DIRections and indecisions...

1. updated the web page for our BUDding homestay biz
2. applied to jobs in San FRAn
3. looked at oVER priced AUStin housing
4. SERIOUSLY considering applying for a TESOL teacher trainer in KOREA (of all places)

the past few weeks have thrown our lives a number of ups and downs (and a few lefts and rights). question: if you spent the past year on the same roller coaster, wouldn't you eventually get used to the every present feeling of nauseousness? i think we're just waiting to throw up and get it over with. (photo of distraught asian male recycled from previous blog post from previous emotional roller coaster ride.)

bikes bikes bikes 2

it seems as if i am now hooked with my new found hobby digging out old ten speeds, tearing them apart, and 'attempting' to put them back together as fixies. i've already read tons and tons of literature on the web, learned of the dos and don'ts, and purchased tools and parts that i have no idea what to do with. here's a pic of my new project, an old fuji that i rescued from one of my neighbor's trash heap. i already have it in a million pieces on the living room floor.

SXSW Japan PUNK

reba and spent the past few days recovering from concert hopping last week. i felt like we were treated to a free buffet. initially, i was delighted with the prospect of all that music and free give-aways. then the anxiety from feeling all that pressure to fit a ton of stuff/nonsense/crap/ and surprisingly the rare talented unknown in a very limited amount of time.

one of the things we managed to get out of bed for was the japan bash. a lot of fun and whackiness as usual. here's a picture of a punk/rock band called the emeralds showing off their leather pants collection.

SXSW check in

wristbandless and/or badgeless? reba has been helping navigate our way through the FREE version of SXSW. i didn't think it was possible, or at least what i DID think was that anything FREE was just plain crap. there's a little truth to that, but we found ourselves waltzing to the following shows w/o even cracking our change purses (yes, i carry a change purse).

1. spoon
2. del the funky homosapien
3. petty booka
4. the muslims
5. motohead (i wanted to check out, but reba quietly used her executive veto)

a week of SXSW

for years while we were in japan, reba told me about this magical circus called South by Southwest Music Festival. 'imagine a whole world of music' dropping itself on the little city of austin for a week,'... she would use statements like this to challenge my limited imagination. 'AND!!! there's tons of free stuff!'

that was it. i was sold.

nearly a decade on the other side of the world left us hungry for a different kind of stimulation. the author julie cameron writes in one of her creative inspirational coaching books (borrowed from a friend and still for some reason has not made its way back to the original owner) that WE (the artistic observers of life) need to 'refill our creative wells.'

here's our chance and there's no looking back. our day jobs let out for spring break. so, we have exactly 168 hours to soak up what is NOW no longer just a music festival.

need a taste? here are some free downloads of bands performing here.

peace boat pics...

with a few spare moments i went through a few 1000 photos from the peace boat and put them up on our photoblog superhappy. we still have about a MILLION more. as you can imagine, a once in a lifetime trip around the world often translates into non-stop clicking of the shutter.

yellowpages - EPIsode ELEven

half-truths from a half-written memoir of a yellowkid growing up in ethnically challenged central jersey. a while back i was playing around with ideas with my youth. it seems to be a common exercise for wanna-be writers. get a glimpse of how it was growing up for one of the few... one of the not-so-proud asians in suburbia.

geraldo rivera says something relevant

NPR interviewed geraldo rivera on this new book 'hispanic'. in that interview, he quotes his dad on the importance of being bilingual, 'if you have two languages, you have two souls.' rivera didn't grow up speaking spanish. he only started learning when he was sent back to live with his grandparents in Puerto Rico at age 15.

questions for thought.

1. can a 32 year-old man-child learn chinese NOW?

2. my wife and i have lived for nearly a decade in japan, and we're functional in the language (the language of my grandparents' historical 'enemy'). isn't that good enough? right now my grandparents are thinking of ways of digging themselves out of their graves to kick me in the butt.

bikes bikes bikes

i've been meaning to post the finished product of my fixie. much luv goes to chris and sam of san fran who came to austin to hang out, watch me fall asleep in a bar, and apparently show me how to put one of these bad boys together.