gahhh!

You know how little boys want be astronauts or cowboys when they grow up?  Well, little Dan has this small dream of being a radio DJ.  Lucky for him, his dream recently came true! He is now a DJ for our local college radio 88.1.  He has a great show premise, called "Under the Influence," in which he will trace artists, songs, and genres, and talk about how they have been influenced or whom they have influenced. 

Since he is a newbie, he has to do 15 late night shows (Friday morning from 2-4am) until he can have a hot time slot.  Well, last night was his very first show. It was going to be great, he was going to talk about and play his musical influences from youth to college.

I tried to stay up, and made it until 1:30am, so before I passed out, I set up my computer to record his show so I could listen to it in the morning.  I got it to work, but somehow in between walking from my house to campus this morning, it got deleted! Gone! No trace! I missed it, all because I couldn't stay up for 2.5 more hours.  Gahhh!

what heaven is like.

I like to think that in heaven, animals and humans will nuzzle.

debut

We made our costume debut at a ward party yesterday.  Can you guess what we were?  Apparently it's not obvious.

Props to Sam-a-Lam who knew we were 'raccoons in garbage cans' before our costumes were even complete.  The people who got it said they were the costumes best evah, but others said, "what are you: a cat, trash, a cat burglar (what is a cat burglar!?)?"  I thought the face paint would make it obvious, but apparently not.  If anything, I would say we looked more like characters in a Myazaki film

Totoro

 

or Pompoko

a little preview....

Halloween 2010, costumes in the making.

Shoddiest craftsmanship ever, it's going to be fantastic!

In other news, Oko said he wanted to be a fish for Halloween.  That's like a nurse wearing scrubs, booooring.  Needless to say, he is staying home. 

update on oko

Little Oko is quite content in his new home.  He flutters around all day, and sometimes makes happy bubbles at the surface.  I should also say that because he has behaved so well, we have given him a bigger home.  We traded his jar-house for a vase-house- he likes it.  

dan and caitlin..Plus 1!

No, there is no bun in my oven. There is however, a fish in my jar. 

Since my dreams of owning a Labradoodle named Mochi won't come to fruition anytime soon, we decided to get a Betta Fish.  Meet, Okonomiyaki, or Oko for short.  He likes to swim, eat blood worms, and circle bamboo sticks.

the future...

This is a replica of Buckminster Fuller's flying car proposal, brought to life by architect Norman Foster.  Aaaaamazing!

Despite the fact that modernist ideas and the idolization of the automobile basically ruined our towns, I love all the far-out ideas generated during that time, no limits. You can read more about this car here.

And speaking of kooky ideas, did you ever see this video for Disney's 'Transportation of the Future'? It is ridiculous and eerily prophetic.

 

write about love*.

It's been a really rough term thus far.  I am doing school work all the time (almost literally), and am still neglecting some of the readings I should be doing.  In the past 4 days I have slept about 15 hours total.

So against better judgment, Dan and I drove the two hours to Portland last night to see Belle and Sebastian. It was so worth it!

The last time we saw them was at the Hollywood Bowl in LA, they played with the Philharmonic, and I thought that nothing could top that show, but I was wrong.  We were closer this time, the acoustics were much better and they sounded amazing, and I touched Stuart Murdoch (I don't care how lame that sounds). Plus, the venue was really pretty.

 

On the 2-hour drive back, I gave some thought as to why I like Belle and Sebastian so much.  In addition to liking their tunes, I came up with these reasons:

• Sentimental. Dan first said he loved me while we were listening to them, he first met my family on the trip we took to see them play in LA, and we played 'if you find yourself caught in love' when we made our entrance at our wedding reception
• It is feel good music.  I always feel happy when listening to them.
• Even though they are heart-throbs of the indie/hipster/whatever scene, they don't try to be.  They are down to earth, and don't try to mold themselves into what's 'hip'
• They are musicians/artists, not rock stars, and are just really humble and pleasant. 

* the title of this post references their newly released album, write about love.

procrastination

I hit a wall while doing my assignment this evening, so I decided to organize my books by publisher.  I love the logos.

I wish my ocd manifested itself in more productive ways, i.e. cleaning.

I don't know why I found this so humorous, but I did, so I will share.

I asked Dan how many feet were in a yard, he immediately said 3.  I said, how the heck did you know that! I deal with dimensions all the time and I didn't know that.  His response?
"I had a yard stick growing up."

I guess I find this funny because it is not the answer I would have given.  If someone asked me how I knew how many inches were in a foot, I would say, I don't know, it's common knowledge.  Not, I played with a ruler growing up. 

the kindle

I have a ton of PDF reading this term. Hundreds of pages a week, that I am either forced to print out, wasting so much paper and ink (even double sided, two per page), or read it on my computer, which burns my cornea and doesn't accommodate reading on the go.   So what was my solution? Splurge and get a Kindle!

While I was waiting for my Kindle to be delivered, I was busily making a cosy case for it to reside in, once it came home.  I put my book binding skills to use and made this!

What's that I am reading? Homer's "The Odyssey"? 

Nope, just my Kindle.

If I were smart, I would drop out of school now and make big money selling Kindle covers on Etsy.

buttons!

Right before I left for San Diego, I took the train up to Portland with my dear friend Dana, there we met up with our other dear friend Anna.  Together, we had girl time and went to different boutiques marketing Dana's jewelry.  Anna "snazzy camera" Harris also took some photos:

 Dana now has a blog devoted just to her button rings (aren't they the coolest!)

"not my woody natural!"

I think I have an unhealthy obsession..with a pencil.    I bought a set of pencils, called "Woody Nautral," at a 100 yen store in Japan, which is basically an equivalent to our dollar store, so to most people they wouldn't be anything special.  But for some reason I am very protective over them.  For example, when Dan goes to our writing utensil drawer and pulls one out, I always say, "Not my Woody Naturals!"Or sometimes at school someone will accidentally pick up my pencil and claim it as their own. My reaction to this is to watch them like a hawk until they set my pencil down and I can swipe it back.

I shouldn't be so stingy, but to justify my behavior, I have come up with a few reasons as to why my obsession isn't so strange

• They are called Woody Natural! Best name ever!
• They are like normal #2 pencils, but are 4b!... 4b! I love soft lead. 
• This set has to last me until my next trip to Nippon

I guess I do have a history of obsessing over writing implements, as evidenced here and here.  Do you have any weird obsessions???