I have been obsessed with tomatoes recently. Seriously obsessed. I've eaten tomatoes at least four days a week for like, two months. So...tomatoes don't have like, some secret beta-blocker content or something, right? Tomatoes prevent cancer, right? XD

( And a recipe of my current favorite tomato dish. )

So...more tomato recipes?

LEVERAGE LET ME SQUEE ABOUT IT:

( Loooooove ~ )

Soon to watch this week's Supernatural, hope I'll have the same reaction as last week's was a bit bland.

How many of you played on monkey bars when you were a kid? I mean, obsessively. To the point where you were able to skip four bars in one swing (I nearly made it to five once, but that resulted in me almost pulling my shoulder so I didn't bother trying again) and you had blisters on your palms that would routinely puff up and burst.

If you were one such child, do you still have the calluses on your palms today? Uh, today meaning that like, more than 10 years have passed since you last attempted monkey bars.

Just asking, because I didn't really notice my calluses until now. I was playing on a chin-up bar (I'm pretty sure it's for chin-ups, I like to dangle on it upside down) and it was only for a few minutes, but the calluses popped up rather quickly! Is this something that will just stay with you forever? *curious*

When did we decide that as adults, we don't need playgrounds anymore? I love playgrounds! I love slides, tire swings, merry-go-rounds (although I don't think kids have that anymore either because they are too "dangerous" whut), jungle gyms, see-saws, ball pits (BALL PITS!!)...

But if I try to play on those things now, I either get awfully mean looks from nearby parents, or I can't fit onto the slide/swing and I'm too tall for the jungle gym. Why?

I'm certain this is a reason why teenagers are destructive. Sometimes, you just want to climb something, and monkey bars are a great way to satisfy this craving. But if you're too old for monkey bars, what are you gonna do but climb like, a statue or something and get in trouble?

For the record, I also love to climb statues. And sometimes I get in trouble for it.

I suppose you could climb a tree, if you had any decent trees around. I don't. (Plus I'd get in trouble for doing that too.)

I miss the merry-go-round the most though. When I was a kid, I used to be able to spin myself crazy on them. Then they decided too many kids were falling off and it was a safety hazard, I guess. So it went, along with the see-saw and the tire swing. Kids these days kind of have pathetic playgrounds, don't they?

But I still want to play on them!

I went running outdoors in the first time in like, forever. I have been using a treadmill, but the weather was really nice the other day, so I decided, why not?

Man, I'll tell you why not: I hate running outside! I don't live near a track, sidewalks (what sidewalks? Taoyuan has no sidewalks!) aren't safe because scooters drive up on them randomly, and none of the parks I live near have decent running paths. Unless they do, and then they are covered by kids on tricycles and old people strolling.

And when I finally resort to running around this tiny tiny little park where everyone just looks at me funny because it's really not for running, these two old ladies stand in my way. They were just chatting and standing in the middle of the path, and even though they could clearly see me running, they didn't bother moving. I don't know about you, but if I were just chatting with someone, I'd go stand under the nice empty gazebo. :P

But at least I know I am capable of running outdoors (for like, fifteen minutes, lol). I never used to do it because I'd get really embarrassed because I'd be huffing and bent over before I got 100 feet. Yay physical fitness! If only it could make me skinnier. I just want to lose ten more pounds. Why is that so hard?

Oh yeah, it's because I love to eat. :(

Here be comments!

The Listener: ( My exact reaction to the season finale. )

Leverage: ( I want Sophie back. )

Supernatural: ( So I...didn't like it that much. )

ETA: I just applied for a job on a cruise ship. Wishful thinking? XD

Thanks to frickangel I've been marathon-ing The Listener this past week. And unfortunate title aside, it's not a half bad show. It helps that Toby is so freaking gorgeous (and I love the name Toby too!) and Oz is so awesome. However, there are a few things I wish could be explained...like, is it true Toronto police detectives don't have partners? Cause that's the vibe I'm getting with Charlie running around by herself most of the time. And when do EMTs work that closely with homicide cops anyway? Or is that just a Toby thing because he's so involved?

Whatever, I'm probably over-analyzing. I'm just too used to American cop/medical dramas. I'm sure the way they do things in Canada is perfectly fine also. :D

Our American TV channel is showing The Ex-List now, and it's a very entertaining show! No major drama or serious life-changing realizations, which is great because this was always what I hated about romance shows. Everyone is funny and it's all very light-hearted, and there are some really hot guys involved, so wins all around!

The only problem I have (which isn't really a problem, really) is that the show is set in San Diego (Ocean Beach, to be precise), and it is making me miss SD like a crazy thing. I miss San Diego so so so much.

Actually, I do have a slight problem with the show, and it's that all the characters spend an inordinate amount of time surfing/tanning in the front yard. I get that it's San Diego and all, but people do have jobs! Those surfboards don't pay for themselves! The main character runs a flower shop, her sister is a teacher...yet I have not seen them spend more than mere moments doing work. It sets up San Diego as some kind of easy-going heaven (and by god it is!) where you do a minimal amount of work for maximum amount of play.

CRY CRY SOB OKAY REALLY I JUST WANT TO MOVE BACK TO SAN DIEGO. Will begin job searching there.

In other news, I've been doing a series of...what are they called, real life stories? I don't know. They are here, at the fic journal. In my attempt to write something that might actually be worth something. I do hope for some serious feedback. Like, should it be funnier? Less formal? More formal? I'm just trying something new and seeing where it takes me. At the very least, it gets me writing, right?

And finally, a meme because I requested, so I must also provide.

The first TEN people to comment in this post get to request that I write a drabble of any pairing/character of their choosing. In return, they have to post this in their journal, regardless of their ability level. (If you absolutely can't write, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to offer drawings or icons or something instead.) I will attempt pretty much anything, within reason, from any fandom I know. I make no promises that it will not completely suck.

1. dazedpuckbunny - Patty/Foote
2. bkm5191 - Sergei Federov/anyone
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THE FLU.

So today, with about an hour and a half before class, my co-teacher asks if I know of any kid-friendly, easy to make American-style snacks. Of course I do! When was she planning to do this little project? In an hour and a half. Oh.

But I am awesome (as my subject states) and I came up with S'mores. I zip to the nearby market (and this is where I'm glad Taiwan is tiny) and come up with chocolate, marshmallows and a decent graham cracker substitute. (For the record, I don't think real graham crackers exist in Taiwan.) We toasted the marshmallows on the crackers in the toaster oven (hooray for those!) and smushed on the chocolate and instant S'mores! And all the other kids were totally jealous of my class and we had the best holiday treat ever. XD

...although now that I think about it, how American are S'mores? It's a moot point because I know they don't eat them here in Taiwan, so the kids were very entertained and awed, but other countries have them too, right? Or do other countries recognize them as an American thing? Like Fruit-by-the-Foot (remember those?) or uh, Easy Mac. LOL.

--

By pure chance I happened across another awesomely bad teen movie called Another Cinderella Story. (Come on, it's so bad you can't even give it a better title than that? It's just another Cinderella story, great.) Anyway, the reason I'm mentioning it is because Emily Perkins is in it! You know, Becky from Supernatural. :D

I just kept staring at the dorky step-sister and wondering why she was familiar, and then it hit me. It seems that poor Emily is always typecast as the crazy, dorky, uncomfortably awkward girl because she was in She's the Man too (I had no idea) playing Eunice, the social misfit with headgear.

I miss Supernatural, is what I'm trying to say. To the point that I'm all happy I spotted Becky on TV. It's so sad!

P.S. Guys, I got a tumblr because apparently I am a sheep. But it actually does look like fun, and I might enjoy it more than Twitter. In any case, I'm here if anyone wants to check it out. I haven't posted much yet though (and likely won't, really, but you know).

So there will be other photos, but this one is gonna stay over the cut.

This is a press photo from yesterday's live, AND I AM IN IT. YES I AM. THAT LAST ILLUMINATED HAND ON THE FAR RIGHT? THAT IS ME. LOL. It's hard to see in this picture, but in the giant newspaper clipping I have (that's right, it was in the newspaper), you can see the nail polish and it was mine. I knew it would pay off to wear pink/black nail polish. Everyone else just had black because that's how you show you're hardcore VK here. But I had awesome bright pink. :D

Okay, I know it's lame, but let me have my joy where I find it. These things never happen to me! (Except for that one time a million years ago when my leg was spotted on NHL2Nite during Sergei's stint at the Ducks.)

( Anyway, more photos. )

God, I am in so much pain. My neck wants to break in half and my legs bitch every time I shift. Am I getting too old for this shit? Hells fucking no. :)

I really wanted to go see I Come With the Rain this weekend, and so I went through the great ordeal of getting to the movie theatre. Only I forgot that this was also Twilight 2's opening weekend, which meant the theatre was packed full of people who wanted to watch some sparkly vampires and splody wolves. Already very annoying, but then I find out that I Come With the Rain wasn't being shown in order to run simultaneous showings of Twilight 2 because of all the people. So I get kind of angry and trek back home, which was a very long and difficult journey because I hate buses that never, never come on time when I need them to.

I didn't even shop a little while I was out because it's all Christmas everywhere, so there are crowds of people taking pictures and jumping on holiday sales and I hate crowds. The only time I enjoy a large gathering of people is for sporting events and concerts, anything else it's just a zoo and I hate people. I hate loud children and loud teenagers and loud people blaring at their cellphones and how all of them inevitably stand in your way.

So to sum up, die in a fire, Twilight. You make me miss the days of Potter-mania. Harry Potter never ruined my day.

I am just so sick of seeing Twilight shit everywhere. I can't get away from it! I'm also sick of stupid Christmas songs playing in every place I enter.

.....I'm just really grumpy today, aren't I? I hate Christmas every year, though.

In other news, my parents went back to America, and I cleaned the apartment. Then I downloaded my first Korean song. I still have no idea who's who in SS501, but Love Like This is an addicting song.

You know it's bad when you settle in for a few hours of mindless internet time before bed, your connection goes haywire and you are gripped by powerful rage and frustration.

I think normal people would say "oh, I'll just try it tomorrow" and go to sleep a bit early. I spent half an hour coaxing the internet back. And I mean really coaxing. Started out just trying to open my home page while power cycling the router and restarting the computer and finally got Gmail to open. For a good fifteen minutes I could only have one site open at a time. Now it's back to normal.

I still don't know why my internet decided to play hard to get. I wish all my problems were clear cut, like "plug this in" or "push that button" and it's all good. This probably had something to do with "bandwidth" which is one of those words I generally forget the meaning of, like "proxy" and "cookies."

My life, she is interesting, no? :3

Not that I've been watching the Colbert Report lately, although I should. But that's besides the point.

Bad news, I think I am getting sick. It's been eating at me all week, but I'm really feeling it now. My body is even getting achy. This sucks. I probably jinxed myself when I told my friend I didn't need her to send me Nyquil. Now I need some. Nyquil is the medicine for all your ills. Unfortunately, they don't sell it here in Taiwan. Fortunately, my friend knows I am an idiot and sent me some anyway, so here's looking at you, postal service! Here's looking at you for my health.

--

( AND THEN SUPERNATURAL ATE MY LIFE. )

So what have we learned? Castiel is a glorified hunting dog, ladies like the pup with the big eyes, Lucifer is awesome and the boys have got to step up their game.

Anyway, the point is, I'm mostly satisfied with what I got. Maybe the hiatus won't be too hard to bear. I've never had to deal with one before, you know, as I used to watch Supernatural in the summer, once season was over, so I could just marathon it. I've also never had to deal with hiatus while being this in love with the show. So, we'll see.

--

Finally, pictures to share. I know this will be weird after the post where I lamented about my food/weight issues, but these weren't taken recently. First off, Russian Milky Way! We don't have Milky Ways here in Taiwan, so this is the first I've seen of them. Why we import from Russia, i don't know, but I love the packaging.



It's a cute little bar, too. But there's no caramel. And correct me if I'm wrong - I haven't eaten a Milky Way in over two years - but aren't Milky Ways supposed to have caramel? Otherwise, wouldn't it be a 3Musketeers?



Then we got the other candy from Russia, hazelnut M&Ms. They don't taste good at all, though. They taste like regular M&Ms at first, but then leave this dusty, bitter aftertaste. I ended up tossing most of the bag. Sad, I know.

I know often times we lose friends once we fall out of the fandom shared. And that's understandable. If you only had one thing in common and one or both of you have moved on, there's no reason to stay friends. My problem is, I haven't made any new friends. Which is kind of weird. I feel like I ought to cultivate some new online friendships. If nothing else, it will give me people to fangirl with.

Maybe I am too picky. And also, as my new fandom seems to be Supernatural, I feel like I'm not hardcore enough into it to make friends. I fangirl, but in a very shallow sense. People in that fandom seem a little...well, like I was back when I was in college.

There is probably a very interesting essay I could write about the generation gap in fandom-ness, but I am also lazy, so I won't be writing it. :)

( Here let me whine about the problem of weight. )

So basically, if anyone has a good diet plan to rec, please share.

--

I have heard SuG's new single and I am not a fan, but I have to admit, the PV is awesome. I love SuG's PVs, they always have some kind of plot involved. That is what the rest of the visual kei world needs to learn! Vampires and stolen goods and horribly spoken fake English news and DANCING oh wow who knew Takeru could dance? The only downside to the PV was yuji being silly and keeping his face covered the majority of the time. He's so pretty! I want more!

--

Sudden thought: I should get back into the J-rock fandom? I feel like most of the weight gain began when I started watching Supernatural. Hmm.

I am the lamest lame person ever and did exactly nothing today. I barely even left my apartment, and when I did leave, it was only to use the gym, and that was only because I felt I had to after eating a box of delicious shortbread cookies.

Whatever. I kept thinking about what I'd like to do, but I really couldn't come up with anything.

I watched Death Race. There were little things I wish they had expanded (and mostly, I'd kind of wished the Asian guy had lived in the end instead of the black guy because the black guy was really a douchebag, and the Asian guy was at least kind of funny), but overall it was an entertaining movie. People died in explosions. There were guns. Jason Statham was hot.

Now, off to track down con videos. Misha looks so GQMF in his three piece suit, my god. SO. HOT. There definitely needs to be more of him in suits.

This week, on Supernatural( ... )

I'm waiting to watch CSI:CSI tonight once I get home. The cross over (which isn't really a cross over, is it? It's just the Adventures of Dr. Ray, really) to New York was okay, but I felt like the TV people are missing the whole point of this cross over thing. I wanted to see the different characters interacting. The whole thing is entirely too plot driven. I wanted Adam meeting like, Archie or something! Getting geeky and sharing interests! I wanted Hodges meeting Mac and driving Mac crazy! Catherine and Stella! Flack meets Nick! Greg and Adam would be another awesome matchup.

Anyway, hopefully once the plot wraps, I can go back to being giddy over the people. Because really, I'm over the whole "find the bad guy" thing. :3

I've gone ahead and made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon to get my hair done, but I don't actually know what I want to do with it right now! Gasp and shock, I know. But it's been over four months, and I'm so used to doing something...

( Supernatural, what I liked and what was kind of dumb, IMO. )

Long, long work day tomorrow.

Supernatural has aired, right? I can't find a download for it anywhere though. Usually it's up so quickly, what gives? I wanna watch me some pretty boys. I don't enjoy waiting.

However, I am entertained in the meantime by SDQ's timely find of Jonathan Roy's album. I've already downloaded the thing and my god, it's just as hilarious as I was told it'd be. I don't want to compare his songwriting skills to Paris Hilton...but I think I just did. Oops? XD

That family. Bunch of really attractive people, them. Jana is gorgeous and kicks ass (literally) and Jon's off being hilarious...I wonder what Freddy's doing?

I bought oatcakes the other day because I found them in the market and was amused. They are Scottish oatcakes, although I don't know if there are other types. They're pretty good with a little butter or jam, and I like eating them because it makes me feel very Redwallian. You know those Redwall mice, always eating oatcakes and scones.

Plus, they are vaguely healthy? I don't know. I know I'm hating the mirror right now, but that might partly be because of PMS. I'm all bloated and tender and it sucks so very, very much.

The weather has turned drastically cold overnight. It's sort of like we skipped fall and went from lingering summer into mid-winter. It's kind of nice because it means I can break out the coats and scarves, but you know, cold.

In two weeks it will be my birthday and I will be twenty four. It's not a big-deal age. But it's a reminder that I'm getting older and I still don't know what to do with my life. And I still feel young enough that I hate the idea of having to know what to do with my life anyway.

I feel kind of disconnected right now, like I'm not really talking to anyone. And it isn't like I don't want to talk to anyone. People apparently don't want to talk to me. I don't get responses to my emails (what, has emailing become a thing of the past because of twitter?) or I get fairly brief and non-informative responses to comments, etc. I like writing letters. I'm weird that I prefer writing letters and phone conversations to MSN/IM/twitter. I mean, the instant-ness of messaging is really nice, but it's so lacking.

When I talk to people through MSN/etc. I get short, one line descriptions of what is going on currently. Or something like "yeah I was in Washington" and I'd ask "doing what?" and the conversation would never resume. (Maybe this has something to do with the people I talk to? Conversation droppers!) I like letters because you get a big chunk of information to chew on, and then I can ruminate for a few days before replying with my thoughts and all the things I feel are relevant about me at that moment. It wouldn't just be "oh I was in Washington last week it was great end."

I feel sad because I know I am leaving my job in a few months, and every time I think about it I miss my students horribly (except for my horrible students, of course). But then I think about going home, back to the States, and I'm happy. And then I think about trying to start a life there, and I'm terrified. This cycle repeats over and over and over.

Sometimes, I think it'd be easier to stay. Deep down, I know I don't want to.

It's that time of month when I feel like a really good cry would do me good. I never used to believe that - that crying would make anything better - but it kind of does, sometimes. It's a break in the tension.

My parents are going to come towards the end of the month, and I'm actually looking forward to it. We'll probably drive each other crazy in a few days, but right now, the idea of talking to my mommy face to face is really appealing.

The stupid iTunes on my new system (which I don't even know what it is) is outdated, but I can't update to the newest version. Really. I try to download it from Apple, and nothing happens. I just a "thanks for downloading" message but uh, nothing downloaded. I try to use Software Update to get it, but the Updater says there's nothing new to update to.

What the fuck? I can't connect my iPod because apparently, my iTunes is too old for it. Why does this have to be so complicated?