fungineering

becca sent me this and it's the kind of thing you feel like sending to everyone you know. it's part of a project vw did where they asked people to find ways to make everyday activities more fun..they call it the fun theory. happy monday!


while we're sharing, mighty girl posted a list of ways you can 'volunteer from your couch'. i bookmarked one, make a child smile, where you send cards or little presents to sick or chronically ill kids, their siblings or parents. there's another, project linus, and you make a blanket to be given to kids (or volunteer in the office, or cut fabric, or all sorts of things). the austin chapter meets every 3rd saturday.

piqued

just started using pinterest. you use it kind of like an internet bulletin board. it's actually a very cool alternative to having folders of bookmarks. you can see all of the things easily and share them with other people. i still have a whole bunch of invites if anyone is interesteddd.

so ripley went on a little adventure today to the groomer at petsmart. i went to pick her up at 11 when they said she would be done, but the woman told me she was going to take longer because it took them so long to dry her. she was so afraid of the blow dryer that it took a bit to get her out from under the table. poor pup.

when i came back an hour later, she was getting her hair cut and looking absolutely miserable. she was up on a table with a short leash to keep her from moving and every part of her was shaking. it was pretty sad.
but nowww look how fluffy she is! and they put little bows on her head. we waited until everyone in the family saw them and then jeff took them off.. i don't think she liked them anyway. this picture sums it up.
and this picture is mainly for gram and spanky, but this is me earlier this week with great grandma's necklace on. lucky we have the same taste in costume jewelry.

the angel voices

might have a job teaching Mandarin at an immersion preschool. it's only a few hours each week, but i have time while i'm job hunting. funny how things come full circle! i can't think of a better/more fun way to keep up with my Mandarin though. and we can play bai luo buo dun.

jeff: "majjy's out there talking to the neighbors like one of those lame people. and i think she's wearing elf pants."

and i know i'm an 80 yr old woman on the inside, but how cute is this cake stand from sweet and saucy supply?

tumbling by

i'll admit it. i'm not good at sharing. i've never been good at it. as the oldest, and the only girl, i haven't had a whole lot of practice. i hide the tube of thin mints under the frozen pizza in the freezer so no one else will know where they are.

but i'm growing up! i'm turning over new leaves! and so i'm going to share two of my things in my secret 'folder of cool things' in my bookmarks.

the first is famille summerbelle. it's a french company, and they have all kinds of cool things, but the very coolest is their collection of cut out paper prints of paris, london and NYC. the one below is paris.

i don't know anyone with a really solid connection to any of the three, so i haven't gotten to buy any of them. but they are so cool and crafty and would be so neat for someone who really loved the city.

the second is hudson paint. they make chalkboard paint in all sorts of fun colors. i don't know where the photo went, so you'll just have to imagine glass jars with three or four inches of lime green or perrywinkle chalkboard paint on the bottom, with 'flour' or 'sugar' written in white chalk. so cute.

and for those of us in austin.. my favorite secret indian food place: swad on lamar and rundburg. soo delicious and cheap. i had the masala dosa. that thing is literally two feet long.

what a crazy day driving around in the pouring down rain.

just something

ow much do we love a good drop cap?! I'm working on a top secret project, but I've been looking at typefaces for the last couple of minutes and stumbled upon a typeface designer who is giving away free drop caps. She's going to make 12 alphabets of them. One letter every [working] day. As Candice Olsen would say, how divine.

just something

"I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again."

Stephen Grellet, a Quaker

that quote was on the table at karma kitchen last weekend and it stuck with me so i thought i'd post it so it might stick with you.

but another to mean it from the heart

i am so ready to go to school tomorrow. three days off is pushing the limits of free time in taoyuan. a bunch of us spent three hours at debbie's this evening, chatting and drinking coffee. it was fun to see jaime and joyce. joyce seems like she grows a few inches every time i see her. she sat with me for about 10 minutes and then she was done. maybe i can find some babies to hold in DC. (i was watching a set of new twins in austin once a week just to reach my baby holding quota).that's me and hayley. she is so big now! walking and sort of talking.

when i was leaving debbie's, i ran into a woman who moved to taoyuan a couple of months ago. turns out she's from houston. it was really nice to hear an honest-to-goodness texan accent, even though my family and i don't have it. it just felt like home. it was funny because she was at debbie's while we were and when she walked by, she set off the mom sensor in my brain. her hair and jewelry and shirt looked a lot like my mom. it made me jump.
i'm chatting with maj on her new iphone. she's sitting on the porch at the lake. fajjy sent me a picture of ripley all tired out from chasing deer, apparently. a week and a half until i see puptown!

p.s. check out the woohoo! report. it's a site with all good news. this commencement speech is the best.

"And here’s the deal: Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done."

p.s. no accidents moment of the day:
during the tru blood marathon of 2009, we were talking about food that comes from the south like po' boys and ho cakes, and everyone thought ho cakes had a funny name and not many people knew what they were, and we talked about them for probably 30 minutes on and off throughout the day. then i made it the title of my blog that night. so tonight i'm watching top chef masters episode 8 and what is art smith using as the buns for his burgers in this challenge? ho cakes.
it's a small thing but it's a big thing.

AAAND i was perusing the internet tonight and in the process of following a bunch of random links ended up on this kid's site and he walked from florida to DC to raise awareness about homeless children. now he's collected all of these letters and he wants to get them to president obama. and DUUHHH i'll be in the mail room for 4 months! so i messaged him to see if i could help.

save me

i've had a headache all day and it's making me minchy so this will be short.

..did some laundry and started to sort through what's staying in taiwan and what's coming home. i didn't get very far. i think i'm just going to see how much i can cram into my suitcases and then edit based on what won't fit. imagine packing your life for a year into two suitcases. clothes, shoes, decorations, a quilt, a duvet, a pillow, books.
beforeafter (yes, after.)
i brought the kuo's a custard apple, a bag of tangerines and one of the bags of tea i bought in ying ge. i learned that custard apples need to be refrigerated to taste good so we'll eat that tomorrow, you apparently only eat tangerines if you're sick, but we broke that rule today, and i shouldn't buy them tea because i get ripped off. i said meiguanxi to that and we just ate it.
before
after
mr. kuo made me tuna salad. ingredients: canned tuna packed in oil, coarsely chopped white onion. onion to fish ratio: 2:1. green onion. soy sauce. sugar.
i am a pro at forcing myself to swallow things that i wouldn't usually eat though. am i a soy sauce and sugar tuna salad convert? no. but did it taste kind of good by the 4th bite? yes.
before
after
i forgot about my chinese lesson with linda tonight which bums me out. i look forward to that all week. i think the aleve is kicking in!

iQ font - When driving becomes writing / Full making of from wireless on Vimeo. this is aaaamaaaazingggg. from katepruitt's blog.

wisdom

the list must be honored

there was a cockroach in my shower bucket. i was hootin' like a girl but what are you supposed to do. it was INCHES away from my hand when i reached for my conditioner. i'm just hoping it crawled in there while i was in the shower and it didn't come from my room. sick. i swept just now but there are about a million places for nasty things to hide in this room.

tonight only one thing of note happened and it was during my second class with my 8 year olds who don't know very much english at all. i've had them for 3 months or something at this point. there's a kid in there, alex, who literally can't sit still. he definitely has ADD/ADHD.
anyway tonight he was jumping all around the room as usual and he just stopped in his tracks and asked sarah a question in chinese. he said 'why does megan have blonde hair and blue eyes when all of us have black hair and brown eyes?' it was hilarious. i'm not sure if it never occured to him or if he just hasn't stood still long enough to notice until tonight.

a whole bunch of people have mentioned how they just have a feeling i'm going to get the internship. if we could all just visualize me in DC, i would appreciate it. tonight my favorite administrator was at my school and i told her about it and she got all excited. she hugged me twice and this woman isn't a hugger. she was wearing a dress tonight because she wanted to 'soften her image'.. if that gives you any idea. but she agreed that it would be a once in a lifetime thing and she thinks obama is the coolest.

find of the day: youtube videos from improv everywhere like this no pants in the subway day. they do things like spontaneous musicals and flash mobs. that stuff is so entertaining.

vancouver's best music mix

i'm back in business in the land of technology today. allen and i went to lunch and we had some extra time so we went to get ice cream at carrefour and he helped me pick out an external hard drive while we had time to kill. i bought a 350GB drive for ~$45. now all of my music/movies/pictures are protected incase i get a crazy virus or have to wipe the harddrive for any reason.

as i was backing up files, bobo called to let me know the new AC adaptor had arrived at her house. the generic one from the computer store would give me an error message saying it wasn't exactly right and the computer would be slower and the battery wouldn't charge. so now i'm lightning fast again.

mr. kuo was funny tonight.
him: long time no see!
me: i know! how are you? i brought you tea
him: friday, saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday. five days no see you
me: but here i am now
him: did you miss me?
me: yep
him: you missed me?
me: yes!
him: yesterday i dream you are here
me: i was in your dream?!
him: yes. we very miss you. 5 days.
me: my grandparents say they miss me very much because they haven't seen me for one yearrr and you see me every week.
him: wrong! they saw you at christmas
me: wrong! i didn't see them then
him: well we very miss you this weekend

one of his classmates was there tonight. she brought them dumplings and mrs. chan was trying really hard to get me to let her make some, but i was stuffed with the stir fry she already made. his classmate was talking to me in chinese and she said i was very good for one year. makes it all worth it.

ny magazine had a beautifully designed graphic with the results from a poll of the class of 2009 grads and how they feel about the economy/world right now. it takes a little bit to load but it's interesting.

oh, you are my star

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

stole this from sara and james at you can't go wrong with a fork. it had the word 'texas' and 'party' on it which i think qualifies it for this blog. and it's awesome.

it's a long road we've been walking on

man i love rose milk tea. i like how it comes out of your pores all day after you drink it. it's just black tea with a whole bunch of milk and some rose syrup. yesterday i had a pot of it with a side of waffles for lunch at 'harwana cafe'.

allen and i went to lunch today at a place pretty close to where he works, so the whole time we were there, there was a steady parade of his 'work partners' walking past the plate glass window. i guess i've done that to people i've dated in the past. karma. the delicious dumplings were worth it. $2 lunches are amazing.
this is sherry and i. my beginners class had a demo tonight. ..they aren't dumb, but they aren't good. they're little parrots where they can repeat but they really can't think on their own. it's disappointing. even the ones who you think get it really don't get it when you try to talk to them before or after class.
they all memorized these 17 sentences. my first name is ____, my last name is ____. i want to visit ____. the taiwanese flag is red, white and blue. my favorite holiday is ______. every tuesday and friday i come here to learn english. there are 17 students in my english class. i study english for 30 minutes every day. every day i have to ____. i ____ to do it. i like to ____. i get ___ dollars pocket money each week. i am good at _____. thank you for listening.
at the end of the demo, one of the school administrators asked if any of the parents could do their kids self intro and she'd give their kid 150 stickers. nick's mom actually got up and did it. we were all amazed. she was so cute and nick just hid his face in his hands. good for her though. it's hard to get up in front of people and talk by yourself like that. especially in your second language (or third or whatever).
links of the day
courtesy of keith: greenissexy.org with simple ideas for being green.
and if you didn't watch Gio on OnBeing yesterday, go do it. seriously. it's so cute. archives (all the way to the right), page 3, the kid in the white and red stripes.
and sycamore street press is so cute.
[sycamore street press].

ok ONEEEE more link..
if you love craft projects or handmade anything, check out happy tape. it's the prettiest masking tape in the world. they have a 20 pack for $40 (with shipping) and you can use it for a miiiiillion things. last time i saw it on etsy i thought that was a liiiittle too much, but when it sold out i was kicking myself. add it to the pile of things that will be waiting on my bed when i get home.

losing my cooling

this week in chinese i'm learning all of the bugs and birds.
hummingbird is fengniao (wind bird)
bee is mifeng and honey is fengmi
owl is maotouying (fur head eagle)
peacock is kongque (keyhole freckle)
..i don't think i know the individual meanings of any of the other ones.
pork with niubang (burdock) and marinated bamboo shoots from the japanese restaurant in guei shan. i eat that once a week or so.

monday continues to be awesome. teddy and lin are at 50/50 with 'thank' you vs 'sank' you. at least now they're aware of when they say it wrong. and we're starting to conquer the 'do does + verb without ing' ..they always want to say 'she does running to the store'. so that's exciting. jasmine is awesome though. it's all because of her.

in my baby class, i reinacted the down on one knee story of yesterday for my coteacher while the kids were writing down chinese definitions, but they saw me and started singing the marriage song. jerry, scott and bill looked at each other and then looked at me and asked if i really had a boyfriend. scott held my hand while i was reading with jerry.
that whole thing was funny enough, but then after class when i went down to the front desk, carol told me that debbie, one of the kids, had told the secretaries that i was getting married. !

patrick told me about OnBeing from the washington post today. they're little mini interviews with normal, interesting people. go to the far right on the menu and go to archives, the 3rd page, and watch the kid. he is awesome.

through times of victory or defeat

it is really hard to take pictures of kite flying with a camera that lacks a good zoom lens. here's the best dena and i could do today.

i sort of felt like i was walking a dog except that the 'dog' in this case was getting no pleasure out of it.. it was just me holding onto a string. i sat on my blanket studying chinese while the kite just did its thing.
this shirt is one of my favorite taiwanese finds.
tonight my jerk class had the QA 'who do you look up to? why?' and one of the kids who can speak almost zero english, said i was graceful, which i thought was uncharacteristically nice. we had a good time in there today. chinese abounded, but they weren't being hateful.
..although they were talking about boobs a lot which was kind of awkward. they were picking on me and i told them to check in after high school and we could compare notes then. middle schoolers.

twbf and i went bowling tonight. i won 2 out of 3.. but he won't swim in the ocean. i'm supposed to think of a consolation prize. we were a liiiittle more touchy tonight.

when we were saying goodbye, outside of 7-11 with what seemed like hundreds of people walking by/waiting for the light to change sitting on their scooters, he took my hand and said he wanted to tell me something and ended up stumbling over 'i just want to say.. i love you. i mean! i like you.. i like you very much.'
it was adorable/awkward/sweet. so we'll see. the saga continues.

other things to be excited about..
these saltwater sandals that i just found on my blog crush of the week.
[photo from katiedid.squarespace.com]
a pair in yellow is on its way to my house right now. those red ones are calling my name too..

it's amazing

new favorite song. jem, it's amazing. my favorite part is 'makes my heart siiing'.

nothing to say today. picnic with twbf was cute. he seems to want to tell me something but he can't find the words. he keeps saying he gets sad thinking about me leaving. i told him that's the trouble with foreigners, we always leave. we're going to the national palace museum on sunday. it should be really cool.

tonight i added katie did's blog to the list
could her kids be any cuter?! and she made those dresses (and collars)
i wish i didn't have to pay for highlights like those.

p.s. do you see that shiny spot on the edge of the sink? that's where my contacts case is supposed to be. tonight it has mysteriously vanished. this happened a few months ago as well. i think our cleaning lady thinks they're old or something?

i know it won't be easy

the highlight of today was a lovely woman who let me go ahead of her in line at carrefour because i was buying 2 things of ice cream and she thought they would melt, though in taiwan they package ice cream in individual styrofoam containers so nothing does seem to actually melt before you get it home. since that was the most noteworthy part of my day, today i'm leaving you with images of pretty things.
this bedding from anthropologie. it's cotton but says dry clean only. who does that?
handmade necklaces with your initial from becoming.
handmade calligraphy stamps from emililies on etsy
prettiest wool felt handmade hydrangea headbands by louandlee (also on etsy, also available in adult sizes).
custom rubber stamps at paperwink.. which i think i've posted before, but they bear repeating.
pretty handmade purse at SaidosDaConcha on etsy

why each little bird has a someone

today i present some nature pictures leftover from yesterday.
jerry skipped out on me in chinese today so bobo and i forged ahead in the book. i know more ways to say 'five minutes until 3' than i ever thought possible. i need to show mr. kuo what i just learned so he can help me practice. a few months ago i learned kuai wu dian which is literally 'quick five oclock' but it means 'it's almost 5' and he says it to me every day now. mrs. chan just says 'hello!' and points at the clock.
jaime had no school today and we had plans to go swimming in the early afternoon, but it was kind of chilly out today so bobo said we should go to lunch instead. the two of us walked hand in hand to carrefour and had a grown up lunch at sushi express. she noticed that everyone was looking at us on the walk over and in the grocery store.
it was fun to have a couple of one on one hours. she told me who she likes and who she thinks is 'soso' in the dorm. kids basically like people who will spend quality time with them and keep their promises. i'm glad to be high on her list.
afterwards, we went over to the dorm and whipped up a delicious batch of HEB brownie mix that i imported at christmas break and we painted our nails. she only let me paint her pinkies because she isn't really allowed to paint her nails yet.
nothing really from tonight. i almost lost my cool with a kid in my second class. i led him by the arm back to his chair. i hate when some kid is up at the board trying to figure something out and then the whole class gets out of their chair to yell the answer at them or point to something.

oh and i gave my 2 months notice. my last day is july 7. now i just need to figure out when/how long i want to go to china so i can change my ticket home.

p.s. check out famille summerbelle. their stuff is so fun. [image from famille summerbelle].
you can check out the designer's home on design*sponge today

you would be in bloom

these are some leftover pictures from park day yesterday.
on monday, my 9-10 year old class had the QA 'what do you like to collect?' with the new vocab 'stamps, marbles, stickers and coins'. i got around to one kid, scott, who's cute and likes to joke around with me and he had written 'a pretty Megan'. i gave him a sticker, but i had to tell him that you can't collect megan's.
it has been so crazy windy the last few days. it's so scary to be driving along and then it feels like someone just pushed the wheels of your scooter out from under you. all of the sudden you'll be 2 feet to the left or right and you can't do anything about it. i just stay a little further away from the side of the road and try to be extra aware of who's behind me and how fast they're coming up on me.
(the next 2 pictures are from the little park next to our house).
twbf sent me a whole list of places we can check out today and their corresponding websites!
tonight i had a demo with my kindy girls. the parents were concerned that i talk too fast and that their kids don't want to listen to the CD that goes along with their book. we told them to let their kids watch any kind of english shows or cartoons they're interested in.

i finally know enough chinese that those meetings are starting to make more sense to me. it's pretty weird to be in a conference when everyone's talking about you and your class but you don't understand what's being said and no one's translating.
katie turned 24 (or 25?) today and we all sang happy birthday and someone bought her a taiwan-fab cake.
it had..
a layer of jello-y custard
a thick layer of [some kind of] purple bean
some jelly covered fruit
and tons of cake art on top
and it came in a super patterny box.

i'm doing research for my outside class tomorrow who chose to learn about sports, comics and the environment and i found..
at greenbydesign.com. sad.
all the more reason not to buy plastic things and buy things likeee..
these organic bags bec sent me the link to yesterday. they're on saleee. $34.99 for all 5.