RETROSPECTIF: A NOTEBOOK

i might miss it here, but i've started a wordpress: juliannetan.wordpress.com

named it the same thing though, so i suppose that's a sign that my livejournal attachment issues aren't over yet. who knows? i'll still be checking back here often and reading my friends list daily as always, so take care in the meantime and keep writing everyone! x

another well-animated TEDtalk, on the darwinian theory of beauty. thanks to denis dutton, i finally understand my preoccupation with teardrop shaped stone rings and leaf motifs.

#1 Comin' Home Baby - Mel Torme, on The Judy Garland Show



from the scene in An Education when Jenny and Danny are dancing in a nightclub after the horse races. bodies held apart by tension but flowing with crooning beats, eyes locked.


#2 Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy - Barbra Streisand & Judy Garland, on The Judy Garland Show



glee isn't loved by everyone, but i think they're doing a beautiful job of introducing old songs to modern audiences. view the glee scene of this song here

#3 On The Rebound - Floyd Cramer, a 60s instrumental piece



from the opening credits sequence of An Education.

everyone needs to watch this wonderfully weird music video for carmensita, by devendra banhart. go on! natalie portman's in it -- need i say more?

day with an epic date - our fourth anniversary! we started the day by receiving the message of one heart, and took photos shamelessly over a large cup of granola and oreo-topped frozen yogurt. embarked on a quest for a picturesque cafe by the river, but we went the wrong way and ended up escaping from the weather at fullerton hotel. dove into a late dinner of potato skins and baby back ribs nearer the dodgy end of orchard -- somehow this has become our traditional anniversary meal? we didn't plan on having this today, but everywhere else was closed. chance and coincidence have a strange way of making traditions for us. we've always been a go-with-the-flow pair.

Balloon Fiesta from Michael Salisbury on Vimeo.

a real life tim burton big fish fantasy land exists! this is going on right now, can you imagine!

3am, i am complaining about missing literature, and ben is trying to convince me that i wouldn't crave it as much if i actually had an additional major in it

julianne says: (AM 02:59:37)
i guess this also stems from wishing i took a module that licensed me to read fiction
bentoh says: (AM 02:59:42)
yes, so it aint so bad. gotta know bad to know good kinda
julianne says: (AM 02:59:46)
instead of METHODS DISCUSSIONS
julianne says: (AM 02:59:49)
yeah i guess so
bentoh says: (AM 02:59:56)
you know, theres a module like that
bentoh says: (AM 03:00:01)
its called FREE TIME
julianne says: (AM 03:00:05)
when i make a lot of money i shall come back to get a second degree
julianne says: (AM 03:00:15)
I DIDN'T BID FOR FREE TIME
julianne says: (AM 03:00:16)
OOPS
bentoh says: (AM 03:00:22)
DOH

have to get my hands on this book (or some free time to watch steven johnson's TEDtalk of the same name), and find a way to use this great presentation technique for my whiteboard-only presentation that's coming soon!

i have missed writing in this boundless white box! meant to write about the 2 weeks in the midwest, but somehow the only thing i remember thinking is that even from ____ feet up in the air, the land around narita, tokyo, looks like bento boxes. that was our first transit, before the long haul fifteen hours before we would finally arrive in ames, iowa. i guess from then on all thinking stopped? days became continuous hour spans punctuated with belly rubs for lui the family dog, lemon vanilla lotion scents, the mall stops, coffee runs, swedish fish.

my favourite parts of the trip:
1. after an authentic american-chinese dinner - chop suey and orange chicken, complete with the takeout boxes and fortune cookies - and an abandoned hunt for bubble tea, we settled on ice cream and beer in plastic cups at the students' tavern in the wisconsin university campus. we took two tables front and centre amidst faculty and students and waited for the band to come on. they looked like typical straggly haired/ross-geller type university guys, but instead of singing songs about relationships or an Adventurous Existence, they sang about working at coal mines and going down south. i don't know why exactly but that tickled us tremendously and we still sing their song today.

2. driving out of ames to pick green peas, snow peas and sour cherries from a family friend's garden. that evening was glorious, my sisters beautiful in the sunlight, wind in our hair. we ate a pod of peas for every pod we picked, threw the remaining crunchy snap ends on the ground willy nilly. went back home for a dinner of our loot that was unbelievably fresh.

everything else is floating around my mind in fragments and reconstructed memories from photos i uploaded on facebook. these family albums are so fun. i call them public service albums because within an hour of uploading all my relatives descend and comment like crazy!

--
since then, days have bled into each other as always, bracketed with the usual english classes on saturdays. yesterday i had my first ever GA knockout and woke up with 4 less wisdom teeth and stitches in my mouth. since then i have subsisted on soup and porridge and tau huay, kindly provided by my mother and my boyfriend, who seem to be taking turns to shower me with food and attention. in exactly one week's time i will be in siem reap, going to bed early to catch the sunrise at angkor the next morning.