Subject to Change

: captainshen; June 15th, 18:26

Hey guys. I went on a spontaneous trip to Oklahoma but I'm back now. A concise update, you ask? The Hangover is hilarious, dogs rock, convertibles fill with water quite easily at 4:13 AM in thunderstorms, restaurants named Eggberts do exist, fireflies are magical and mystical, a kids burger is plenty large enough for me, there is truly no avoiding Dallas traffic, I reluctantly admit to being addicted to some kind of sugarfree off-brand Crystal Light crap, Crossfit is the best, it sure feels good to eat paleo once in a while, smoked salmon and local kine lemon plums are the best of breakfasts, and I may just be able to disarm you in a knife fight.

ALSO: I love you all very, very much. You have to know this. I cherish you. I do. But these LJ Twitter feeds have GOT to stop. Please!?

Tokyo 2009/6/6 UE

: captainshen; June 12th, 7:32

Another of Ue's performances! So professional :) show him some love!

It's so bizzare?!

: captainshen; June 7th, 14:54

Life has a bright way of being cyclic sometimes. I do believe with all my heart that everything happens for a reason; I have met far too many 'coincidences' in my life to invest in any other belief. I also think that everything connects in one way or another-- as is laid out in the rest of this post! Early on in the day, after a morning interview at Whole Foods (it went well and I sincerely hope I got it), I got a txt message from my parents telling me about the Mansfield Arts Festival. Not only that, but the festival was being held in front of none other than Steven's Garden and Grill, a delicious family favorite which I'll try and mention later. It sounded perfect-- free and fun and something to do that would break the ordinary. I imagined a perfect summer day-- an arts festival with delicious foods after a swim at the public pool on opening day. I had to execute this vision!

My partner in crime, I soon discovered, was to be Amanda. We were soon on our way to a crowded day at my old work (Bad Kongishoffen Aquatic Center) (where I, no joke, had to save two little kids who were under water in the deep end, while the ""lifeguard"" fooled around in his own little wonderland on the stand). We could hardly wait to get to the festival, and after an all-too-leisurely drying-off, we were on the road.

The festival was small and cute. I expected something Denton or Ft. Worth scale, but it was more small-town and way more overpriced. To our dismay, Steven's was closed for the festival-- I had wanted to take Amanda on her first trip there-- and the only foods being offered just didn't strike with us too much. Around the back of a field near a big music stage was a tent with a promising sign-- offering wraps, gyros, fruit popsicles, and the food that got me happily jumping up and down and pointing while "OO-OOH"ing, Chicken On A Stick. This delectable, cudgel-based, grilled treasure was no standard 'festival' fare, no no-- it was comprised of thick cuts of tender white meat with a delicious dusting of herbs. From there, we decided we'd start aiming for dinner.

Wanting someplace local, as always, I began asking around. Nothing sounded all that great at the time. A nice guy pointed us toward a Chinese place on Broad St that we figured we'd give a go. As we meandered down 157 toward Broad, we both whipped our heads to the left as something caught our eye at the exact same time. Pirate Coffee Company! A coffee house?! A pirate-titled coffee house?! Well ahoy and here we come! We parked, and as we walked in, found ourselves amazed. We talked to the owners for a long time and decided to carry on, but I ran back in and asked them about a dinner place. I told them my criteria: Interesting, local, healthy, and affordable. They looked at each other.

"Oliver's."

They told me out to get there and our journey continued. Pulling up, it looked like a regular store-front, but this shell simply concealed the mecca that was within. Walking in, I was amazed-- it was bright, spacious, and instantly friendly. I recognized the logo-- the tent that we bought our Chicken Stick from was an Oliver's tent! I dropped my mouth open and flapped my arms before running around the store screaming like a macaque. I was thrilled (apparently)! So thrilled, in fact, that I called my parents then and there and told them that if they would come, we would wait. My mom knows the area better than my dad, so I told him, "tell mom it's right across the street from the hospital." He paused.

"We ate there today for lunch..."
Surely he was wrong! Not this place! "Olivers?!" I asked.

They had! It turns out that after all that, the way that they had originally heard about the festival was from the people here at Oliver's themselves. And to make things even more interesting, the man at the festival in the tent was the owner, who I found was named Todd. And do you remember that interview I had at Whole Foods that morning? My interviewer was, amazingly, also a nice dude named Todd.

More food-based specifics to follow :).

Holy Crap

: captainshen; May 31st, 19:01

Look at this cast list!!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1320253/

This is gonna be EPIC. or RETARDED. But AWESOME. and RIDICULOUS.

but Danny Trejo, Hooray!

Because It'd be odd not to...

: captainshen; May 27th, 18:41

Happy Birthday to my best friend. <3
Continue to pursue your ultimate self, forever.

Stuff Time

: captainshen; April 10th, 23:50

Last time I made a massive heres-my-life-post, it didn't elicit much response, but perhaps i'll mix that with another list and get a better one, ey?

-survived registration(barely)
    -some of my RTVF classes required job-style interviews to get into
    -I honestly had a little bit of a breakdown but wonderful, blessed Taylor (from my movie 'Poor Jeff') helped me through classes
-have a friend named Rachel
    -she's 17, homeschooled, and we have a lot in common. she's studied JP for just 2 years but is so proficient that I thought she had lived there. She has a serious peanut allergy and her mom and my mom and the two of us went on an awesome shopping day. i've been staying in denton with her on tuesday nights.
-got a call from krystal on spring break and was camping with her and a group of her aquaintences a day and a half later [1]
-my car lost power and overheated on the highway yesterday [2]
-finished making three films [3]
-found out that I had to write a 15 page term paper
    -...but I get to do it on Journey To The West!
-bought a ticket to hawaii [4]

1) Camping was AMAZING. I jetskiid (stand up and sit down), blew my sunglasses off in the water, rock climbed, cave crawled, hiked, and various other super amazing activities. it was grand. krystal is a good camping buddy.

2) I opened the hood in the parking lot that I found and immediately saw 'strings' everywhere-- they were the remains of my shredded fan belt. they actually severed my clutch-cable sleeve in a few places. i found an Auto Zone about a mile away, and limped there. the belt operated my fan AND my alternator-- so that means that my battery was draining and my car was overheating. everytime i went down a hill or came to a stoplight, i turned it off and coasted or waited. i got to the shop, bought the belt, and discovered that the employees had no idea what to do. So i fixed it. i worked on my car alone in the parking lot until well into the dark when my parents showed up and my dad helped pry some stuff aside while i tightened it back in place. that was one of the most cool, liberating, awesome things i've ever done on my own.

3) finished my chase film, my documentary, and my film film (super 8). I already posted my chase film, but i did my documentary on a headlight refurbishment (?) and my super 8 was a funny film about kin trying to open a jar of pickles. i laughed so hard that i drooled when filming it. yeah, really.

4) I'm sorry, did you hear me? I BOUGHT A TICKET TO HAWAII. I'm going with Alan on July 18th, then he's coming back before me and i'm staying for an extra 3 days on my own. The only sure plans that we have as of yet are going spear fishing and surfing. you know what? OKAY!
-------------------

just now was my sister and her boyfriend's 5th 'anniversary' and i went and had fajitas in fort worth with our family and his. It was good fun.

I'm uh...

..well, i'm goin to hawaii.

"Travel Document - Honolulu/Oahu 7/18/09"

: captainshen; April 9th, 2:28

Thanks for traveling with Orbitz. This e-mail confirms the ticket number(s) issued for the "Honolulu/Oahu 7/18/09" trip.

Ok...

: captainshen; March 19th, 17:57

How come a third of current ""LJ posts"" are just peoples twitter stuff?

Spring break was much needed. My mom and I did get to go out to Plano/Carrollton to meet up with a friend and her mom to go on a crazy day of Japanese shopping-- we hit all three Japanese shops, plus Mei Hua, and after they left my mom and I went on to Milk and Honey (Israeli), an Arabic market, and Central Market. What a crazy awesome day it was-- I got some fun things and had a blast. I found a beautiful, amazing, gorgeous iron bell (like a windchime) at Kazy's which was on half off. I love it. OH YEAH! And at Central Market I found potatoes the size of grapes?! I'm serious! They're called Dakota Potatoes. I just steamed a mess of them and ate them. *yes*
I didn't get too much else done, and as I was milling about at the coffee shop cutting out my cards, I got a call from Krystal mentioning camping. Two minutes later plans were set in motion: I'm leaving with Kry 5am Friday to go to enchanted rock in Austin for spelunking, jetskiing, hiking, and camping. Hooooooraaaaay here we go.

Game On -- My video is done!

: captainshen; March 4th, 20:00

(no subject)

: captainshen; March 4th, 16:21

It's been a doozy, these past few weeks. The first truly good turn recently started with a good study session with Amanda at mochalux that led to the ending of our later story. (We'll call these Ref 1)

However, first, let's go back. I attended the speech competition and didn't even make it to the finals. However, the process was an amazing one-- and I'm not just saying that to attempt a cliche. During the entire thing, Amanda dedicated so much of her time and energy to helping me practice, the majority of it spent at Mochalux, a local coffee shop. Toward the end, nearing the final date, I was on mochalux's little stage practicing in the nearly empty room. I got a little loud and a little crazy, studying for far too long, and just began goofing off, shouting my lines in funny voices. Eventually, out of the corner of my eye, I saw one of the other customers get up and approach. I get ready to apologize, but when I look at her, she starts. "Excuse me," she starts, "I'm Japanese! I heard Japanese and i was so surprised. I thought it was Heroes on TV!"
We start talking and eventually she asks if she can sit and watch and help. So, she does, and we talk and arrange to meet again the next day. Her name, which is on the card that she gives me, is Keiko Hoshi-Garcia. Ok, I think.
So, the next day, her husband comes with her. At first he sits away from us as we practice, but he comes over to introduce himself. He's incredibly nice, and wearing a Police shirt. It turns out, he's some sort of Criminal Investigation official for the TX Attorney General. He's really nice. After he goes back to his table, Keiko and I keep talking and eventually we start talking about health and excersize. She was, it turns out, a professional triathelete. I tell her about my trail, and turn on my computer to show her a map, getting her really excited about it-- and we continue our food conversation and I talk about how I would just live off of fruit alone if I could. She laughs, and says that when she was younger, her favorite character from a story loved peaches, so she ate them all the time, too. What? I stop.
"Journey to the West?!" I ask. It was! Her favorite story is JOURNEY TO THE WEST!

So, after the whole thing, I begin drawing cards for Nana, Amanda, Takeuchi Sensei, and Keiko, to thank them for all their help. My mom falls in love with them and suggests that before I hand them out, I get prints made of them and see if I could sell them. So, on to kinkos. As I'm in there making copies, a big guy approaches and asks if I drew them. I did, I say. "I'm in the art business. I produce music videos but I support all things art. Here's my card, call me and we'll talk," the man named Zeb suggest. Wow! I find out that he dabbles in film on the side, and he offers to let me borrow his HD cameras if I need to.

So, as I kept asking myself why I was doing the speech... there it was. It led me to those people and those situations which I feel really good about. I sold two cards already, one for $5 and a semi-custom one for $7. A coffee shop in North Arlington wants them but their consignment fee is 40%. I guess it's better than nothing, huh?

So, as I fell back into the groove of normal life and the rythm of school, I have ended up staying at my friend Matt's house two times now on Tuesday nights to alleviate some of my late night (Hong Kong Cinema gets out at 9:20pm, then the next morning I have an 8am class) driving stresses and to try and get a little more sleep. Thankfully, Matt (who is a fellow LJer and might very well be reading this... uh.. hi matt!) keeps a pretty healthy refrigerator, making my stay all the more enjoyable. Last night, we cooked grilled salmon and had it with french wheat bread and steamed veggies. Yes, it was that good, and yes, we do rule.

Sleep, however, did not come easily. I was up studying (more) for the kanji quiz from way back up there at Ref 1 (if any of you are still with me here, holy crap are you neat) and then moved on to make lunch and pass time until all of a sudden it was 2:am. I woke the next morning without problems and after oatmeal and a banana made it to class, and through class, in an equally smooth way, but by the time I got out and got to the gym, I was feeling not so hot. I was tired, hungry, sore, and generally not feeling it. I messed around and didn't achieve much, retreating to the language lab to study, where I did so for another hour before giving up and going to watch TV in the language room. I laid down (I've never been able to sleep there) to rest my eyes and just in case set my alarm for 12:40, as my Japanese class is at 1:00. After listening to the grating, yelling Arabic newscast on the TV and trying to drown it out with Amos Lee MP3s, I was shocked to be suddenly waking up. A quick check of my phone told me that it was-- OH DREAD-- 1:00. I grabbed all of my bags (so many) and leapt to my feet and out the door in one motion, severely startling the poor fool beside me, and bounded up the stairs and into the classroom where I was handed a quiz. And then, I realized, I had to go to the bathroom like mad. Yes, indeed, it is true. I couldn't concentrate on the quiz because of said... issue, and finally scratched my answers out and... escaped. However, I can confidently say that I made a 100.

In my sleep, I dreamt that I had been showing Matt a portfolio of some of my photoshop work, which was completely comprised of the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers doing funny things together, such as laundry and cooking. How delightfully dumb!

Now, I'm home, on my beloved Wednesday afternoon (so beloved because it preceeds Thursday, the day of stay-in-Arl-and-get-things-done, AKA my own personal weekend) and for some odd reason, I was overcome with the urge to post. I think it's because I didn't really get to talk to V about any of this (big boss day at her store) and everyone else I called was relatively busy. Also, I talk a lot.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. In the evening, I'm going to an Anthropology lecture with V (dressing up, I believe!) and from there we turn into the undead and storm Gamestop. Friday is loaded with indefinate clashing plans as of yet-- meeting up with a friend named Rachel for JP conversation hour at the school and then either going to Clyde's art show or Amanda's play OR Irving with Clyde and aforementioned Rachel.

Thank you, whoever read all this. If we were in elementary, you'd get points for reading this one.

Heh Heh

: captainshen; February 19th, 16:27

I received a comment on an online-submitted assignment in which we were supposed to show an example of both high key and low key lighting.

"Author: Carol Cornsilk
Date: February 17, 2009 4:29 PM
Johnny Depp will get you a good grade every time. Good comment."

Heheheheee.

(no subject)

: captainshen; February 14th, 0:46

In less than nine hours, I will be competing in a regional Japanese speech contest.

Here it goes.

I need to get extra comfy

: captainshen; February 1st, 18:47

I rollerbladed more than 7 miles today. It was great...
I ate a pink panther ice cream bar from the ice cream man, had a bit of a picnic, visited my ex-neighbors superbowl party, and returned home to work on my japanese stuff and homework..
I still have a lot to get done tonight.

does anyone care to see me posting parts of my Japanese speech or is JP on LJ just too obnoxious?

Listening

: captainshen; January 31st, 10:36

I could listen to José Andrés talk for hours. You can't be sad and listen to that guy.

HAHAHAHA

: captainshen; January 27th, 8:47

AAAAAAAH, Tuesday morning. My classes begin at 9:30 AM and end at 9:30 PM. I have to bring all of my school stuff, a gym bag with change of clothes and shoes, a laptop and charger, and about six meals-- in addition to however many jackets the weather report calls for. I get home around 11 and have to be back in Denton at 8 the next morning. It's a stressful day to get ready for, and it makes for a ridiculously long and stressful day.

AND SINCE IT FROZE CLASS WAS CANCELED! I know-- it's only one Tuesday. But it's a much needed break (already) and I can get some folders in order so that my bag isn't just full of loose papers-- and I can do my readings and such.

I'm also going to enter a Japanese speaking competition, I think... so I can outline that speech.

Oh yeah-- and the best part? 29°F (-1.67 C) Degrees today and 63°F by Saturday (17.2 C)!!
And Caz is complaining about the weather... :D

Me on TV!

: captainshen; January 20th, 23:33

Current Mood:: amused

Sketchbook

: captainshen; January 17th, 11:21

Has anyone seen my leather sketchbook?

Kry? Last time I saw it i was with you, I think, on playground night.

Waaay

: captainshen; January 5th, 13:19

V gets her internet today... flkjsjf yeeeeah.
I'm very hungry, yet poor, and groceryless. I went out to go to the bank today and my car slipped on ice (no damage), and as i was heading home something behind kroger exploded with fire, smoke, and wild crazy action. The icicles remained calm and i could feel warmth on my face. Then, as i drove away from the scene, sirens could be heard.

And yesterday's yesterday I was somehow sunbathing and reading a book.

Dear Caz

: captainshen; January 2nd, 16:51

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope it is a LOVELY one and either that you have fun or have relaxation, or preferably, both. I don't know how it happened that a person as awesome as you are came into my life, but I'm not askin any questions. Thanks for bein there for me when I need ya, and I strive to be as beautiful a person as you are. Make it a great one!

Asparagus and Holiday

: captainshen; December 25th, 2008

Another vegetable post? How strange.

I love steamed asparagus. It tastes like the way the earth smells just before a really good summer rain.

Happy Christmas for those of you who are doing that-- Happy Thursday to those of you who aren't.

So in the past couple of days I've watched two complete DVDs of Flight of the Concords, 565 minutes of Dragonball Z, Johnny Stecchino, and finished the first chapter of the first volume of my new complete book set of Journey to the West. So I'm all around very entertained!

My mom just walked in and smiled slyly as she picked up the box to my new Canon camera-- and said "You have incredible friends!"

She's right.

Have a good one, guys.

Previous 20

captainshen

Subject to Change

[actual results may vary]

Advertisement