claire de lunatic

i hate that there is no "stop" button on itunes and ipod (last time i checked?). it pisses me off, there should always be a stop if there's going to be a go. the opposite of play is not pause, it is stop. pause is like an ellipses, stop is like a period. can you imagine reading something without a period, only commas and semi colons and ellipses? that would be a nightmare. start, end. play, stop. the universe is dysfunctional without diametric, polarity. it's so underwhelming/anticlimactic to press pause when you really mean stop. not into it.

break me off a piece of that kit kat bar

i bought these snack sized kit kat for customers. i have eaten half the bag. the weird thing is that they are in packs of two and i never remember eating the second one. i always remember unpacking it and biting the first one in half but then i must black out because next thing i know, i reach down for the second one and it's gone. so i end up eating another pack. same thing. i hate snack sized stuff. bb and i have talked about the process of rationalizing your way through snack sized snickers until you've eaten the equivalent of a king sized snickers bar, even though if given the choice, you would think that eating a king sized snickers is both overwhelming and disgusting. sad.

happy half birthday, evan boy

if you EVEN say that you have seen a cuter baby you will be one hundred percent lying. yes i love being related to cute people. babies are not made any cuter and this one has a super dorky laugh to accompany his adorable face. let's hope adolescence doesn't do a number on him.

interpol the band, not the police agency

a few days ago, youngdae and i saw interpol in concert at stubbs. interpol is on my top five. i've never been sure what sort of person likes interpol, as their sound is very specific. paul banks, the lead singer, has a voice that is nasal, insistent, and a bit monotonous at the same time. the music reminds me a little of joy division mixed with morrissey and david bowie. it is driving and intense, no matter what the tempo, and very metered. but yet their sound to me is remarkably creative and expressive.

given that, yd remarked that he was surprised that the vast majority of the audience (it was packed) fit into two categories: non-hipsters over 35 or spanish speaking hispanics. isn't that weird? two girls in front of us were speaking in very fast spanish (and to me, seemed oblivious to the show) and then immediately started singing along to a song. i had mental whiplash. it was a good show, bands love coming to austin.

i know this isn't a very interesting photo, but i liked how it sort of resembled the cover of their first album, turn on the bright lights.

on a somewhat related note, yd remarked that he is offended when people make racial remarks toward him but that he, himself, is surprised when an asian person speaks in perfect english. hilarious

look how cute my nephew is

my brother and sister in law keep a blog. i refuse to tell you what it is because i want to be the one responsible for bringing you these freakishly adorable pictures of my sweet nephew, evan. i have to fight for attention with that kid around.

this is a very cute picture of evan possibly about to cry among pumpkins, but it's cuter if you know him. first, pre-cry, he breathes in and out very quickly through his micro-nostrils so the tiny little sound his nose emits is so cute you want to die. and then he sounds like a baby pterodactyl when he does cry so i kind of love it.

the kid has big hands. he doesn't know how to use the camera to his advantage yet (like me, i always position my head behind someone else's to compensate for my giant noggin). his left hand kind of looks like carl weathers as happy gilmore's caddy.
really i love this picture. he looks like someone just woke him up from a sleep-eating nightmare where he ate someone's entire wedding cake the night before the wedding. i love the wayward hair on the left side of his head and left eyebrow, especially. kristine has been saying that evan is looking more and more like paul, and actually, this is exactly what paul looked like the last time we ate barbecue.

ranch rodeo clown

last weekend i went to a ranch rodeo in fort worth with jeremy and his friend jason. doesn't it seem like i go to a lot of rodeos? don't think i've changed completely, i still read, write, take pilates and make lists compulsively.

ranch rodeos are different because the people competing are actual working cowboys. also, the events are different. the ones i remember seeing that night included team branding, wild cow milking, team sorting. this year, the fort worth rodeo used jason's cows, so he was kind of routing against the cowboys.

singing the national anthem (i definitely am the only evidence at these events that asian people live on planet earth. so when people collectively sing the national anthem or play "proud to be an american" over the speakers, i feel extra yellow and have flashes of people running out into the arena wearing white sheets..)
team branding (a cow is roped from both ends, wrangled to the ground and then someone has to run over and "brand" the cow. ease up, maf, it's flour and water.)
was really fun, except a guy got hurt really bad. as in, after he fell, he stopped moving. unfortunately, the "expert medical team" all had mullets and i'm pretty sure they were passing around a drinking jar with an "xxx" written on it.

this is the end, so why pretend

top three things that make my eyes roll into the back of my head.

3. cleaning out my ears with a swab
2. scratching a mosquito bite
1. a scalp massage

oh man i wish i could get all three of those things to happen simultaneously.