COLOURFUL LIKE HERMES

God..everytime my friend Naomi goes on trips she hauls back the most four-dimensional, character-brimming shots. Have a couple of my faves...

[the eldest son gets his head shaved for a funeral ceremony. I hate it when my friends back in T'dad have to go through this. Who wants everyone to know that a loved one died while you're walking down the street? Bless him.]

[dig the guy in the dark sunglasses in the background]

Anyway, the parts of Abu Dhabi and Dubai you don't see are starting to morph into this. This place is thick and spilling over with hidden beauty. Fuck the Burj. Try looking behind that, in the shadow of its impressiveness. I urge you, if you have no obligations and you find yourself in Dubai, take the public buses. ABSOLUTELY don't if you are planning to get somewhere on time, though. But I've experienced the real Dubai just by being stuck on public transportation all. day. long. for this internship. It's been a real eye-opener. So, as much as the hours are long, and the office chair at VIVA can seriously paralyse your bum, and the 2 hour bus journeys that it takes for me to get there, I am very grateful for this experience. I've never seen so much of this place that I live in.

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

So, last Fiction Friday, a restless, ugly, bitter, frustrated, depressed, confused, distressed, angered, weak, selfish, panicky Lonely Londoner sat in her white hot bathroom on the cold yellow tiles, took a sharpened pair of scissors and carefully cut a line into her right thigh. Yes, I am a fleeting cutter. Actually, this is the first time I've had the urge since 2006. So, the American X suggested getting back fully into my yoga and Buddhist practices, particularly the I-Ching or Book of Changes. Ever heard? Anyway, as all my belongings have taken up all my floor space what with all the packing and moving off of campus going on this week, and since the book was delivered to me bright and early this morning, (also since I'm constantly fascinated by prying into more corners of Asian culture) I went with the I-Ching. I'll tell you about it.
"The I-Ching takes a decidedly realistic view of the world. It doesn't mislead us into thinking that evil - in ourselves, in others, in the world at large- can be eliminated once and for all. It acknowledges that we all have in our characters both positive and negative elements, and it teaches us to be led by our superior qualities so that our thoughts and actions are free of inferior influences. It also teaches us how to respond to negative influences outside ourselves in order to avoid harm and maintain our well-being."

"The qualities that the Book of Changes counsels us to embody in our lives are modesty, awareness, acceptance, adaptability, compassion, restraint, innocence, perseverance, tolerance, reticence, devotion to inner truth, patience, openness, detachment, conscientiousness, balance and inner independence. The qualities that the I-Ching urges us to let go of are fear, anger, desire, arrogance, aggressiveness, anxiety, harshness, cunning, goal orientation and self-indulgence. At this point these are merely words. It is only when we begin to follow the guidance of the I-Ching that we begin to have an inkling of their true meaning."

So basically, after that, you shake three coins, heads have a value of 3, tails a value of 2. Add them up. For each number that is even draw a broken line, and for each number that is odd, draw an unbroken one; putting the number you got next to the line. You throw the coins 6 times. So you will have 6 broken or unbroken lines on a page, with the first line drawn starting at the bottom.

Then, there's this chart...So, basically lines 1-3 (the bottom three lines) make up the lower trigram, and 4-6 on top make up the upper trigram. And the number on the chart that lies at their intersection indicates which hexagram you threw, and which hexagrams you should turn to for advice for this particular session. There are a lot of twists, like, for the first hexagram you draw, you only read the advice from the lines that have "changed", meaning the ones that came up to a value of either 6 or 9 in the coins. And then, for the second hexagram, (which is based on the lines you get from inverting the "changed" lines, you only read the opening paragraph, as it is merely read 'to further illuminate the instruction of the first'.

So, you can turn to the I-Ching if you have a specific question in mind, or if you just feel troubled, or some people throw hexagrams every morning to direct the path of their day. Asian culture is ram-packed with superstition so...technically, this is like a more fun, advanced and interactive Hosroscope, and I tend not to like living my life based on what someone or something says it's going to be like. I'm more of a hippie, if you will. But, it seems I need to try some direction. I'm way too lost at this stage to do the whole 'go with the flow' thing. So, this is an experiment.

So, yes, some people let this be the breakfasts of their day and wholly live by it, but my hexagrams today, among other tidbits of advice, say I should know my limit and try not to strain myself, so I'm probably not going to stick to this/report to you everyday. Although if and when you get the book, your personal hexagrams will instruct you differently, I will try loosely (it's a lot of info.) to share with you what I received from time to time, because it's still great advice. But not today because 1) I'd like to explore the book further on my own and really understand my advice and, 2) this post is already too frickin' long.

SEVERAL THINGS ABOUT SATURDAY

Whoa. I can't sleep right. So, I woke up a couple times for the unruly buzz of my cellphone and a knock at the door, which I was so shocked by that I didn't even answer (no one in this flat knows I'm alive. Why would that happen?), but other than that, I literally slept all day. So tonight is going to be interesting. I'll tell you ALLLLL about it.

What's so funny is that the latest song stuck in my head is 'Gubbish' by Chad Vangaalen. Its lyrics go something like this. NOT ONLY that song though! 'Asleep' by The Smiths won't stop popping up when I put my iPod on Shuffle. (Okay we know that's also about suicide but DON'T think so deeply. It's about sleep too)

So I'm taking matters into my own mouth. I'm doing sleeping pills. The date will be set for tomorrow (well today, later, whatever). (Okay we know I sound suicidal and have suicidal tendencies but don't think so deeply. This is about sleep too). I will take them at 10pm and hopefully that will set things straight from there. I have not been on the right time zone since 2006. I've been up and down from Trinidad to Abu Dhabi to London to San Francisco and back, this way and that way, whichever way is cheapest; because my old friends are in Trinidad, my family is now in Abu Dhabi, my school life and flat is in London and my boyfriend (now ex) was in SF. So, it's just never stopped. It's amazing how far apart they all are too, just to stretch my fucked-up-ness even more to the limit.

Usually when I end up pulling these all-nighters I don't fall asleep til noon, and I made an appointment to get my hair dyed black later at 2pm so I'm just gonna have to Redbull it all day long. I HAVE to stay awake. "I'm never goin' to sleep, I'm never goin' to sleep, I'm never goin' to sleep..." That song is so permanently lodged up there....*sigh*

Anyway, to make matters worse, I have a choice of two new DVD's tonight that I bought yesterday because they were dirt cheap. Wait for it....'Interview with the Vampire' and 'The Science of Sleep'. HMMM. To be the living dead or to be the dead living? To be awake or asleep? My brain has hinted enough. It's time to end this Zombie Tirade.

Maybe I should've shamelessly gone to that 'Pimps and Hoes' party at Suburban that I got invited to tonight. Could've just gotten smashed so I would've knocked out conveniently at a fairly decent 3am hour? Oh well, too late. Didn't feel like wearing THOSE BOOTS anyway. But I DID shave my legs this weekend so the mini skirt would've been fun to wear. I hardly ever shave. I opt for the long pants/jeans/leggings route. And well I'm not having sex so...psh! But a couple hours ago, since I shaved, I wore shorts to go collect my pizza and the wind felt like someone was running a silk sheet against my legs...ahhhhh *falls back into a bed of roses* pure bliss. I'll shave more now. :D

So, first thing on the agenda for tonight's sleepless activity was deciding on and ordering several books to read over summer. The class I'm taking next year, Developing the Novel, requires that we read at least 10 books over the summer, not including the Creative Writing texts they asked us to look at as well. So, I made my list:

1.The Lonely Londoners -Sam Selvon (yes, this is where I got my blog title from. I think I read this book in class back in Trinidad. He is a very famous London based Trinidadian author)

2. Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams - Sylvia Plath (I love Sylvia and the title rocks. Plain and simple.)

3. Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper- Diablo Cody (all the Juno fans should know that this is the chick who wrote the screenplay for that movie and won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and used to be a stripper, and is gorgeous, and wears gorgeous Daphne Guinness-esque rings like this!) (I will be doing more posts on her in the future. She's my new research project.)

4. The Body: And Seven Stories - Hanif Kureishi (You knew I had to put him in. I'm also struggling through 'Intimacy' and plan to finish it tomorrow at the salon. Seriously guys, get into this guy's work.)

5. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway (Sadly, this is the first book by this reclaimed suicidal author I am reading. I think anyone who writes such a beautiful short story all in dialogue, about abortion, without even mentioning the word or scenario, deserves my readership - Hills like White Elephants)

6. The Snows of Kilimanjaro: And Other Stories - Ernest Hemingway (gotta know this guy more)

7. Another Sky: Voices of Conscience from Around the World - Hani Kunzru (I heard excerpts from this at a seminar for imprisoned writers/censorship in other countries etc. It is compiled letters from prison, and they are fantastic, and real. The seminar was put on by this group I am planning to join called PEN (Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists, Novelists and their translators), and they aim to 'promote literature, defend freedom of expression, and build a world community of writers'. They're based in 104 countries but here's the wesbite I have for English PEN.)

8. On the Road - Jack Kerouac (I should've read this eons ago. But I read this book about The Beat Generation of San Francisco/New York and all those cats; Ginsberg, Burroughs, Carlos Williams and Kerouac, all the amazing fag writers, and that is one of the craziest things I have ever read, along with 'Howl'. Now I know what I'm getting into and I'm ready for their prose. I remembered about it again tonight because the girl who told me to read it, a friend from Uni, she ran off to India and came back a couple days ago. I missed her a lot. So this is for her.)

9. Naked Lunch - William S. Burroughs (I know. Don't laugh. But I'm ready now.)

10. The Book of Other People: Short Stories- edited by Zadie Smith (Smith is one of my favourite writers, having read 'White Teeth' and 'On Beauty' so...anything with her name attached to it gets me going. This is compiled short stories from UK and overseas writers, including Hari Kunzru who compiled 'Another Sky' above. I figure, if she chose them, they must be damn good. So there.)

I ALSO ORDERED:

11. The Inheritance of Loss- Kiran Desai (Because I think I've read something EPIC from that author before and it's set in the Himalayas and has lots of character Point of View stuff. I realised I like lots of Asian Conflict prose. Theyre very funny and very tragic; Amy Tan's 'The Joy Luck Club', 'Bonesetter's Daughter', Ha Jin's 'Waiting', Arthur Golden's 'Memoirs of a Geisha', Dai Sijie's 'Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress', Hidier's 'Born Confused', Gita Mehta's 'A River Sutra'...I could, and BADLY want to go on...)

ANYWAY, as a result, that's why I am looking for something more on asian culture, and something on Samurai (because I still want to study their ways and become one...yea right). I'm going to also order:

12. Saving Fish from Drowning - Amy Tan (She is an asian wordsmith goddess. I heard this one isn't like her usual Chinese mother/daughter dramas though, and is actually quite disappointing, but I'll be the judge of that)

I AM ALSO TRYING TO FIND:

13. The Savage Gentleman - ? (Amazon is bringing up a buncha crap for this. I think the book might be out of print, which explains why my ex has it wrapped in plastic at home (?) "Hey, Euphemism, a little help finding this book?" Wonder if he'll read this...)

14. Indestructible Wolves of the Apocalypse Junkyard - Max G. Morton (I am so pissed about this one. Jen from Gnarlitude featured it on her blog and, since I shamelessly worship her now, I thought I'd give it a go. It sounded interestingly sick and something new for the reading palate. There are only 500 copies in print and I found one yesterday on Amazon but now it's gone. Will keep checking the website, I guess...)

ANYWAY! I made up my mind to watch 'Interview with the Vampire'. I'm going for sleepless allround tonight. And my pizza's getting cold, and my drink's getting warm, and this is way too long so, Goodnight to all those who sleep!

Nevermind...everyone's up now. Campus alarm went off. MUHAHAHA!

YOUTUBE WEEKEND

While I'm working on my short stories, eating leftover pizza and reading 'What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers' I thought I'd leave you with this barrage of youtube stuffs that somehow may or may not have been related to my weekend's events.

First,the lovely CSS(Cansei de Ser Sexy) and their 'Alala' music video which I'm crushing on. I remember passing over it ages ago somewhere on Myspace(I think my ex came across the make-up artist's page). I thought, Oh my, I would sex Lovefoxxx, the asian looking Brazilian lead-singer. But according to the band's name, she's tired of being sexy. Oh well. PS. Who wants her prom dress?? Smitten.


Then, Vampire Weekend. A just as awesome video. Don't you think if the OC did a season 5 (PLEASE, GOD, PLEASE!) that this band would be on the mix and be featured playing at their one hangout 'The Bait Shop'? The OC mixes are too cool for school. Buy em. ALL! And Vampire Weekend's album too. They're so...Seth Cohen's friends!


After coming home drunk from the bars last night and inexplicably ordering a LARGE feta cheese, barbecue sauce, mushrooms and meat pizza for my vegetarian self, I sat down to watch 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU with more wine. Here's Heath singing *cringe*. It's the part with the intense eyes! Look at when he sits down and sings the last line "Let me love yoooooouuuuu". *sighs miserably* SUCH A GREAT MOVIE, YOU GUYS! I know the entire script.


My asian ex boyfriend likes sharing asian things with me (OTHER than what you're thinking), like boba tea and unagiyaki (my loves), filipino food (I know this is weird because pinoy food is 90% meat, the remaining 10 being the rice of course, but I made an exception because he threw a flip fit. You know those pinoys and their food...), and the Filipeanut blog, which is HILARIOUS! He sent me the quiz 'How Filipino are you?' on Facebook the other day, which I of course failed, because I AM TRINIDADIAN! lol Anyway, he wrote on my wall to say, "Awww Not Flip?..don't worry...you've had so much you're like an honorary Filipino". How embarassing can he be? Anyways, here's Beau Sia, a famous asian spoken word performer. Great. Stuff.


SON OF RAMBOW. I saw the trailer for this on Friday night when I went to see the awesome Be Kind Rewind (Jack Black is God and Mos Def's voice is annoying). Son of Rambow just looks so fun and is such a great idea. It also reminded me of Be Kind Rewind actually because this kid is making his own movie with the help of some strangers.



Speaking of Be Kind Rewind, they're featuring the movies Jack Black and Mos Def had to make in the movie itself on their website. Does that make sense? Ya. Okay. They 'sweded' Rush Hour 2, Ghostbusters, Driving Miss Daisy, La Lettre, LOTR, Boyz in the Hood...Here's the trailer but even better is the website. It's so interactive and fun. Go Swede yourself into a movie!

QUIT BEING A SOGGY-FACED EMO ABOUT VALENTINE'S DAY!

I meant to say in my last post, before I got so excited about it, that from now on I will be trying to remember to post a Japanese phrase everyday, that should help me on my way to striking up a convo with Takeshi Kaneshiro if I ever see him, as well as teaching you guys a little sumthin-sumthin interesting.

And as today is Valentine's day, which I have, by the way, Superpoked my friends on Facebook to boycott, I will give you a love-related phrase:

ai- love

ai shiteru- I love you

Also, here's an interesting link on how the Japanese celebrate Valentine's day and what the colour red symbolizes for them.

If you're not fond of Japanese and want to show your significant other how many languages you can express your love to him/her in then here's how to do that. From Spanish to Maltese to Borat's native tongue.

And if you're simply not ready to face the 'holiday' just yet, did you know different countries celebrate it different days? Different months even!(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine). September in Colombia, June in Brazil, ALL the way back around in January for Wales, or just like...a week later in Romania (in case you have 'the bitchy fits' A.K.A. your period that week or something. I mean, you can totally wait 'til you find a love interest first then choose the nearest V-date after that, instead of O.D.ing on Rockie Road on the 14th. (I hope people don't actually do that in real life)

What are your plans for V-day, or as my friends are calling it, S.A. Day (Singles Awareness Day)? As I don't have a valentine this time around and have never really celebrated it, I plan to catch a movie with a dear friend, who just so happens to be male, and maybe I may treat myself to some long-desired okonomiyaki and mochi ice cream; maybe even some Asahi (japanese) beer. There's also an Anti-Valentine's Day celebration on tonight at one of the campus bars, held by the Deviant Society, which I supposedly am a member of. But I went to that last year and decided that if I felt lonely and shitty in the evening, when I knew across the globe my ex-boyfriend was preparing to host a V-day singles party at his flat, I would check out this cool underground lounge/club called Ginglik in Shepherd's Bush that is having a small V-day tribute with live bands etc. So I am set! HAVE A GREAT DAY EVERYONE!

DIY JAPANESE

So last semester I picked up Beginner level Japanese at my university when I realised they offered free language classes. I am a japanese culture junkie, as well as a language enthusiast. But I just couldn't gather enough energy in the week to continue the class, what with all the other writing classes and the work they were demanding of me, plus I had a part time job that required a lot of energy and patience; teaching spoilt rich A.D.H.D. kids to play tennis.

I was really down about dropping the class but then dropping it meant I could start back attending Japanese Cultural Society meetings which were stupidly held the same time as the class. But, just as I was about to go in last week to watch Battle Royale with the anime addicts, and was getting excited about our trip to Hare and Tortoise, a popular japanese food chain in London, the shifts were determined for this job I applied to. I had foolishly confirmed that I could work Tuesday evenings, the same evening all this Japan-ness was taking place. Don't blame me, I need the money and therefore took all the shifts I could think of. So I sighed and stuck to my Japanese Word a Day application on Facebook.

The Word of the day at the time was 'suki', along with the phrase 'suki desu', meaning 'I like it.' And that same day was when I found out that one of my favourite artists won record of the year at this year's Grammy's. Ya, that artist that Natalie Cole said should not have won because of how it will affect her recovery from drug addiction? GOOD GUESS! Amy Winehouse! Well, I love her, and I think Natalie is right but what can you do at this point?

Anyway! So in response to that, I changed my facebook status to 'Watashi wa Amy Winehouse ga daisuki desu!'- this means I love Amy Winehouse. And ever since, my facebook wall posts have been more and more like this:

"kara! haha you are so japanese."
""You know I'm no good" ga dai suki desu."
"tomodachi, konnichiwa! nihongo ga hanashimasu ka?!"

I was like, well hurrah! people think I speak Japanese, while I casually teach myself in the confines of my room, one word at a time. So, I thought, I might as well actually pretend that I speak it, which has sprung forth an extremely late, but new 2008 resolution; to teach myself to have proper conversations with a japanese speaker.

My friend Alex, who moved to Japan nearly two years ago and teaches English there sent me this website that he swore by in preparation for moving there. He was the one who sent that last facebook wall post up there, which I totally didn't know what it meant at first, tried to play it off like I did by searching a Japanese phrase website and I bloody well answered him back in japanese too! So today, I was forced to learn how to say 'My japanese is bad'- 'watashi no nihongo wa heta desu', as well as my word-a-day (kikitai, if you must know, meaning 'want to hear or listen to').

This website is run by a guy Khatzumoto(he is not Japanese) who taught himself to speak japanese in 18 months.
"I learned Japanese in 18 months by having fun. In June 2004, at the ripe old age of 21, all post-pubescent and supposedly past my mental/linguistic prime, I started learning Japanese. By September 2005, I had learned enough to read technical material, conduct business correspondence and job interviews in Japanese. By the next month, I landed a job as a software engineer at a large Japanese company in Tokyo (yay!)."

It is actually possible to do this. I have already been doing it with the help of the ever popular Facebook. But sometimes their phrases can get repetitive. So, time to search for more help. Khatzumoto has tons of useful tips. Check it out if you always wanted to learn a cool foreign language, or always wanted to express how cute that japanese guy in your class is with bleached fringe in his eyes(Alex tells you how to say that below), or if you just plan to do business with guys bowing in immaculate suits! It's a really refreshing website also because he's fun to follow, being young and totally UNLIKE a dull Japanese professor who isn't up to date with the times.

AND NOW, Here are my friend Alex's top five most useful phrases he's come across since living in Japan, which I begged him for on his wall after telling him how much I sucked:

Useful phrase # 1 - Sumimasen - Sorry!
Useful phrase # 2 - (place or thing) wa doko desu ka? - Used to ask directions.
Useful phrase # 3 - Nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu. - I understand little Japanese.
Useful phrase # 4 - (name)-san wa kawaii ne! - Used for telling someone they're cute.
Useful phrase # 5 - (object) ga arimasu ka? - Used for asking a store clerk or salesman if they sell a particular item.

Nani ka nomimashoo! (Let's drink something!)

So,

After looking at some of MSN's 'The Week in Pictures' archives, during my birthday week (January 10th-17th), I came across a celebration in Japan for young women, which I am SO grateful for coming across it this year and not next year. It's called Seijin no Hi or Coming of Age Day. It takes place on January 15th for Japanese women coming into adulthood at the age of 20. Basically, they get gifts from the community, blistered feet and they get drunk off their faces but I'm a big asian culture buff so I'm going to elaborate, for Japan's sake.

Billy Hammond wrote a small piece on Seijin no Hi and I am just going to quote him.

"January 15th is a Japanese national holiday which honors young people who have reached, or who will reach, the age of 20 during the current year. Twenty is the age of majority in Japan, and people who have reached this age are subject to adult laws and gain the right to vote in elections as well as to drink.

Local governments usually have a ceremony known as a seijin shiki (adult ceremony)to honor the "new adults". The ceremony is generally held in the morning and all of the young adults maintaining residency in the area are invited to attend. Government officials give speeches, and small presents are handed out to the new adults.

Women celebrate the day by donning furisode kimono, which are kimono in which the portions which hang from the sleeves are long as compared to the kimono with shorter sleeve portions worn by mature, married women. Some women will add hakama (baggy pantaloons) to the ensemble. Most young wom[e]n cannot put on a kimono themselves, and go to a kimono kitsuke who dresses them. They also go to a hair stylists to have their hair set the day before or early in the morning. Many women rent their kimonos because of the cost of buying one. A Japanese kimono can cost as much as a new car, so this is quite understandable.

The majority of young men don business suits, although once in a while men wearing dark-colored kimonos can be seen. Needless to say, the expense is far less for the young men than the women.

After the ceremony, the young adults often gather in groups and go to parties or go out drinking. Young women not used to wearing the slippers known as zori can often be seen limping as the afternoon wears on and evening approaches. Later in the evening, it is not unusual to see wobbly young adults staggering in the trains, heading happily home after a day of celebration."

*SWOONS*I better start saving up for my kimono (and plane ticket) because I REALLY have to be there for my 20th next year! Don't you think? How 'Kawaii' is a Seijin?