One of my Canadian friends recently informed me that when you give blood in Canada, you get donuts (from Tim Hortons, a chain founded by a hockey player, to be precise). I am seriously considering a trip to Canada for this very purpose.

In other donut news, shanzig recently gave me an amazing Panic Doll donut patch and a pair of handmade donut earrings ( Read more... )

My schedule for the next couple of months or so:

July 8th - 13th Okinawa.
July 26th Leave Japan, fly to Bangkok via Beijing.
July 26th - August 1st Thailand. Alone. Eeek.
August 1st Leave Bangkok, fly to Seattle via Seoul.
August 1st - 9th Seattle.
August 4th Five-year wedding anniversary.
August 5th Be a bridesmaid in a wedding.
August 9th Leave ( Read more... )

I am head over heels in love with this camera. After reading up on the topic, I am quite eager to try a Holga, and this seems like a safe (and cute) way to start. As soon as I can get someone to translate the order form, I will be purchasing one. If I can become competent with it, perhaps I will pick up a 120N or 120SF on eBay and dabble in ( Read more... )

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I have six weeks left in Japan before I will return to the United States, move from Seattle to Rhode Island, and start graduate school (a Ph.D. program in American Studies with an MA in Public Humanities at Brown; note the cleverness of my username). It is difficult to describe how I feel about leaving this place after two years, so I generally ( Read more... )

Thing I Will Miss About Japan #397438347: my downstairs neighbor, an old man whom I have only met once (when what I will now call The Great Laundry Incident of 2004, after the fashion of the last entry, resulted in my flooding his apartment ever so slightly). I will miss him because he is an excellent classical guitar player, and for the past two ( Read more... )

A fast, rough count taken a few minutes ago indicates that I have allowed my affinity for a particular item of clothing to get so out of hand that I NOW OWN AT LEAST FORTY-FIVE T-SHIRTS. And that's not including the t-shirts that I only wear for sleeping or lounging purposes. Part of this problem can be attributed to The Great Laundry Incident of ( Read more... )

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brown study, in a

Daydreaming or deeply contemplative, as in, "Margaret sits in the library, in a brown study." This term dates from the late 1500s, and although by then "in a study" had long meant "lost in thought," the reason for adding "brown" is unclear. Moreover, the present idiom also is ambiguous, some holding that it denotes genuine ( Read more... )