| 16 apr 2001 day 4 of my battles with the camera issue is bringing some results. a two-hour call to microsoft has most likely solved my problems in upgrading my OS to win98. i have to say, the service at microsoft was REALLY good. i was on hold for a total of like 10 seconds before i talked to a living, breathing person. anyways, it's affecting my mood greatly. i was almost bouncing out the door when i finally went to work at noon. it's still installing right now, so... i'll find out for real tonight when i go home and see if the install worked, and then i can put in the USB drivers and test out my camera. so there is still a ways to go, but that unintelligible win98 upgrade problem is resolved. ----- yesterday, i was walking to dinkelspiel auditorium on stanford campus to watch some taiko practice. as i drew nearer and heard the drums, i felt like i was at home. i know i talk about it a lot, but that just reflects how much taiko is in my blood. it's the ONLY thing that i can see myself being motivated to do, careerwise. i realized that last night when i was talking to carol, and she asked how work was going. and i said how my dream is to play with shoji and kris, and she said that knowing how i'm like the laziest person on this planet, it would be kind of difficult to work with such motivated people and ambitious people like kris and shoji. but i responded by the fact that taiko is the only activity that makes my blood pump, and i was kind of confident that i would up my commitment and dedication. hm. i take that back. taiko's not the only thing that makes me excited (obvious alternatives include being in love and basketball, hee hee), but it's the only career or work-related activity that i can see myself doing indefinitely. god, i hope it works out. it's definitely a long shot. anywa... home. the sound of taiko. the feel of bachi (taiko sticks) in my hands. it just feels like i was meant to do this. another sound that makes me feel at home is the sound of someone calling me "dards." that is what my good friends call me. ----- last night, i saw a play at stanford put on by the asian american theater project. it was called _achievers_, and it started one of the freshmen in stanford taiko, ricky. i was really impressed by the acting skills of the five members of the cast, and ricky had played this hilarious set of two characters; one was this really maladjusted, shy, geeky computer porn masturbator, and the other was this cocky, well-endowed, overconfident alpha male. there were a couple of times when his second persona made some pseudo-sexual comments, and when he said them, he looked straight at jo-ann, who was sitting in the front row. i thought that was such a cute touch. it was kind of heartwarming to watch jo-ann's eyes follow ricky around the set, even though there were other characters onstage. i really respect their love, and even though i was in love with jo-ann for almost all of 2000, i'm glad that ricky and jo-ann are together. they fit each other in a sort of pure untainted glow. ricky had this entourage of like 9 stanford taiko women, who all rushed him after the show was over and surrounded him. truly rock-star-like. they were like ricky groupies! i felt kind of out of place there, but i definitely got a kick out of seeing a throng of women surround him with loving affection. ricky gets the "taiko love" award hands down. sigh. i won't lie by saying i wasn't a little jealous of him. :) i wonder if i would be any good at acting. one of the other cast member was able to draw out tears during one scene. hell. it takes a ton of drama for me even to cry for real; there's no freaking way i can do fake tears! i think my own consciousness is too much in the forefront of my psyche for me to temporarily replace it with a fictional character's state of mind. i definitely think acting takes a lot of skill. but i wonder... if i ever interacted with one, how would i know if they were being genuinely themselves, or just faking an emotional response? that would make me kind of suspicious. yeah. call me paranoid. i just think about those kinds of things. i'm munching on my favorite pepperidge farm cookies... bordeaux. shit, they're good. today's indian food night, so i'm skipping lunch and just snacking so i can stuff myself with dinner. once again, they're ordering the food i picked out two weeks ago. |