Les Not-That Miserable Me

Hey Guys!

From the title, some of you... probably most of you can already guess what this post is going to be about.

Yes, it is going to be about food.


Just kidding!!! Of course it's going to be about the movie "Les Miserable," starring Hugh Jackman, Russel Crowe, Anne Hathaway and of course, the gorgeous Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne. Oh yeah and Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena B Carter as well.

I had no idea Cohen is starring the movie and I was like "is that... Borat...?" in the theatre. yeah ok, whatever.

I am here NOT to write critique for the movie.

I am actually here to talk about how I learned something new.
About how to prepare myself before watching a movie.

Embarrassingly, I didn't know the synopses of Les Miserable before.
Never read the book or never watched other versions of the novel's movie.

SO, basically I was asking around if anyone has seen this "Les Miserable" and if they have, I also asked them, "how was it?" or "what did you think?" or "did you eat popcorn?" or just you know, mediocre questions.

I was told by several people that they balwed their eyes out in the movie.
OR some told me that they were depressed or thought about life and stuff like that.

After hearing all these comments and such, I decided I should DEFINITELY bring something to wipe my tears and snot during the movie.

I thought, handkerchief?  Oh no. It wouldn't cut it if I need to blow my nose. Snot all over your face if you need to wipe your tears after blowing your nose?
GROSS.

So I bought myself 4 new packs of pocket tissue papers. You know what those are right?
These.

Not particularly these but I bought the ones that were soft and had moisturizers in them and all these fancy stuff to treat my nose nicely.

I watched the movie last Friday.

What happened to the tissue papers?

I USED NONE. WHAT! WHAT!

I did NOT shed a single tear before, during or after the movie.

I was in shock. with myself. I was thinking, "am I so cold-hearted that I couldn't cry in a movie that others bawled???"

But then, after the discussion with those I watched the movie with, we concluded that we were over-hyped or over-prepared to shed thousand tears.
You know, it's kinda like... uh... when you are SO hungry and dying to eat tacos and thinking you can gobble down 500 tacos but when you actually sit down for tacos, you only manage to eat 2 tacos.

Do you get it? I was just over-prepared.
I thought I would look puffy-eyed, red nosed, and still hiccuping coming out from the theatre. ... I guess at least I didn't look gross and miserable that way... but I was SO ready to cry.

The movie itself was good! and I liked the music and stuff.

BUT next time I know that I can't be over-hyped or over-prepared or set the expectation to cry or laugh or be scared or be hungry too high. I can save tissue money that way. Lesson learned.

HENCE, I shouldn't be asking around people about the movie that they have watched, which I have not watched but want to watch.

... Does that make sense...?

Well, I don't watch much of movies anyway. Pff, whatever.

Anyways, if anyone has not it yet, I recommend it.
Trust me, you won't cry. or maybe.... maybe not...

If you'd like to melt your heart...

It's been quite cold these days in Tokyo...

and my heart is cold too...


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! I NEED SOME LOVE AND WARMTH!!!!!!


I didn't actually scream these words but you know what I mean?

No? NO? what? I'm not lame and sad like you Yuri...??


fine then....

BUT if anybody is feeling low and cold, I have a perfect website for you. before that take this survey to find out if you are suitable for this site:


1. Do you like animals in general?
2. Do you like small things?
3. Are you feeling low and cold?

The survey was kind of a spoiler but WHATEVER.
If you answered yes to all the questions, you will be addicted.

one warning tho; you might get addicted and might not able to get out of this site.

ENJOY!
http://attackofthecute.com/

Somebody please explain to me.

Why Troy Davis was executed?

Yes,I know everyone's sick of this topic and I am just here to write another entry like EVERYONE ELSE to cry out the injustice of this messed up world.

No but really, why?

For anyone who's taken basic law class, which I did when I was in college (although it was business law class, it also covered basic criminal laws), there is a term called "reasonable doubt" when somebody is being tried. It's one of the fundamental rules in criminal laws, well, at least that's how I perceived.

And? How was Davis executed "beyond reasonable doubt?" After 7 out of 9 witnesses flipped their stories? And when there was no physical evidence present? And when some witnesses named another guy as the real murderer? When most witnesses confessed that they were pressured by police?

And all these claims were dismissed as "it was too late" and without "substantive claim of innocence?"




REALLYYYY????? REALLY????? HOW????


Yes, maybe some years passed when these witnesses flipped stories. But 7 out of 9???? And did these prosecutors and justices think these witnesses have forgotten or developed Alzheimer that the new claims were bogus or not "substantive" enough????




And after all these organizations and public figures and millions of people protested against
so-obviously-not-legally-justified sentence, the Georgia state still had the authority to kill this man, who was potentially innocent.





I would like to know, what kind of legal loop hole this is.


Troy Davis, we would never know now whether you were truly innocent now.
If you were, I am so sorry and please rest in peace.

Talk like Italians.

Hi!!!

I have been on vacation and hence I have not updated my blog for almost a month.
I know. I know. I don't even wanna talk about it. I've been so lazy. This is shameful and I should probably booed out of the blogging world by now. But as you know, I am shameless and have the balls to update it even after one month of absence. THERE I SAID IT. ARE YOU HAPPY NOW,

Anyways.

I've been in Italy where I'm staying at my boyfriend's house for a while.
It's been so relaxing... and I know I deserve it!!!!
Why? Because I'm Yuri. That's a good enough reason.

What? Yuri, you are an arrogant bitch?
... I kind of knew...I'm sorry...

Ok, so Italy, right.
It's frigging great!! Food, beaches, people and everything!!
Especially people though, I must say, are lovely here.

And it is so interesting to people-watch here as well.
I don't speak much of Italian, but I understand a bit and when they converse, I get the context of what they are talking about. But mostly I understand the context by their body language.

Yes, BODY LANGUAGE.
If you have not known already, Italians are known to express themselves with a lot of gestures.
And I would like to introduce some so that you can pretend like you are talking in Italian. Like me.

Here's the guide for you!!
http://www.alfredocassano.com/buyitaliangestures.html

I went to watch waterpolo game a several times because my boyfriend's brother plays with the national youth team. And I must say, again, it was hand-gesture fiesta during the game.
I mainly saw the "What" gesture (chapter1), "Look at that asshole!" gesture (chapter 1), or "take this" gesture (chapter 3).

Oh yes. They will yell, scream, and protest to the referee AND players. and I'm not talking about the coaches, mind you, I'm talking about the general audience.

It's intense, but definitely entertaining. They also do it when they are watching games on TV.

And me? well, I'm still process of learning. But I definitely learned one very importance gesture that will get you through life.





"I'm hungry."
Please refer to chapter 3.

You learn those gestures, you can probably almost seem like you are speaking Italian.

You know you made it in NYC when...

I have left NYC.
Yes I left. Permanently... Well... for now at least.
I will come back and visit though!!!
But I know things will not be the same from now on, now that I have moved back to Tokyo and starting my job in October...

So what's my blog going to be???

GOOD QUESTION!!!! Any guess??
......

Final Answer????





I'm abandoning this blog...

JUST KIDDING!!!!
OF COURSE NOT!
I like blogging. I like talking to my imaginary audience about my daily thoughts which are often nonsense.
But I like it! So I think I will just keep on blogging.
I will keep on focusing on my city life (it's gonna be in Tokyo)
occasionally reflecting my old days in NYC mixed with some travel and food stories.
So basically everything about my daily life?

What? Yuri, that's so boring, I don't care about your life??
HEY!

Anyways.
My experiences of three years in NYC were great. Truly amazing city.
I met great people, learned a lot, and certainly grew a lot. No, not my height. as a person.

I think I have become more patient, more independent, and more critical.
At the same time I think I learned to appreciate what life offers and all the obstacles as new challenges.
I will not trade my experiences in the city for anything else really.

Speaking of experiences, you do get a lot of culture shock when you move to a new city.
NYC IS the prime example for that matter.
 I mean...dirty subway, mean people, and over-priced food and drinks? COME ON.

But as I said before, through those negative or difficult experiences I have learned and grown so much.
And I can say with confident that I made it in NYC... ohhhh yes Jay-Z, I did it.
Why am I so confident about this?

Well well then... let me share with ya'll a little story of mine that made me conclude that I made it in the concrete jungle.

So...I believe it was in September. I was walking back from class to Union Square subway station after a long long day. I was exhausted, irritated and maybe a little bit hungry.
As a result, I probably looked quite bitchy as I walked by. But that's not that unusual.

Then it happened.
This small white woman, probably around 30 years of age came up to me as I was crossing the university place crosswalk.

She looked at my face and stopped me saying "excuse me!"
I stopped and said "yes?'

Woman: "I need to tell you this as I saw you walking...."
Me: "...ok?"
Woman: "You have so much energy...So much negative angry energy..."
Me: "(thinking to myself) ah one of those psychic tellers, you."
Woman: "You have so much negative energy in your womb... in your VAGINA."

I SWEAR TO GOD this is EXACTLY what she said to me. I SWEAR.

Now I'm thinking back, I couldn't quite figure out what she meant by that.
I could only think a few possibilities.

A. I am infertile
B. I am deprived sexually.
C. I have some kind of infection down there.
D. All of  the above.

Anyways you wonder what my reactions were??
I plain burst out laughing in her tiny little face saying "whaaattt???"

Then she just told me "that's all" and walked away.
That tiny woman made my week... no... month!
But that's when I realized that I made it in this big city...

And you can too.
If you can laugh at incidents like this, quite disturbing and offensive, you know you have conquered the big concrete jungle. I am just so grateful for all things that happened in my life (including this woman) and people that were part of it.

I graduated...

hence, I chill the eff out.

Pre-Graduate Syndrome

Hi all!!

As you may know, I am graduating from my university (finally) at the end of this month!!!!
And sadly, I am leaving New York City for good after that to start my career in Tokyo....tears.

So I will probably have to re-edit the description of this blog.... more tears.
But I think it would be interesting to see the culture of Japan / Tokyo, from different perspective that I acquire during the 4 years of my studies and living in New York.

It is an understatement just to say "I learned so much in these 4 years."

That being said, I would like to talk about my thesis project a little bit.

You know, senior thesis. A synonym of "death" in undergraduate study?
It was not required by my program to take senior thesis to graduate from undergrad, but for some psychotic reason, I decide to take an intensive thesis class for my final semester.

Why, you may ask.
I want to ask myself too.

WHY YURI WHY?????

I'm not sure really. I think I wanted to do a project that really interests me to sum up my life as a student , to have some closure for my glorious undergrad days.
And for glorious, I mean gloriously painful. Whatever that means.

My thesis class was only one semester long, as opposed to traditional one year, so I guess that was more light-weight than what people do normally.

Do you wanna know what I did for my thesis???








....I did some project about food and eating...

What? "omg yuri that's so predictable, you dirty pig"?

Shut up.

Anyways, it was a painful process, just to summarize.
Oh yes, painful.
I am glad to say, however, that I am quite content with what I came up with and accomplished in the end.
But do you know what happens when you put so much time and effort into something and  you are almost done with it? Like right before you do the big final presentation which is one of the most important presentation of your entire undergrad program???? Can you guess what happened to me?







SEVERE WITHDRAWAL SYNDROME.
and I'm not kidding this time. I thought my PBSD (pre-beginning-of-semester disorder; please refer to my older post) was pretty bad, but now that I experienced this withdrawal attack, it makes PBSD some kind of bullsh*t. well, I guess it was...

The symptoms of my withdrawal syndrome:
1. Insomnia
2. Mood Swings
3. Anxiety attacks
4. Panic attack
5. Hives (sudden skin rash accompanied by mosquito bite-like bumps all over body)

WOW. THANK YOU THESIS. WAY TO SUM UP MY UNDERGRAD STUDIES!!!!!

Do you know how to treat this withdrawal syndrome????







I don't. Fail. If anyone does, please let me know. Thanks.


ANYWAYS! Congrats to all my fellow classmates for completing their undergrad studies and overcoming this deathly journey!!! Now the real life starts!! woohoo.... damn it I should have failed a year so I could have delayed the real life...

How to get through the difficult times...

As many of you have heard, the biggest earthquake in Japanese history and huge tsunami hit the eastern coast of Japan.

I am, like everyone else, devastated by this horrific event and tragedies that are sweeping across the country.

I am though, surprised by how my country really kept it under control even in this chaotic situation.
Many people kept calm under the panic, even taking videos during the shake, and efficiently evacuated after.
Many social network sites (like facebook and twitter) were used to confirm the safety of people, to share the information, and to cheer each other up.

The trains started running a few hours after the shakes.
What was even more fascinating was that people, under tremendous stress, fear, and grief,
still lined up to get into these public transportation. And it was the same for grocery stores.
Some walked home for hours, again, in line, with an order.
I saw strangers comforting others, posts that thanked other nations for the aids and support.

I have always been critical towards my home country for its passiveness and cowardliness.

But this event truly has changed my perspectives on Japan.
Japan and its people were able to keep the inner strength and the sense of harmony with others,
which are very much the cores of its cultural values, even after the disaster.

I admit that there are a lot of issues that Japan needs to work on.
But I am hopeful that Japan will be able to get through anything,
after seeing some amazing stuff online and on the news.
I have never felt so helpless and far from Japan,
but at the same time, I have never felt so much love and the pride for my own country.

I hope other nations can take something away from this event, in order to tackle future natural disasters.
It is time like this, that you really need to stay together and help each other, to get through the difficult times.

My deepest condolences to those who are affected by this event.
And my sincere gratitudes for those who showed support and concerns.

How to ride trains...elegantly.

I'm sleepy.
This time of the year, I am especially sleepy.
I'm usually a morning person who wakes up before the alarm goes off.
But recently, I've been hitting snooze...
I almost overslept for work once...

SHAME! SOME DISCIPLINE PLEASE!

Anyways. Enough about me sleeping. Oh, but yesterday, I dreamed about myself sleeping.
Isn't that weird? You are sleeping when you are really sleeping as well...

OK ENOUGH YURI, ENOUGH.

So yesterday, I was on a train on my way back home from school, around 9pm,
and I witnessed a few things and the title of this blog crossed my mind.

Honestly, New Yorkers need to ride trains in more elegant manners.
Not that it's any of my business but it's just annoying to see some things.
So here are some things that I saw.

I was standing in line when train arrived. There was this very thin, tall, pretty lady behind me, and several others waiting in line as well. As soon as the door opened, this pretty looking lady pushed everyone out and rushed to the open seat. NOT ELEGANT. 
And then, I was standing on the corner near the door and the train got to the next station. This guy, a broad shouldered man that looked like Peter from Family Guy, came in. He was eating a hamburger with one hand, and he bumped into me with his broad shoulder (I swear it was intentional), then gave me this glare. I mean WTF. NOT ELEGANT. 
While the thin pretty lady was sitting on her comfortable seat and the broad shouldered guy was eating his burger, there was this guy standing across me. He looked normal, until his hand reached near his crotch area and started scratching. Then he went on to put his hand INSIDE his pants to have better scratch. REALLY???? IN TRAIN?? That's why you have to wash your hands after you ride train. You never know who touched what. SO NOT ELEGANT.


All these things happened in 10 minutes or so of riding the train ok?
Imagine being on a train all day long.
I don't want to imagine what I will have to witness.
Here are the basic rules for elegance:

1. Don't fight for seat. Your legs won't break into half.
2. Don't eat in the train. It's just gross.
3. Don't bump into people on purpose. It's mean.
4. Don't scratch your balls. It's just gross.
5. Just stand/sit quietly, or talk with moderate volume of voice.
And just get off the train. Say "excuse me" when you need to push people.

I think these people above need to re-do elementary school.

Have a safe train ride everyone!

Valentine's Day!! Let us all be the slaves of corporate marketing!

Valentine's day... it is a special day for people to appreciate/confess/drop some dollars for their love.

Very romantic.

Eh, anyways.
Valentine's day, as commonly known, is a day started by Saint Valentine, a Christian priest, who helped young people marry under the prosecution of Roman emperor Claudius II. For his kind action, Saint Valentine was executed on February 14th. According to another legend, this saint confessed his love to a young girl the night before his execution by sending her a card, which was signed as "From your Valentine"... (sources: History.com)

OK THESE LEGENDS HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO HISTORICAL FACTS PEOPLE!

First off, there are at least 3, yes THREE martyrs called Valentines and we don't even know which one it is that we are celebrating.

Second, some historians argue that there are no romantic associations between St. Valentines up til certain period of time. Some go on and argue that Catholic Church used the date of St. Valentine's death in order to "christianize" the Roman pagan holiday Lupercalia (a day of fertility which happened to fall on between February 13 - 15, convenient!!!)

From these research, we can conclude one thing.

WE ARE ALL SLAVES OF MARKETING FROM ANCIENT TIMES!
Ah, the power of marketing... Love it.

In order to not fall into corporate hands by submitting myself into buying corporate Valentine's goods, I had to look for an inexpensive alternative to celebrate this HOLYday of romance... And found some interesting ideas...

HERE:

1. Make a memory jar. Take simple slips of paper and write a favorite memory on each one. Be specific, and try to record as much about the occasion as you can. Tuck them into a jar or wooden box, tied with a bow.

2. Build a romantic fire. Host your own indoor picnic, complete with a bottle of champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries.

3. Recreate your first date together. What were you wearing? Where did you go? Do you remember what you talked about? Spend the evening reminiscing and reflecting on how far you have come as a couple.

HERE COMES MY FAVORITE IDEA....!


4. Spoon. 

HAHA ok.

5. Choose a book in which you are both interested, fiction or nonfiction. Read a new chapter each night before bed. This cozy tradition will allow you to spend some quality time together and often makes for thought provoking breakfast conversations.

6. Make a tape of the songs special to your relationship. Include "your song," songs from your wedding, songs from favorite movies. Add a personal voice dedication and leave it in his briefcase, Walkman, or car stereo.

7. Turn off the TV and play a game of Scrabble or Pictionary.

OMG this website is soo NOT helpful with ideas. But just in case you guys are interested, here is the website that I pulled the ideas from.

http://www.creativehomemaking.com/inexpensive-valentines-day-ideas.shtml

#17 is my favorite, although it's pretty much the same as #8 and #17. Repeat much?

Hopefully this post has helped you reconsider... well figure out how to spend this marketing-filled date with you loved ones! I'm going to sit home and watch movies with some beer and wings. Let's recreate Superbowl feasting!

HAPPY ST. VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!!! <3 <3 <3

Remedy for pre-beginning of-semester depression syndrome.

UGH school's starting tomorrow...

I'm experiencing the pre-beginning of-semester-depression (abbr: PBSD) yet again for the 200th time.

But this time it's different. Why? Because I'm finally, yes, finally, graduating this semester.
I will never have this PSD ever again, well, unless I decide to go to grad school, which will most likely happen.

It's a weird feeling, I'm so annoyed that another semester is to start again. But then, I'm also feeling a little melancholic and sad that this is my last semester as a student, but also last few months in NYC.

OH GOD IT'S DEPRESSING ANYWAYS. STOP STOP STOP THIS!

Let me introduce a cure for this to yall.

Here,

Light some candle, drink a glass (or two, or three, or more), smoke a cigarette and listen to Bessie Smith station on Pandora...

and close your eyes...

See... you start feeling...


EVEN MORE SAD GOD DAMN IT.



No but really, try it. I'm feeling relaxed and chilled more than ever. Some may think drinking alone is only for losers and alcoholics, but I actually do it quite often. I like drinking alone, thinking about things, writing like this and listening to music.

What? Yuri, you're a loser? oh...well.... ok.... then.

Anyways, this is the remedy for PBSD for me. Everyone should just try it just once. TRY IT.