after

A coat of primer and two coats of paint later and I have "new" cabinets that don't look like complete shit. I can't wait to get the little brushed metal knobs on them. I should note that the true color is more like the one on the kitchen cabinets. The flash on my camera made the bathroom cabinets look lighter than they actually are. Also, it's not a totally fair comparison -- I think I took the before pics on my old S200 and the after pics on my SLR. So my next project is to paint the bathroom walls, but first I need to buy a new mirrored cabinet to replace the garbage that's been hanging on the wall there since the place was built. I went to take out the wonky little toilet paper holder yesterday and realized that the stupid asshole who installed it used GI-FUCKING-GANTIC metal drywall anchors that I cannot remove, so I had to push them into the wall leaving holes the diameter of my pinky finger. You don't have to be Bob fucking Villa to know that a roll of toilet paper does not weigh 10lbs which is the kinda weight metal anchors like that are meant to hold. Now I have these stupid holes in my wall that I have to fill with about a gallon of spackle or whatever before I paint over the disaster that is my bathroom wall. I just I don't want to have a bathroom that looks like it belongs in a crack house. So I'm looking forward to fixing this up. I should get a pic of the many holes in my wall. They're pretty funny.

painting

I spent the long weekend painting my 70s not-so-chic dark wood panel patterned laminate cabinets. In case you have the same problem and either have your landlord's permission or own your home, this is a quick and cheap way to make them look much better. Because laminate is glossy you'll either need to prime or sand them first. If you decide to prime, get the kind of primer that says it sticks to glossy surfaces without sanding. Otherwise it'll direct you to sand AND prime which is just too much work. So I cleaned, primed, and did coat one on Saturday and finished with a second coat Sunday. I chose a nice black-brown/espresso color that turned out really nice. Now I just have to put in my brushed metal knobs ($2 for 6) from IKEA (yay for their tax free sale this weekend). Hmm actually I think I do have a before picture. Here are the cabinets in all their 70s glory.I want to throw up a bit just looking at them. I'll post some after pics soon.

stuffy

Man I can't believe how infrequently I've been posting. Things have just been kinda stressful with this drama going on with having my advisor taken off my committee. I've been meeting with all my other committee members to see what the hell I should do. I was also out of town again this weekend to attend a friend's wedding, and on my drive back home, I took a passenger who stayed a night to pick up his new car at the (hopelessly inefficient) Toyota dealership in Burien (where we spent 3 hours waiting for them to process 5 min of paperwork). I also had a couple who also attended the wedding stay over the same night as they head out on their road trip to California. That night was fun. We had dinner at Linda's where a plate of 3 sliders cost only $3 and pitchers of Heff or Guiness were only $7.50. Then we headed to B&O Espresso for dessert and coffee before heading home to chit chat, catchup, and get ready for bed.
So I'm just getting back into the swing of things again and I've been completely exhausted and having to take 1-2 hour naps in the afternoon. K's theory is that my out-of-control allergies (mostly nasal stuffiness) might be preventing me from getting enough hours of REM at night. I'm thinking I need to start taking Singulair again because Reactin and Claritin just aren't doing the job. After that, it'll probably be time to see the doctor for a remedy.

path

"Taking the path less taken" was the name of a speech I gave at Toastmasters a few years ago about deciding to leave the tech industry and going to grad school. I realized that I still sort of do that but in a more literal way. Now that I've moved to an area that is very walkable, I find that I walk everywhere - to K's, to the grocery store, to the drugstore, Downtown, everywhere. And each time, if I'm not in a hurry, I try to take a different path to my destination. It's been a fun way of exploring my new area and also to discover things I would never have seen if I kept taking the same route. For example, I have found 4 more places to get Ethiopian food, at least two bubble tea places, a corner store in the middle of our residential area, a women-only kung fu studio, and a handful of bars and other restaurants. So once in a while take a different route and maybe you'll notice something new (it also prevents nut job stalker fuckers from learning your routines).

Ironman

So Saturday night, K and I went to Cinerama with some friends to watch Ironman. Cinerama is this cool theatre that shows only one film at a time. It has a huge screen so people can also sit up on the balcony level. It was a pretty neat experience so I hope to go there again when they're not playing a fucked up stupid piece of shit movie.

So I can tolerate some bad movies. I can. Really. There are those movies that are considered not quite award-worthy because the jokes aren't super funny (like Napolean Dynamite) or the plot is bizarre (like Old School) or it's cheeseball (like Dirty Dancing). But sometimes there are more important reasons to dislike a movie. In the case of Ironman, aside from the fact that the script was totally corny which is not that big of a deal, there is the issue of there being no strong female characters. In fact the only main female character doesn't even get a real name, she's an executive assistant called Pepper for Christ's sake. That's something you fucking name your dog. Also all the Middle Eastern people in the movie are evil and inversely almost all of the bad guys are Middle Eastern. The hero is a rich white guy with unbridled genius (can you say cliche?) And in the movie, it seems that his brilliance excuses his sexist, misogynistic tendencies and also causes him to be impulsive... but alas that's okay because his assistant, Pepper, whom he ogles constantly in a really perverted way, is always there to keep the asshole on track. You don't have to be a hardcore feminist or ethnic studies scholar to recognize the stale sexist and racist stereotypes that this movie recycles. Just. Lame. And not even that entertaining.

guesthouse

I was surfing my yoga center's website links and found a link to this incredible little guest house in my neighbourhood. Check out Truly Central. I particularly enjoyed reading the location part because it describes my new area and things I didn't even know about it. For example, I had no idea there was a beer and pizza movie theater that I can walk to in minutes. Movies (probably second run but not like I care since I haven't seen most recent movies) are only $5 too. How cool is that?

So getting back to this guest house. It's a great deal at $550 per week for a one bedroom that a small group can fit in. I'll have to keep it in mind for overflow guests.

obstacle

So I just got back from a wonderful weekend in the Bay Area where a good friend of mine got married. I spent way more than I could afford to but you can't put a price on time spent with friends (and one cousin). Some highlights: hanging out in Palo Alto with my friend and her 1 yo baby and watching her do all her sign language which was really cool, eating dinner at Dish Dash in Sunnyvale (yummy Mediterranean), a big lunch at Chef Wai's in San Mateo with most of my Bay Area friends at one big table, the wedding of course (damn the lamb appetizers were awesome), lunch at Joy in Foster City (awesome Taiwanese cuisine including stinky tofu and siew loong bao), this HK style dessert place in San Mateo where I got a fresh mango bubble tea, dinner at Alexander's steakhouse in Cupertino, hanging out with my cousin, and the almost sunny day in San Francisco yesterday where we had some raw oysters at Hog Island in the awesome ferry building, and burritos at Pancho Villa, and finally In and Out Burger which is way the hell better than Dick's in Seattle. I even managed to take my mind off my latest major life obstacle. My advisor was told she can only keep two of her advisees, leaving 3 of us with no advisor and no one in the department who does race or cultural studies to lead my committee. Oh and they didn't exactly scramble to find any of us someone suitable as a replacement. It was more like "hey you're out of luck! good riddance sucker." So yeah, academically I am totally without a doubt fucked. I have a co-chair in another department who graciously offered to be my sole advisor but my department wont allow that. I need someone in my own department to co-chair. The second I got into my office this morning all the distraction of the weekend trip went away and I faced the reality of being set up to fail in my program. I don't even know what to do next. I am supposed to be preparing for exams but guess what I need an advisor to lead the exams and my preparation for them. Seriously. I swear I get screwed at every turn. I don't even know why I bother. I'm just so fucking pissed right now.