Girl

Animals

Victoria — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 03:14:05 -0400

"He's like a bird that I would like to own, but can't bear to keep in a cage."

"Surely no one likes to be owned?"

"No, no. There are people like dogs, they like being owned, and they'd feel lost without an owner. Or there are people like cats, they like to pretend to be owned."

"So then, what about you?"

"I would like to be owned, but like a giraffe, I will never fit into anyone's home."

(Music to go with: Coco Rosie - Animals)

How we walk

Victoria — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:18:27 -0500

If you walk with your eyes on the ground, you'll see where the shit and puddles are and can avoid stepping on them. However, you'll miss out on the beautiful scenery.

If you walk enjoying the scenery around, you risk stepping on shit and puddles.

What is one to do?

So when I came to England, I bought my first pair of waterproof walking boots, planning to steel myself and walk watching the scenery instead. It won't matter if I stepped on shit and puddles. My boots can handle that.

Ishikawaさんのひげ

Victoria — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:07:49 -0400

Here is another one from タチコマな日々 (Tachikoma na Hibi) Episode 22. I had a really good laugh from this too. Again, please correct me if you spot my mistakes! Thank you!

: なんか九課懐かしい,な?
: Ha! 見て！見て！Ishikawaさんないるよ！
: 本とだ,　しかもIshikawaさんの自宅じゃないか！
: なにそれ?　見たい！見たい！
: Hrmmm.. Ishikawaさんでふろあまりにぎゅうにゅうのが,　いないかな。
: Hrm! Hrm!
: しかもじんべいきてるし
: 似合ういすみでる,　きもちわるい！　
: Hrm! Hrm!
: Oh!　べっどにはいるよ。
: Ha!　見た？
: Ishikawaさんでねるまえにひげはずすんだ。。。
: かげむし。。　かげむし。。

: This makes us miss Section 9, doesn't it?
: Look! Look! That's Ishikawa-san!
: You're right! And that's Ishikawa-san's home too!
: What's that? I want to see it! I want to see it!
: Hrmm.. Ishikawa-san drinks milk after a bath
: that's not like him.
: Hrm! Hrm!
: And he's wearing a Jinbei (light Kimono pajamas),
: it suits him too well, it's gross!
: Hrm! Hrm!
: Oh! He's going to bed now.
: Ha! Did you see that..?
: Batou-san removes his beard before going to bed...
: dry away from direct sunlight.. dry away from direct sunlight..

Batouさんの目玉

Victoria — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:32:12 -0400

I'm learning Japanese! And I have spent some painful hours transcribing the above video (Tachikoma na Hibi Episode 21) into Japanese text. If you are proficient in Japanese, could you please take a quick look and let me know of my mistakes?

: なんか九課懐かしい,な?　
: 見て！見て！　Batouさん例るよう！
: 本とだ，しかもBatouさの自宅じゃないだ！
: 見て見て！　見たい！　
: Hrmm..　Batouさんで風呂あがにひビールのが　
: 実だない！
: Hmn！Hmn！
: 然もナイトキャップ被ってし
: 似合うわなすぎできもちわるい
: Hmn！Hmn！
: Oh! べっどに入るよ
: Ha! 見た？
: Batouさんでねるまえに目玉外すんだ。。。

This episode is one of my favourites. If you don't understand Japanese, I have also included a rough English translation below

: This makes us miss Section 9, doesn't it?
: Look! Look! That's Batou-san!
: You're right! And that's Batou-san's home too!
: What's that?? I want to see! I want to see!
: Hrmm Batou-san drinks beer after a bath
: That's just like him, isn't it?
: Hrm! Hrm!
: And he's wearing a nightcap,
: it doesn't suit him at all, it's gross!
: Hrm! Hrm!
: Oh! He's going to bed now.
: Ha! Did you see that..?
: Batou-san removes his eyeballs before going to bed...

For those who are unfamiliar with Tachikoma, it's some kind of AI Tank/Spider robot, featured in the Ghost In The Shell S.A.C TV anime series.

Twitter your time

Victoria — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I have recently created an account at twitter.com, invited by Natalie. It is really interesting to see how such a simple application can affect you and your friends. This is a good example of how a simple idea can be a great idea. Basically it is a social networking web application that lets you report what you are doing at any point in time so your friends or anyone can see it. Such as in that box at this blog's sidebar (provided by twitter.com, it fetches the data I have entered in twitter.com), you can see what I did 10mins ago, etc. There are 2 obvious ways to update your twitters, one is before you start doing something, and another is after you've finished doing something. I prefer the first, since it does give people a more updated report of what you are doing, naturally. But when I use this approach, it becomes obvious how much I procrastinate, or how easily I get distracted, as after I had updated that I was going to do X, I can see on my twitters that I had said I was going to do X 15mins ago, and yet I'm still not doing X yet! Or sometimes, I don't even end up doing what I said I was going to do. So that's why I always feel like I never have enough time to do what I want to do! Because I waste so much time getting distracted before starting anything. Try it, you might find your time gremlins too. Hrmm.. would be interesting to make some timeline based applications with the Twitter API. Lets see how much time will elapse after this thought when I finally do make something. PS: I've just finished writing a wordpress plugin for updating Twitter when I edit / create / publish a post. Will post it up for sharing after I tidy it up!

Bicky Boo

Victoria — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0500

I bought a new guitar. I love it so much, so so much. It reminds me of the time when I had a dog. That sweet deep affection you feel for your pet. That's how I feel about my guitar, Bicky Boo. How I want to hug it to death.

How to turn your plastic bags into samosas

Victoria — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 00:00:00 -0400

According to the RecycleNow web site (which incidentally is developed by my company), plastic bags can have a rather huge negative impact on the environment, since we use so much of it, and it takes 100 years for a bag to decompose in a landfill. Also given that most recycling centres do not recycle plastic bags, the best thing we can do for now would be to reuse them as much as we can. I fold up my plastic bags neatly so I can easily pop one or two in my pack anytime without making a mess. Here's how: Step 1: Flatten the plastic bag neatly Step 2: Fold the bag width-wise to an approx 2-inch column Step 3: Fold up the bottom corner (the end that isn't the handles) Step 4: Fold it up again in triangular segments Step 5: Keep folding up till you reach the end with the handles Step 6: Tuck the handles into one of the folds Tada! Now you have a samosa!

Why we buy shoes

Victoria — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400

I have recently bought a new pair of shoes that gave me pain.

Now the blisters have hardened and become thick ugly calluses, I no longer feel pain wearing those shoes.

So, should I leave the calluses be, let my feet keep their natural defence (though looking ugly) to spare myself further pain?

Or should I buff away the calluses, beautify my feet again, make them soft as ladies' feet are expected to be, and open them up to new pain?

Or maybe I should just forget about pretty shoes, and get myself a pair of Scholls?

Or maybe somewhere out there, there exist pretty shoes that cause no pain.

Childhood friends

Victoria — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 00:00:00 -0400

Can't sleep. I am thinking of my childhood. About how I was a school bully, and how ridiculously bad tempered I was, how many people I had beaten up. Yes, me, tiny me. I was even more tiny when I was younger. Skinny, short and dark, like a little monkey, someone had said. I guess I was strong because of my bad temper. I would go berserk and become the incredible hulk. Somehow I have never really gotten into trouble for it. Maybe because I was a girl, they don't cane girls, only boys. The teachers would just tell me, 'Next time cannot like that', and I would think to myself, ok, I'll try something different next time. So I have kicked a boy down the stairs, slapped another, poured laksa (soup) down someone's head, poured a box of chalk over another, strangled a girl, whipped a boy with a cane... but never the same thing twice. Then when I was 12, I decided to mend my ways. I was looking around my class, at my classmates, and thought that I was friends with them all except for one girl, who was my enemy. I thought that since I was graduating, I might as well make friends with her, so I could leave the school in good condition. I walked up to the girl and told her what I thought. 'Can we be friends?' I asked. She was hesitant, but she said ok. I made an appointment to go out with her that week, and showed her my secret place at the railway tracks. That's Mabel, who became my best friend after that till university. She later confessed to me that she had agreed to be my friend then because she was afraid that I would beat her up if she hadn't.