Save Me from What I Want

I love keeping up with my friends and coworkers from Taiwan via Facebook. But my Chinese is, to say the least, getting a little rusty. Well, it was never anything close to polished to begin with, but now what little I knew is going straight to pot. So I employ Google Translator pretty regularly in my attempts to stay abreast of the developments of their lives by "reading" their status updates. But translating Chinese to English or vice versa is something slightly less than a mathematically pure equation. Today's sample:

Katrina's Status Update - Garbage is a major event in life, whether family, psychological, or intestines inside.

Comment from Jill - You can make sentences??

Comment from Sandy - Yes, when the garbage needs to refuse, and found the garbage can, and sometimes have to wait ... But after garbage truck emptied the refuse, The happier ~

Thanks so much for all of your help, Google.

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Some quick media notes:

• I stumbled upon the CD/DVD package of Sufjan Stevens' The BQE at the public library last weekend. I tried the CD first and just thought, "Well, this is nice..." but when I popped the DVD into my computer and took a gander at the short film that accompanies the music I was dazzled. Hope you can see this. It is tres magnifique.
• I am obsessed with the Miranda Lambert album Revolution. I listen to it, on average, twice a day. It is such a good album, every song, so good.
• I went last week with a friend to see the movie Inception. I had heard lots of rattle and buzz about it, but didn't know much, content-wise, other than that it dealt with dreams or the dream world. It is a great movie, and I highly recommend it. One of those movies that really requires you to pay attention, get the rules, plug in, and play along. A fun ride.
• July has been an easy month at school, so I've been doing lots of pleasure reading. You can always check out my goodreads page, but I'll tell you here that I have been really edified by Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, and The Road by Cormack McCarthy as of late. I would like to write another blog about Eating Animals sometime very soon, because it has been a bit of a game changer for me.

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Tonight I went with my friend Andy to Ikea over in Tempe. Andy is moving in to a new apartment this week, so I offered to help him shop for furniture and furnishings and life-things. Ikea is exhausting, and it was a full three hours, and I didn't even get any meatballs - but it was a much more enjoyable experience for me in that I spent no money, and he spent a lot of money.

Wandering some of the aisles while he debated slate versus white dishes or side tables versus nightstands, I thought about my previous Ikea partners. I thought about our shopping strategies, our predilections, our magnetic attractions and repulsions to specific facets of Swedish home furnishings and the culture of Ikea. I thought about our traditions and routines, about purchases large and small. Sofia and I always bought candles and bedding. Kevin, Elena, and I once bought enough to furnish an entire Taiwanese apartment.

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I am happy, but not content. I'd like to meet some more like-minded individuals here. Some more grounded people. I'd like to be seeing less people for more time.

Currently Listening to

The BQE by Sufjan Stevens and

Currently Reading

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri