To know who she is
I would walk her narrow streets
And meet her people.
Like Genji I wish to see
Who lives inside that screened room.

http://www.japantravelinfo.com/2010/win.html

The Japanese National Tourism Organization is holding an essay/photo contest for trips to Japan and (and other travel prizes which would necessitate my scraping up the airfare to get there and use them). If you're interested, be sure to read all the details - prizes for the essay contest are not the same as the photo contest and you can only enter one of them. Since the destinations I was likely to prefer were for the essay contest, I just fired off an entry, which came in under the maximum 2010 keystrokes. (Not sure I'm ready to share what I wrote. Perhaps after the deadline has passed and I can't jinx it.)

Wish me luck!

Fired off this morning via email:

Dear Mr. Tanaka (or whoever reads and responds to these inquiries in his stead):

I very much enjoyed last night's concert at Zellerbach Hall. You performed a new composition titled "Hayate" about a group of villagers who disguised themselves as demons and drove Uesugi Kenshin's army away without a fight simply with their drumming. As a lover of history, I would be very interested to know your source material for this story as I had never heard it before.

Many thanks, etc....

sengokudaimyo ? Anyone ever hear of this? Google turns up the following:
http://www.gojinjodaiko.jp/en_top.html

http://www.sohdaiko.org/reviews.html


http://www.hot-ishikawa.jp/f-lang/english/noto-area/event-detail.html#07

http://nohmask21.com/eu/gojinjyotaiko.html

Who knew?
***********************************************************************************
Good concert. Sacramento Taiko Dan, Jun Daiko (from Mountainview) and Wako Daiko from Japan also did sets. Serves only to remind me how much I suck and how badly I need to get over myself when I face the o-daiko.....
***********************************************************************************
layla_lilah and I had dinner beforehand at Jayakarta in Berkeley. layla_lilah actually lived in Indonesia and gleefully nommed her way through the nasi bungus special: rice, jackfruit, hardcooked egg, tofu, fried chicken and beef wrapped in banana leaves, while I had the udang saus mentega, shrimp in a savory brown sauce. Tasty, as authentic as it gets according to my dinner companion, and an excellent bang for the buck.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Juana had posted a note to SCA-West about having passed a bookstore called Abandoned Planet in the Mission that was going out of business and selling all their books at 35% off. I BARTED over and determined that either it had been picked over before I got there or it was simply a matter of what used books they ended up having in stock in the first place. The art and history sections were pretty small, compared to the fiction/literature offerings which took up half the shop. I didn't see anything I absolutely had to own and proceeded to another bookstore I'd passed on my way up the street.

Upon opening the door to Forest Books, I released a waft of expensive Japanese incense and Loreena McKennitt pretending to be Middle Eastern onto 16th Street. Airy, well lit, festooned with Tibetan prayer flags and earnest posters and flyers about Buddhism and community events, the selection was well organized, interesting, and I didn't have to worry about breaking an ankle on a rolled up carpet just to look at what was out on the display tables. I resisted a coffeetable book of Ansel Adams photos. I did pick up two paperback novels: Murakami's An Artist Of The Floating World and Barry Unsworth's The Songs of the Kings, then headed to the art section. Decent selection of East Asian art books, some of which I already had. Taped neatly into a plastic envelope was a souvenir tour booklet titled JINGU: The Grand Shrine of Ise. It being taped shut and priced at $10, I asked the proprietor if it was OK to open it before doing so. Nifty little book with full color photos of the Jingu shrines in Ise, including architectural details, parading Shinto clerics performing rituals, festivals and bugaku dancers in full costume.
While paying for my books, I asked the proprietor which Shoyeido incense he was burning at the moment because he had boxes for sale on the counter and I knew it wasn't the Gozan. He asked if I needed a bag and pronounced the Onyabag I pulled out of my purse one of the nicest reusable shopping bags he'd seen. I should send him the link....

A shadow flutters
Past the window, another,
Maple leaves falling.
What must it be like to die
Dancing upon a cool breeze?

Radio Caroline, broadcasting since Easter Sunday of 1964 is STILL on the air. http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#home.html

The night is darker
And chill is the wind blowing
Off the endless sea.
Still they live beneath bridges
Waiting with their empty bowls.

How did I just end up $50 poorer?

Because I am a perverse old bitch. Frankly, I feel one is allowed to say "I wish I could afford to be more active in the SCA" precisely once: more than that is whining. Judging from the time stamps on someone's posts, she is not so destitute she cannot afford her electric bill and 'net connection, because the public library isn't open at 9:51 PM.

I was on my way home this evening when I got off I-880 to put some gas in my tank. I was panhandled for change at the pump by a guy on a bicycle - and I had to say no. As I exited the gas station and waited for the light to change, I happened to see a dome tent pitched beneath the freeway and the silhouetted figure of the owner carefully sweeping it out in preparation for what is going to be a cold night.

That and several recent feast announcements were also percolating in my brain when I logged on again - to more posts by Mary Poormouth. And yeah, the booze fairies have better PR and beer, but $1 in donations = $7 in food, which is something the medical charities just can't do. So I came home and pledged another $50 to Bayareahunger.org
which means I can't spend it on feasts. Or garb. Or books. Well, maybe books, especially after Juana posted about the closing of a used book store in San Francisco that may be worth checking out.... In short, I am not hurting anywhere near as badly as a lot of people, which is why I made that second donation.

The news is not all empty bowls and living under the freeway though. I processed more hires than layoffs this week, and one layoff was cancelled because they were able to send the guy to another job at the last minute. I sent 20 new-hire packs to our Sacramento office yesterdat and one of the project managers just picked up another 10 to take to Vacaville. There are some construction projects out there and they are starting to ramp up - and at this time of year.

A window rattles
In its frame, complaining of
A door shut downstairs.
Old houses tattle on each
Tenant as we come and go.

Especially for acanthusleaf , who is collecting silly words and phrases, a reading from Carolyn Wells A Nonsense Anthology, one of the formative tomes of this writer's childhood.

The Rollicking Mastodon

A rollicking Mastodon lived in Spain,
     In the trunk of a Tranquil Tree.
His face was plain, but his jocular vein
     Was a burst of the wildest glee.
His voice was strong and his laugh so long
     That people came many a mile,
And offered to pay a guinea a day
     For the fractional part of a smile.

The Rollicking Mastodon's laugh was wide--
       Indeed, 't was a matter of family pride;
     And oh! so proud of his jocular vein
       Was the Rollicking Mastodon over in Spain.

The Rollicking Mastodon said one day,
     "I feel that I need some air,
For a little ozone's a tonic for bones,
     As well as a gloss for the hair."
So he skipped along and warbled a song
     In his own triumphulant way.
His smile was bright and his skip was light
     As he chirruped his roundelay.

The Rollicking Mastodon tripped along,
       And sang what Mastodons call a song;
     But every note of it seemed to pain
       The Rollicking Mastodon over in Spain.

A Little Peetookle came over the hill,
     Dressed up in a bollitant coat;
And he said, "You need some harroway seed,
     And a little advice for your throat."
The Mastodon smiled and said, "My child,
     There's a chance for your taste to grow.
If you polish your mind, you'll certainly find
     How little, how little you know."

The Little Peetookle, his teeth he ground
     At the Mastodon's singular sense of sound;
For he felt it a sort of a musical stain
     On the Rollicking Mastodon over in Spain.
"Alas! and alas! has it come to this pass?"
     Said the Little Peetookle. "Dear me!
It certainly seems your horrible screams
     Intended for music must be!"

The Mastodon stopped, his ditty he dropped,
     And murmured, "Good morning, my dear!
I never will sing to a sensitive thing
     That shatters a song with a sneer!"
The Rollicking Mastodon bade him "adieu."
     Of course 't was a sensible thing to do;
For Little Peetookle is spared the strain
     Of the Rollicking Mastodon over in Spain.

      -Arthur Macy

More nonsense verse can be found here.

Milky bay mimics
A sky leached of all color,
Waves a dull shimmer.
The only sounds are the cries
Of sea birds and lapping waves.

As in "harassment."

And "hazing."

As mentioned in a previous post, I recently had to deal with some stalker-like behavior. That the party in question is probably harmless and that the situation was dealt with in a safe and reasonably polite manner is not the point. The point is that I had to deal with it at all in an environment which is supposed to be "safe."

Anyone ever been touched without your permission by someone whose only excuse for doing so is that we're all SCA and you therefore should hold still for their friendly little back rub being groped? One party who tried it with me was told by me in embarrassingly loud and public tones to cease and desist.

Ever tell someone to stop doing something and have them persist because they think it's funny? Like the guy who decided to find out if I was ticklish and no amount of verbal protest or physical resistance short of whipping off one of my Birkenstocks and whaling him across the forearm with it as hard as I could was going to stop him. He had the nerve to be shocked and hurt too.  

I'm willing to bet that the people who don't see what all the fuss is about on the alleged lifting incident reported this week on SCA-West have never been in a like position, regardless of gender.

Merciless shears clack,
Lopping helpless branches off
In verdant carnage.
Had I such gardeners, it
Would be they who would suffer.

(The so-called landscape "design" firm our company uses are butchers. What they do is not pruning.)

ANNA｜2009年10月30日 23:12
Happy Halloween
From now I'm going to take part in a spur of the moment Vamps and Monoral live!


( 12 more )

Heat rises and soothes
As I gaze down into the
Warmth cupped in my hands.
Though life is fraught with problems
A bowl of tea solves a few.

Lightsaber chopsticks


Daibutsu key cover:


That said, I did just find a nice wooden bento that I may have to order.....

So I had to hear about this as part of some oblique references to something that went on in the East Kingdom, the details of which I am still not quite certain of. However, it appears that the King and Queen of Northshield have decreed that the film of The Princess Bride be considered a period work for the term of their reign.  Yes. Really. Do try not to wince at the lack of proof-reading that went into the web version of said decree.

The thoughts that ran through my head after the initial "WTF?"

In six months someone else will be on the thrones and can decree something else. Whether it is silly or not is entirely up to them. When I lived back east, it was common for one or both of the incoming royalty to declare a list of Royal Whims, which got published in the Kingdom newsletter. The West Kingdom gets a great deal of silly (but I assure you, not all of it) out of its system with an event called Ducal Prize.

Not my kingdom, Monkey Boy. Seriously. The one I live in has its own issues to be lived with.

I live less than 20 miles from A Certain Hallowed Backyard. I know (or at least have met) some of the participants. The game has changed in 40 plus years, but knowing the history of that game gives perspective on who we as a Society are and where we came from and why we're The Big Tent and why someone would want to make a favorite movie part of the memories of their reign.

I can only be responsible for how I play this game. Someone might be moved to follow my example. Or not. Regardless, I can only be responsible for what I do, whether or not someone ever is crazy enough to fight for me and good enough to win. 

The morning threatens
Escape from my control as
I gaze to the east.
Masts rise from the marina
And trees blaze upon the hills
.

For la_peregrina , an approximation of the view taken at the wrong time of day - the trees looked much brighter at about 8 AM.

Here some games that I made

annanolotus.blogspot.com/2009/11/hola-gente-os-traigo-una-sorpresa-xd.html 

Hope you like them!

_______________

Oh, this is my first post there... My name's nata, from Spain ^^

I got a frosting recipe here for buttercream frosting. It calls for one stick of butter, one 8-ounce package of cream cheese, about 1/8 cup buttermilk, vanilla extract, and a normal-sized package of confectioner's sugar. I think of the 5 or so times I've used the recipe, only once did it turn out stiff enough to hold its shape.

( Click here to see ) how my frosting turned out. In particular, check out the border at the bottom of the cake. Those were supposed to be shells, but they got all melty! I mean, eventually the frosting hardened, but I would've liked for the border to have the shell shape.

Anyway, since I got the recipe from here a while ago, I figured I'd ask here how I should go about stiffening up my homemade frosting. I want it to hold its shape!

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance! :)