms that have no meaning. Hahahaha. I'm laughing with you not at you, I promise. Hahahaha. No, really. OAOA.
Love,
Me
Dear Wang Leehom,
Did you just sing that that girl was beautiful? I'm not quite sure. It was a little vague. Could you repeat that line again? And again? And again? Thanks.
Love,
Me
Dear SMEnt,
My apologies for teasing Shinee, Super Junior and SNSD for their interesting use of English in their songs. How could I have missed the ultimate on BoA's Hurricane? "Electronic Manic Supersonic Bionic Energy" takes the cake. I'm starting to see a pattern though: supersonic, hypertonic, fantastic, elastic... You do realize that there are words outside of those that end in 'ic' that rhyme in the English language, right?
Love,
Me
Dear Self,
Stop freaking out and get to work.
Love,
Me
Dear Ashin,
I realize that life is sometimes beyond description that doesn't mean you can just make up acronyms that have no meaning. Hahahaha. I'm laughing with you not at you, I promise. Hahahaha. No, really. OAOA.
Love,
Me
Dear Wang Leehom,
Did you just sing that that girl was beautiful? I'm not quite sure. It was a little vague. Could you repeat that line again? And again? And again? Thanks.
Love,
Me
Dear SMEnt,
My apologies for teasing Shinee, Super Junior and SNSD for their interesting use of English in their songs. How could I have missed the ultimate on BoA's Hurricane? "Electronic Manic Supersonic Bionic Energy" takes the cake. I'm starting to see a pattern though: supersonic, hypertonic, fantastic, elastic... You do realize that there are words outside of those that end in 'ic' that rhyme in the English language, right?
Love,
Me
Dear Self,
Stop freaking out and get to work.
Love,
Me
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Good News
Today, I found out that two of my good friends are dating.
One of these friends I met many, many years ago when I had a rather large and embarrassing crush on his roommate. The roommate never saw me as anything other than a friend but his roommates embraced me as a sister. One of them even lied to some random girl who came over to see the aforementioned crush and told her I was his sister to save me from embarrassment. The girl even thought we looked alike since we both had curly hair. I don't think she even noticed that it took me a moment to answer her when she called me by a name I had only acquired 30 seconds before. Those roommates were some of the best people I have met. They were true and loyal friends.
The other friend I met many years ago when she moved into my hometown. For some reason, we became friends, not close friends. Not even best friends. But good friends who shared a tent one very rainy camping trip and talked of things more serious than I ever normally share with people even that I'm closest to. We expressed our deep fears and our hopes and dreams for the future.
I couldn't hope for anything better for two better people. I hope that even if this isn't their happy ending (beginning) that at least they will both benefit from the company and association of the other. I certainly count my blessings for knowing them.
One of these friends I met many, many years ago when I had a rather large and embarrassing crush on his roommate. The roommate never saw me as anything other than a friend but his roommates embraced me as a sister. One of them even lied to some random girl who came over to see the aforementioned crush and told her I was his sister to save me from embarrassment. The girl even thought we looked alike since we both had curly hair. I don't think she even noticed that it took me a moment to answer her when she called me by a name I had only acquired 30 seconds before. Those roommates were some of the best people I have met. They were true and loyal friends.
The other friend I met many years ago when she moved into my hometown. For some reason, we became friends, not close friends. Not even best friends. But good friends who shared a tent one very rainy camping trip and talked of things more serious than I ever normally share with people even that I'm closest to. We expressed our deep fears and our hopes and dreams for the future.
I couldn't hope for anything better for two better people. I hope that even if this isn't their happy ending (beginning) that at least they will both benefit from the company and association of the other. I certainly count my blessings for knowing them.
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