my life is more than a vision: karen's blog |
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whatever... anything and everything i feel...  Welcome to my blog. Check out my home page and don't forget to sign my guestbook before you leave. < # blog girls ? > «
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Saturday, November 18, 2000
Friday, November 17, 2000
so i seem to have attracted (somehow, who knows) anti-choicers to my webpage. yup. always resorting to the personal attacks, i see. and i am not the only one who attracted this mitzi woman. hee hee.
i have a craving for pie. blueberry or cherry pie. weird. i fucken hate pie. sensei sent me a hilarious bushie picture today. i will upload it eventually. Thursday, November 16, 2000
well, i have finally started getting my ass in gear and uploading some bits and pieces of my travel notes from japan to my travel section. as of now, it is incomplete. i still have many more rando thoughts to put up.
since when did itget so fucken cold? man, i want to be back in australia. i want to be diving in the great barrier reef again. i want to trek the outback. or japan would be nice. i got myself a spankin' new guidebook (in japanese!) about tohoku, the area that i want to focus on next time i am there. the pictures certaintly do look beautiful. why am i thinking of tohoku now?! that is northern japan. northern japan=too damn cold. and with no central heat (small factoid about japan: japanese homes do not have central heat). ok, so the conclusion: japan in april (will come true), australia tomorrow (a grrrl can dream...)
G, Neil, I gotta say, i love ya both.  neil, i know you enough (via the list) to know that you were being yourself. G, ummm...thanks. yeah. but don't send yourself into cardiac arrest! you kow i am the world's biggest baddest bitch (hehe) and i will call people an ass when warrented. (hehehe....read my online conversations with jerks...) anyway, wow. i never thought a my lil site would spew such controversy. hey, and G, why didn't you respond to that woman named mitzi who resorted to personal attacks? lol. maybe because it's NOT worth it?!? love ya both!!!
with all this controversy i did forget to mention it... I GOT MY BETTA!!! please welcome jack the ripper. sorry, folks. no digital camera. so no pictures of jack to view. but lemme describe him. he is small and blue (almost indigo). he chills in his small betta tower all day. and there is even a plastic tree in his tower. yippie yah! jack. jack the ripper. . . Wednesday, November 15, 2000
ohhhh, i forgot to mention another very important item on the "things to do today" list: buy my beta fish. that's right. since shanghai is gone, i have decided to take another pet into my house. i need something that is easy to care for. the solution? a beta fish. the name will be jack the ripper. jack the ripper will sit on my shelf tucked in between one of my speakers and the wall of the shelf. his small beta tower tank will be covered, making him 100% cat-food proof. (sorry, frisco, he ain't for you...)
i have a real prolem with list moderators who subscribe you to egroups lists without your permission. i spend a good part of this morning trying to get off a list that i never would have joined in the first place. the biggest problem is that some random person decided that it was her right to subscribe me to some list which only sends out lame forwards to my personal e-mail address, not to my e-mail address where all list mail goes. i am not even registered with egroups under this address. i never received a confirmation notice of being subscribed to this list. i was never asked to authroize this. and let me tell you, getting unsubscribed from an egroups list with an e-mail address that isn't even registered with egroups is a pain in the ass. not to mention that this is my personal e-mail address. when i log in and see that i have new mail, i get very excited, "oh! maybe so and so from japan finally wrote me back!," or "it's gotta be from agc!" but instead for the last few days, i would find 5 messages in my inbox, get very excited, and only find out that these 5 messages are from some lame egroups group which sends out lame forwards, most of them from my freshman year in college! i wouldn't mind getting indigo girls list mail to this address (and for a short while, while the IG list was down, but i thought it was my aol account, i subscribed to the IG list under this address). but i have been on the IG list for like 5 years now. i feel that i know those people. in fact, i have met many of them and consider them to be my friends. i have stayed at some of their houses, and some of them have stayed with me. i exchange IG boots with them regularly. so the IG list and some random egroups list are two very different subject matters. but i even still get my IG mail to my aol account. anyway, i know that this is a long rant, but i really think that egroups needs to send an authorization e-mail when your e-mail address is added (by someone other than yourself) to an egroups list. that would prevent me having to waste half my morning from unsubbing to a list that i think is lame and would never sub to in the first place... Tuesday, November 14, 2000
so i promised doug that i'd go to yaohan (this super big japanese grocery story) -- oh wait, the name was changed to mitsuwa market -- to buy some of those yummy karu sticks. japanese cheetos. yummmy. so yeah, tomorrow i get to drive my ass out to arlington heights (who the fuck knows why the japanese grocery is all the way out in bumblefuck) and get them. i love yaohan (er, i mean mitsuwa). it is a honest to goodness japanese store. real japanese people shop there. most of them are living in the united states for a short time for their jobs. and they have real japanese food. and a real japanese bookshop. and of course purikura sticker machines. oh, and at the travel agent there, you can usually fine piss cheap fares to japan. i guess i should start looking because if i can find a cheap fare, i can collect more frequent flyer miles and save my own. yea! i need a good trip to yaohan/mitsuwa. i miss japan and that is as close as i'm gettin' right now...
i seriously have to get some work done today. seriously. the away message on my instant messages is on. i need to work on those damn online applications (man, i wish the schools still preferred good ol' paper and pencil). i am listening to cnn. i can not believe how close this election was in florida, iowa, new hampshire, wisconsin, new mexico, and oregon. hummm. this election should teach all those apathetic people out there one lesson: every vote counts. Monday, November 13, 2000
ok, it fucken snowed here tonight. how depressing. it is only november. i hate snow. i really hate snow. snow sucks. i hate that shit. it's cold. it causes car accidents. what is there to like? the only time that i like snow is when i am on the shinkansen wizzing past mt. fuji, and the peak is snow covered. that is the only time i like it. no joke.  so it looks like i'll be going back to japan this spring. right in time for cherry blossom viewing. how? frequent flyer miles, of course. right now i have enough miles for a r/t coach class ticket to tokyo on either united, or their code share, star allience member partner, ana (all nippon airways, or in japanese romanji zennikyuu. which flights will i choose? the code share flights on ana, of course. ana (and jal, japan's other big airline) is superior to any american carrier. the japanese are known for their service, and their airlines prove that they do indeed have a reputation that is true. besides, i can either acquire or cash in united miles on ana, so why not? as i said i have enough miles for a coach ticket. man, i am getting closer, so i am going to save and try to be able to book a business class ticket. that flight home from london spoiled me. i need my totally reclinable seat. i need my footrest. i need better service. damn, i am spoiled. but the flight to tokyo from chicago is about 13 hours. the return flight is only a sweet 10. but for 13 hours, i want my footrest. not to mention the food. and the free champaign throughout the flight. fuck yeah... damn karen, you are getting carried away and sounding like a spoiled brat. back on track... but wouldn't business class be nice? ok, i mean really back on track. so besides research and seeing taka (yippie yah!), i have a few ideas. i want to see parts of japan i have never seen before, but i also want to return to my old favorites. my favorite plan to date: arrive into tokyo's narita airport around 1pm (if the ana flight is ontime). cash in rail pass (yesss...being a gaijin has some perks!) and take the airport express to tokyo eki (station). from tokyo eki, board a SHINKANSEN (bullet train -- see pictures below) to osaka. spend a couple of nights in osaka w/ taka. also, my research is centered in osaka, so osaka is a must. leave osaka for kyoto. spend just an afternoon in kyoto (been there. done that) and start to head north. but not on the tokaido route. head north toward the sea of japan. spend the bulk of my time exploring central and northern honshu (the main island). visit kanazawa, sado island, niigata, sendai, and possibly all the way north to aomori. hike, camp, stay in cozy ryokan. focus on seeing the land inbetween the above mentioned cities. talk to people. learn about the local culture. pick up some tohoku-ben (the dialect that is spoken in northern japan). have no agenda. follow the roads where they take me. a few days before i am to leave to go back to the states, head back to tokyo (via one of the shinkansen routes that go to tohoku). spend a day in tokyo with the sangos and a day in tokyo on my own (so many bars i read about that i must see to believe). fly out of tokyo. that plan gives me the best of all worlds. i get to see my ex(?)-boyfriend, work on some research, explore the backroads of japan, and spend time in the world's biggest and most exciting city -- tokyo. of course my plans will probably change. but i do not want to trap myself in taking the tokaido route the tokaido route is very well traveled: from osaka to tokyo via kyoto, nagoya, shizuoka, and yokohama. nope. been there. done that. i want to see tohoku. when am i going? perhaps in early april to see the cherry blossoms. for how long? it depends? at least 2 weeks, but possibly 3 or 4 weeks. with who? alone. i love traveling alone. it is the only way to travel. i always meet the most interesting people. i don't have to compromise my agenda. and traveling alone in japan forces me to speak japanese on my own. i just need to see if i can save up a few more miles, and then i'm booking!   damn, i love that train Sunday, November 12, 2000
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