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December 23, 2006

한국여자, 일본여자, 중국여자

Houston's Korean community is teh strong enough to support a magazine, it seems—and bold enough to publish jokes at the expense of an ageless stereotype which has caused countless cases of real personal injury:

중국여자와 일본여자와 한국여자가 같이 얘기를 하고 있었다.
▶중국여자:전… 남편에게 이렇게 말했죠. ‘더 이상 난 밥을 할 수 없다. 먹고 싶으면 네가 해먹어라.’ 첫날은 아무 것도 하지 않더군요, 둘째날도 아무 것도 안했죠.
드디어… 셋째날이 되자 자기가 밥을 하더군요.
▶일본여자:전… 이렇게 말했죠. ‘더 이상 난 집안일을 할 수 없어요. 정 불편하면 당신이 하세요.’ 첫날에는 아무것도 안하 더군요. 둘째날도 역시 안하구요. 그런데 셋째날이 되니까 자기 가 슬슬 하기 시작하더라구요.
마지막으로… 한국여자가 말했다.
▶한국여자:저도 그렇게 말했어요. ‘더이상 제가 밥을 할 순 없어요, 당신 먹을 건 당신이 하세요.’ 일본여자:그래서, 어떻게 됐죠? 그러자 한국여자가 말했다. …첫날에는 아무 것도 안보이 더군요. 둘째날도 역시 안보였어요. 셋째날쯤 되니까, ……………슬슬 눈에 부기가 빠지면서 보이기 시작하더군요…

What's that I've heard people say about the best of all worlds being an American house with a Japanese wife who cooks Chinese food? I guess for women one of them might be Korean TV, but that's all.

December 22, 2006

Silver Surfer

A long time ago I told myself I'd buy the entire 60's series when I had the money (and I must have now, the way I've been blowing it), but that'd probably be another bust. Back then I would've wet myself seeing a "live-action" renactment of the whole Galactus saga—
—and yet the eyes that are supposed to convince us of this one don't remind me at all of how much I related to the pathos of his solitary existence.

December 16, 2006

Carl's Jr.

Every now and then they put out the ice cream float-style Coke-branded cups for their Large-sized drinks, and their unusual feature is the heightened lid which snaps on with at least another half-inch of space above the rim. (Have you seen a sentence with so many hypens?) This extra capacity is somewhat reminiscent of the Slurpee domes at 7-Eleven, and trying to fill it with the ice floating above the surface gave me something to do other than waiting for my number to be called wondering where my life went wrong.

From my place at the dispenser I could overhear the burly bright-eyed blonde man in an undershirt at a table to the side talking to his companion. The subject matter of their conversation I let go for most of my time there, until he began wrapping it up by saying, "People think everyday is a fantasy… at least we have someone." I turned to look at them: the woman's wrinkles betrayed their ages, but she smiled like she felt younger as they held each other's hand.

Is this my bus stop sign?

December 14, 2006

Chipotle

Don't know if it was seeing me twice these past two weeks or because they had to re-wrap my punctured burrito (I knew the tortilla was left on the grill for far too long), but I got my second meal on the house there today. Was on quite the roll, in fact, until driving all the way out to Monterey Park only to discover Media King's next restock is due tomorrow, being let down by The Office Christmas special and realizing the Xbox 360 wasn't doing anything for me.

December 13, 2006

Blackberry Pearl

Might end up costing more than the Xbox, what with the 2-year commitment, but then again, maybe game consoles (especially those that predicate online subscriptions and such) ought to be "free" like that, too. I've got to say, though, and before the onslaught of my anti-MS vitriol, that it's a far more impressive piece of technology. Smaller things usually are, but why is that? The 360 looks and feels like a PC made for kids, that $100 laptop or whatever …there it is.

December 12, 2006

Xbox 360

$400 (half of which may or may not be returned to me) + $12.50 in Microsoft money for a featureless Street Fighter II port that I can't do dragon punches from the left side. Oh well, it kept me occupied for close to two hours. That's cheaper than a therapist, right? Or a hooker?

December 10, 2006

おいしいプロポーズ

Starts out like an un-funny Samsoon (and continues like one; for funny, there's 환상의커플 on Fridays), then who steps out as the main character's roommate but 小池栄子 herself!
It's truly torture watching everything else but.

がっかりしま—せん

Not everything in my life are the Jody Maroni hot dogs that I drove to South Bay for. Superman Returns, for example: who cares if Kevin Spacey wasn't the scene-stealer audiences have to come to expect from big-budget blockbusters, there is nothing like looking out the window of your plane and seeing a man in a "bad outfit" save your ass. (Okay, maybe Godzilla approaching way off on the horizon.) Batman Begins may have also been a pleasant surprise back then, but it still suffered from the kind of cliché spectacular climax that just fits in right here.

Oh, and I finally saw an episode of the new Doctor Who that I really liked and didn't have to wonder why it still wasn't as good as the Tom Baker Sarah Jane/Leela ones from my youth. Apparently the object of considerable rancor among the fanboy community, anything that'd depict love as between a nobody seeking monsters in a "better" world and a disembodied head, and their less-than-subtle consummation thereof, is what I call progress.

December 09, 2006

Nothing You Can Do

So I thought I'd upload that clip of that redhead singing "The Words Get Stuck in My Throat" from The War of the Gargantuas off my Region 2 フランケンシュタインの怪獣サンダ対ガイラ DVD (and edit in the part where the bad one spits out his victim's clothes) to YouTube, but at least two people beat me to it. This Kipp Hamilton lady was one of my very first on-screen loves, and I remember taping her number by holding up the cassette recorder to the speaker on the TV and explaining myself to Mom by saying I was trying to get the monster afterwards… since when was this something to be embarrassed about? She would comment that the actress was pretty, but couldn't sing.

December 06, 2006

James Kim

I didn't know him, but here's a guy who left his family stranded in a snowbanked car for help and didn't make it. We all say we'd do the same, only to go about our own unheroic lives, preoccupied with frivolous pursuits to satisfy the basest human feelings. At the same time the elements had gotten the best of him and he was convinced that he had failed his loved ones, I was miserable over some silliness in my world?

December 04, 2006

Realization or Rationalization

Either way, it's over.
Excerpt from tonight's conversation with Ron—

Me: I don't want to be seated anymore at a big table, the only person not speaking the language, and all I have to do is eat; once every 15-20 minutes or so someone feels bad for you and talks to you, and it makes me just wanna fucking correct their English… [trailing off]
Ron: Dude, it's better than eating alone.
Me: What's the difference?

December 03, 2006

輪舞曲

As ridiculous as this drama is—I mean, they get stars like these and this is the best they can do—신현준 has a line in it that really struck a nerve: 残酷な運命は,それに耐えられる人間にこそ訪れるものだと。。。強い人間にこそ訪れるものだと. Maybe this isn't why Kintaro wins, but it's about why he can.

December 02, 2006

Nike+iPod nano

Running's just about my last refuge in life (well, if you don't include my home in the last unit on the top floor; the vehicle whose passenger seats are covered with magazines and junk mail from three years ago; the blog with the readership of the sermon in "Eleanor Rigby"; or the soul therein that isn't craving the attention of more than a single other person, anyway—who also might've helped me think through that last statement), so when I got the chance for that personalized iPod, I took it. Not to deprive myself the full experience as envisioned by the designers, I went with the complete Nike package, the armband without a simple hole for the display, which may not be necessary once you learn the menus, but doesn't help when you're calibrating for the first time, and the cheapest +shoes I had to drive to, of all places, Beverly Hills for. You'd think the treadmill would be the best place to measure your pace, but I wasn't about to risk being flung on my stomach while fumbling for the buttons, so it was the track. And it's fairly accurate, counting laps at each ¼-mile marker, and the feeling with that sensor under the left sole pad isn't at all rock-in-shoe. There's an annoying pause between shuffled songs which seems to last 50 yards of silence, but maybe some playlist-thingy will resolve that; speaking of which, music from Barbarella and the big sky can really make you forget your heart's exploding.

December 01, 2006

Dr. Slump (オーチャくん)

Twenty years later, and this shit still makes me laugh:
Wonder how many men found themselves with the same look on their face after getting married?

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