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Ever since I got home to LA for spring break, I’ve been suffering from serious media overload. Let’s list them, shall we?

– First of all, there’s the pile of readings for next week.
– Then there’s fun-reading novels I’ve been accumulating for the last year or so.
– I should also mention that I have a G5 tower with a huge flatscreen in my room that I usually use for film and media editing, but when I’m not doing that, because it’s not connected to the Internet, I watch DVDs on it. Much more reliable than my TV and DVD player hook up in my room.
– There’s a beautiful HD flatscreen TV downstairs in the living room begging for me to take advantage of it (and ravish it and make love to it…ohh, this ended up in a very different place than where it started…)
– And finally, the computer (MacBook) on which I’m writing this blog, which IS connected to the Internet.

Hence, I have been juggling:

– Legitimate readings for class (The Conquest of Cool, Hacker Culture, and some Foucault – I do love me some Foucault over break, and I’m only being a little sarcastic)
– Trashy readings like Greg Iles’ Third Degree, and Raymond Khoury’s The Sanctuary, not to mention my wanting to read The Neverending Story again since it came up over brunch yesterday. The Neverending Story is nowhere near trashy. Just so we’re clear.
– Two papers – one Response Paper on the Oscars, which really shouldn’t take me more than a couple hours to pound out, if only I would stop getting distracted… and a one-page *treatment* type thing to give to one of my profs on what I want to do my final paper on. Something about the iPhone, the computer, code, digital technology, the Internet, and structures of power. I realize it’s still kinda hazy. I really want to work anonymity in it too.
– Forrest Gump and Farewell My Concubine have taken over the beautiful, luscious HD flatscreen in the living room. And I watched 24 on it today too. And Food Network. FINALLY, television! After being deprived all semester…
– Fingersmith and Charmed is playing on my G5.
– And because I need the Internet for the latest episodes, BSG has been playing on this MacBook.

And, on top of all this media-related stuff, I still have a letter of recommendation to do, a college essay to edit, study abroad forms to fill out, taxes to do, Disneyland to go to, Sabi to spend time with, songs to write, food to eat (especially the pasta from lunch today and lots of leftover sushi from tonight – Mama, Daddy, and I totally over-ordered – and at Trader Joe’s tonight, Mama actually asked if I needed any more food), people to see…

Other than the near-burning of Juliana and Palak’s apartment during game night, it’s been wonderful being back home. And even the near-burning of the apartment was… amusing (and quite a relief that nothing worse happened). Juliana attempted to make s’mores in her oven. Realized baking them for a minute was too long – the marshmallows caught on fire WAY before that. Mario taught me how to mix my first drink (Bacardi and cranberry juice…except the cranberry juice mysteriously disappeared, or got consumed, halfway through the evening, so my second drink was Bacardi and coke). Michael V told me to brace myself for Friday (I think I’ll just let myself be dragged around Disneyland like a rag doll…). Angeline and Sam let in some random dog when they arrived that somehow got loose from its owner across the way. Hiromi was still glowing from her wedding (I still want to see more pictures!). Jen (among others, but I think my respect for her as a Werewolf expert is just really high given the last time she fooled us ALL when she WAS the Werewolf) led the Citizens to a rousing victory against the Werewolves, despite the fact that everyone kept getting the finger pointed at by Claire. I FINALLY met Liz Pan. And all of us were happy we were not Giada de Laurentis. Is that even how you spell her name?! There were s’mores, Mary Ellen’s homemade rice krispy treats, cheese, hummus, veggies, Claire’s green grandma cupcakes, mini cheeseburgers (I could so use one right now), guac & chips, and more cupcakes. I shouldn’t have eaten beforehand…

Speaking of eating, Crave is … good…but not worth the wait. That was the longest wait for food in the history of…histories. I’ve been to better crepe places, but I think everyone would agree I was grumpier than usual yesterday.

And speaking of food, I’m hungry again.

So, I attempted to try and maintain two blog “series” on this blog – one for movies, and one for geocaching. Two months after starting, they both amount to an EPIC FAIL. *sigh*

I did, however, get to see Revolutionary Road and Coraline before I came back to LA. Coraline was awesome. I need to see that again, maybe write a paper on it, do something nerdy like that. Revolutionary Road was rather predictable – I mean, you KNOW what’s going to happen at the end at around minute 20. Can’t wait to see Sunshine Cleaning when it comes out. I love Amy Adams. And, waiting for the Happy-Go-Lucky DVD, though Melissa walked out in the middle of it! Melissa, she’s SUPPOSED to be annoying! I think you may have just given Sally Hawkins a huge compliment!

As for geocaching, that’s officially on hold until it warms up a bit in NYC. Maybe I’ll find some caches here in LA this week.

I’ve been irritable lately and I don’t know why
Everything that happens just makes me want to sigh
I know that there is really no one I can blame
But everything around me makes me feel really lame.

It might be papers calling, or unfinished work,
It might be Facebook distraction through which procrastination lurks,
It might just be the hustle bustle of going home for break
When I just want to fly away and hang out by the lake.

So while I finish packing for my flight tomorrow,
There might be a few unattended to things that my cousin coming can borrow
Ok, I know this rhyme just really sort of sucks,
But when I don’t have time to think, I guess you, dear reader, are out of luck!

Ok, I know that the MTA could suck a lot of the time, but something just happened that makes me really love the MTA right now.

About a month ago, my 30-day unlimited ride cards kept getting deactivated (demagnetized), and I went through two of them before I realized what was doing the demagnetizing (I had just gotten a new bag with a magnetic clasp on it – a very strong magnetic clasp).

Per the advice of the MTA people, I mailed both my cards to their office in hopes of a refund or some sort of compensation, and proceeded to not hear from them for almost a month. Part of me was starting to think mailing in the cards via snail mail was a bad idea and that I should have just reported them lost.

Today, though, I checked my mail, and there were two letters from the MTA, both about my funked up cards. One letter, which corresponded to the older card, compensated me for 18 days, giving me a 14-day unlimited ride card plus a check for the remaining 4 days. The other letter for a card I used once, and got demagnetized on the same day, included an entire 30-day unlimited ride card.

My faith in the public transportation system of NYC is renewed. 🙂

One of my classes this semester requires me to post a blog every week responding to the readings we have. Tonight was the night to respond to readings, and so, I turned on Buffy, and sat with my computer, with YouTube and BSG on in the background, my guitar sitting at the ready, and naturally, nothing got done. Finally, at around 1am, I told myself that I would not shower or pee before I posted my blog. I just posted it. And I really have to pee.

I suppose I just need an extra push to get things done? Now if you will excuse me, I need to go visit the loo before my bladder explodes.

Grace and I, walking down Columbus…

Grace: Ooh, look! Those are cute shoes!
Cynthia: (looks across the street) Ooh! Bagels!
Grace: Is that all you ever think about?!

Justine’s coming to stay next week…

I’m slackin’, I know. I want to skip to F’s for this week though:

A Few Good Men:
Men in uniforms. ‘Nuff said.

Farewell My Concubine:
Gay Chinese opera? Works for me. Besides, Gong Li’s rowr in it.

Finding Neverland:
Charmingly innocent story…I don’t remember much of it actually – I’ve only seen it once, but I remember REALLY REALLY liking it.

…makes the difference between being able to play more complicated things and not.

My Martins’ necks are all 1 and 11/16th inches wide at the nut, while Stu2 (the Taylor – I finally named him after Stu)’s neck is 1 and 3/4 inches. It means Stu2’s strings are minisculely further apart than, say, Cricket’s. But that seems to make all the difference in the world.

Time to practice.

I have a song I wrote years ago – Summer 2004, actually, that I would like to make a nice recording of in time for homecoming this year.

My friend, Helen, was in town, and did all the touristy things that New York offers, so I’m a bit behind with this blog. I think we’re on N movies:

The Neverending Story:
A childhood favorite of mine. Any movie that includes a flying dog-dragon is fine by me. But I didn’t like the part where the horse dies. Traumatizing, especially when you’re 6 and love horses.

Newsies:
Singing and dancing news boys? Christian Bale? Hell yea.

That’s all for now. My clothes smell like Korean food. Umma’s in town, so Ray, Robbi, and I took her to Koreatown (she was impressed that I’ve been across the North Korean border) to Kangsuh and had some awesome food.

Need I make a disclaimer about my post containing geocaching spoilers?

I think the two I found today were placed by the same person, but one was in Simi, one was in Thousand Oaks. The Thousand Oaks one took me two tries…and I was getting seriously frustrated. My GPS told me we were right on top of the cache, but we couldn’t find it. Went bushwacking for a bit, till two muggles asked what we were doing – they had just come out of Topper’s Pizza and were probably watching us for a good while. Then they helped us look. And concluded that the gardeners for the area must have raked it up.

I went back again after failing to find another cache – this one a big one, but in the middle of nowhere, and the location was full of animal holes – snakes with venomous teeth or small burrowing mammal, I’m not sure. When I got back to Geocache Find #2 location, I sat down in the exact spot my GPS said the cache was at. Pretty frustrated at this point. The description says I was looking for a magnetic key box thingy. The only thing that was magnetic in the vicinity was the railing near Toppers, a rain gutter, and a street lamp. I had tried the railing and the rain gutter, so I started examining a street lamp. Another geocacher had said the grab was really easy (imagine how dumb I was feeling by this point), and had grabbed it without getting out of his car. Ok.

Turns out the bottom part of the street lamp lifts, and the box was stuck to the inside!

Later this evening, after dinner, I found a geocache nearby in Simi, which led us directly to a streetlamp next to a Burger King. I knew what to do from there. Maybe it’s a learning curve, as I learn how geocachers hide stuff.

Whee!