I can't believe the last thing on here is me bitching about Indonesia in October. Let's see, in the interim I went to Japan, formed a local girl posse, got my ass kicked by H1N1, did my first christmas in Asia, spent a few days on a tropical island in Malaysia where they filmed South Pacific which is, like, FREAKIN BALI HAI I'M NOT KIDDING and mail-ordered a skort. Yes, Dee in a skort. That's how hot it is on the equator.
(Also, on Tiomen Island-- Bali Hai, above-- they have have the world's smallest runway. So you come in at 9 thousand miles an hour from Singapore for, like, 25 minutes then you turn RIGHT and then you LAND, ERRRRRT. Then you get on a boat cause roads on Tiomen are optional and all the Tamil-speaking guys stare at your hair the whole way...)
But before I get started on the catch-up I'd just like to say one thing. Back in Boston I was like WISH WE COULD GET ANIMAX, MAN so I could watch tons of anime, which, I know absolutely nothing about anime being much more into comics, but I'm like, all the Studio Ghibli stuff is awesome, what else is out there? Well here I am, after midnight on a Monday night and I've been toning chapter 19 of Nightschool all night and I take a break and turn on the tube and LO! it's on Animax, which is a throwaway freebie here on cable, and I have just have to say, IT SUCKS. Or more specifically, YOU SUCK ANIMAX.
So, yardstick of suckatude, here's a list: first the translations. >_< <-- this is the face of me cringing. Are there people who work for this company that actually speak Japanese or is it just a bunch of monkeys with typewriters? Then follow that up with what we in the states call "Voice Actors" and what other people on the rest of the planet would call "Frat Boys" or maybe "Your Cousin Who Could Use a Partime Job" or maybe just "People Who Can't Act"... so the 'Voice' part is right, such as it is, but they should definitely take the 'Actor' part off that job title cause it IS THE LYING PART.
Also, all the frat boys who do these gigs get REALLY uncomfortable doing those roles where the bad guy is one of those archetypal ass-kickers who's definitely in touch with their aesthetic side, if you know what I mean, and I think you do, the badguys with the thorny roses and the fur colars, right? Have you noticed that? Like the character Howl in Howl's Moving Castle except Cristian Bale is actually a real actor, so he doesn't have this problem. So they give these characters this freaky bizarre inappropriate clown voice because, well, you know, the guy who's doing the lead male is like, RIGHT IN THE ROOM WITH ME, so it's like AWWWWKWARD. Voice Actors, feh. MY BUTT. I turn the sound off. At least the explosions are still pretty. Don't order Animax. Buy more comics instead. Unless you want something to mock. Then do it. But it's kind of a lot to spend just for mockatude.
"Darn yooooou!11!!11!!!!!!!" <- actual quote
Stop. JUST STOP.
Anyway, what was I going to talk about....? Oh yeah, Japan. I was in Japan for 10 days, we all went to Comitia and it was AWESOME. Comitia was AWESOME GUYZ. A huge convention center, packed to the rafters with original work. ORIGINAL WORK. No Bleach fanart, no FANART, no fan comics, ALL ORIGINAL WORK, those are the rules. And not pinups either. COMICS. Table after table of original comics by people who make COMICS not drama and who are all INTO it because they have a story to tell and want it enough to self publish it. It was like a comics creators' heaven. I would have cried... except I couldn't freakin READ anything of course so let's not get carried away. Still, I got what I could from art, which was heart-felt even when it wasn't experienced and even then spoke to you clearly over language barriers and geological barriers and whatever barriers and makes me reflect on US cons, with their tiny little AAs full of Final Fantasy dA pinup divas, in an unkind way. Or am I being too honest, pardon me.
But it was great, working the table and talking to the other creators if they could speak english or at least buying their stuff to show your appreciation, which, I have a ton and have all their websites bookmarked :D I think, too, creators may share a common language. Thumbs up, 'your book rawks, dude, can you sign it for me please?' seems to be a universal. It's a good thing.
Tokyo, btw, outside of Tokyo Big Site and Comitia was ehhhh okay, but Kyoto was omg amazing and the best night I had (outside of Comitia) was at this cramped mom-and-pop off the main drag in Kyoto by the river, which looked just like one of those little canals you see in Zatoichi movies where the mobsters are staging an ambush, where we all piled into a back-table and drank beer and ate endless rounds of fried stuff on sticks for hours with the people from there. I have a lot to say about that trip, it was amazing... a proper post about this coming up with pics...
Monday, January 18, 2010
Monday, October 26, 2009
twinkly stars on the other side of the world
The air smells like smoke. It has intensely for the past couple of weeks - a yellowish smog most every morning here on the southwest coast. This time of year there's a temperature inversion that traps it close to the ground, too, and makes it worse. The smell wakes me up in the middle of the night thinking that the building is on fire. But apparently it's just Indonesia.
At work I consult my office buddies. WTH, smog?? say I. And they're like, Indonesia! "EVERY year we ASK them NOT to burn up their island", a friend said. "But do they listen? Nooooooo."
It makes me feel like we're all one great big neighborhood here in southeast asia, dealing with a douchebag neighbor. Turn the gd stereo down, INDONESIA, we are TRYING to sleep over here.
So anyway I open the grill on the windows in the living room and lean out, just making sure the building isn't on fire and happen to look up. Stars! Singapore, you understand, is just like Boston with the degree of light pollution. And you rarely seen see one or two stars, excepting planets-- Venus or Jupiter, which can be quite bright. But here, tonight, I see Orion's belt! And maybe his head ... or is it his foot, whatever. What a delicious surprise! Here is my ignorance: I wasn't even sure I could see constellations here from my former side of the planet.
And the stars-- the most I've ever seen-- are twinkling like crazy. The atmosphere is on the move and there's a good breeze. It'd be perfect sleeping weather if it didn't smell like a housefire.
We're gonna get a home weather station and install it here. When you arrive in Singapore you're like, oh geez, the weather never changes here, it's hot and humid all the time, there aren't any seasons, I'm trapped in a perpetual MargaritaVille endless summer with extra monsoon, omg plz help. But after a while you come to appreciate the little shifts in wind, in temperature, in humidity, that you'd hardly notice at home. And be thankful as hell for them too because a degree Celsius and 10% less humidity here will make you feel like falling to your knees and weeping your gratitude to the beneficent sky.
After midnight and my neighborhood gets darker. We all go to sleep about the same time every night because the fierce sun gets us up at the same time every morning. One by one the the lights in the flats around me go out...though we'll never have complete darkness here, the lights in the corridors of the apartment buildings are always on.
Goodnight, Singapore.
Shut the hell up, Indonesia!
At work I consult my office buddies. WTH, smog?? say I. And they're like, Indonesia! "EVERY year we ASK them NOT to burn up their island", a friend said. "But do they listen? Nooooooo."
It makes me feel like we're all one great big neighborhood here in southeast asia, dealing with a douchebag neighbor. Turn the gd stereo down, INDONESIA, we are TRYING to sleep over here.
So anyway I open the grill on the windows in the living room and lean out, just making sure the building isn't on fire and happen to look up. Stars! Singapore, you understand, is just like Boston with the degree of light pollution. And you rarely seen see one or two stars, excepting planets-- Venus or Jupiter, which can be quite bright. But here, tonight, I see Orion's belt! And maybe his head ... or is it his foot, whatever. What a delicious surprise! Here is my ignorance: I wasn't even sure I could see constellations here from my former side of the planet.
And the stars-- the most I've ever seen-- are twinkling like crazy. The atmosphere is on the move and there's a good breeze. It'd be perfect sleeping weather if it didn't smell like a housefire.
We're gonna get a home weather station and install it here. When you arrive in Singapore you're like, oh geez, the weather never changes here, it's hot and humid all the time, there aren't any seasons, I'm trapped in a perpetual MargaritaVille endless summer with extra monsoon, omg plz help. But after a while you come to appreciate the little shifts in wind, in temperature, in humidity, that you'd hardly notice at home. And be thankful as hell for them too because a degree Celsius and 10% less humidity here will make you feel like falling to your knees and weeping your gratitude to the beneficent sky.
After midnight and my neighborhood gets darker. We all go to sleep about the same time every night because the fierce sun gets us up at the same time every morning. One by one the the lights in the flats around me go out...though we'll never have complete darkness here, the lights in the corridors of the apartment buildings are always on.
Goodnight, Singapore.
Shut the hell up, Indonesia!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
woah, earthquake in indonesia
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1008365/1/.html
We didn't feel anything, though apparently some people in S'pore did: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1008370/1/.html
We didn't feel anything, though apparently some people in S'pore did: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1008370/1/.html
Monday, September 28, 2009
how dee's day is just the same. but isn't.
same: Today I got up and got ready to go to work.
isn't: I'm awake at 7am. ME. 7AM. (People who know me well may now wish to pause to let this sink in.) Cause EVERYONE in S'pore gets up at dawn. If the sun, a piercing orange DAGGER OF LIGHT directly into your EYEBALLS does not wake you up at the crack of dawn, then the garbage-man, the leaf-blower man, the street-sweeper man, or the dreaded cart-man (ARGH. Empty lorrie driven back and forth over speed bumps on our road all morning... why... WHY) will do it instead. Or the neurotic non-trained and no-walked trophy dogs next door. Or the massive biblical-grade thunderstorm.
same: The busdriver was heavy-footed this morning, barely slowing down for the speedbumps.
isnt': they're not bumps, they're humps. Srsly. The word "humps' is spray-painted on the road. Causing me to uncontrollably start mentally singing the Black Eyed Peas song EVERYTIME I see a speed ... hump... which means that at least 4 times a day -- back and forth on the bus-- I am singing MY HUMPS MY HUMPS MY LOVELY LADY BUMPS in my head.
same: The nice glass of wine I am enjoying is an okay semillon from Australia.
isn't: the bottle cost $47 bucks (SD). o_0;;;;;
same: Catching a ride home with a friend this evening, some guy cut us off in traffic. Our driver yelled at him.
isn't: Saying, with a complete lack of road-rage, "Oh LAH. Your grandfather build this road or WHAT."
same: Every purchase I make is ensconced in a plastic bag. No matter how small. Sometimes double-bagged.
isnt': you will never, ever see one stuck in a tree. Or blowing across the highway. Or discarded on the ground. It's just something that doesn't happen here. Like snow.
same: It's a clear September evening, a bright half-moon in the sky and maybe even a couple of stars visible through the haze of city lights.
isnt': it's 31 freaking C in here. *hugs the fan*
I just realized how long I could go on with this. This is one of the reasons I'm really enjoying S'pore. It's just like home but slightly, weirldly sideways-- not too much-- just enough to occasionally, gently, freak you out.
isn't: I'm awake at 7am. ME. 7AM. (People who know me well may now wish to pause to let this sink in.) Cause EVERYONE in S'pore gets up at dawn. If the sun, a piercing orange DAGGER OF LIGHT directly into your EYEBALLS does not wake you up at the crack of dawn, then the garbage-man, the leaf-blower man, the street-sweeper man, or the dreaded cart-man (ARGH. Empty lorrie driven back and forth over speed bumps on our road all morning... why... WHY) will do it instead. Or the neurotic non-trained and no-walked trophy dogs next door. Or the massive biblical-grade thunderstorm.
same: The busdriver was heavy-footed this morning, barely slowing down for the speedbumps.
isnt': they're not bumps, they're humps. Srsly. The word "humps' is spray-painted on the road. Causing me to uncontrollably start mentally singing the Black Eyed Peas song EVERYTIME I see a speed ... hump... which means that at least 4 times a day -- back and forth on the bus-- I am singing MY HUMPS MY HUMPS MY LOVELY LADY BUMPS in my head.
same: The nice glass of wine I am enjoying is an okay semillon from Australia.
isn't: the bottle cost $47 bucks (SD). o_0;;;;;
same: Catching a ride home with a friend this evening, some guy cut us off in traffic. Our driver yelled at him.
isn't: Saying, with a complete lack of road-rage, "Oh LAH. Your grandfather build this road or WHAT."
same: Every purchase I make is ensconced in a plastic bag. No matter how small. Sometimes double-bagged.
isnt': you will never, ever see one stuck in a tree. Or blowing across the highway. Or discarded on the ground. It's just something that doesn't happen here. Like snow.
same: It's a clear September evening, a bright half-moon in the sky and maybe even a couple of stars visible through the haze of city lights.
isnt': it's 31 freaking C in here. *hugs the fan*
I just realized how long I could go on with this. This is one of the reasons I'm really enjoying S'pore. It's just like home but slightly, weirldly sideways-- not too much-- just enough to occasionally, gently, freak you out.
Monday, September 21, 2009
what have you been working on, dee??
Comics!! Chapter 16 of Nightschool is finished and away as of last week, Svet's outdone herself this time, the series just gets better and better, everybody go pre-order #2 it's so gonna rawk. Tones for Odd Thomas are next on the agenda, but this weekend was consumed with slacking, unpacking the rest of the boxes, cleaning AND EATING DIM SUM AT H.V. OMG, and also we found corndogs in Tanglin mall. No, for real! Corndogs and they were awesome!!! Why didn't I take a pic, that was dumb, I have no proof... eh, well, I'LL BE BAK. CORNDOG EXPEDITION PT. II RETURN TO CORNDOG.
(Seriously, succulent corndogs ... I never found corndogs in Boston the whole time I was there. And do not say Summer Shack to me, bleah those do not count.)
Anyway, oh yes, dim sum quite good for big "sunday" breakfast, although no one liked the pork buns but me... which,TOTALLY TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM, I heroically ate all three, yes, it's true, I'm all about the self-sacrifice for the good of others, thanks.
At Crystal Jade I had soya milk for the first time here. And it was awesome! Bean-y deliciousness! Of course I've had soy milk in the states but the stuff in the carton is bland and character-less, almost as if it's ashamed to be what it is and trying to pass itself as something it's not-- skim milk. Boo on you pale, bland, low-self-esteem soy milk! The glass I had at CJ was full of the Pride of Beans! Even had a slight texture. I liked it very much. C. says the restaurant makes it themselves.
The face Al made when we made him take a sip was priceless. Sadly no camera deployed. Classic case of pearls before swine. Won't eat his porkbun, won't drink his soya milk, sheesh.
...inhaled the prawn dumplings, though. Like a Hoover with attachments!
What was I talking about, oh yes, comics. Here's a page from Tacto and my entry in the Journeys anthology to be printed in Japan for us to sell at our table at Comitia this year, yay! So many wonderful contributors to this book, it's really gonna be amazing!
I really think this turned out so beautifully, really the best work we've ever done. Pencils by Tacto, inks & tones by Dee. And the setting is the 1964-65 World's Fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows, Queens! Dee's favorite obsession!
(Seriously, succulent corndogs ... I never found corndogs in Boston the whole time I was there. And do not say Summer Shack to me, bleah those do not count.)
Anyway, oh yes, dim sum quite good for big "sunday" breakfast, although no one liked the pork buns but me... which,TOTALLY TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM, I heroically ate all three, yes, it's true, I'm all about the self-sacrifice for the good of others, thanks.
At Crystal Jade I had soya milk for the first time here. And it was awesome! Bean-y deliciousness! Of course I've had soy milk in the states but the stuff in the carton is bland and character-less, almost as if it's ashamed to be what it is and trying to pass itself as something it's not-- skim milk. Boo on you pale, bland, low-self-esteem soy milk! The glass I had at CJ was full of the Pride of Beans! Even had a slight texture. I liked it very much. C. says the restaurant makes it themselves.
The face Al made when we made him take a sip was priceless. Sadly no camera deployed. Classic case of pearls before swine. Won't eat his porkbun, won't drink his soya milk, sheesh.
...inhaled the prawn dumplings, though. Like a Hoover with attachments!
What was I talking about, oh yes, comics. Here's a page from Tacto and my entry in the Journeys anthology to be printed in Japan for us to sell at our table at Comitia this year, yay! So many wonderful contributors to this book, it's really gonna be amazing!
I really think this turned out so beautifully, really the best work we've ever done. Pencils by Tacto, inks & tones by Dee. And the setting is the 1964-65 World's Fairgrounds in Flushing Meadows, Queens! Dee's favorite obsession!
i haz a birthday
We iz at The Prime Society eatin' dey Australian cowz, nom nom nom.Also, ice cream there quite good. And the fizzy wine from Austria, delish!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
btw, woks and stuff
Yes, you can make marinara sauce in your wok. You can also pop popcorn in it. (I learned this from the demonstration lady in the basement at Tangs who also cooks cakes in hers. I haven't tried cakes yet. Cakes? Hm, really?)
Woks are amazing tools, under-utilized in the States because our cook-tops are not set up for them. Here we've got a gas stove with a reserved space for a wok. And the gas is like FWOOOOOOSH RAWR BURN, very intense, so you can get the temp up to where you need it for a decent stir fry. And speaking of cooking, fresh green veg here are plentiful and cheap and you can buy a huge bag of bean sprouts for 19 cents. NINETEEN CENTS. And that's at Cold Storage, the Whole Food-esque grocery store! I guess if you got your sprouts at a wetmarket they'd fall to their knees and beg you to take them and be healthy.
The fruit and produce here are amazing. It seems very easy to eat well and we've both lost weight and have a rosy glow in our cheeks -- despite all the Tiger beer -- from all the walking (no car), the pool downstairs (!!!) and the good food entirely free of bullshit high fructose corn syrup. You go, S'pore.
Alright, the sin tax on alcohol sucks... 25 bucks for crap chardonnay out of Australia, urg, but still...
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
oh crap, it's september
21 days since last post?? Nooooooo! *Glassy sksh-POW ting bling ting! as resolution to post regularly shatters and hits the floor*
Work is kicking my butt. 1 dayjob, 2 night jobs and a side project for the Arteestly Trip to Japan coming up in November (squeee!) which I will tell all about soon, plus the remnants of getting the house set up, which...
Okay, this gets its own ordered list. I call this list:
DEE'S ELECTRONICS WHICH AL HAS BLOWN UP
So on top of everything else it seems like every weekend something happens that prevents me from working. Like going down to SimLim Square AGAIN. NOT BITTER. to get a new printer because the fierce current of Singapore fried mine with Al's help. Like this:
al: *plug in*
printer: *BAM* *curl of smoke* *acrid smell*
dee: *@*^$#(#@#&$ PRINTER!!!1!!!ACK11!!!
al: Oh... so when the manual says either 120V "or" 220V... that's an EXCLUSIVE "or".
dee: . . .
dee: EXCLUSIVELY KILL YOU ARGH
So all the jobs are like, Dee, where's my stuff which is why I haven't posted or responded to kind emails from my friiiiiends! GOD, THANK YOU FOR WRITING ME, WAH. I think I'm beginning to catch upthough.
We finally got a phone (I don't have one yet. I'm holding out for an iPhone, which, there AREN'T any. Seriously, on the whole island. Singtel: "We're out of iPhones, Ma'am." WHUT. The nation of Singapore is OUT OF iPHONES? For a MONTH? I know, freaky. Anyway... AL gets a phone at last. Which means only one thing. Yes, this...
TAKE OUT PIZZAAAAAAAAA@21!!!!!@@1!! Mana from heaven. Pepperoni pizza, moist with the tears of an expat who hasn't had a good slice in months. Thank you Rocky's Pizza. T____T
I've some really decent food pics I need to upload soon. The thing is, almost EVERY meal in Singapore is memorable, so it's hard to discriminate-- I have to post them all. I mean, after shopping at SimLim the other night we just sort of wandered out to the street, looking for dinner, passed a couple of freakin amazing temples-- one Hindu, one Chinese-- and then stumbled across this tiny mall wherein was this humble little noodle shop staffed by 3 utterly charming and hard-working ladies that served me up one of the best bowls of beef ramen I've ever had in my life and a dish of fried dumplings that I still see in my dreams. I really need to blog every day.
Work is kicking my butt. 1 dayjob, 2 night jobs and a side project for the Arteestly Trip to Japan coming up in November (squeee!) which I will tell all about soon, plus the remnants of getting the house set up, which...
Okay, this gets its own ordered list. I call this list:
DEE'S ELECTRONICS WHICH AL HAS BLOWN UP
- One set of computer speakers
- My printer
So on top of everything else it seems like every weekend something happens that prevents me from working. Like going down to SimLim Square AGAIN. NOT BITTER. to get a new printer because the fierce current of Singapore fried mine with Al's help. Like this:
al: *plug in*
printer: *BAM* *curl of smoke* *acrid smell*
dee: *@*^$#(#@#&$ PRINTER!!!1!!!ACK11!!!
al: Oh... so when the manual says either 120V "or" 220V... that's an EXCLUSIVE "or".
dee: . . .
dee: EXCLUSIVELY KILL YOU ARGH
So all the jobs are like, Dee, where's my stuff which is why I haven't posted or responded to kind emails from my friiiiiends! GOD, THANK YOU FOR WRITING ME, WAH. I think I'm beginning to catch upthough.
We finally got a phone (I don't have one yet. I'm holding out for an iPhone, which, there AREN'T any. Seriously, on the whole island. Singtel: "We're out of iPhones, Ma'am." WHUT. The nation of Singapore is OUT OF iPHONES? For a MONTH? I know, freaky. Anyway... AL gets a phone at last. Which means only one thing. Yes, this...
TAKE OUT PIZZAAAAAAAAA@21!!!!!@@1!! Mana from heaven. Pepperoni pizza, moist with the tears of an expat who hasn't had a good slice in months. Thank you Rocky's Pizza. T____TI've some really decent food pics I need to upload soon. The thing is, almost EVERY meal in Singapore is memorable, so it's hard to discriminate-- I have to post them all. I mean, after shopping at SimLim the other night we just sort of wandered out to the street, looking for dinner, passed a couple of freakin amazing temples-- one Hindu, one Chinese-- and then stumbled across this tiny mall wherein was this humble little noodle shop staffed by 3 utterly charming and hard-working ladies that served me up one of the best bowls of beef ramen I've ever had in my life and a dish of fried dumplings that I still see in my dreams. I really need to blog every day.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
things the cat is afraid of, part I
Say, what is that thing you're holding there, Dee? Little rectangular thing... not really sure... pointing it at me... blinking light thingy...
ARGH ARGH ARGH MY EYES ARGH!!1!!!@!
So here is a photo of Nemo on one of the rare occasions where he isn't hiding under the bed. The journey from Boston was rough on the cat, it was tough on all of us, but at least we had, like, free will, not being from some sort of Calvinist school of thought, so were nominally in charge of our own destinies and had the consolation of having made the choice to move. To Nemo it was all just so much I Am Totally NOT At Home On My Sunny Windowsill, How Much Longer Do I Have To Spend In This Freakin Crate, OMG DARK IN CARGO HOLD OF AIRPLANE HELP HELP, and 30 days in quarantine.
And then, of course, we were in uni temp housing for a month and then we had to move AGAIN and now, right when all should be peace, and things settling down again, we realize that we are in Singapore, Land of Tiny Yapping Dogs.
So, things the cat is afraid of:
ARGH ARGH ARGH MY EYES ARGH!!1!!!@!So here is a photo of Nemo on one of the rare occasions where he isn't hiding under the bed. The journey from Boston was rough on the cat, it was tough on all of us, but at least we had, like, free will, not being from some sort of Calvinist school of thought, so were nominally in charge of our own destinies and had the consolation of having made the choice to move. To Nemo it was all just so much I Am Totally NOT At Home On My Sunny Windowsill, How Much Longer Do I Have To Spend In This Freakin Crate, OMG DARK IN CARGO HOLD OF AIRPLANE HELP HELP, and 30 days in quarantine.
And then, of course, we were in uni temp housing for a month and then we had to move AGAIN and now, right when all should be peace, and things settling down again, we realize that we are in Singapore, Land of Tiny Yapping Dogs.
So, things the cat is afraid of:
- tiny yapping dogs. Specifically, the corgis next door. Meanwhile, a corgi is 6 inches tall, right? And REALLY CUTE. It's Ein, am I right?? And at 18 pounds the cat is actually BIGGER than the dogs. True, they outnumber him 2 to 1... still. (Let me just digress a sec and tell you about the sound of 2 tiny, excited corgis freak-barking at 7am in the corridor of our apartment building which has this amazing acoustic ECHO Echo echo reverb going on so that after a few nanoseconds it sounds like an army of Defcon Frenzy corgis are percussing straight into your skull with the sheer irresistible power of their acoustic Yap Beam, earth-quaking you out of a sound sleep and making one eyelid twitch Inspector Clouseau's boss-like all day long... well, it's better than an alarm clock, I can tell you.)
- things falling down the trash chute (I love the trash chute, you just pitch your trash... down the chute! And listen for the satisfying CRASH of an empty bottle of pinot greeze hitting the ground from 14 floors up, yay!)
- the wind. Up so high, the wind whips through the open door and windows and exits through the windows on the other side of the apartment thus keeping us alive at average temps of 33C. But it also blows things off the tables and whatnot and startles the cat.
- people walking down the corridor outside (fortunately not many people do this as we're almost at the end of the block)
- the mosquito truck (also the street sweeper. And the guy with the leaf blower. Do street sounds get louder as they disperse upward??)
- the camera flash (now)
Deeeeeee bulleted list catch-up
Oi, 10 days since last update. I catch you up with a bulleted list! All about MEEEEE1!1!11!@
- the boat came with our stuff! we unpacked it all and left it lying in tottering piles all over the condo!! We have spoons!
- we put up screens for the cat. Well, we're ALLLmost done with that. Sharply perceptive Dee, with eyes of the eagle, spots an alternative to the screenMan at the DIY store (upstairs from Jen Jelita Cold Storage, which, I LOVE that store, it's small but the inventory is as refined and whole as a perfect pearl and you can find everything you need, really, and the Amazing Iron Man is there on weekends too! Demonstrating his AMAZING STEAM IRON *SKISSSSSH SKISSSSH* which I should write a post about later....) Anyway, the nice screenman who came and gave us an estimate of $1,800 for screens for all the windows and I was like *@#&(@^! WHUT CANNOT DO (even though he was a very nice guy and I'm sure the price was fair, it was just too much right now on top of everything else). So what we have done to keep the cat on THIS floor and not hurtling down 14 stories at terminal velocity is cable-stay plastic netting to the window grill. Which works great and is a billion times cheaper. By Grabthor's Hammer, what a savings! More money to spend on laksa, yay...
- let's see, I went to many meetings on campus for the new job last week. I like the people at NUS, I like being on campus, it feels like home. We almost got killed taking a shortcut over the ridge jungle back from the food court after lunch though. That's okay, I know the climate is just doing its job and it's nothing personal that it wants me to suffer heatstroke and die. My computer's on order and should arrive within thenext couple of weeks.
- we just finished Nightschool chapter 15 marathon!! Time for 2nd half of Odd Thomas toning marathon, yay!!
- I updated my portfolio site at jdeedupuy.com. Well, I haven't finished the about part yet but who cares. I did it in preparation for the con, which, I spent about an hour there on Sunday. But! there were comics! Lots of comics! It wasn't like Anime Boston, for example-- table after table of pinup fan art, bleah-- there was some fanart there too, but there were books! Lots of them. Sequentials! Very happy. I bought a big pile and chatted a bit with creators but was in too much of a hurry to get back to work to stop too long, loooking forward to actually sitting down and reading my pile soon...
- we went out to hotpot with Cynthia!!! It was awesome!! That deserves a separate post with pics...
Sunday, August 9, 2009
my bag!!1!1!!!!!@!@@!!
Okay! I can't believe I haven't showed you guys this yet. My Singapore rig!
This is the CaseLogic bag I found down at Funan. My previous awesome bag, set up for Boston proved woefully inadequate for S'pore. It was way too small to accommodate all the new necessities. And I was beginning to despair finding something suitable, here in the Land of Conspicuous Consumption Designer Handbags, when lo!!! in Funan we found an entire store of nothing but Case Logic products!! *geek gasm!!!!*
This bag is actually a mini laptop bag, but works brilliantly as a daysack. It's even a great color since I am forbidden to buy any more black things >.>;;;;
The little orange bag carabinered to the outside is another caselogic bag, padded, with a drawstring close, perfect for rapid deployment of the camera!
Behold, the kit!
Okay! Clock-wise, starting upper left with the bag:
-Daruma charm (very important!)
-foldy out purse hanger (you put the flat metal part on the table and hang your bag strap off the hooky, useful for keeping your bag off the very public floors of the hawker centers),
-hankerchief I got from Porter Square in Cambridge, useful! need to get more,
-pen,
-keys (2 for the front door, 1 for the gate and THREE keycards :D;;;)
-sunglasses, glasses,
-folding fan ($2 at Daiso!!),
-passport, checkbook,
-portable toothwipes, bandaids (new shoes T____T), oil absorbing papers for face (essential in s'pore)
-travel sunscreen (2),
-zazzle business cards, burt's bees chapstick (lipbalm not really needed here, it turns out),
-hand sanitzer, moist wipes and tough-ply tissues (all of which you need at hawker centers since no one gives you napkins, ever, and there are rarely places to wash hands after wrestling chili crab to the ground),
-umbrella (more useful as sunshade than for sudden squalls. You're gonna get drenched if you get caught out in one of those, umbrella or not),
-Kiva bag (more on that in a sec),
-change + lucky Sacagawea dollar given to me by Linda a million years ago!
-phone, wallet, and ezpass for MRT
Oh, and in the middle, the ever present list of things we have to get for the house. :/
Keychain Kiva stuff-sack bag was a present from Al's relatives. Most excellent bit of gear! Compresses to almost nothing, light parachute material, uncompreses into indestructable little bag PERFECT for carrying groceries. Seriously, you can load it up with like 12 pounds of stuff - the straps are just big enough to get over your shoulder so it's supporting all the weight. This little bag has made the walk back from the grocerystore doable.
Nothing like a well stocked daysack to make you feel adapted to your environment.
This is the CaseLogic bag I found down at Funan. My previous awesome bag, set up for Boston proved woefully inadequate for S'pore. It was way too small to accommodate all the new necessities. And I was beginning to despair finding something suitable, here in the Land of Conspicuous Consumption Designer Handbags, when lo!!! in Funan we found an entire store of nothing but Case Logic products!! This bag is actually a mini laptop bag, but works brilliantly as a daysack.
Behold, the kit!
Okay! Clock-wise, starting upper left with the bag:-Daruma charm (very important!)
-foldy out purse hanger (you put the flat metal part on the table and hang your bag strap off the hooky, useful for keeping your bag off the very public floors of the hawker centers),
-hankerchief I got from Porter Square in Cambridge, useful! need to get more,
-pen,
-keys (2 for the front door, 1 for the gate and THREE keycards :D;;;)
-sunglasses, glasses,
-folding fan ($2 at Daiso!!),
-passport, checkbook,
-portable toothwipes, bandaids (new shoes T____T), oil absorbing papers for face (essential in s'pore)
-travel sunscreen (2),
-zazzle business cards, burt's bees chapstick (lipbalm not really needed here, it turns out),
-hand sanitzer, moist wipes and tough-ply tissues (all of which you need at hawker centers since no one gives you napkins, ever, and there are rarely places to wash hands after wrestling chili crab to the ground),
-umbrella (more useful as sunshade than for sudden squalls. You're gonna get drenched if you get caught out in one of those, umbrella or not),
-Kiva bag (more on that in a sec),
-change + lucky Sacagawea dollar given to me by Linda a million years ago!
-phone, wallet, and ezpass for MRT
Oh, and in the middle, the ever present list of things we have to get for the house. :/
Keychain Kiva stuff-sack bag was a present from Al's relatives. Most excellent bit of gear! Compresses to almost nothing, light parachute material, uncompreses into indestructable little bag PERFECT for carrying groceries. Seriously, you can load it up with like 12 pounds of stuff - the straps are just big enough to get over your shoulder so it's supporting all the weight. This little bag has made the walk back from the grocerystore doable.
Nothing like a well stocked daysack to make you feel adapted to your environment.
you can make pancakes in a wok
No problemo.
And you can get maple syrup down at Cold Storage too. It comes from Canada and costs eleven million dollars.Someday soon I'm going to go buy some plates. The plastic ones are a nice color, tho.
Saturday, August 8, 2009
fried fish soup, delayed yum
Tonight's dinner at HV, a milk soup with rice noodle-- succulent fried, firm, white fish and "local spinach", Thai chili in fish sauce on the side to add-in, delish! Musical ambiance this evening = Miami Vice, an emo 80s mix tape.
This hawker center is not THE hawker center in HV, btw, but the one on the corner, across from the windmill. And ...whoever puts together the music for this center, is, like... A SISTER TO ME. Two weeks ago, the succulent carby-goodness of prata and dippage from the PrataMan combined with the Michael Jackson mix was, seriously, JUST what I needed to prevent slitting my wrists from homesickness. YOU SAVED MY LIFE, MIXTAPE LADY. I LOVE YOU, MAHN.
So here I am, tonight, contemplating my soup, which is far too hot to eat right away, sitting back in my chair, the big fans in the open air dining area oscillating gently, a cold mug of Tiger beer in my hand and the hubbub of contented voices all around me and I think to myself, 'This is me, Dee, watching an episode of Miami Vice in 1982 in metro Rocksonville, Floriduh. I am sitting in my mother's living room, and what's his face with the white linen suit is driving in his car, a warm night, just like here, with an 80s song blaring and the wind whipping thru his brush-back bangs. And in a moment of perfect clarity I look up, and see before me the timeline of my life laid out like a highway, punctuated with bright lights, a sensation of speed and the wind in my hair, just like the image on tv. I hurl down the road in the old Delta 88 I used to have, through this and thru that till I am looking down at a bowl of soup, cooling by degrees before me at an open cafe in Singapore. Slave to Love is playing. I watch a bead of condensation roll down my beer mug and pool on the table before I come back and start thinking mundane thoughts again, over in an instant, the spell created by the mixtape lady.
Here's the thing about this fish soup. 'Poo poo', said I, dipping a spoon in right when the gentlemn brought it out. It tastes raw and unsophisticated-- of milk and nothing else, where's its depth? But as I ate-- slowly, because of the heat, and waiting for the soup to cool-- the fried onions, the fried fish, the fish sauce and chilies (which I dumped in, of course!) slowly suffused throughout the soup, with the green vegetables. And slowly, as I chopsticked in the rice noodles, and ate the big chunks of fish, the soup transformed. From something hasty and simple, to somethign complex. Till after all the fish was gone, and the noodles eaten, it had become something sublime and savvory, something complex and wonderful. The soup at the end of the meal was entirely different from the soup at the beginning.
There's, like, some soup-y zen koan there or something, probably. YO I AM CLAPPING WITH ONE HAND CAUSE I'M EATING MY FISH SOUP WITH THE OTHER ONE WHAT SOUND AM I MAKING, GRASSHOPPER??!@!!
Monday, August 3, 2009
how the bubble tea lady in holland v almost killed me
Singapore is roughly 100 kilometers (about 65 miles) from the equator. FROM THE FREAKIN' EQUATOR. You forget that occasionally, or I do, it seems so incredible, like saying you live an hour's drive away from the north pole or maybe half a day's swim from the bottom of the ocean. But the sun will soon teach you to respect it, oh yes! here at the equator, where the surface of the earth bulges out like the spare tire on an aging geek, closest to the sun!! You say, oh, well, Starhub came to hook up the internet at noon and now they're gone and there's no food in the house, let's just walk down the street, 20 minutes, no problem, to HV for lunch. Forgetting that it's 12:20 at... The Equator. So your quick jaunt turns into a death march and by the time you get to HV you are actually on the verge of heatstroke...
AND the bubble tea lady, for whom you made a bee-line once you made it at last, knowing she had ICE, that magical substance that might-- possibly-- just save you from collapse, AND whom the Singaporean Toursim Board would have you believe speaks english, like all of the friendly nation here at the gateway to the east, does not actually speak english but Singlish, and finds your American accent completely incomprehensible besides...
in an effort to serve you well dutifully presents you with query after query trying to understand your order, blended/not blended, boba? jelly? juice? etc. (completely incomprehensible at the time) until you are literally swaying under the baking heat of the awning knowing that your face is beet red, your vision narrowing...
till you finally shove money over the counter, the amount you know not what, neglecting your change, taking the beverage from her hands as politely as possible considering your NEAR DEATH STATE and press the plastic freezie, I am not kidding, against the side of your neck where your carotid artery pumps blood to your brain that is several handfuls of degrees higher than it should be.
Two seconds from passing out you are saved. The bubble tea lady has a very poor opinion of you. But it's a small price to pay for your life.
I write 'I will show more respect to my environment' on the board one hundred million times.
AND the bubble tea lady, for whom you made a bee-line once you made it at last, knowing she had ICE, that magical substance that might-- possibly-- just save you from collapse, AND whom the Singaporean Toursim Board would have you believe speaks english, like all of the friendly nation here at the gateway to the east, does not actually speak english but Singlish, and finds your American accent completely incomprehensible besides...
in an effort to serve you well dutifully presents you with query after query trying to understand your order, blended/not blended, boba? jelly? juice? etc. (completely incomprehensible at the time) until you are literally swaying under the baking heat of the awning knowing that your face is beet red, your vision narrowing...
till you finally shove money over the counter, the amount you know not what, neglecting your change, taking the beverage from her hands as politely as possible considering your NEAR DEATH STATE and press the plastic freezie, I am not kidding, against the side of your neck where your carotid artery pumps blood to your brain that is several handfuls of degrees higher than it should be.
Two seconds from passing out you are saved. The bubble tea lady has a very poor opinion of you. But it's a small price to pay for your life.
I write 'I will show more respect to my environment' on the board one hundred million times.
the awesomeness that is Daiso...
the original 100yen store where EVERYthing therein is 2 SingDollars IS A SUCKING BLACK HOLE OF AWESOMENESS FROM WHICH EVEN LIGHT CANNOT ESCAPE MUCH LESS DEE ECLIPSED BY AWESOMENESS!!1@#!!1!
... I bought a folding fan. >.> Which I actually use, which causes people to look at me funny but they do that anyway so no worries. I'm totally going back to Daiso soon, though, to buy several thousand 2 dollar Japanese ceramic dishes for the house. All of which will be different. And cute.
... I bought a folding fan. >.> Which I actually use, which causes people to look at me funny but they do that anyway so no worries. I'm totally going back to Daiso soon, though, to buy several thousand 2 dollar Japanese ceramic dishes for the house. All of which will be different. And cute.
the most violently crimson food ever made
... Anthony Bourdain-esque mutton marrow bones!!
Zoom in! Zoom in on the redness!
Aiiiieeee! My eyes!!
Al actually ordered this by mistake. Often in S'pore, if you're not from here, when you order in a hawker center you have to resort to pointing at photographs of the food on the header of the stall. The photo for this dish had obviously faded in the sun cause it looked nothing like the beautiful crimson dreamdish that eventually came out. (I wouldn't have recognized it either if I hadn't seen the Singapore edition of No Reservations...)
Aren't the colors amazing? This is how beautiful Singapore is.
Zoom in! Zoom in on the redness!
Aiiiieeee! My eyes!!Al actually ordered this by mistake. Often in S'pore, if you're not from here, when you order in a hawker center you have to resort to pointing at photographs of the food on the header of the stall. The photo for this dish had obviously faded in the sun cause it looked nothing like the beautiful crimson dreamdish that eventually came out. (I wouldn't have recognized it either if I hadn't seen the Singapore edition of No Reservations...)
Aren't the colors amazing? This is how beautiful Singapore is.
culinary edge-bleeding at ion orchard!
Here is what you can find in the food court at Orchard Road's newest mall, Ion Orchard, down down down in the basement (B4):
All the rage now, Gindaco's takoyaki, observe the technique!
Very awesome fast food, expertly made!
The food court at Ion is incredible, but quite busy and crowded. They should have installed it upstairs and let the vast and echoing, empty wasteland of shops selling yet more diamonds and rubies and designer handbags and gold bricks and luxury yachts and whatnot inhabit the basement instead.
All the rage now, Gindaco's takoyaki, observe the technique!
Very awesome fast food, expertly made!The food court at Ion is incredible, but quite busy and crowded. They should have installed it upstairs and let the vast and echoing, empty wasteland of shops selling yet more diamonds and rubies and designer handbags and gold bricks and luxury yachts and whatnot inhabit the basement instead.
singapore's comic con
SDCC's just over in the states, you can see people recovering all over the internets. But in S'pore what looks like the year's biggest comic con is upcoming: the Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Convention. Looking over the website, it seems disappointing-- boyzone-y capes & tights with zero info online about the artists alley-- but it's free admission so have hopes to find some trace of the local indy comic scene there!
the new apartment!
Okay! I found my camera cable! And the strength to compose bounteous posts because I also located my bag of 3-in-1s and had TWO, yay! Here are some pics of the new apartment! It's partially furnished, which is why there are couches and dining room table, etc.
Here is Al at the bar in the kitchen. The kitchen is what sold us on this place, which is not exactly conveniently placed. The apartment complex is old by S'pore standards but has been well cared for, restored and remodeled, so quite nice, modern and spacious!
Here is my bedroom--
and my wardrobes/closets. Very cool! I need to buy more clothes!
Here is the living room, we're on the 14th floor so an awesome view...
And the dining room as viewed from the living room
Here you can see the living room through the big glass window from the porch. I can't wait to get some plants!
Here is the view from the porch.
The apartment block across the way has very cool ornamentation on the top floor. I keep wandering over there to look for Gozer the Traveler who will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. YO, GOZER I AM THE KEYMASTER! And when I find him many shuvs and zuuls will know what it is to be roasted in the depths of Slor on that day, I can tell you!
We're missing a lot of furniture but what the heck, we have internet so all is well.
There's an awesome cross-breeze through the place if you open up all the windows and the doors (which is considered fine here, I'm told. There are actually metal grill doors which you can lock and keep your door open all the time, I should get a pic of that...). But we turn on the aircon at night because I'm worried about the cat jumping up on the windows, miscalculating and falling 14 floors. 0_o Hardly anyone has window screens in S'pore though most people have window grills (as you can see in pics). A friend has recommended a company that specializes in installing screens, we've made an appointment for them to come out and do an estimate.
S'pore is really noisy which takes a bit of getting used to, even moreso than Boston. The country is always making more of itself so there are jackhammers and construction noises all through the day. People here are dog-lovers so there's a constant highpitched yip/yap of apartment dogs being walked past townhouse dogs out in the yard, morning and evening. Then there's the streetsweeper truck which comes by approximately every 16 minutes to continue the WAR ON LEAVES which you see being conducted everywhere!! In S'pore trees are good but leaves on the ground must be vacumned or swept up by Leaf Commandos immediately!!!
Here is Al at the bar in the kitchen. The kitchen is what sold us on this place, which is not exactly conveniently placed. The apartment complex is old by S'pore standards but has been well cared for, restored and remodeled, so quite nice, modern and spacious!
Here is my bedroom--
and my wardrobes/closets. Very cool! I need to buy more clothes!
Here is the living room, we're on the 14th floor so an awesome view...
And the dining room as viewed from the living room
Here you can see the living room through the big glass window from the porch. I can't wait to get some plants!
Here is the view from the porch.
The apartment block across the way has very cool ornamentation on the top floor. I keep wandering over there to look for Gozer the Traveler who will come in one of the pre-chosen forms. YO, GOZER I AM THE KEYMASTER! And when I find him many shuvs and zuuls will know what it is to be roasted in the depths of Slor on that day, I can tell you!We're missing a lot of furniture but what the heck, we have internet so all is well.
There's an awesome cross-breeze through the place if you open up all the windows and the doors (which is considered fine here, I'm told. There are actually metal grill doors which you can lock and keep your door open all the time, I should get a pic of that...). But we turn on the aircon at night because I'm worried about the cat jumping up on the windows, miscalculating and falling 14 floors. 0_o Hardly anyone has window screens in S'pore though most people have window grills (as you can see in pics). A friend has recommended a company that specializes in installing screens, we've made an appointment for them to come out and do an estimate.
S'pore is really noisy which takes a bit of getting used to, even moreso than Boston. The country is always making more of itself so there are jackhammers and construction noises all through the day. People here are dog-lovers so there's a constant highpitched yip/yap of apartment dogs being walked past townhouse dogs out in the yard, morning and evening. Then there's the streetsweeper truck which comes by approximately every 16 minutes to continue the WAR ON LEAVES which you see being conducted everywhere!! In S'pore trees are good but leaves on the ground must be vacumned or swept up by Leaf Commandos immediately!!!
we haz moved
... and now we're in that awkward period of waiting for the stuff on the boat to show up, which should happen end of next week. In the meantime, finding out the quirks of the new apartment and getting serious about work. Totally behind on pics and posts, the mac is set up on the dining room table (still working on getting a computer desk, kinda miss the one back home in the attic...), more soon as I locate the transfer cable for the camera...
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