it’s finally fall – almost winter.   i have added a new friend to my car… 小叮噹吃銅鑼燒… doraemon!

it’s a reminder of where i’ve been, and where i am going.

i have also found myself to be completely uninspired by school and it makes me depressed — so i have taken to sewing sewing sewing… sewing food friends to send far far away to my dear friends overseas.

right now i’m pretty sure the only thing that could make me happy is a beer and a hot bowl of 關東煮

i’ve suddenly become very interested in texture.

as a part of a qualitative research methods class, ND and I went to the Al-Farooq Masjid mosque in downtown Atlanta to sit in on one of the prayer services. it was extremely interesting… i of course could not understand any of the rituals and could not participate, but it was still very enlightening to be in the mosque in a service.

the men worship separately from the women.
the main rotunda where the men worship and pray is beautiful.

the women worship upstairs on another floor. the windows look downstairs into the rotunda. flat screen TV’s on the wall project the Imam into the room so we can see him, hear his sermon, and hear the call to prayer.

i do NOT appreciate being woken up at 2:45am by a GIANT flying cockroach in my bedroom. I also don’t appreciate chasing it around for the next 30 minutes trying to kill it.

there is raging thunderstorm outside and i can’t sleep because it’s too loud. so annoyed. the one night i go to sleep somewhat early and i’m kept awake by a thunderstorm! the thunder is so loud i feel like my entire apartment just shook.

this little friend was lost the other day when I went to the botanical garden with Kiran.
He didn’t like me taking pictures of him.
He looks mean.

These mean things also fell from the trees and hit us in the head.
So i picked them up and threw them at Kiran.

Kiran is running away from me as I throw those prickly mean things at her.
Wimp!

Yeah that about sums up the fun I have on weekends. haha!
Ok. Storm is winding down… I should attempt to sleep.

woww. life in prison? totally did not expect life in prison. justice? i guess so… although i hate the man and what he did to taiwanese politics and the faith of the taiwanese people in their own government… but was life in prison really necessary? i can definitely name some KMT people that probably should be in prison as well, if we’re going after corruption here… but nonetheless… i’m glad he and his family are finally paying for his crimes and lies. but his poor grandkids…

A-Bian gets LIFE

some movies that i’d like to see…

my dog likes to skype with me he is very confused in this picture because he can’t figure out where my voice is coming from!! hahaha. look at that face!

finally had a chance to go to the high museum of art. i love the diagonal ramps against the windows!

Had a chance to see a few gerhard richter pieces… but was disappointed because they only had 5 pieces showing at the time. But i really like this one.

For those of you who use Macs… hurry and upgrade to Snow Leopard! Everything runs so much faster and smoother, and the colors are so much more vivid and saturated.

1. i heard on TV today that the average american woman wears a size 12. really??? since when?? I thought it was a size 8? if that’s really true, then 50% of american woman can barely buy clothes at any regular store, because i don’t even know if i’ve ever seen anything above a 12 at GAP or J.Crew.

2. why is it that the best professor that i’ve had in grad school so far isn’t even a professor? but an extremely cool PhD student? Come on now, professors… you all could learn a thing or two from these super cool PhD students.

3. Our wall is finally decorated!! BLIK Re-Stik “Fly” stickers are now adorning our walls. Here is our wall… with my tiny tiny TV. looks so awesome in person. If you all don’t know blik…

WHAT IS BLIK

4. IKEA finger puppets in a vase. propped up with chopsticks. you know you want these. yeah.

5. let me say again how horrible the traffic is here.

6. I skyped with my dog yesterday. It was awesome. Oh i miss him. I’m debating if I need to put up pictures of this.

ok you know it’s time for some excitement when here i am, sitting at my desk on a friday night, thinking of SAS programming. i could have gone to Martinis at the IMAX, but i was waaay to tired. So instead, in the last 30 minutes, I sat here and solved the rubik’s cube twice in a row. yes, i have other things i should/could be doing, but nope, i decided to solve the rubiks cube.

see what happens when there aren’t 7-11’s everywhere for me to go shop in?!

1. whyyyyyyyy is there so much traffic ALL the time in Atlanta. I absolutely hate driving here. Either people are crazy and drive too fast and too dangerous, or they drive too slow and can’t stay in their lanes.

2. 為什麼一回美國就一直身體不舒服 不是頭痛就是喉嚨痛或肚子痛。 在台灣怎麼吃都沒事， 在這一吃就馬上不舒服！這是怎樣阿 什麼事都不能作 只想躺在床上 為什麼我想看的親愛的朋友跟親戚都要離我如此的遙遠呢

3. moved into the new apartment. come visit.

4. classes start this week and i barely even remember what I’m taking. i feel so disconnected from the world!

5. does Whole Foods really need to be so outrageously expensive? i now literally live next door to one, but i don’t even think about going there because i can barely afford anything in there!! $8 for bad sushi. The rest of their food is great… but the salad bar is $7.99 a pound. wow.

6. it really bothers me that my freezer doesn’t have a light in it. how come refrigerators get lights, but not freezers??

7. I am a TA this semester for Behavioral Epidemiology, a data analysis class that I have never taken, and don’t know much about. not to mention i get very nervous with public speaking, but i have to lead labs. not sure if this is going to be a good thing or not.