September 11, 2010
I just moved to California. Things I like: more diverse food options, more extensive library collection, inoffensive if repetitive weather, being employed.
Things I miss: (deciduous) trees, simple roads with none of them fancy lights/sidewalks/multiple lanes, ShopRite, the sound of crickets and frogs and all manner of critters at night, feeling like I’m home.
June 8, 2010
I’ve recently taken up geocaching. One of today’s searches took us to a bizarre preserve with this land before time swamp thing. It had black tube pipes and some metal cages sticking out of the water. To get here we had to walk on a narrow ridge that didn’t seem like a legitimate path at first. We didn’t actually have to go very far into the woods, but after a couple of easy finds on relatively tame and well-maintained trails, this place (minutes away from uber-suburbia!) made me nervous.
October 30, 2009
Highlights: perfect hard-boiled eggs on the first try in the current apartment, this mysterious Japanese cafe, reconnecting.
Lowlights: everything else.
July 25, 2009
Tower Hall at San Jose State University. There’s a section (presumably the Hall) that sticks out to the right of the tower. I did not draw it. Spent a quiet afternoon doodling and bumming around the library. They were having a book sale, mostly stuff I wasn’t interested in. There was a book on dealing with Y2K.
July 22, 2009
I don’t think I’ve thrown a birthday party since I was six because I hate planning things like that, but you would be surprised at the nice things people do for you when it’s your birthday. Like bringing you to eat delicious burritos and partake in super chavelas. Or feeding you prawns and ice cream cake (not at the same time; that would be less nice). Or hanging balloons over your cubicle and giving you the tiniest of tiaras and a bizarre paper robot. Or inviting you to run around a house with the lights out playing laser tag. Which resulted almost immediately in me running into a piano and falling down. I’m not good at these things. And yet, I’ve managed to survive for over two decades. Hurrah.
July 19, 2009
Food update:
- Chocolate-chip cookies from scratch: tasty, sweet but substantial, lots of butter. If I’m going to cook something time-intensive I generally go for savory/salty over sweet, so this was a first attempt at baking a dessert that didn’t come from a pre-made mix. Definitely an upgrade over store-bought cookies (see: photo).
- Lentil soup with spinach: pretty good, a little bland. Soup is the best way to eat carrots and celery; I think there is too much weird flavor when they are raw. This recipe needs more flavor though. Maybe the optional smoked pork or ham provides that.
- “Pucker Powder”: a 34” tube of flavored sugar (horrifying website, by the way). So far, sour white (why not green?) apple, pink lemonade, and sweet root beer are good. Guava and kiwi are disgusting. Bubblegum tastes like Juicy Fruit or something, which I also find gross.
- Chocolate-covered bacon: Someone at work made this for a party. Tastes exactly like it sounds but still manages to be unexpected.
- Ferry Plaza Farmers Market: busy, lots of plums/peaches/nectarines and veggibles. Recommend peanut brittle and Indian food for the free samples in addition to all of the fruits. Picked up some Acme bread. It’s good, but I haven’t developed a taste for high-qual bread; they’re all about equally delicious to me.
Tune in next time for lentil tacos and something with quinoa. Also I will try to update gradually. Massive text-dumps are not very tumblr-like, I know.
July 7, 2009
A house in California. I think I would freak out if some random person posted an awkward drawing of my house online. But also, I worry too much.
I drew this with a Pilot G2 pen. I generally like runny-ink pens and the G2 is supposed to be a good pen, but I do not understand why. The ink doesn’t flow smoothly and I have a harder time achieving any sort of subtlety. I used to have some non-retractable pens (the Pilot precise, probably V5) that I bought from Walmart or wherever, and they were pretty good. I guess if I want to be real artsy-farsty I could invest in Microns or something, but I don’t generally worry about “unparalleled archival quality” and the like.
June 26, 2009
Today I saw an ad on the side of a bus that said “Stop and smell the drought-resistant plants” or something along those lines. Where I grew up, the ad campaign would probably be “Stop and smell the deer-resistant shrubbery.” It would be on the side of a Suburban. Nothing makes you feel more crotchety than finding complaints when confronted with a seemingly endless string of sunny days. (I walk east in the morning and west in the evening and most of that time I spend thinking about prescription sunglasses, lack thereof. I’m pretty crotchety.)
June 19, 2009
The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English (via kottke)
This list is kind of pretentious. A few of my own favorite words: exquisite, palimpsest, cake.
June 10, 2009
Hello, outskirts of San Jose.
The general landscape here is kind of flat, not a lot of trees, at least not like New England. You can often see large hills in the distance, mostly brown grass with patches of green trees like rashes. My commute is about 1.5 hours, 1 hour on the light rail and .5 walking to/from stations. I read a lot and nap and listen to Bon Iver to pass the time. Two organisms that I’ve been seeing a lot more are snails and roly poly bugs.
I took a brief jaunt into San Francisco. There was a hilly section with lots of gorgeous tall Victorian houses. Although I am not the most enthusiastic tourist/explorer of cities, I’d like to make another such trip.
I'm Jihan. I like 