Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Notes for Novel #1

They say that in order to write a great novel, you have to write a bit at a time, many times. So here's the first installment of my notes for that Great American/magical-realist novel I'll write someday.

Plot device: Making a living as a time-traveling spy/conman in Disneyland. Cover is blown when I try to pay my bill with a 25 cent note at the cafe under the Swiss Family Robinson tree.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

She is here!



Guess what! She's here, in real life! Natu and his auntie have had an ongoing discussion about how things are supposed to be called.

Natu: Uma montanha!
Angie: What?
Natu: Uma montanha!
Angie: yeah, a mountain!
Natu: Uma casa na montanha!
Angie: What?
Natu: Otra casa!
Angie: What?

...

Angie: How many leaves?
Natu: Um, dois, três, cuatro, cinco. cinco leaves.
Angie: Six, seven,
Natu: seven, oito,
Angie: nine
Natu: ten!

...

Natu: Up! Down! Up! Down!
Angie: Shàng! Xià! Shàng! Xià!
Natu: No! It's: Up! Down! Up! Down!

Monday, May 25, 2009

There will be dancing

The US re-release of that acclaimed independently-produced thriller from China The Day of Angie and Lucien's Wedding is scheduled for its Stateside opening on August 1, 2009. The main event will take place approximately 7PM to 10PM, including good food, dancing, ceremonial cake cutting, and a fireworks grand finale courtesy of Sea World.

Who: Angie and Lucien and All of You
What: The Return of Angie and Lucien's Wedding
When: ca. 7PM ~ 10PM, August 1, 2009
Where: South Cove Beach on Vacation Isle, Mission Bay Park
Why: Angie is not a threat to national security
How: With your dancing shoes on, or barefoot

You will get a chance to RSVP by mail in a month or so, but RSVP by email or in the comments is just as good or better!

This post will be updated as plans develop.

Update:
Days Hotel on Hotel Circle has granted us a reduced rate, lower than the AAA rate.

The Standard room is one king bed or two queens (with a mini-fridge and microwave). The Kitchenette room is like the two-queen room, but with also a little two-burner stove, sink, and dishes. The parking is free for one car per room, but $10 for additional cars.

If you'd like something cheaper or nicer but still want to be nearby, there are lots of other hotels on Hotel Circle. But I hope you'll like this one -- it's highly rated, and a pretty good deal for the area.

Update 2:
The ceremony and reception will run 7-10 PM, but we will be hanging out at the park all day. You're welcome to come join us early if you can!

Driving directions: Coming from the north, get off the 5 at Garnet/Balboa. Right on Garnet or Grand 1.5 miles, left on Ingraham, then 1.5 miles to the entrance. Coming from the hotel, get off the 8 at W Mission Bay/Sports Arena, and turn right. Stay in the left lanes to end up on Ingraham, then 1 mile to the entrance. The parking lot at South Cove Vacation Isle (by the model boat pond) closes right at 10 PM, so it might be better to park on the south end of Ski Beach (on the other side of Ingraham), and follow the walkway under Ingraham. (See map)

It will be warm during the day, but there's lots of shade and a steady ocean breeze. Bring a sweatshirt or windbreaker for after the sun goes down.

We are privileged to have great friends and family who have already provided us with most everything we need. If you would still like to bring a gift, we welcome gift cards and such, but your participation with us at our celebration is itself gift enough. Thank you for coming!

Saturday, February 28, 2009

YCQ #15: The most unwanted blog post

Welcome, welcome, to today's episode of the Yellow Card Question Show! We have a show today of such amazing and grotesque character that it will surely haunt your nightmares for months to come! I guarantee it, and stand by my guarantee. And I won't even pretend that it's just coincidence that I'm standing by my guarantee, and have never even actually met the weirdo. If you are not struck speechless by this awful show, then you can go ahead and say something, and you can have a full refund! Be brave, and step right up folks!

Let's start things off with today's theme song: The most unwanted song! (Here's some background explanation.) Pinker, this one's for you.


And now let's have a yellow card!
!!!!!!


Well, I would want to say "No thank you," but I suspect an invitation to tea with the Queen is sort of invitation you can't refuse. And as everyone knows, when having tea with the Queen, you must not speak until spoken to, so I think I would simply be answering her questions. And I have no idea what she would want to ask me. Perhaps you should go talk to her about that first.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

YCQ #14: Going to the Moon

Well folks, we've come around again to that best of times, time for the wonderful widely acclaimed program, back by popular demand -- The Yellow Card Question Show!

The theme song of the day is 十月 (October) by that underground sensation 阿楼 (A Lou). Hit the button to start that going, and you can read my translation of the lyrics here.



Are you ready for this?! Can I hear you say "yeah"?! No? Is that not how this medium works? Oh. There are some really cool people who have a plugin to do voice comments. But I think that's just for Wordpress. Livejournal has voice posts, but I don't think they have voice comments. So yeah, I guess I'm not going to hear you say "yeah". I'll have settle for hallucinating it then.

Are you ready for this?! Can I hallucinate hearing you say "yeah"?! Maybe with a little more coffee and candy canes?!! Or maybe not. Okay I'll settle for a comment after the fact. Go ahead and type "yeah".

Um. So where were we? Yeah! The moment you've been waiting all month for, the all new Yellow Card Question! Here you go folks, the one and only Yellow Card that can cure all your ills and give you new ones, write your tests, take them, and grade them for you!

Well, if I could go on vacation to the moon for free, I think I might like that, but otherwise there are other things I would rather spend my time and money on, and other places I would rather be. You can go, and send me a postcard.

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

YCQ #13 / New Years' Resolution

Since my time has expired this month, and my life has clearly been too boring to have anything to comment about, we now have what I know you all have actually been most hoping for: an all new episode of the Yellow Card Question Show!

Tuturuturu!

To make your life a little easier, I am also choosing your New Year's resolution for you. And today's theme song is also your New Year's resolution: Wear Sunscreen.


And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. With great gravity and ceremony, magnetism and antimony, I spin the stack and flip the wheel:


There were lots of good places to play when I was a kid. Wild grassy fields, big branchy trees, a lake for swimming and canoeing, clay hillsides and dirt drainage ditches. When I was living in this house:

there was a valley just off to the left there that had lots of entertainment. There was a small patch of jungle (including bird-of-paradise flowers, termites and cowkillers, porcupines, ...) and grassy little hill that we frequently had campouts on. I remember one summer (I think it must have been 1988) my friends and I must have camped out there several times in just a few weeks, and we got mad at our sisters when they did too, because they were copy-catting us. (A clear violation of childhood etiquette.) We also played a lot of tag and hide-and-seek games in that yard, and the bushes around the edge of the yard (gone now) were just the right height for jumping over. And when the wind was blowing good, you could stand at the edge of the hill and lean really far into it, especially if you tied a sheet to your ankles and grabbed the other two corners with your hands.

When we lived in this house:

we were a lot closer to the lake, and the neighbors had a canoe we could borrow. I spent a lot of time out in that canoe during the summertime. For some reason I can't articulate, it was particularly fun to be out when it was windy or rainy. That ditch in the foreground was also great for building a dirt city. Me and the neighbor kids made quite a town carved into the side of that ditch, with roads for matchbox cars, little lawns made of moss, and a couple high-rise buildings made of fresh mud. The brush and palm trees along the lake had parrots and cranes, boas and iguanas, and an occasional fox. In the lake we caught cool fish (mostly for the fish tank, since the largest ones were dogfish and piranhas, which generally had worms) and sometimes turtles. In the old days, there was a giant mango tree right in front of the house that was pretty good for climbing, and there was an even better one up the hill on the left.

There were so many different good places to play in those days, I think the best I can do is say that the whole area was my favorite.