On Pseudonymous, Pseudo and Poseidon

Today at a research briefing with a client a new word sprang up on me. Pseudonymous. That's a word you don't hear everyday, hey?

According to Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: pseu·don·y·mous
Pronunciation: sü-'dä-n&-m&s
Function: adjective
Etymology: Greek pseudOnymos
: bearing or using a fictitious name (a pseudonymous report); also : being a pseudonym

This prompted another search...

Main Entry: pseu·do
Pronunciation: 'sü-(")dO
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Late Latin pseudo-
: being apparently rather than actually as stated : SHAM, SPURIOUS (distinction between true and pseudo humanism -- K. F. Reinhardt)

So, this means the two words that I suspected were related, are in fact, not. One is derived from Greek etymology and the other is from Middle English (in other words, Latin). Interesting. But those Greeks always claim all words in the world are all originated from Greece. Ha!

This then reminded me of a myth I heard while strolling the ancient ruins of Acropolis last Fall. It was about the rivalry that Poseidon and Athena had in trying to become the patron god of the city Athens. In the competition, both Poseidon and Athena agreed to give a gift to the city and let the citizens choose which gift they prefer the best.
Poseidon sprung a fountain, which was not very useful because it was salty - thus no use for neither drinking nor bathing. Athena gave the city an olive tree, which in effect provided the city with wood, foods, oil and some type of greenery (although olive trees are very ugly). Athena was chosen to be the patron goddess of the city Athens. Poseidon got really cranky and mad and sent flood to the city and generally made Zeus very angry. All in all, Poseidon is not a very nice god. He seems to be pissing everybody off all the time. No wonder he got the sea, and not the sky.
Oh yes, Poseidon is normally known as Neptune.

There you go, three things to muse about that are apparently not related, but sounded somewhat similar.

Taiko Tari out.

Phenomenon

What a delicious day!

I woke up this morning at 8:30 am with the biggest smile on my face. The day was breezy, the birds were chirping and I made a decision right then that I am taking today off for a well-deserved break after a really tremulous week at work.

While thinking of what million things that I could do for this day, I looked at the stack of books on my night table and saw that it is a good time for me to start reading Alexander McCall Smith's "The Sunday Philosophy Club". With Yo-Yo Ma at the background, I recalled thinking, this is such a perfect day to stay home and relax.

After a couple of chapters, I decided to finally get up and do some activity. Looking at my VCR I was suddenly reminded that I got American Idol recorded for the Final 6 going to Final 4 (yeah, Japan is soooo delayed in airing this show, but love it still! Go Jordin Sparks!)So I sat for 2 hours watching this episode down to the result, ah the beauty of having this recorded, no need to put up wiht ProActiv's advertising and AKB48's annoying recap of the show - fast forwarded.
And then... finally I decided to continue my morning as a couch potato. I put "Eat drink man woman" on. Not only that movie was very well-made (kudos to Director Ang Lee), Master Chu's Sunday feast was extremely mouth watering and the topics in the movie were thought provoking. If you haven't seen it, do not let the title discourage you, it is worth your time and an excellent cultural exposure for the Chinese culture.

So at 2 pm I am left with the fulfilled feeling and was somewhat ready to embrace something more exciting for the day. Maybe a bit of a work out?
The easy pace I've adopted for the day discourage myself from jumping onto the bicycle to go to the gym, so the pilates video it is. Quoting Ellen Barrett, "Now I am ready to conquer the day!" I jumped into the shower and already thought about going to Ochanomizu's guitar street and get myself a guitar!

Going to Ochanomizu is one of my favorite past time. The music instruments sold on this street are mostly guitars, but the big shops like Shimokura or Kurosawa will always have a good selection of other instruments as well.
My first stop was Shimokura, the guy led me to the classical and accoustic guitar section. Yes, they had the Yamaha I was looking for, but the price seems to me a little higher than what I expected. But still, I wanted to give it a go and see if it had the sound that I wanted.

A very interesting phenomenon happened at that very moment. I was able to play again! Just out of nowhere, all old pieces that I learned some 15 years ago flew through my fingers again, as if it was only yesterday that I played those songs. It was very emotional, I nearly cried feeling very much at home holding and playing that guitar.
It made me think of a conversation I had with a friend of mine 3 years ago when I just bought the Takamine. I remembered that time completely puzzled why I feel distant from the guitar, not wanting to pick up the guitar at all times the way I used to, and why the songs just seemed to challenge me at every step of the way. I just could not understand why it was so hard doing something that I used to love so much.
My friend then said to me, "Don't worry, Tari, it will be like riding a bicycle, it will come back to you in no time."
That "no time" never arrived back to me, which resulted in me giving up trying to play the guitar again until last week. That was when I came to realization that maybe I haven't found the one! Today, that very moment when I held and played that classical guitar, I realized that I've come home at last. How silly, a classically trained guitarist trying to do the same thing on an accoustic! Of course it's not going to be the same thing.

I am not one to fret about prices when it comes to things that I feel I belong to. But somehow even after spending 20 minutes playing with the Yamaha, I still feel that something was missing.
So, I decided to leave the store to give it some thought and come back again later. I walked the entire guitar street, going into every single one of them, in search of the one. Much to my dismay, they don't have that many selections when it came to classical guitars. Until finally I went into Kurosawa's Dr. Sound. I know this shop is often recommended for their specialty in catering all custom-made string instruments, mostly violins and guitars. Thought they just might have the one. I was very pleased that they have an entire floor dedicated for the classical guitars. They have all brands that was not even mentioned in the other stores. I was hooked! I started with trying different models from Julian (reasonable), Juan Hernandez (EXPENSIVE!), Yamaha (reasonable), Antonio Lopez (EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE!), and finally Antonio Sanchez (from moderate to EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE!).
I spent nearly 30 minutes with one of the Antonio Sanchez's, and fell in love with the round and smooth tone that came out from the series. While I was trying the guitars, the shop guy was educating me on the differences from the wood made and proving the different vibrations that came from each wood could pro-create quite a different effect that could make such a huge difference in the sound production. And then he joined in and started jamming with me which was so much fun. I haven't jammed with anyone on the guitars in so long that it was like finding an oasis.
I finally hit home with one of the Studio models. Estudio-2 Cedar, to be very exact. Yeah, it's almost the cheapest in the collection. Heck, I haven't played regularly in nearly 15 years, I'm not about to spend an outrageous amount of money on something I bought on a whim! Maybe one day when I master the Spanish guitar skill!

Sunday musing: on movies, John Mayer and Ellen DeGeneres

It's 2:47 pm and it's dark,
It's dark because the room has no light,
Outside the day is bright and shining,
Alas, I have to stay in this darkness until 5 pm.

The life of a mole in a mole hole
This is my life.

Again, I can't complain. I do love this job.
However, as we are progressing in the final group and after 1 hour there seems to be no more new findings, I decided to muse over some more exciting things.

Such as what?
Such as the package from Amazon that just arrived last night in the mail. Thanks to C-Genilimaa's recommendation, I decided to enhance my DVD library with a few movies, mostly related to food and period drama. I am looking forward to watch "Eat drink man woman" and "The Wedding Banquet", as well as "Tortilla Soup" soon after I finish watching "Thank you for smoking".

Started watching "Thank you for smoking" last night. I like it. I've gone as far as 50 minutes into the movie, but was caught short because I fell asleep like a log afterwards. There is one thing that I don't get about this movie, however. The DVD box is marketing it as a hillarious movie, a comedy and hyped to be a funny one. Having spent 50 minutes with that movie, I don't recall laughing hysterically even once. I chuckled in different places, yes, but not yet laughing. Maybe I'm not there yet, maybe the best one is yet to come. What I can say, though, this movie is pointing out some really absurd, yet valid, points. It got you into thinking.
Later tonight after I get home I will watch the remaining of the movie and then I'll get back to Montchan's review at Chaos.

Also, I found out today that John Mayer writes in his blog regularly, too. He has a very interesting perspective on some unusual issues. Oh, and I like his music too.
Check out his "Ruminations on a treadmill" entry. Good stuff about Chris Rock and Elvis Costello.

Got me thinking of one of my favorite DVDs of all time. It is Ellen DeGeneres' stand-up show "Here and Now". Here she started talking about procrastinating and procrastination and the things that make her procrastinate and next thing you know she wraps everyone to join her in the procrastination process. Absolutely genius and HILLARIOUS. Gosh that woman is funny. I've listened to it like 3,000 times and I still laugh, and the beauty of is it does not matter where you start listening, because that is the point of procrastination.

So, I'm going to Paris...

I am lucky, I have to say.
Last year I was a committee member for the conference that was (originally going to be in Cape Town) in Athens.
As a result from the previous participation, two weeks ago I received a contact from ESOMAR noting that they'd like me to participate in the Qualitative Conference 2007 in Paris.
It took a lot of convincing to make my company let me go again this year (this being my 4th participation), but the additional responsibility as a chairperson that I will have to bear somehow sealed the deal.

I am very lucky this rare opportunity comes by. It is a lot of work, but it will be a brand new challenge and thus it'll make me feel alive again.

So, hello to friends in Paris, make sure you're in town around November 12-14, let's have a good time. (Yes, I am talking to you, Henrike! And you, Patrycja! And you, Montchan, just in case you want to coincide your annual shopping trip to Paris around that time!)

Image was excerpted from "Ratatouille"

Happy birthday, Sweetheart!

I just want to wish my baby Happy Birthday!!!
Yes, my goddaughter is now 3 years old. She is a big girl now and so pretty and smart and truly is all that a mother could ask for. Except that she never lets me have a decent conversation with her mother... Be good and be safe, my love, Bunda will see you soon, before you know it!

My godbaby in the pink panther suit I got her (age 1 year+)

I've got my eyes set on this one...

Yamaha C-40R

Yeah. I need to go get myself one of this baby.
After a relatively long absence, I just spent an hour with my Takamine PT-108. After this long stressful week at work, this served as a much needed break.
A brilliant session, yes, but the steel strings butchered my fingers. Sure, this baby is good for performances, which was the sole reason why I got it in the first place. Since the band split a couple years ago, however, I don't see why I should continue bearing the pain of steel strings. Now I begin to remember why I haven't touched the guitar in nearly a year...

Nylon strings and classical guitar, that's the way to go! Must make a stop at Shimokura in Ochanomizu on Friday, no doubt.

Festival weekend

Truth be told, I am extremely exhausted.

The weekend had been quite festive. Lunched with Viscount A at the glorious Le Gaulois. One of the finest meal that I've ever had in Tokyo. Glad we made that trip. And they never stop giving you extra bread. Wonderful meal. It is quickly getting into our Tuesday dinner list of restaurants. (And the good news is, their official day-off is on Mondays).
Saw O.Div. for dinner at one of my favorite neighborhood restaurant Fungo. Been feeling a little guilty for not having been there yet in almost 5 months. They have their Porcini mushroom risotto that is to die for. Exquisite. It was lovely to catch up and just chatted the evening away.

Today, went to drumming per usual. We did the nidan uchi again. Got my knuckles relatively injured today a couple of times by my drumming partner. Hang on, let me find a picture of us doing this particular arrangement. You'd see how drumming can be murderous.

Pardon the quality, but this image was cropped from a practice video

The weekend was closed by visiting the Asakusa Sanja festival, with Ms. Bicky, James and Jess. It was very nice to be in the sun for a long time and ate food from the street vendors (I had takoyaki and yakitori, chatted the afternoon away while watching people in their fundoshi. To be quite honest, from a spectator's point of view, watching people carelessly displaying their butt-cheeks in public could be quite disturbing, but it could be a trauma I am having after (finally) watching Borat. Brrrh....
Nonetheless, the festival was fun, and the dinner with good company at a very cool izakaya in Shimokitazawa was the perfect ending of this seemingly culinary week.

And tomorrow is Monday. All of the sudden I'm not so happy anymore...

I'm just going to roll into bed now.

When all one do is work...

It is the inevitable... This one week has turned my life into utter boringness. How could 5 days have gone by with nothing to write about? Although on some work subject, I can write a lot about "Meet the Robinsons", Microsoft and a certain computer hardware manufacturer. Oh, I just remember, legally bound by NDA contract...I can't elaborate on those subjects either.

On the bright side, though, I got to go and have lunches and dinners at some of my favorite restaurants. Even though most of them were business meetings, the food are still first class - can't complain. Tomorrow, too, Viscount A from Italy and I are going to be brunching people at this restaurant that I found on my way to work. Le Gaulois' review seems to be very positive. I am looking forward to try it for myself.

On a sad note, we had to say bye bye to one of the Tuesdays.
So long, Andy, be good and be safe. Do let us know when you're done with the month-long road trip. Come by to Tokyo every now and then, Hong Kong is not so far away!

"Bye-bye Andy" Tuesday dinner at Esperia (Starting from the lady in pink: Deenster, Carlos, Andy, Taiko Tari, Antonio, MirPir)

On a happier note, Darling Ms. Bicky is in town for a couple of weeks. We had the usual Tuesdays dinner at Hale Kai's on Tuesday. It was soooooo good to see you again! It truly felt like you have never quite left us!

"Hi, again, Ms. Bicky" Tuesday dinner at Hale Kai's (starting from the lady in stripes: Deenster, James, Antonio, Krista, Ms. Bicky, Taiko Tari)

Another musical week

Much to my enjoyment, this week turned out to be rather musical. One for Carlos' concert, followed with an extensive drumming session the following day, wrapped with a jazz evening in Kichijoji.

The "Melodies from Gedo Senki" concert by Carlos Nunez presented itself to be a very nice event. It is the first one that Carlos had done in his series of promotion for the particular album. The concert was advertised to be including two very distinguished guests, one is Aoi Teshima, a raising young singer who was the voice talent for the Therru/Tehanu caracter in the movie as well as Akiko Yano, a prominent jazz and pop musician who's known for her exquisite piano talent and unusual singing voice.
Along these outstanding collaborators, two that I felt very privileged of getting to know for the first time is Marie Nishiyama, the harpist (amazing harpsicord she plays!) and also Aska Kaneko, leader of the Aska Strings. Meeting them all backstage was a wonderful perk, they are such highly accomplished musicians, wonderfully talented, but they are very down-to-earth and above all... NORMAL.

The concert was held in the beautiful NHK Hall. I was lucky for scoring a very good seat, which is practically in front of the stage (7th row from the front).
Having been to so many of Carlos' performances, I have always told myself that one of these days I will no longer be impressed by it. Boy, was I wrong! One thing that you can always count on Carlos, is his extreme unpredictability. The man is a genius and one of the few people who is always pulling something completely out of the blue and making it work.
The concert started with a beautiful tune from Cinema Do Mar, I can't remember whether it was "Women of Ireland" or "Tristan and Isolde", it was smooth and soothing. And then after a short speech in Japanese (nice try!) and gaining a few loud chuckles from the audience, the concert progressed with songs after songs from the new album. It was equipped with a very nice slide show, snippets from the movie, as well as other images, interesting lightworks and closed with a little interesting entourage by the Tokyo Bagpipe Society. That was the first half of the concert.
The second half, we were lulled into the concert again with songs from different movies and collaborations by other musicians and finally closed with some Irish dancing by some hundred people in the audience.

Ah... good times!

Taiko drumming the following day was good too. Sensei was teaching us how to do what we call the nidan uchi. It is when you're doing a piece of music using two taikos on both sides. Usually two drummers will be playing an identical piece simultaneously, in front of each other, and then swap position. This can be complicated and highly dangerous when we're not used to do it. Oh, dear, I think I got hit by one of the drumming partner like 4 times. Also I hit my thumb several times myself, too... OUCH!

Friday night, my comrades Odaiko Div and Annie Bananie came up with an idea that we should all go out for a bit of music. The choice fell on Tokyo's renown underground jazz spot "Sometime Piano Hall" in Kichijoji. This is a live house with Blue Note quality, but with only a speck of the cover charge. Everyday this place will have different performers, with 2 or 3 stages per day.
The evening that we went, we had a jazz quartet performing. One funky all white-haired-drummer, very cool middle aged gentleman as the bassist (double base) and beanie-headed pianist, and lastly the singer (interesting hair style, she carried the hair of Jon Bon Jovi at his worst; but if you're willing to look beyond her hairstyle...) with a very cool air to add to her husky voice and for always getting completely absorbed in her songs.
The night was fine, the chat was true and the joy was fulfilling.

Ah, life... it can be bizarre and challenging at times, but it is nothing that a little bit of music can't solve.
I thank you, all esteemed musicians, for the music.

Muchas gracias!

One fine day...

Another one fine day. It is at the moment 27C. Hellllooooo? It is Summer already now. Global warming at its peak, yeah. Yesterday it was 16C, and today it is 27C, and tomorrow is forecasted to be 17C. Global warming is the only explanation...

Today and tomorrow I am taking a couple of days off. Why, of course because I have 8 days worth taking altogether, and if I don't take them it will expire in a month time. So, I just simply think it is stupid not to use my comp days.

Unable to score an appointment with the dentist, the morning suddenly became available. Since my hamstrings are still sore, I decided to go to the gym rather than going to the park to jog. Besides, it is 27C, chances of fainting under the sun at 10 AM is quite high.
There was this aerobic class that I've been wanting to join, and it will be in an air-conditioned room.
The gym I'm commuting to is a chain that is available in different corners of Tokyo (and Japan). For convenience reasons (less people, closer to work, timely studio classes), I've been going to the one in Omotesando. Today, however, looking at the schedule the gym's HQ in Harajuku has a better class at 10:30 AM.
Got there at 10:20, running amok to the elevator to get to the class on time, only to be very puzzled to see the elevator's arrangement has changed. In fact, EVERYTHING have changed on that building. It seems now they are ruling all floors of the fancy glass building, except for 1st and 2nd floor, which is occupied by a stubborn boutique. Funny what 4 months renewal project did.

Back to the elevator... I honestly think their elevator arrangement is very stupid. They have two elevators, but only 1 that is functional to bring the gym members to the reception which is (now) on the 4th floor. For some oblivious reason, the elevator was stuck on one floor and never came down. Having waited 5 minutes, I grew restless, shouldn't there be stairs or something? Of course there is no other way, you have to be on that darned elevator.

Finally, the elevator came, and brought us up to the new reception floor, which is on the 4th floor. Now all lockers and showers and cross training machines are on the 4th floor. I became very confused... Did the studio move? If it didn't then how are we supposed to go to the 3rd floor? If it did, then where, there was no clear sign where everything was.
Asked the helpful lady, and she pointed a labyrinth like passage way to bring me to yet another elevator. "You need to go to the 3rd floor with an elevator, but hurry the class is starting like now."
The elevator came 2 minutes after they repaired it (some reconstruction was going on as I was waiting for it). Honestly, didn't anybody think of putting a flight of stairs to connect 3rd floor and 4th floor, to save anybody's anxiety and sanity? It is afterall a GYM. Taking a flight of stairs will give an extra workout, and that's good, no?
Oh well, the renewal is actually a good thing, though. The gym has become more spacious and you have more machines to use.

After the gym, I took a bike ride around Yoyogi and just going in and out of the small streets. The trees are now so lush and green, and it's blissfully empty, what big contrast to the Golden Week time where thousands of people seemed to choose my neighborhood as a hangout place and that's just bloody annoying.

Home again, now, after the refreshing shower I'm now going to eat some... grapefruits. Might cool me down a little. It is still May, so I don't allow myself to turn on the AC just yet.

Hmmmn, 2 more hours until I have to get ready to go to Carlos' thing. This will be good, I think this is his first time to have a concert at NHK Hall. So tonight, he's going to have the first concert for his new exploration of Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)'s tunes. This album is called "Melodies Inspired by the movie: Gedo Senki". The album itself goes quite quickly, 10 songs, altogether only about 35 minutes. So for the remaining 1 hour, I am curious whether Carlos is going to showcase the entire soundtrack (which is not from the album), or he's going to do his own thing - considering the fact that the rest of his band are here, too. I hope for the latter. We shall see.

Okie dokes... off for my grapefruits now!

Recipe of the week: Beef Curry a la Taiko Tari's Mamma

Now this one is for you, Montchan!


some ground beef (about 250 gr)
pearl onion/shallot (about 5 cloves, if not available, substitute with onion, obviously not 5, but about 1 tbsp)
garlic (about 3 cloves)
candlenut (about 3 nuts)
lemongrass (2 sticks)
salt (to taste)
potatoes, cubed (about 2 medium sized potatoes)
red chillis (your preference, I always put about 5)
coconut milk (about 1 can)
vegetable oil (about 2 tbsp)


1. Season beef with ground pearl onion, garlic and salt and then ball the ground beef, size depends on however you wish, but we like to make it the size of a teaspoon

2. Boil the balled beef until the meat is cooked

3. Flash fry the potatoes, put aside

4. Ground together some pearl onion, garlic, candlenut,and salt, stir fry it in the vegetable oil together with some red chilis and lemon grass

5. Put in the boiled balled beef and the flash fried potato, stir fry together with the spices - add some of the beef broth from boiling the meat in number 1

6. Add the coconut milk, bring everything to a boil, let it simmer for 10 minutes.

Note: Everytime I asked my mamma about the measurement, she will always say, "I don't know, just taste it first, if you need more then add to it, if you put too much in, you can always soften it with more coconut milk."

This is pretty easy. Good luck and Bon Appétit!

Dusk gives me the creeps...

For the record: I hate dusk. Especially on a clear day. To be fair, though, I love watching the sunset, but I do hate dusk. I hate dusk as much as I hate mayonnaise. It always feels so creepy when the day suddenly becomes dark and grey and somber. It feels like there is an evil waiting to come up and jump right at you.

Today has been an odd day. For a mixture of reasons, I am feeling very blue and lonely. And this odd feeling has been creeping into me since Thursday. It's really odd. And when the sunlight is gone, it keeps on getting heavier and heavier, suffocating.

I am blaming all this to the fact that I finish watching 24 season 5. There is nothing thrilling enough since then to watch after that.

Today, in attempt to terminate my bluesiness, I have done the following:

1. Tend to a friend's SOS call at 8:30 am about a brand new laptop which died after being spilled with wine

2. Rang my gleeful parents to have a bit of a chat and scored a curry recipe from mum. Couldn't help myself but laugh at darling daddy's indiosyncratic remarks, but a phone call had to end at some point...

3. Cooked the curried beef that mum advised on

4. Still blue, I started cooking a banana cake

5. Turned the TV on and tried to watch CSI: New York... Man, that show is nothing like CSI: Las Vegas. Gary Sinise's part as Detective Mac Taylor seems to be too somber. In fact the entire thing feels very somber. But maybe I should stop comparing him with William Petersen's Gil Grissom. I could stand 3 episodes and started scanning for other channels.

6. Found something on "Super Drama" Channel! They are having this ER galore screening since last week, I noticed. They broadcast 10 episodes a day, between noon to 9 PM.

....

After 3 episodes... I still feel blue.

7. So I picked up my flute and started playing this song that sensei came up with for the collabotation piece for our annual performance in Sado island this Summer. After an hour, I started to lose some oxygen and became lightheaded, so I had to stop.

8. I put on my running shoes for a jog, only to realize that I pulled my hamstrings yesterday and it feels very painful to go on jogging with it. So I walked around and explored around instead.

9. Now it's 7:15 pm, on a Saturday night. Just sent an e-mail to a friend that I'm not up for a night out. It's really strange, but I'm feeling very asocial right now...
So, what's next...

VOILA!
I think I finally found something that might take my mind off this bluesiness. I just switched on my work laptop. Yeah, that's what I'll do, getting a head start on that report that's due on May 11.

Jeezh, this is getting a little pathetic. I was sick of work before the Golden Week, and then I come running back to it because of the Golden Week.

I'm telling you, it's all the dusk.

Golden Week is a time to ZZZZZzzzzzzzz...

We are going through what they call the Golden Week period in Japan. Basically it is a collection of holidays that fell on April 29 (Emperor Day), May 3 (Constitution Day), 4 (Greenery Day), and 5 (Children's Day). This year is one of the good year, because of how the dates are located, my office (and most other businesses in Japan) closed their offices on May 1-2. So, all in all, I got 9 days off! YEAH!

After working nearly 5 weeks straight, I was more than happy to just sleep in everyday, and occassionally have plans during the day, or meet up friends for dinner. It's been quite liberating.

One of the highlight of the week was on Tuesday when MirPir and I rented a car and went up to Nikko. It is about 170 km North West of Tokyo, took us about 3.5 hours drive through the normal roads. The trip was fun and it was great to have sometime to chat and unload. Went up to the shrines, and later on to the Lake Chuzenji and finally to Yumoto Onsen. It was quite special to go through a very misty area, going straight up with 48 very steep curves.



It was pissing rain, in different level of heaviness, but it didn't stop us from having a good time.

I also caught up with 24 Season 5. It was very good, but now that I have finished I am running out of thrilling things to watch. Hmm... I do have Lost Season 2 and CSI New York waiting to be seen...

OK, got 3 more days left, what should I do... Haven't quite decided yet. Though, an old friend is in town from Spain on promotion tour, will see him at some point. Other than that, maybe I should continue with the hybernation plan. Zzzzzzz...