Mild Amusement

I think I've mentioned it before, but I do speak a tiny bit of Chinese. It's usually just enough for me to pick out when people are talking about me, but unfortunately, that's not enough for me to really understand what people are saying. There's not enough context at that point for me to piece together what's being said. When people are talking about me, at least, I have the advantage of knowing the subject matter (read: me) better than anyone else. But other than that, it's very much a crap shoot. Luckily for me, I grew up with my Chinese grandmother around, so I managed to pick up some of the various words that she would say to us. Most of that is what I consider "table talk" (think along the lines of "pass the salt"). However, there was one word that I learned to appreciate quite a bit: kwai. Now, that's my English bastardization of the Cantonese, so if you actually speak Chinese, that might sound weird to you. Regardless, that...

I've mentioned it in passing before, but I think certain things have a ring of truth to them. If you don't know what I'm talking about, pretend that you've been doing something your whole life. Let's say that you've never had any kind of a mobile device, and you're having issues with people not being able to get a hold of you with timely information. Now, let's further stipulate that one of your friends tells you about the wonders of a smart phone. Think about the first few moments after this friend has revealed to you that this technology exists. It'd be immediately obvious to you that this technology could solve your problems, but moreover, your entire world view would be changed. It probably wouldn't be a stretch to say that your mind had been blown at that point, and you were suddenly readjusting your conception of what is possible. That's more or less what I think of when I refer to that "moment of truth." As it turns out, I...

At work, my cubicle has a little closet for hanging up your coat. It's not very big, and I doubt I could fit more than two or three articles of clothing in there (there's only one hanger in there, though). Now, I know many of you might be commenting that I at least have a closet, and I don't deny that it's a nice little extra feature. I've actually never had one before, so I was pleasantly surprised when I walked into that cube and realized that I had my own mini closet. Since it was new to me, though, it took a while to build up the habit to actually use the thing. I've walked into a cube and hung my jacket on the back of my chair for years now. And even though I fully intended to take advantage of this new closet, I kept forgetting to do it at first. Of course, habit die hard, but they do die eventually. So I gradually got into the habit of hanging up my jacket (I always wear a jacket to work since I get up at the butt crack of dawn ), and I was mildly plea...

Funny things tend to happen to me at restaurants. I've had a waitress try to shove food in my mouth , friends of mine object to what I order , and someone decide that my order was no good . I always laugh it off when it happens, because, well, it's funny. C'mon now, when's the last time someone tried to stick food in your mouth without your consent? And now, I have another story to add to the list. It all started with a Korean restaurant that the Mild Ex and I decided to try. As we were perusing the menu, I noticed a few interesting items that caught my attention. For example, there was this skate  (it's like the sting ray's cousin) dish that sounded intriguing. We negotiated a bit on what we wanted to eat, and ultimately, we included that skate dish in our selection. The waitress took our order, and everything was looking good. I don't quite remember why, but the Mild Ex then had to excuse herself from the table for a few minutes. It was no big deal, ...

Whenever I travel, I like to make at least something of an attempt to learn the language. That's how I ended up learning the Greek alphabet oh so many years ago, even though I couldn't really speak the language. I actually got decent enough at it that I could read street signs and menus, though that didn't necessarily know that I knew what I was reading. This latest trip to Japan was no different, so I asked the Mild Ex to lend me her Japanese text books (she'd studied some in college). She also helped teach me a few words ( sumimasen is incredibly useful), though what she taught me really didn't sink in until I was in the country and people were saying these things to me. And Japanese is a language that has three distinct sets of characters, so I knew I wasn't going to learn it all in the time before my trip. I did, however, learn enough hiragana to be able to read some signs, and I knew enough to ask things like, "excuse me, where is the train (stati...

Here in the United States, we drive on the right side of the road. We walk on the right side of the road. If you're on the escalator and you want to just stand while others walk around you, you stand on the right side. Basically, we tend to default to being on the right when in doubt. Many of us know, on an intellectual level, that people in other countries "drive on the wrong side of the road," but it's still just a random fact that we tuck away in the back of our minds. It's when you go to another country and actually experience that difference that things start to get interesting. Like, say, when I went to Japan. Given the title and the lead in to this post, you can probably guess that in Japan people drive on the left side of the road and stand on the left side of the escalator (while everyone passes you on the right). Now, it usually only takes a couple of times of walking "upstream" for you to realize that you're walking on the wrong side, ...

First off, let me define that word that you probably don't recognize. Basashi is the Japanese word for horse sashimi. Yes, you read that correctly. This post is going to be about raw horse meat being served up as food . Now, to anyone who really knows me, it should be no surprise that I was willing to entertain this as an entree. I've told the story of " come y calla " (read: "eat your food and shut up") before, and I've never quite gotten over it. I also tend to be very willing to just try things , and food is no different. Interestingly enough, I actually knew about this because a friend of mine had consumed this before. In fact, she had decided to give the horse a try during a trip to Japan of her own. I don't quite remember what prompted this for her, but I do remember the reservations that she expressed while talking about the food. Heck, that Wikipedia article to which I linked has a whole sub-section about the taboos against treating horse a...