January 2011
5 posts
the best thing that's happened this week thus far
It was the South Korean’s last day. He’d been with us since the beginning, back when we were thinning fruit instead of picking it. For 3 months he had endured constant mockery and jibes against the quality and quanity of his work, but today the boss let him call Last Bucket. He filled his lungs and called out like a soccer comentator: “Last...
small miracles
Horticulture is a tricky business. I’ve never been one to show any interest in our green friends and how they grow, but this cherry picking gig has forced me to take note. For instance, plants need water to grow, right? Everyone knows that drought is bad news; and therefore rain should always be welcomed with open arms.
Wrong, my friends and especially wrong when it comes to cherries. ...
The first time I heard this song, I was in a bar...
December 2010
3 posts
the greats
The greatest thing about having a summery Christmas is the number of bumble bees that fly through the Cottage’s open door every day. Kiwi bumble bees are about twice the size of American ones and 100 times as curious.
The greatest thing about my job is being able to discover music I never bothered with before; I stick my iPod on shuffle and don’t allow myself to change the song until I turn it...
November 2010
2 posts
hedgehogs
Oh Tumblr, I feel as if we don’t know each other anymore.
I’m living and working on an orchard in Central Otago. It’s going alright.
My room at the Cottage seems like an addition. Instead of a proper foundation, there is a gap from the dirt to my floor. Sometimes I catch creatures unaware, and they scurry under the house when I open the door. In order to get to the main area of the house...
October 2010
7 posts
You know what is the best method for getting over your fear of heights? On your first day at your new job, have your boss explain that you have to be able to climb to the top of a 9 ft ladder in order to keep your job. Sure New Zealand, I’ll climb into the tree tops if it means I can stay here. Absolutely.
eatin' and drinkin': Kiwi-style
Kiwi burgers may come as a surprise to those used to the American-style burger. You start out with either a breaded piece of fish, chicken or beef. Above the meat patty, apply lettuce, cheese, mayonnaise and a sauce similar to Thousand Island dressing. Below gets your typical slice of tomato and one of pickled beet.
Unlike meat pies which have a flaky, buttery crust, fruit pie crust is...
no shoes? no problem.
Those in the States will be familiar with the popular slogan, “No shirt, no shoes, no service”. In New Zealand, this does not apply. Children regularly are seen in grocery stores without shoes. Teenage girls get out of a car barefoot at the bus stop and stand in the frigid, pouring rain holding their shoes. Guys walk into gas stations sans shoes and shirts. Nobody bats an eye. When it comes...
April 2010
1 post
who will win in battle tiger vs. python?
Nate and I have been busying ourselves this morning by playing endless games of Dominion while watching the BBC series Life on Youtube. While watching a selection on reptiles, we came across this video. I’m not sure how old it is, but the music that accompanies the footage makes it totally worth it. The last third is kind of agonizing, but the final remark the narrator gives is...
March 2010
1 post
weekend biz
For the past five days I’ve been in Chicago visiting 3 lovely ladies. My wallet is considerably lighter, yet my luggage is not. I left Iowa City with one book (Sherlock Holmes vol. 2) and returned with eight. Dios mio! That’s what I get when I’m friends with enablers.
February 2010
4 posts
The aforementioned Nick Cave and the Bad...
two posts in one day? UNPRECEDENTED.
I managed to tear my eyes away from the MSTRKRFT video for a few minutes, and found this article on CNN. Watch the video and try not to squirm.
January 2010
1 post
media stuffs
I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m pretty excited about the new Alice in Wonderland movie. Also, I’m a pretty ginormous fan of covers. Hence, this sounds pretty fucking rad.
Also, a revamp of the Spiderman series? I’m sorry die hards, but it needs it.
Thirdly, I’ve been reading a lot lately. I usually receive a lot of books for Christmas, although...
December 2009
8 posts
mostly youtube
Hey all, here are two movies that I am REALLY excited about:
It Might Get Loud
Under the Great White Northern Lights
Also, if you’re not watching Parks and Recreation, you should probably start now. It’s a ray of sunshine in comparison to the doom and suck that is 30 Rock season 4.
I mean, how can you deny this theme song?
I was wasting time on stumbleupon.com this morning when the site lead me to this site. His exhibit ends today in New York, which I find funny because I used to walk past these photos everyday in Sevilla. I think the Spanish architecture and orange trees suite them better than the stark white walls and wooden floors of any museum.
Take a look:
This makes me wish I were about 10 years older and wealthier.
so...
So there’s this thing in the blogging community called NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) where the participating bloggers blog on their blogs (dear me) every day for that month. And apparently I completely misunderstood the assignment because hey, November was NaBloPoMo, and I didn’t blog once. Really the NaBloPoMo thing is just a coincidence. I just didn’t feel like...
October 2009
7 posts
and something creepy →
something cute for halloween →
the office: bff to wife beaters everywhere
So it turns out that the biggest TV wedding of the last 10 years (any in the last 5? I’m at a loss.) probably saved the career of one dumbass, woman-hater. I just heard “Forever” on the radio. So much for the Chris Brown boycott.
anyone want to take a trip to northern finland...
Before I left for Spain last year, I made a list of things I wanted to do/see while I was in Europe. Some of them were things that had been suggested to me over the years (a professor I Fellowed for said that the hot chocolate at the British Library was the best in the world), and some were just things that I wanted to check out for myself. One of the later on my list was to see the Northern...
guess who...
…doesn’t have to wake up at 5 a.m. for the next twelve days? I cannot believe we made it through five, count them, FIVE 6 a.m. shifts this week. And all five were filled with more bodily excrement than an incontinent T-Rex. There ought to be a medal for that.
because today wasn't so hot
watching Jim and Pam’s wedding after work
Silversun Pickups
reliving Buffy the Vampire Slayer with Nate and falling in love with it all over again
Autumn cold and my new hoodie
two of my favorite websites: kottke and the a.v. club
my new job
road trips to Wisconsin to see some old friends
and of course, slow lorises (and the dumb americans who feed them)
September 2009
8 posts
daily stats
Hours awake: 11.33
Number of jobs procured: 2
Number of driver’s licenses renewed (3 months late): 1
Number of Office episodes watched: 2
Length of bike ride (in hours): 2.166
Number of eviscerated gnats on my arms after bike ride: 44
Length of time before I pass out (in hours): .5 and one bowl of spaghetti
daily stats, morning edition
Hours awake: 3
Office episodes watched: 3
Games of Carcassonne played: 1
Complaints about various bodily ailments (sinuses, bug bites, infected piercings): 57
Fires started in toaster: 1
Fires started in toaster that were not my fault: 1
hey all you iowa haters:
This weekend, Nate and I drove down to the Farm to celebrate a great man turning 90 years old. The Farm is 200 acres of land south of Des Moines, and what I’ve discovered is probably my favorite part of Iowa. There’s no electricity or running water, but I always come out feeling a little cleaner than I went in. For those of you who can’t quite grasp what I’m talking...
pt 1: all the psychological crap
Two weekends ago, I had a really good weekend — a weekend to end all weekends. It was such a good weekend in fact, that it made me sad to realize that I hadn’t had such a good time in almost a year, and hey Sophie, you’re TWENTY THREE, so what the fucks up with that?
That Friday, I suffered through 4 hours of driving rain to reach Renee’s apartment in Chicago for a...
August 2009
2 posts
some advice
If someone, anyone, even if they are your oldest friend, offers you a stuffed pretzel, do not, I repeat, do not take and consume that pretzel. You will most certainly die of the stomach plague.
That is all.
3 of my favorite pastimes
I’ve been thinking about cooking a lot lately. This all stems from several things, one of them being now that we’ve moved, we now have a kitchen that, albeit small, I acutally want to be in because of (cue angel chorus) NATURAL LIGHT. The other reasons have to do with a little movie called Julie & Julia and the book that preceded it.
When the movie came out, I had a faint...
i am so excited for the iowa state fair.
Usually, I’m not so crazy about fairs. Granted, you can ususally see some pretty interesting people, and the food is so greasy that it passes from “inedible” to “freaking delicious”, but they’ve generally never really floated my boat. I’m kind of un-American that way. However yesterday, Nate suggested that we check out the Johnson County Fair because we...