night on the town, or, my esophagus burns

i had an 8.30 phone interview this morning. i was hanging out with friends last night, but i assured myself i would go home early, get some sleep, and wake up refreshed for my interview. and now, the tale of what actually happened:

i had dinner plans with haeri, yutaka, and kouhei. haeri is my japanese-speaking korean friend, and yutaka and kouhei are two cool japanese guys i met through the grandmaster of expensive lounging sessions at the izakaya, my friend from osaka, tsuyoshi. first we went to eat ethiopian food in the lower east side. i managed to impress them by seizing the first scoop of lentils with a fistful of injera. everyone but me was startled at the lack of tableware, and all enjoyed the honey wine. the food was mediocre compared to other places i've been to, but we all managed to have a great time thanks to yutaka's attention deficiency, kouhei's kyoto-dialect antics, haeri's penchant for commenting frequently on both, and my desire to try and explain topics ranging from ethiopian cuisine to racial discrimination in the u.s. we also had a blast talking about the waitress in japanese, especially when she kept bothering us and asking rhetorical questions like: "how's the food?" i mean, i know it's her job and all, but really.

we then sojourned to a really mellow and dimly-lit bar slash lounge i like to go to, the musical box in alphabet city. they play a good mix of indie and hard rock, and the lounge in the back has awesome vintage couches and a billiard table, albeit one that requires a deposit of a buck fifty. as i type this i realize this place is sounding more and more like a premium hipster venue, but i can assure my readers that if just one hipster were to have stuck his feathered derby into the bar, i would've left on protest.

after spending some quality time and taking some silly photos (what is it with east asians and silly photos), haeri demanded we all go to k-town and drink soju.

now, usually when this is suggested it is only after everyone has drunken a reasonable amount, because no one goes drinking in k-town sober. and everyone knows that soju is an extremely reactive substance that, when mixed with stomach juices and resident alcohol, has been known to result in EVIL, and sometimes DEATH.

also, a little-known fact: although soju tastes like watered-down methanol, koreans insist that once the drinking of it has been undertaken, it shall not cease until everyone is horribly drunk. we played all sorts of drinking games: japanese favorites like gyuutan (the cow tongue game), and korean ones like flick-the-twisty-thing-off-the-soju-bottle-cap game (the korean expression escapes me). as the night wore on, yutaka's attempts at speaking korean to the waitress became more and more successful, and kouhei became more and more hesitant to drink more soju, often offering us his flailing arms as defense. unfortunately for me, i put up no such defense.

and then the glorious ride home on my old friend the f train. i suddenly woke up while still somewhere in manhattan and felt the soju rumbling in my stomach, screaming for its release. i had no choice but to abide. the man sitting in front of me sprang up like clockwork and dashed to the other side of the car, as if he'd been trained to respond to such emergencies. the next time i woke up i was at sutphin blvd, and just in time for my interview. i gave myself a quick tour of that part of jamaica, got a deli coffee, and retired to the quietest spot available: a collective driveway strip nestled in the middle of a block of houses.

i was surprisingly talkative on the phone, despite my unsightly condition and questionable body chemistry. not to mention my sore esophagus. but lucky for me my tongue was working just fine, and i managed to dish out lots of impressive expressions, like: "oh, i see" and "and as for the salary and benefits?".

and thus ended my adventure. i just hope everyone else got home okay.

the celestial consciousness vehicle

rotates another cog and two teeth click into synchrony. hydrogen condenses and fuses, witness the birth of new elements, witness the first example of differing density, the first thing with mass composed of various elemental ingredients, the swelling balls of matter continuously sucking everything heavy in, blowing all else outward, hazy gaseous halos crowning pits of floating dark iron.

and then how miraculous, the first thing of matter that became able to replicate its structure uniformly and reliably! the first chemical collaboration that developed an inherent propensity to disperse itself, an ability to maintain a complex microenvironment sensitive to denaturation by its own native environment, a method by which to traverse spatially around its environment, a chain of reactions that allowed it to derive energy by metabolizing nutrients, a pathway that permitted the excretion of wastes back into the environment without compromising its susceptible inners, systems of communication both within between its own functioning parts and without between others of its kind!

and yet, as hard as this is to identify with, this is our legacy. we are of this stuff, and we overlook it both in ourselves and in everything alive around us everyday. just a passing concern.

reflections in a pool / the flash of a silvery carp

gazing at my face in the pool, understanding it has just as much justification to exist as the one affixed to my head, and appreciating its uncanny resemblance, i am startled to see it warped and disfigured by a ripple in the water. the silvery carp kisses the surface with a restless gaping mouth and hungrily gulps some air. the reflection marred, only my face remains as a representation of itself, and it is awarded uniqueness.

this past couple of weeks has found me in a state of acceleration. i have spun clean of the highest turbulence and sit bewildered and slightly dazed, but also feeling sure. of what it is hard to say. perhaps of my improvements in discipline and understanding. i have not let my baser feelings get the best of me, and i have made progress in cutting the positive from the negative, and swallowing only what won't poison me.

modern disconnect

there is a beautiful world outside that window in front of me and i am typing this electronic journal entry. there are birds twittering and leaves rustling and wind blowing a nice breeze. and then there's this glaring screen that i keep staring into because it reflects stimuli that somehow captivate my attention more than the natural world.

what evil deception!

but even though i am aware of this disconnect, i keep coming back to my buzzing vice. a hefty battle-axe swing would solve this problem, but i haven't the heart. i mean, computer and i have had a long and productive relationship, even though computer has been being kind of a soul-sucking leech.

most of my morning is spent gathering up the courage to rip myself from computer's captivating stimulus tentacles. i think it's about time to make my migration once again.

blarg it's another saturday

that feels just like all the other days, cause i gots no job. i've been sitting around in a bathing suit trying to reach lvl 64 in terokkar forest. the routine has been getting a bit old: spot NPC, hurl three lightning bolts, slam the bastard with a flame shock, and then just hack away with my big staff. i may mix things up a bit with some totems, but high lvl ennui is setting in i believe. soon enough i'll get that super-cool-looking fire elemental totem and all of this will change. for then i will be able to "call forth a greater fire elemental to rain destruction on (my) enemies." i've always wanted to do that to my enemies.

i was supposed to meet up with a random girl who contacted me on mixi.jp, but just before i left my house she texted me and informed me that she had just contracted a mysterious "cold." this "cold" has prevented her from meeting me tonight, so now i am a bit more free! and there is actually something else to do, unlike usual. it is cathy's birthday, or something, today or sometime soon, and i was invited to go "party." luckily for me, i was out till the wee hour of SEVEN AM last night and am well recovering thanks to more than a few unintentional mass transit power naps. and yes, these power naps were taken as each vehicle passed my destination, multiple times. well, it's better than falling asleep at the wheel; at least this way when i wake up all i have to do is take the bus/train back, and not peel my face from searing metal.

gtalk convo fun time

let's discover how jamie's dark secrets are revealed when he succumbs to the hypnotic truth-wrenching effects of gtalk!

Dean's away message: Coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

me: i hope that's dunkin' yr drunkin'
Dean-Lorenz: not out here i'm sorry to report
but i'm cutting down on the D&D a bit
me: i'm not. i'm already a lvl 7 wizard with magic missile specialty.
ogres beware!
Dean-Lorenz: yikes
me: wait.... you're not an ogre, are you?
kum sanam saleiam tulus!
Dean-Lorenz: i was this morning
me: too late. i just banished you to the Outer Realms.
Dean-Lorenz: i'm sure if i had any idea what the hell that meant i'd be impressed
me: have fun wading in the Blood Pits with your orcish brethren
Dean-Lorenz: this is what happens when we try to have 'real' conversations
me: this is why jamie still has "no job"
Dean-Lorenz: i'll cede you that
Sent at 3:24 PM on Wednesday
Dean-Lorenz: oh.
D&D.
I get it now.

day 9: skipped a few

so as many were wondering what befell me, i feel it necessary to inform my audience of the circumstances surrounding my sudden disappearance. it was entirely due to my inability to reach an internet terminal. oh, and a smoking rocket that crashed through the cloth ceiling of a bazaar booth that i needed to diffuse using but a handful of hummus and a live scorpion.

from the wall to now much has happened, as you can imagine. i will attempt to reconstruct an achronical account of my travels.

-hiked a bit around Ein Gedi, an oasis and nature preserve west of the dead sea. my first experience in a desert ecosystem under conservation. saw a few yellow-spotted rock hyraxes climbing nimbly along the branches of the stout trees and chewing on the green leaves. we bathed in a waterfall nestled in the cavity of a massive wall of cream stone.
-drove to Masada at 2:30 am after a night in the bedouin tent. watched the sun rise over the desert horizon, plunging the hazy blue sky into a brilliant pink that baked the hills of sand surrounding the remains of the ancient fortress.
-caroused the stone alleyways of Jaffa, the old city of Tel Aviv, where hanging plants and creeping vines peek over the arches and walls of the dwellings of artists, who have taken up residence behind the ornate wooden doors. house cats prowled the granite fortifications above, stepping carefully over roots and brushing past forests of leaves.
-ate shakshuka at where else but Dr. Shakshuka in Jaffa. so authentic i nearly bursted out the HaTikvah. an excellent sephardic dish that is like an omelet in a thick spiced tomato sauce.
-more on eating, sampled a Jerusalem bagel in the old city, a much longer and thinner cousin of the NYC version, sprinkled all over with white sesame. once purchased, one pulls open the steaming bread and sprinkles in some zaatar.
-stayed a night in a "bedouin tent," which besides being a nice replica of one was part of a complex owned by israelis in the camel-riding tourism business and was more like the disneyland version of a bedouin camp. i stayed up all night with some of the group, smoked nargilah (hebrew for hookah), and hiked up a tall hill behind our camp with three others to find a sky brilliant with stars and a desert military camp ringed in orange lampposts. we were treated to a show by a group called Jaman, whose musical leader played haunting melodies on a number of indigenous instruments from around the world accompanied by his two bandmates on drums. they were also extremely adept at capoeria and played a mean shofar. like, mean enough to leave all the cantors in NYC in the dust.
-coated ourselves head to toe (as for myself, i did this literally) in dead sea mud, let it dry and crack in the sun, then bathed in the briny green waters. i enjoyed the sensation of floating up straight and watching my feet hover above the seabed, which was white with salt. all around us, the brown faces of arid mountains.

and probably more, but i can't think of them right now. when they come i shall post of them.
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