Nyanko's Basket

I played cricket on Saturday and got run out for 1 after an attempt to score an additional run went awry. ^^;; It was still very much fun though, and my team "won" the match by 105/5 (105 runs for 5 wickets) in 15 overs compared to the other team's score of 80 all out.

Sunday was a relatively quiet day, and today I actually went to the gym and ached in places I never knew existed. ^^;;;

I'm hopeful that I'll be able to see some improvements over the next few months, especially since some free time will unexpectedly appear in a few weeks' time.

This was totally not prompted by another trip report posted elsewhere

I met relsqui and testing4l on Friday afternoon at San Francisco airport, where they were picking me up from even though they don't actually live in SF. We had a nice time overall, eating at several different restaurants (a Jewish deli, a real Chinese restaurant, Pizz'a Chicago and a Mongolian BBQ - twice!), and I really enjoyed hanging out with them and having fun together. :)

I played Guitar Hero and Gran Turismo at their place, and although I didn't exactly do well in either game, I did enjoy myself lots. :) I also watched testing4l play Okami and Tony Hawk and he seems to be quite good at both.

The highlight of the visit was going to an impromptu "game night" that a friend of theirs organized, and I learnt a few things there:
- I definitely can't sing country music at all without failing totally.
- There are actually people who can sing country songs well, and perhaps more scarily actually know most of the songs featured in Karaoke Revolution Country.
- Somehow, I seem to do much better at singing songs featured on American Idol
- Karaoke Revolution is very addictive~ And a very good way of breaking the ice, even when I totally fail at singing country duets and the person I was singing with looked more and more embarrassed ^^;;;

[Edit: I totally forgot to mention TheTech Museum! >_< It was made of awesome and win, both for all the exhibits - how often do you get a chance to design a car starter, especially one that starts the car when the door is open? And whacking spam (literally) has such a therapeutic effect~ - and for the loads of fun I had there (including being in an 'earthquake', playing with lots of coloured foam tubes, and lots of other stuff). The IMAX movie we watched ("The Human Body") was also jaw-droppingly awesome, and I would totally go back to TheTech again just for the IMAX experience. XD I also bought several shirts and other things to remind me of my visit and to wear when I run out of clothes.]

( Photos while I was there! )

I wish I had been able to stay longer, so that I could have seen more of California, spent more time with them and their cats, and even gone for a ride in the famous MR2. But it was still a good experience. :)

There was a minor scare at the airport when I thought I'd left my cellphone in their van, but it turned out that it was actually in a pocket of my bag. *embarrassed laugh* One unexpected benefit was that I got an exit row seat because there were three passengers on my flight who were willing to give up their seats and take a later flight...

I got home at around 1:15 am on Tuesday morning and promptly crashed in bed. XD

On Wednesday, there was a Korean documentary, 송환 (Repatriation), that marked the end of Korean movie screenings for this quarter and which I went for even though I was probably the only student in the audience.

( More about the documentary )

I hope that I'll be able to take Korean classes again next quarter. ^^;; And in other news, I'm going to be playing in a cricket match on Saturday. o_o

To the best of my knowledge, a bed made in the American style/way consists of a mattress, a bedsheet, a pillow, a pillow case, a blanket, a quilt and a quilt cover. I could be wrong, of course. ^^;;

After washing my bedsheet, pillow case, quilt for which I should not use detergent and quilt cover today, I decided to try putting them on in a more structured approach than I'd been doing before (basically just dumping everything on the bed).

And, since I'm me, I just had to take pictures of it all. :P They're somewhat blurry since this was at night without my camera's flash...

The first part wasn't too difficult...

( Bed with bedsheet and blanket on top )

The second part wasn't too difficult, or so I thought, until I realized something pretty basic...
( It's a quilt *cover*, doesn't that mean it's supposed to be covering something? )

After some exertions (including dinner), I managed to get the quilt into the cover and so now I have a "stuffed" quilt cover. ^_^
( The quilt and cover on the bed )

( A close-up of where the quilt/cover, blanket and pillow are on the bed )

I wish LJ would let me have a longer "music" field length

Since the "music" field got truncated, here's the original:
np: James Buswell, Marin Alsop, Royal Scottish National Orchestra - [Violin Concerto #08] Souvenirs: V. Hesitation Tango (A Bedroom Affair) [566 kbps FLAC | 0:00 of 4:21]

Shipped my laptop this morning using FedEx Ground. It should get to Acer by next Monday (April 30th), and I'll probably get it back around mid-May.

Today is a bit cold, though not that cold. ^^;; At least it isn't 40 F or worse

And I met my new officemate in the cafeteria, and it seems like we'd get along together quite well. ^_^

I love buffalo chicken salad for lunch (with romaine lettuce, cheese and ranch dressing) ♥~

30 items and a lot of money, $1653.53 later, I've got pretty much everything I need to get for at least the next 1 year. ^_^

Some of the items in the haul:

• a sofa-bed


• a twin-size bed, complete with mattress, sheets, pillow, pillow cover, etc.


• a chest of 4 drawers


• a bedside table with two drawers


• Several lamps


• A computer desk


• A coffee table


• Dining table and 4 chairs


• 18-piece crockery set (mostly plates)


• A TV hutch/thingy


• Two barstools

I'm really grateful to the people at IKEA, especially the cashiers and the people at the self-serve warehouse, who were very willing to help even though it was almost literally closing time. ^^;;;

And I'm especially grateful to itsacz for obliging me by taking me there in the first place, being patient with me while I agonized over many things such as the length of a desk, and finally being especially patient with me while I ran up and down in the self-serve warehouse and came out with about 3 loaded flat carts in addition to what we already had. ^^;;;;

I also had a nice dinner (beef stew with rice for me, and the famous Swedish meatballs for him) with him. ^_^

*hugs*

No, that does not imply anything :P

So I ended up not being able to find any suitable furniture at Goodwill yet, but I certainly did see some interesting things there.

Like a pink two-seater sofa.

Seriously.

*has no idea who on earth would buy it*

Some of the furniture was nice, but it either had a hold on it or was sold and waiting for collection. ^^;;

I'm trying to see whether I can go to Ikea on Wednesday, but it looks like it might not be possible to go with anyone, so I'd have to take the bus there... ^^;;;

I moved the last few things (such as my desktop and laptop) this morning, and after that, itsacz and I went to Sakura-Con 2007. It was my first time attending a con, and it was rather overwhelming. ^^;; There were just so many people that the registration for the day-pass line snaked around an entire convention hall, so both of us gave up on registering and just walked around.

Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, but he was able to get some nice pictures. It was fun, though, and we definitely need to plan for next year.

After that, we went to Fred Meyer to buy various things such as crockery, tableware, towels, shower curtains and other things (but not furniture). Cz and I had a lot of fun choosing different colours of hand towels, plates, bowls and mats, because of a certain reason. :P

So now I have a sleeping bag, but I don't actually have any tables or chairs yet. One thing at a time, anyway. ^_^

I went with itsacz to Best Buy and after a few minutes which seemed more like hours I walked out with a new HP Pavilion 1730n system that is pretty decent (2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Vista Home Premium with a Windows Anytime Upgrade CD etc.), although it's no gaming machine. :P

After that, I dropped the boxes off at home and went with him for dinner at a Mexican restaurant he'd been to for lunch. It was great. ^_^

And now I'm typing this on my new desktop (albeit in a slightly awkward position). ^^;;;

Articles of Faith: The unfortunate age of entitlement in America

I think this is really interesting reading...

My housing application was approved today, and I'll be moving in to Bellevue Meadows next Saturday (on April 7th). ^_^ It's going to be pretty interesting moving everything there, especially if I don't end up renting a truck and movers since I can't find anyone willing to drive the truck.

I need to start packing from tomorrow. ^^;;; *dies at the number of boxes*

Today was pretty much uneventful, apart from the fact that I said I would leave at 9:30 and ended up leaving closer to 10:30 ^^;;;

The main highlight was a celebration party in downtown Bellevue, which I went for and had a lot of fun at. I found out that I apparently can make some difficult/tricky shots in pool (such as pocketing balls from various angles), but sometimes I can't even get simple shots right. ^^;;; There was also a karaoke machine, and there would've been prizes for the first person to sing, but..I didn't feel up to it. ^^;;;; Maybe next time, though~

After that, it was back to work until about 8 or so, when I decided to take a break and come back.

Tomorrow is going to be the first day of Korean classes. I'm worried nervously optimistic about how it'll go. ^^;;;;

But first, dinner time~ (Which means my last piece of turkey T_T)