Category Archives: general

Nighttime in the Hood

It's been a while since I've posted some nighttime shots, so here are a few I took whilst walking around The Hood over the weekend. A quiet intersection... Near the neighborhood temple... View from my balcony... One more shot after the jump, as well as links to other entries with night shots....

Wednesday Night...

Nothing special. Just a random Wednesday night in the hood... My sundappled kitchen, in all its messy glory. The hood... I have no idea who painted this building, but......

Painting with Light

Thank you all for your kind wishes in the last post. I really appreciate it! ...So I took the LSAT on Sunday. In short, I don't think I did as well as I did on the practice exams, but all is not lost. I was scoring quite high on the practice exams so even if the score I get on the actual test is a few points lower than what I'm used to, it should...

Sick Panda

So after making it through almost an entire year without getting sick, of course now - NOW - one week before the LSAT...! - I have to get struck down by a terrible cold and fever the likes of which I haven't experienced in quite some time. I was passed out, fevered and unable to even feed myself - let alone study - for the past few days. Nice. This is a picture of me...

Akihabara Wideangle

First shots from the wide angle Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM. Sorry for the lack of interesting subject matter, this was kind of an off-the-cuff series of snaps as I walked around Akihabara. Pedestrians headed home after a long days work... The weather has been getting warm and damp recently, reminding me that the incredibly humid and uncomfortable rainy season is just around the corner. Which, when added to the daily grind of a life...

More Zoo Pictures

I should probably start a category just for closeup pictures of animals making funny faces, because there are few things as amusing to me as animals staring into cameras. I don't know why. Is that weird? There is not much to this post besides just more pictures from the zoo (hence the title - I am nothing if not creative). I have been too busy lately with work and study to have much of any...

Mistar Parrot

I spent all weekend studying for the LSAT, translating documents for work, mirroring my blog and production server onto my local machine (with varying degrees of success) and taking pictures of animals. Since only the last one is of any visual interest (unless you have an unhealthy obsession with the OS X terminal window), here are a few pictures of parrots for your enjoyment. Something that was kind of odd about these parrots was that...

My life at present

This is my life everyday. Sigh. I work 8 to 10 hours, then I come home, try to cook some dinner, and then sit down to face this: Trying to study for two major standardised tests while working full time sucks. I wish I was a college student again so I could just concentrate on studying. But alas, this is the way things are, so nothing to do but just suck it up and try...

Vietnamese Chicken Panda

So I wasn't going to post any more food pictures, but this was just too delicious to pass up. Last Sunday I woke up with the strange urge to buy the (Product)RED version of the iPod shuffle for some reason. (I wake up with the strangest urges at time...) Anyway, the only place they are sold in Japan is at the Apple store in Ginza (or over the internets, but I demand instant gratification and...

What a panda eats

Did you ever wonder what pandas eat in a day? Okay, probably not. But I haven't updated in about 10 days, and the only pictures I've taken recently are of food, so I guess that's today's post topic. Breakfast Kiwi and Blue Cheese Bruschetta on Vanilla Sponge I wish I could take credit for this recipe, but this incredibly tasty and delicious meal comes courteously of Bron Marshall and her gorgeously photographed blog. This was...

Vainpanda

So the lovely Miss YJ sent me this equally lovely cashmere scarf out of the blue last month and I promised I would send her a picture of myself vamping deliciously for the camera with it. And now, since I haven't finished processing the pictures from last few weeks' worth of adventures, I am going to post it and pretend it counts as a blog update. Oh deliciously vain sun-dappled panda. What a silly way...

Unnecessary Automation

Sorry, there are not many interesting pictures in this entry, namely because people tend to freak out when you start taking snapping photographs in public bathrooms (you'll see what I mean if you read this entry) But don't fear! If you want pictures, check the entry right above this one, which I posted like 5 seconds after this despite the dates being different. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Well, not really a good morning....

Panda Strap

Alas, it's been a busy week so I've not had a chance to write a post yet. Maybe this weekend? That is, after I decide whether or not to apply to law school next year. A deadline that is literally penciled into my planner for Saturday: "-take out recyclables -decide about law school -buy windex*". *(my bathroom mirrors are kinda grungy) Bethann's mother, of all people, randomly made this supar dupar supar cuet beaded panda...

Blue Skies over Tokyo (Sky Worship III)

Blue skies over Tokyo Yesterday was a brilliant blue day in Tokyo so I went for a walk with a friend to Harajuku to attend to some Hatsumode-ing, about 2 weeks too late. After we were done praying for happiness, wealth, or in my case, a real live baby panda, a box of new Legos and admittance into Columbia Law school (roughly in that order), we decided to go for a walk around town to...

Farmlife

I actually have been slacking a little bit when it comes to posting, not because I have a dearth of things to write about (quite the opposite, actually) but because a) I had a big test to study for earlier this month and b) after I finished that I became incredibly lazy and sloth-like because 1) it is the holidays and 2) it is cold as heck at the moment and this being Japan, my...

Post coming soon...

There is in fact a post coming - I'm sorry for the delay and for not having commented on people's blogs recently. Unlike my usual inane panda-related banter, this post deals with something serious and important to me and I get so angry and despondent every time I start writing about it that it's taking me a while to calm down and try and get everything out in a concise and coherent way. taken at...

Nekobukuro Kitty Kats

There have actually been some very disturbing things happening here in Japan land (not to me personally, but at the political/civil liberties level) that have put me in a severely depressed mood recently and are making me seriously - like, seriously - think about leaving next year, or possibly sooner. Shit, to put it nicely, is about to get a lot more oppressive is you're unfortunate enough to have the wrong skin colour and you...

Tatami Nap Panda

Mmmmm.... I could nap in this spot of sun forever. I'm going to Nekobukuro later on today for the hell of it, so I figured I might as well get my practice in cat-napping before I depart. What a beautiful Autumn day! And here's what's currently playing, if you want to recreate this incredibly lazy and relaxing Sunday in your own home: Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945 (03'14" :: 160kbp vbr .mp3)...

To all the Rooms Ive loved before

So the other day I was flipping through one of my old boxes of letters and and pictures from years past (which reminds me that there are still some of you who owe me letters from the Great Michaelpanda Spring Letter Exchange 2007 *wink*) and I ran across some pictures of an old apartment I used to live in. This is my current apartment... read on for old ones This got me to thinking -...

The Time Travelers Panda

Thank you all for the supar kind birthday wishes! :) An update is coming soon, just as soon as I finish up this busy week. And by "busy week" I mean watching nonstop zombie and/or vampire movies (seriously, I've watched 6 this week and it's only Wednesday). The thing about zombie/vampire movies is that they have so much promise as a genre, but more often than not, the end Hollywood result is mind numbingly stupid....

Birthday Scarf Panda

There's still a part three to the Great Tohoku Road Trip 2007 (parts I and II can be found here and here, respectively). But it's taking me a while to get to it since I've been kinda down recently, and busy at work to boot. It was my birthday last week, the big 28, which means I've spent nearly a fifth of my life here in Japan. Kind of scary when you think about it...

The Great Tohoku Road Trip - Interlude

Yes, yes I know, you all want to know (omg hi2u mistar presumptious panda!) what happened next after we left the stinky sulfurous gates of hell. I'm working on part II but at the moment have writers block and a busy week at work that has left me too exhausted to write anything. But here's some foreshadowing for you: it involves mummies. In the interim, a picture from us tearing up the road, purple eldar-berry...

How Expedia.com made me hate Yoghurt

So as I had posted about a month and a half ago, I was supposed - supposed being the operative phrase here - to be leaving for Mongolia with my erstwhile travel companion this Friday. In a clear example of what my writing professors used to refer to as "foreshadowing" (or perhaps just "spoiling the ending"), let me just state here and now that we are no longer going to Mongolia. The closest I'm going...

Morning Tea

A bit too busy to write a full length post today, but one will be forthcoming soon. In the interim, a picture of some creepy half-naked Kewpie Mayo Babies that suddenly appeared on my breakfast table the other day. And of course, I would be remiss if I didn't post a random picture of my less-than-healthy breakfast of champions earlier this week. Speaking of which, it's like 7:40 am on Saturday morning and I have...

Mongolia Panda

So one of my lovely Kiwi readers (have I told yow how sexy I think the New Zealand accent is?) from the Land of the Long White Cloud left the following comment on my previous blog poast: this isn't really related, but can you post some more pics of your panda collection? the ones in the first photo of the post are soo cute :) Well, I've always been one to please the people, so...

Lindsay, the Telemarket-stalker

What is this book, you might be asking yourself? Well, let's look at the cover: The Complete Fake History of a Bunch of People Who Don't Actually Exist I'd like to think of it as the first entry in a series of books entitled "Hey, so I heard you've got a stalker - the Michaelpanda Stalker Prevention Series". What am I going on about? Allow me to explain. You see, while it may be hard...

Crayon Post, the Time Lapse Video

Somebody asked me how long it took to make the Crayon Post I put up the other day - well as it happens, I was wondering the same thing at the outset, so I had set up my camera to record a time lapse video of the process, which you can view below. This pretty (HDR) picture of Shibuya, Tokyo is a sneak peek of the next upcoming post... The video itself is a 4.5...

Panda and the Eau de Gooch

...this person - and I've had a lot of time to think about this and what metaphors to use here - is surrounded by an odoriferous vapour cloud of doom so horrible, so vomit gag inducing, it's like the stank of a sweaty salt ham stuck inside a pile of old wet moldy hard cover books....! I mean... it gets you.... gets you right in the back of the throat - it's like... as if... I dunno - like.... a thousand stanky gooches simultaneously rubbed themselves all up and down your tonsils...!

Dining Table, what what!

Table cloths, placemats and varnish - these things are artificial filters that barricade the connection between us and the immediacy of the moment. Naught but the trappings of pretension, they defy the purpose of buying furniture in the first place - to use it and to let it serve its purpose. I don't want to stop to think to put down a coaster, or spend hours trying to lay down the perfect streak-free coat of varnish and stain - I just want to kick off my shoes, set down a plain white ceramic bowl filled with a simple food on the table, open my computer, or tear off a sheet of paper and just be. When the future is uncertain - when my future is uncertain - it is comforting to have this reminder of the my connection to the solace of an immediacy of moments spent in comfortable surroundings, in my little house right here in my little corner of my little city in this little chunk of this little island floating all along and bobbling in the wide vast swath green blue oceans of the uncertain scary world...

Night Photos and Naughty E-mails

Which brings us back to the present, and this gigantic very explicit pornographic image plastered on my screen, right smack dab in the middle of a crowded Japanese office...!

"EERGLPPPFFFHHH!!!!!" I squeak out an incomprehensible sound as my mind begins to register what the frick is happening. "OH MY CHRIST!!!"

"OMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD!!!" I stammer-yell to myself as I realise I'm on a Mac and that shortcut doesn't work. Instinctively I move to hit "window" plus "l" which on a PC will blank your screen and bring you back to the security log on. Guess what it does on a Mac in Entourage. It "refreshes the message list", which means it has just refreshed this gigantic set of pornographic boobies displayed in my e-mail screen.

Boots and Letter Campaign

Hey happy April Fools day! Actually I completely forgot it was April fools day until my Japanese friend reminded me the other day. Being in Japan for an extended period of time makes everything seem like a dream - you tend to forget about things like holidays, anniversaries, even your own birthday - anything that marks and measures the progress of time fades away into the background until the days and weeks and months blur...

Panda vs. The Bathtub

Okay so here's the deal. I am not a very smart person. This is a humbling admission to make, but my track record: driving on the wrong side of the road, going into creepy buildings with strangers, blindly wandering into dark cavernous pits without pause, etc. sadly proves it to be true. And really, it's not such a bad thing. Yes, on the one hand, I'm openly admitting I'm dumb. But on the other hand,...

Christmas Eve, 2006

Ahhh, is it really Christmas Eve? I'll tell you what, Christmas in Tokyo just isn't the quite same as I remember it back in Wisconsin... the glass skyscrapers, endless stretches of twinkling concrete draped urban jungle... the amazing lack of any type of snow... Then again, I could sit and drink in the beautiful purples of this sunset all night long. You don't get them quite like that back in the cow pastures! Below you...

Bicycle Misadventures

So I'm back in Japan. Whoo-hoo. Actually a lot of things have been going on here recently which have contributed to me not posting much of anything. Let's start with my bike. The piece of crap I have to ride until my new bike arrives So I arrived in my new spiffy location down over Tokyo-ish (more ish than Tokyo, sadly) and find most of my stuff has arrived. Awesome. Now all I need is...

Mornings...

The view outside of KC's window at 6:30 am. The deep countryside looks so quaint, so cute, huh? You can see the bright sun, the chirping birds (well, the deathsquawks of marauding crows, but whatever), the farmers trucks as they set up for the morning market... .... and then you pan over to the left and see what appears to be the impending apocalypse bearing down on you bringing the fury and rage of the oceans from just over the other side of the mountains. *gulp* It's times like these that I wish Japanese apartments weren't made of paper and wood...

Paper chase...?

"Well you see honey, " I begin, eager to leap on the chance to explain "the lingo" and front like I'm from the ghetto (of, uh... Wisconsin) - "In tha' hood, we sometimes use slang for common objects. So for example, we say paper when we mean "money", right? So in this case, he's paper chasing, so he's chasing after money, trying to make some ends, that sort of thing. It's talking about what he's doing to try and make some money."

Turning 26...

I turned 26 on Tuesday and I'm too tired to write anything about it. Supar Cuet Pandar logo spotted outside a temp agency window downtown *sigh* Pics from the party and a rant on programming for multi-lingual environments (tentative title: how Apple iTunes 5 almost ruined my life) sometime later this week. And in a desperate and painfully transparent attempt to get comments on what I am well aware is a crap poast, I shall...

Ouch...

Sorry for the lack of updates. Something like this happened: (minus the car this time but the effect was similar) and now I've got something like this: Sealpanda looks on with pity... *sigh*... Interesting factoids: You know how much it must seem to suck if one's handlebars came loose while they were riding along at a good clip? Well, it really does suck that much. 90% of Japanese hospitals are closed on weekends - Sundays...

Birthday Panda

The panda blog has been in sore need of an update for a while now, sorry. I turned 25 today. A quarter of a century. A third of my estimated life span. A depressing number which demands I stop referring to myself as being in my "early 20's" and move on instead to "mid-20's", which places me just outside of the coveted "late teens - early twenties" demographic all the advertisers seem to go ga-ga...

Toilet Backpack

*sigh* Sorry I'm so remiss in updating (why do all my updates seem to start like that lately?). As soon as I get less busy, I'll start updating more often, blah blah, you know the drill. To all of you still in the university, madly updating your blogs 4, 5 times a week - this is what "real life" is like. Work, work, work, non-work related work and then come home to collapse exhaustedly in...

Super Famicom Adventure...

At the beach

My thanks to everybody who commented on my last post...! I'm happy to report that I'm still alive and (apparently) none-the-worse for the wear, though any potential mental defects as a result of my head striking the hood/pavement may not have have bubbled up to the surface yet :). Actually, the father of the girl who struck me with her car called me later that night to check up on me, which was quite nice....

Hokkaido Kittah

Sometimes the most unexpected gesture from out of nowhere touches us the most. Still bummed over previous events, and stressed from school, more tragedy struck the House of Panda last week in the form of financial ruin last week. Millions of pandas... pandas for me... millions of pandas, pandas for free...! As I have alluded to in previous entries, housing in Japan is a complicated, and more importantly, expensive affair - between key money, gift...

Risapie

Super cute pandas painted on a roadside. I had to put them up! It's funny the way things sometimes come around full circle. It seems like yesterday that I was just a wet-behind-the-ears freshpanda still trying to sort out my way from point A to point B back on campus, still brimming with enthusiasm and roaring to start studying the evil all encompassing language of Nihongo, the terrifying specter of which still haunts me in...

For Paracetamol!

Okay, so I've been pretty lax about updating recently. I was busy - I had another "business trip"! Anyway, I'm tired and have to work tomorrow, so this is gonna mainly be a picture post, as I can't be arsed to write anything tonight. Just for the record, we did manage to find time to teach students as well. My man Parce was asking why we always look so clean cut when we drink. "Where"...

For pookiebear!

Mwahaha! Look in envy Stephanie - I finally ate a dinner that rivals yours! Sorry, sorry! I know I promised an update 3 days ago but... I've been busy! Busy doing what? I think we all know the answer to that one...! ;) Anyway, in addition to single handedly raising Asahi and Kirin's 1st quarter 2004 profits, I think I also managed to squeeze in a little actual learning as well. I do vaguely remember...

Panda love

This one's for you Miss Ninja! Merry christmas to all my loyal Panda fans out there. Panda love forever!!! Now listening to: "Chicane - Autumn Tactics" (one of my all time favorite songs... seems so appropriate, everyone gone, and just me standing in the overcast grayness of snowy Japan.) 8:34 am...

Sorry

Sorry for the recent lack of updates. I had a busy weekend. I promise I'll post something by tomorrow night, including a riveting story of how the wacky Japanese forces of darkness tried to trip on the House of Panda. But for now, please enjoy a picture of a fountain from a nearby samurai house garden. Aaah... soothing! Now listening to: "Gaball - Represent 01" (I saw they had a new album out in Tsutaya...

Japans a blast...

"Hey mike!! You know what would be really swell? If you would maybe prepare a three hour presentation talking about yourself, America, internationalization and experience as a foreigner living in Japan. Visual aids would be great, and if you could throw in a couple of power point presentations too? Oh yeah, and you'll need to do it all in Japanese since no one in our school can speak a lick of English, despite your valiant...

Busy night

Pretty busy tonight trying to get my lesson plans all set up for tommorrow, so I'm afraid there's no time for witty commentary in this post. *waits for people to sigh in disappointment* Why are panda's eyes so pretty? Read on and find out!! I went out last night, and because I am so very piteously poor, I ended up nursing two drinks for most of the evening. I hate doing that because the bartender...

Panda Plague

I'm sick right now, so no updates this past weekend (or today) - sorry. If I can manage to drag my pathetically ill self to work tommorrow, I might be able to post something while hacking up a lung at my desk. Now listening to: "Juno Reactor - Navras" (off of the "Matrix Revolutions" soundtrack. Yeah, the dope song from the final fight. The movie, by the way, S.U.C.K.E.D....) 9:15 am...

pandadoodles

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been quite sick the latter half of this week. When you've got a sore throat, there's nothing like a good old fashioned American cough drop. The weak wanna-be Japanese nodoame's are no match for the ferocity of rawness which permeates every aspect of my throat when I'm ill. Mmmm.. medicate my vapors, baby. Goodness, I should buy stock in Ludens and Halls.... I don't have much important to...

Untitled

So you're a real big blogger huh? Is that wierd or anything?? Do you like it?? I don't think I could dump a whole bunch of stuff out there like that.... Like when you were talking about your fears about going to Japan and the lenght of your relationship with .... I would have never put that up, especially since ... probably read it and had her own thoughts and stuff. Do your parents read...

Copy and paste quiz

Cuz' I'm too lazy to come up with something to write about... INTJ - "Scientist". Most self-confident and pragmatic of all the types. Decisions come very easily. A builder of systems and the applier of theoretical models. 2.1% of total population. Take Free Myers-Briggs Personality Test Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging by Marina Margaret Heiss To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance...

Baby got back

In latin... "(O skin wrinkled and smooth!) dixistine te in meum vehiculum intrare velle? (Did you say you wish to enter my vehicle?) in arbitrio tuo totus veni (I am entirely at your disposal) quia non es mediocris adsecula. (Because you are not an average hanger-on.) vidi illam saltantem.(*3) (I have seen her dancing.) obliviscere igitur blanditiarum! (*3a) (Forget, therefore, about blandishments!) tantus sudor! tantus umor! (Such sweat! Such moisture!) vehor quasi in curru quadrigarum!...

Lack of updates

Today is a crappy day - dreary, overcast, and worst of all, i`m in a bit of a funk. *sigh* can`t be arsed to write anything, just didn`t want to leave my xanga un-updated for so long. I spent a good 35 minutes with the adult students last thursday pouring over the american conceptualisation of "hero" as a societal "loner" archetype - the rugged individualist, unfetteredly pensive, uniquely emancipated - the quintessential anti-hero thrust into...

Shag tag

It would be so much cooler with sound, now wouldn`t it? [Ah yes, so here we go again with another post to completely decimate your bandwidth.] Sorry. ;P In some respect, JET is like one big happy episode of "The Real World" - you take a bunch of young 20-something year old men and women from "diverse backgrounds", throw them in a strange environment, pay them waaaaaay too much to do fake jobs (how many...

Deep breath.. and relax.

Jenny is happy I found my bicycle too! Okay, my bicycle was found. Good thing too, because my crate of ammunition, illegally smuggled in via the trans-siberian railroad from the former soviet union, hasn`t yet arrived. So these little punks get to live a little bit longer. In short, my bicycle was found by a shop keeper thrown in a trash heap behind his store (an establishment that at first glance looks like a travel...

Nothing interesting at all

I am taking nenkyuu (annual leave) for the rest of the week. Reason? I am bored as hell, and I have finished my sole english novel (all 1200 pages of it), which leaves the terrifying specter of being forced to sit at my desk all day reading one of the 27 dictionaries my predecessor was kind enough to leave for me. I think we are going up to anamizu for some festival / get drunk...

I am not a real teacher.

To start, I read this on newsoftheweird the other day: Three teenagers with paintball guns terrorized kids on a playground until they fired into the wrong group of kids, one of whom returned fire with a real gun, wounding two paintballers. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8-13-03] So when compared to that, I guess my ghetto school isn`t so bad...! Today, as I was whirling about in my office chair, playing with a couple of chopsticks (mondays are...

I have lost my voice...

I`m clenching my fists so hard, I think my nails are starting to draw blood. I suck in my breath, and blow it out in a slow, measured jet. "Once again, I will tell you ... my throat and my brain are not the same thing...!" She gesticulates wildly, withered finger jabbing at that damn fuzzy ... monstrosity shrink wrapped to the package. I almost lose it... "HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL...

Update tomorrow...

went to a festival up in wajima this past weekend where i was almost burned alive (well, okay, my hair almost caught on fire), killed in a mass mob brawl for a flag (well, okay, so I never actually got close to the flag...) and then almost crushed under a wavering float held up by a dozen drunken people in loinclothes (well, okay, so I was just mildly bumped...) The next day? BEACH!!! FUN!!! OCEAN!!!...

Bored...

and hungry..... i will update tommorrow. i got my first paycheck today. what to buy... what to buy... Now listening to: "Dragon Ash - Harvest" (I finally managed to find it available for rent at Tsutaya! Yeah!) 5:09 am...

Beach party

Yesterday was the welcome party for all the prefectural JETS in the prefecture. Not only was this all-you-can-eat-barbecue (and copious quantities of drinkage...!!) but it was at the beautiful and lovely Uchinada beach....! only problem? THERE WAS A TYPHOON LAST NIGHT...!!!! Initial hopes were that the typhoon would either a) completely miss the prefecture b) die out by the time the party got started or c) magically disappear from 8pm until the very early morning,...

T-minus 1 day and counting...

I leave for Chicago pre-orientation tommorrow morning. After that... Tokyo for three days, then end up in japan. Just finishing up a few last minute things / stuffing crap into my luggages until they burst. It'll probably be a few days before I update next (maybe not even until next week), so please bear with me. Okay, almost time to go!! Wish me luck!! *crosses fingers* Now listening to: "BT- Flaming June" For whatever reason,...

Finished...!!(sort of...)

At the breaking point, the birds mercilessly taunting me over my shoulder... Well, it's not perfect, but at least it's done (for now). After many countless hours of struggling to fill a huge canvas, finally the birdies are done. So my mother had better appreciate it. :P I also have started resembling the incredible hulk, due to the all the green paint that somehow ends up all over my face, arms and any exposed...

More wedding pictures

Since I know everyone is so incredibly interested in the wedding of people they have most likely never met, and because I have nothing else of note to post today, enjoy some more pictures from the wedding. The lovely bride and I take a moment to pose for the camera. John's tie matches Jenn's wedding dress!! Not wanting to feel left out, Yujia poses with the smashingly handsome groom. Group pic! Plus some strange...

Wedding Time...!!

I went to Scott and Jenn's wedding over the weekend. This officially makes Scott the first of us to go ;) Scary!!! Although it makes sense, given that they've been dating for over 10 years! The actual ceremony was lovely - a small, intimate affair that took place on a fancy-schmancy golf-course country club thing that John swears up and down was designed by Jack Nicholson (at first I thought he said "Jack Nicholas" and...

Painting...

Little do the birds know, I have to be up in 6 hours for the wedding... who knows if i'll get this done by next thursday or not..!!? The background, by the way, sucks... :( Japan faces a loan shark menace. This will be me in a couple of months, I fear..!! Now listening to: "Roger Sanchez - Ministry of Sound Session" (Good god this mix sucks ass. Shut it off. SHUT IT OFF....!!!!!!)...

Its the remix to Ignition...

This is actually the *OFFICIAL* Sprite Remix "wallpaper". I am currently drinking sprite REMIX. It does not taste very "remixed" to me. Rather, much like stale Hawaiian Punch. Ahhh!!! the Japan countdown is on now.... officially one week from today - i will be living a completely different life on the other side of the world. I can hardly believe it. I have so much stuff left to do here!! much love to wantin...

Screw the man...

Amazon is incapable of scanning anything at a decent resolution... [img of physics book] It's so ironic that my last memory of college should be the same as my first - getting screwed over by the bookstore. The first time I went to the bookstore my freshman year, I ended up spending well over $600 on useless books, half of which I never even really needed for the class, and all of which magically...

Birdies are progressing...

I don't know what palm leaves look like, as you can tell... For the record, I have exactly $0.44 (US) in my bank account right now (plus about 1700 yen I found in an old suitcase). I am leaving for Japan in 11 days. Hmmm.... Things I have to do in the next 11 days: - finish selling most of my earthly belongings - find some money - consolidate my student loans / convince them...

Random Iterations...

birdies are coming along... (slowly) Almost looks like an artist's studio, huh? shorty wanna be a thug... Shinhye has had too much to drink... my life fits in 7 small boxes. How depressing... Now listening to: "Princess Superstar - Bad Babysitter" (Joe, I still crack up whenever I watch this video and she starts scrubbing that dancing guy's ass...!) 9:53 pm...

Administrative note

I leave on the 26th of July. I have to be in Chicago on the 25th. My last day of work is the 23rd. Henceforth, the 23rd~24th shall be a period of excessive partying and drunken debauchery. Mark your calendars. By the way, below is probably the most fantastically joy-inducing line I've ever read in an e-mail. From a message from one of my bosses in Japan: One big, good thing about our school...

To err is human. To really mess up requires a computer...

To err is human. To really mess up requires a computer... the birdie on the left gazes enviously at the other's tail... well, website seems to be working correctly again. at some point in the near future i'm going to go to a dedicated server (off of xanga) as soon as i can find the time to muck around with movabletype. working on painting a HUGE picture of parakeets sitting on a branch. it's cool!!...

I am panda... hear me roar!

Funny, I was even the one who took this photo, but my eyes are *still* closed...! It's amazing. Risa has lived in California for well over two years and has never been to the zoo. My word, if I lived anywhere near the San Deigo zoo, you can bet your butt I would be over there nearly every day fawning over their super cute pandas (bai yun and gao gao) (am i a total...

Yeah! Wedding time...!

Yes, I realize there's a Swedish flag on the table. I'm slow, OKAY..!? So nobody told me that the groom was actually from *Sweden*, a fact whih became extremely relevant about midway through my conversation with the groom's parents, as, despite my best efforts at making conversation: Panda: "oh, you must be so proud of your son...! He's such a wonderful young man! So where are you guys staying? So what kind of work...

Fun at Pottery Barn

I never knew that Madison had a Pottery Barn. Perhaps that's because I don't usually spend inordinate amounts of time searching for armoires done in the "early colonial style". (Usually...) As we have established beforehand, I am more of an IKEA-type of panda, preferring the smooth curves of brushed aluminum and the made-in-south-east-asia-for-pennies-on-the-euro faux-wood laminate surfaces of $5 tables. This picture covers aproxmiately 25% of the store's square footage. But, having been invited to...

Home of the 15 dollar glass of scotch...

I apologize for the lack of updates recently, I've been very lazy, and moreover, it has been extremely hot. Dear god. I sweat just rolling over from my stomach to my back! (imagine me pretty much sprawled out on my floor tarepanda style, with 4 fans blowing straight at me). Wisconsin is pretty mean that way - up until last week, it still got so cold you occasionally needed a sweater to step outside....

Can't think of anything to write...

i'm trying to get up the energy to write a long winded post on social injustice and all that mess. so far, without much luck. went out yesterday with the lovely kimiko *waves hand at kimiko as she's reading this*. I nearly embarrassed myself by commenting in japanese how drunk this one blonde haired blue-eyed white lady was , only to have her turn around and protest that she was not, in fact, drunk -...

In honor of pornholio

i give you....confessions of a porn store clerk. also, because i thought it was cool: http://www.humanbeatbox.com - - - as an epilogue to the pornhollio story, he is now banned from the lab. I had to talk to a scary looking police officer for about 20 minutes. *sigh* so that be that. sent in my visa application today, along with my proof of graduation - it felt so weird to be holding that piece...

Busting out the visa card..

after a hard weekend at work, I decided it was time to treat myself to a nice relaxing evening out of the town. So with dining guide in hand (as a curious aside, did anyone know that at least as of 3 years ago, madison wisconsin had (has?) the highest ratio of restaurants relative to population of any city in the united states?) I enjoined my friend Cathy to head out with me in...

I don't wanna work! I just wanna bang on the drums all day!

I work in a computer lab. On most days, this is a good thing. It means I get to sit behind a desk for 8~10 hours at a time and browse the internet, read some books, catch up on my studies, chat with my co-workers, etc. I have a comfortable chair, a decent computer, air conditioning, and a relaxed work environment where I don't have to put on wing-tip oxfords or any sort of...

not dead yet...

Not dead- yet! aaaaahhhh!! i know many of you fear i've died... but i'm still alive. going to update either tonight or tommorrow, I promise!! I apologize for slacking off - this last week has been hell: trying to get my visa application in order for japan, dealing with the administrative mess of trying to find a slip of paper neccessary for my graduation lost somewhere in the dark depths of the dean's office, picking...

Nanimo...

... [EDIT: Much love to Takunishi for the comment - for some reason the original post got munched up by Xanga and I was too lazy to retype it... But now it seems so much more clever! (^_^)] 10:58 pm...

mountain biking...

an update one of these days, i promise.... ~laa laaa laaaahhh!! going to go mountain biking tommorrow on an old glacier trail in a nearby state park. never did realize how beautiful wisconsin was until it began to sink in that i'm leaving soon for nothing but the concrete jungle of crowded urban japan... Now listening to: "Bug Mafia - Poveste fara sfarsit" (Everyone should have at least one Romanian rap song in their...

Killing space...

for those of you interested, Indians are rated as the world's most nationalistic people, far, far ahead of americas, whom I assumed would take the cake ;). On a completely different note, I am now sick of listening to ATB. Time to download some new music...!? Finally, someone sent me this picture of Christina Aguilera. I don't know what's more shocking - the fact that she appears to have pulled a reverse Michael Jackson,...

It aint easy being greasy...

It ain't easy bein' greasy / In a world of cleanliness and you know, all that other madness... some man was looking at porn tonight in the computer lab for 6 hours straight...!! I finally had to put the smack down when someone complained (a dude, of all things!). Decidedly creepy and left an icky feeling in my mouth afterwards. He hung around after I spoke with him (has he no shame...!? If that...

Random Post

Going to chicago tommorrow to watch the races and probably do a great deal of shopping (gotta look good for Japan...). Much thanks to everyone who commented on the last post - I really appreciate it! I'm still not resolved as to how I feel about being way up in Ishikawa. At any rate, I'm sure all my feelings will instantly clarify after a few drinks. Will post more then. Now listening to: Me...

Insert clever title here...

going to green bay. *shudder* for those of you who have never been there before... be afraid. be very afraid... on the plus side, I'm going to go watch my friend's brother drag race this weekend down near Chicago - her family owns a bunch of race cars and from what she tells me, it's something that has to be seen to be believe. Hope to take lots of pics.(0_O)P Now listening to: "Underworld...

fu fuuuu fuuuu....

fu fuuu fuuuuu..... it's a rainy day today. nothing special going on. And I still don't know where I'm going in Japan. The Chicago consulate is so slow! (osoii yo!!! - must be pronounced in a rising, high pitched whine). Hugh G. Rection (should have your sound on for this one. It's a video so it'll take a moment to download) Kids, I know some of you out there are either entering college, or...

Its gonna be... a bright, sunshine-y day...

So twice five miles of fertile ground With walls and towers were girdled round : And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. Today was a beautiful day, the sort of sun-shiney summer day where waves of grass are tickled by a crisp breeze, fluffy white clouds loft lazily amongst jet streams far up...

No more leaves in summers sky...

who would have thought that the joys of graduation would be so quickly replaced by the mind-numbing boredom of "real life"? It is memorial day weekend; more pressingly, it is the one-week mark denoting the end of the first five days spent in the "real" world. My accomplishments so far this week? 1. Bought a pack of beef-flavored Ramen noodles at the local grocery store 2. Ate Ramen noodles all week 3. Got sick of...

Jikoshokai

I think it is time for a self introduction, for those of us who don't know me. My name is Michael. I am a panda. Like most pandas, I enjoy the occasional snack of bamboo. But what really gets me drooling, Pavlov-style, is that wonderous food of the gods, Tonkatsu. If you don't know what Tonkatsu is, please believe me when I say, your life is a little less bright for want of that knowledge....

Can I graduate...?

I think I was the only one not wearing an Honors stole. . . So I finally graduated. Four and a half years of hard work (well, only about two and a half years of hard work. I kind of slacked off for the other two) and what do I finally have to my name? An empty diploma cover. (-_^)/ The "actual" diploma is forthcoming, pending a review to see if I have completed...

Straight up liquor...

Straight up liquor / with no chaser / make your high come quicker the plan? simple the timing? impeccable. the mission? to get utterly and completely smooshed for several days in a row. But before this weekends drunken debacle, let's put up some pictures of random drunkeness at the Essenhaus, perhaps one of the last places in this state were a fellow can get a nice, giant boot filled with beer. Random friends. (Wait, scratch...

O-wa-ri...!

Friday, May 16, 2003 O-wa-ri...! ladies and gentlemen, Panda is done with college. *bows with a flourish to the peals of applause filtering down from the rafters* 9:01 pm...

Finals week II

sorry for the lack of updates, this final exam week has been hell... i look like i've been stranded on a desert island for a year... anyway, i came home last night from the library around 3am and found that my roommate dave's door was open. I peeked inside and found this: Dave is a great guy. But let's just say that being tidy is not his forte. I just wanted to share this all...

Finals week I

poor panda!! finals week is torturous!! Now listening to: "Pulsedriver - Cambodia" (where would i be without digitallyimported.com to get me through the long lonely nights at the library?) 1:03 am Tuesday, May 13, 2003...

Tornado warning

we are currently under a tornado warning... whoo hoo!!! *grimaces* if i die, this means no more physics final for panda. Now listening to: "R.Kelly - (Remix to) Ignition" (pedophile or not, still quite the crooner) 10:11 pm...

Turning Wisconsin-ese...

Did you know that buffalo wings and beer actually taste really good together? Actually, I suppose probably everyone in Wisconsin except for me knew that. It's odd, even though they always serve buffalo wings in bars, I never actually ate them with beer before. All of which is to say that I am finally, unfortunately, hideously, godsaveme!!! - turning into a pudgy, beer-swilling, greasy-food-eating, football-watching wisconsinite. i must have ingested like 3000 calories last...

Workplace Hijinks

Yes folks, it's finals time again. Which means procrastination of the inevitable studying by any and all means neccessary, including, but not limited to goofing off, excessive drinking, obsessive checking of e-mail (when writing term papers) and arm wrestling. The latter, it seems, was in full force today as we here at the Las Vegas Grande Hotel and Casino proudly bring you tonight's championship match-up between Steph "The Intimidator" and Joe "The Calculator" (a...

Shiawase...

Yes, that is a picture of me passed out on my bed. This is what I did today from 2 pm until around 7pm. Today was such a beautiful day - the sun was shining, the sky was blue, fluffywhite clouds in the sky, yummy tonkatsu in my stomach (samantha janice and I went out to Wasabi.... spent a small fortune on lunch), warm spring breeze blowing through my window. What better thing to...

Final Essay III

paper....finished.... now....exhausted... must..... sleep.... Currently listening to: "Gaball - Channel B.P.M." Picked this album up on a whim at Tsutaya and must have burned it... 5:00 am...