The barista at the Starbucks near YBM recognized me from a year ago. I recognized her, too - she always had a big smile and greeted me energetically.
Today, she asked me, in very basic English, "What do you do?"
There were any number of ways I could have answered this. I considered showing her a file or two on my computer. Or asking her to judge at next week's competition. But I haven't slept well this week. And my answers usually confuse people even when we speak the same language.
So I just pulled an alpaca finger puppet out of my backpack and presented it to her.
"Puppet!" she said.
"Alpaca," I explained.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Difficulties Getting Clean
This morning I presented the staff of the Metro Hotel with a showerhead.
It had been the showerhead in my bathroom until I I tried to adjust the direction of water flow from "toward the toilet" to "toward me".
Afterward I still wanted to be clean, so I took a bath. I turned out to be about 50% longer than the bathtub.
It had been the showerhead in my bathroom until I I tried to adjust the direction of water flow from "toward the toilet" to "toward me".
Afterward I still wanted to be clean, so I took a bath. I turned out to be about 50% longer than the bathtub.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
100 Won
Just for reference, parking meters in Pasadena offer a favorable conversion rate: 100 won for 25 U.S. cents, for a net savings of about 15 cents per 12 minutes of parking.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The Obama Comma
It struck me tonight that the reader comments on articles about the Democratic primary race remind me of book reviews on Amazon of The Da Vinci Code.
At least when I last looked at those reviews, about a year ago, most of those critical of The Da Vinci Code were highly literate, well-written, even stylish. They also tended to be grammatically sound. (There were exceptions, of course, especially those that criticized the novel not for flat characters or a predictable plot, but for its sacrilegious content.) Reviews praising the novel had a lot more mistakes in them - and sweeping assertions.
I'm finding that, in general, comments in support of one of the two remaining Democratic candidates are much less well written than those in support of the other. They tend to use more all caps and exclamation points. I leave it to you to determine which candidate I mean.
At least when I last looked at those reviews, about a year ago, most of those critical of The Da Vinci Code were highly literate, well-written, even stylish. They also tended to be grammatically sound. (There were exceptions, of course, especially those that criticized the novel not for flat characters or a predictable plot, but for its sacrilegious content.) Reviews praising the novel had a lot more mistakes in them - and sweeping assertions.
I'm finding that, in general, comments in support of one of the two remaining Democratic candidates are much less well written than those in support of the other. They tend to use more all caps and exclamation points. I leave it to you to determine which candidate I mean.
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