the shigeki "shake-down"

oh, there you are.

2009-02-23T01:18:00.003-05:00

if you were looking for me and couldn't find me, i'll give you a hint.

you can always check here.

i think that will help.

engagement post redux!

2008-08-28T10:03:00.002-04:00

this tale finishes the long awaited fake proposal from april fool's day. i'd put a catchy link in to that prank, but we have since deleted that post. which is really too bad, because it was filled with so much foolery.

we got people's hopes up then and haven't heard the quiet since.

many of you have already heard the news. but here's the run down anyway.

the night started with dinner at our favorite restaurant: Upstairs (pictured here courtesy of new york magazine).

emily had the halibut. i had the bouley burger. both delicious. as was dessert.

afterwards, we went for a walk down towards the boardwalk along the hudson. as we were getting there, stevey was stealthfully setting up his ninja camera to document the whole thing digitally. which is how we got pictures like this.

anyway. i had a little 2.5 x 3.5 photobook made with pictures spanning from the very first time emily came out to visit, even before we were dating up until this summer. inside, i included some masterful poetry in the form of a proposal. sparing you the sap, i proposed, she said yes and we had a wonderful time at the park: trying on the ring, taking pictures of ourselves, having other people take pictures of us, &c.

you would then think the night was over. you would then be wrong.

for the past week or so, i had been emailing and calling our friends to keep the night open. so while we were at dinner, stevey and our friend emily mitarai were back home setting up and welcoming our friends for our joyous return. earlier in the day, i had procured a cake from chelsea market, some martinellis, and a tall new orchid from this florist in the west village.

so when we came home, emily was a totally surprised and a little shocked to see our friends in revelry awaiting the newly engaged couple. everyone was really happy and the night was really a lot of fun. you can see in one of the pictures, marc is saying something really funny. and its too bad the flash washes out the mood stevey and emily m. set with the soft lighting and well selected music for such a gathering.

all in all it was a really good night.
we look forward to seeing you all soon on the 22nd of november in LA...

a good ride

2006-04-24T08:04:00.002-04:00

thanks for your participation...

confused

2006-04-18T15:28:00.000-04:00

do you ever wonder, what am i watching?
or what's going on here?
or are they matching or are we?
or where do you get an orange suit like that?

but i guess that its fine if i don't know all the answers. and what's wrong with being trendy? hundreds of people couldn't be wrong though right? like, american idol, (never seen a full episode) but if all these people are watching, it must be good. same with cooking/skating/dancing with stars. which i think is ironic because reality tv got huge because it put regular people in the limelight and made them stars. the gimic allowed regular people to be stars. so explain to me how reality tv with celebrities works? isn't that taking stars and leaving them in the limelight? so maybe i'm a little confused.

budget

2006-04-13T01:34:00.000-04:00

by far the best $16 dollars to come out of my budget in a long time. my feet still ache, my ears still ring, and i can't stop seeing images of the mates of state laying it down. any literary, descriptive attempts to capture the essence that is the mates would do them an enormous disservice.

just enjoy the pictures and wish that you were there.

pleather

2006-04-12T15:08:00.000-04:00

or should i say, "leather, pleeease."

spring is here in nyc,
strolling home in hanami.
here are days of pleasure,
gone are days of pleather.

with the onset of spring here in washington heights, one thing i'm fo sho gonn miss is those AWESOME leather coats with stitching depicting the most intricate designs. i don't even know where these cats find these coats and how many hamiltons one has to drop to pick one up.

so my buddy bracken and i only had a half day of school today, allowing us the morning to cruise around manhattan a little bit. i let him pick the free location because i have been to 5 or so museums in the last week or so alone. he chose the intrepid (pictured below), which is an old navy ship with all sorts of cool planes and missles and helicopters and such, you know man things of american muscle. anyway, as we were walking back to our subway stop, the thought occurred to me, i'll never be able to pull off one of the awesome stitched leather jackets.

certain things are doable, while others are unobtainble. pleather... unobtainble.

(insert personal beat to taste, (bass as needed))

somethings is doable
others is blueable
sportin it'n prime
gonn get cha erry time
coming at ya quick, gotcha caught up un-slick
whether on the measure
pleather don't mean pleasure

heights

2006-03-26T22:03:00.000-05:00

"they will see us waving from such great heights,
"come down now", they'll say
but everything looks perfect from far away,
"come down now", but we'll stay..." --postal

i went climbing today. i've been climbing recently. but today i went climbing with stephen. there something energizing about climbing. looking up at the place you want to be and knowing that all you have to do is climb up to the top. "everything looks perfect from far away." and not the false-perfect of george seurat that falls apart upon minute inspection. but instead today WAS a sunday on la grand jette, and in lieu of umbrellas, we had cameras and instead of blazers we had hoodies. and everything did look clearer from the top as well, almost as if our exertions in reaching the apex justified our clarity.

i felt good to climb today. sometimes the bricks were lose. sometimes the places i wanted to go had no access. no matter how cool i thought it would be, i was blocked as if i had no input. but the floors and rooms i did get to experience were well worth any effort it took to ascend to a new place. and when i got there, i realized that my effort has flavored the view. and the chysler building was beautiful and sophisticated.

such great heights. i love that beat. the opening of this song is distinct and separate, unlike its counterparts. and that's probably why i love it so much. or maybe because i like climbing and i wanna stand on such great heights. except i've never realized how much i liked climbing, until i went climbing today. but i've been climbing recently too. and maybe i've climbed in the past. all in all its gotta be the engulfing feeling of accomplishment. where there was distance and such great heights separating you before there is left a residual thoroughfare paved with your intentions-in-action.

in control

2006-03-17T17:54:00.000-05:00

when it happened twice before, you knew it was gonna happen again.

CLICK HERE NOW!

if you're not outta control, then you're not in control.

and y'all know where to find me on june 16!

aspirations

2006-03-13T08:15:00.000-05:00

when i grow up, i want to be left-handed.

invasion

2006-03-07T08:07:00.000-05:00

yesterday i woke up to look out the window, saw this, and i thought, when did the north koreans get here?!

zombie

2006-03-03T16:35:00.000-05:00

so i woke up yesterday morning with the absolute best song in my head. zombie. by the cranberries. at least 8 degrees of awesome strung into that song. just think of the lyrics, in your head, in your hee-a-d-d, in you he-e-ea-d-d, again and again. but as you wail these notes, remember that you have to punch yourself in the throat at the right beat to simulate the perfect tone and syncopation. but sitting there eating my costco peach yogurt watching stephen get ready for work, i thought, "maybe they have something here."

how much of what we deem reality is really real? for example, take stephen and his latest post please pass. google doesn't define the reality of his blog. it's there. but yet in his head, he wants greater recognition (and maybe i'm putting motive where is doesn't exist) and for the grand wizard of the world wide web to dub him sir deltar, ruler of the dominion.

sometime when it's cold outside all it takes is one good shiver to shake off the annoyance. sometimes when you're nervous you just have to stop thinking nervous. i remember this time when i was walking with my buddies back from the beach heading to the eki outside of fujisawa, just a little ways from tokyo, and i was trying to be poetical with the statement, "don't worry, i have an innate abitlity to be where i've been before." but other times i think that we define ourselves through diversity, which can be unifying or dividing. and sometimes i can't remember how i dress in the summer when it's winter cause its so cold and can't conceptualize the idea of leaving the house in shorts, flip-flops, and awesome t-shirts. sometimes i think i'm the same. sometimes i think i'm different, and i'm speaking chronologically. sometimes your ahead, but if everybody turns around, you're in the back.

either way:

resilience requires
redefining reality.

exit strategy

2006-02-27T12:04:00.000-05:00

do you think the way we exit matters? for real, is the exit more important than the entrance. this weekend sitting at dinner, eating some sushi, having some conversations japanese, i thought about exit strategies. strangely connected with a conversation i imposed on stevey last weekend at the cemetary. sometimes i think the exit is more important than the entrance. samurai believed this. that is why hari-kiri (seppuku) was practiced. since they honored the idea of reincarnation, they believed the way you exit life was an important step to continue the way you fought in life and basically lived your life. so if you had somehow dishonored your clan, it was redeemable by an honorable death. interesting practice.

relationships can be the same way. i almost think that it's more important to have an appropriate conclusion to courting than a romantic beginning. you can even salvage a horrible relationship with the right exit strategy. however, the antagonistic approach is just as potent because much of the rush of fun in the beginning will eventually regress, the words/phrases you use during that all-too-painful break-up conversation will linger in the mind of the opposite party for times to come. those critical moments may be etched permanently with potential to taint all other elements of an otherwise good relationship. exits can be telling.

i think there's something to be said about exit strategies. ok so let's consider the spasmodic utterances i forced on stevey as we sauntered through the jfk memorial site last weekend in the district. similar to the way our generation will recall 911, the prior generations can all relate when/where/how they heard about the assassination of jfk. jonny kennedy had roughly 3 years in office and dealt with some historic events like the bay of pigs and the cuban missile crisis. but how much could a president really accomplish in three years that would memoralize him for generations to follow. now, i wasn't alive during that period in history, but did the american people love jfk that much prior to his assassination? or was it the subsequent love affair with jackie and a feeling of societal vulnerability?

take another martyr, the reverend doctor martin luther king jr. i do not want to take away from his legacy at all, but consider this point, what if goerge bush sr. instead of mlk? yeah, he conducted the gulf war and raised a son that would follow his lead, but still went down a rare one-term defeated incumbent. and will his grave sit on a bluff in the nation's most prestigious cemetary and overlook the hill with its glowing momuments of other national heroes? if the first george dubya was brutually murdered would there be middle schools in every neighborhood bearing his name? maybe, maybe not. my point is this. yes, great men. and great men in prominent, conspicuous positions were killed for the cause. but they didn't give their lives, their lives were taken. don't you think its more noble to put your life on the line, like the numerable causalties from all of our nations wars? and yet how many of these men get more than a flag delivered by uniformed men to their doorsteps? i guess my question is this, why does involuntary assassination merit more history honor points than voluntary sacrifice to a cause? but maybe it's true that an ignoble act can and will be redeemed by an approriate exit strategy.

longing for love...d ones

2006-02-22T19:55:00.000-05:00

stephen come home to me now. i miss you! in your absence, i've been spending a lot of time with r clark. i hope you don't mind. but it's time we were together again. forget miss i'll-give-you-my-number-but-not-my-name-anonymous-girl and come home to me. in the meantime, i'll will be waiting with r clark...

ps. for those that don't know, road tripped to dc last weekend and had a good time, including the sunday morning stroll through arlington cemetery and posing in front of jfk's memorial site with dc proper in the back.
pss. favorite dc-related song: hands down, it's gotta be "the district sleeps alone tonight." name the band and you win my love and respect and maybe even a monetary reward of sorts.

weekend paradise

2006-02-15T08:01:00.000-05:00

so while all my buddies were busy making history here in nyc, by that i mean fighting the record-breaking blizzard that pounded the east coast this last weekend, i was busy trying to make nerve-wracking decisions: beach or pool-side? cause if you go to the beach, you will inevitably end up with sand in your hair and salt water in your mouth. but if you stay at the hotel pool, you don't quite get the richest experience possible. but sun is sun and you can get fried at either location, as witnessed by this lobster shot of our poolside buddy. scale of 1 to 10, how hot is this guy?? (feel free to vote deltar style)

so puerto rico was a weekend in paradise. granted, most of the trip we didn't leave a four block radius, but when your hotel is a block away from the beach and your biggest decision is beach or pool, i guess it all makes sense that we didn't venture out too much. although, the times we did branch out were just as memorable. some of the greatest moments of the trip would have to include discovering a private beach for a private swim in a private cove with, i'm not kidding, perfect sand and the most inviting, subtle waves. sandwich that activity between two sessions on a scooter buzzing coast-side for a couple hours each way. man, it was to die for. other highlights would include spending 30 min trying to talk to night-watch pool guard to turn a blind eye on our late night swim intentions to no avail and being forced to take our midnight swim to the ocean, under to casual light of a perfect full moon. so maybe the guard was doing us a favor. (however, i don't think he was playing that way.) but his stubbornness could only be matched and beat by our own as we snuck back into the pool a couple hrs later to finish out the original plan. nothing in the world can compare with the right late night hot tub. and i will not back down from that statement.

other noteworthies: random indian belly dancers, fried hut food, salsa dancing, white girls dancing with old latin charmers, young latin dudes with old grandmas that can still throw it down, gelatos, 3 hr sleep sessions, getting caught trying to borrow the deck chairs, myth busters, high jacking pool chairs for the homeless, and access to jackbauer (no space) in a foreign land, where he is also somehow protecting us there as well, and all the other classic moments of the weekend.

old san juanny

hotel shot.

"you gotta be kidding me" private beach

best contraption conceivable if you're betting gelatos

it almost finally happened.

2006-02-11T18:19:00.000-05:00

we almost did it. but the process we did. we went to the colbert report. it was hilarious. and by almost did it, i mean we almost made it to the daily show. personally, i like the daily show more than the colbert report, but that is not to say, that the colbert report has not nestled itself into a pleasant little cranny in my heart. cheesy? yes. but that's how a feel about the colbert report. and yes, it was as funny if not more so live, than on my daily dose of comedy central via the internet. so stevey hooked up with four tickets and he and i and our two friends, di and ryan (no footage found). it was well worth the wait. how are people like colbert, stewart, and others so funny? i love it

told ya!

2006-02-03T08:24:00.000-05:00

here's a game...
try to count and tally all the inside-out umbrellas you see today. suckas!

for those of you that have read or heard my treatise on unmbrellas, you know what i'm talking about.

maiden voyage

2006-01-30T10:36:00.000-05:00

well it happened this weekend. stevey and i have been talking about having a gathering at our place for some time now. and while we have had fhe, birfday get-togethers, and other casual functions, we had not hosted any big parties. so friday night we were in soho getting some pizza at pomodoro's figuring out what we were going to do with the rest of the weekend. and although we were tempted to join the chinese new year festivities in chinatown, we decided to host our own celebrations.

i, luckily, spent most of the day at the library, while stevey and ryan ran down to chinatown to get some goods. to my adulation, they returned not only with the desired gyoza, but they brought back many other gems, like bruce lee banner and all sorts of cool chairman mao perephernalia. so after some cleaning and decorating, we were ready for our maiden voyage.

all in all it was fun. some of my dental school friends showed up, we had some regulars, some new blood, and some entertainers. i normally don't condone long posts with excessive pictures, but today i will make an exception for the sake of the stevey's photos.

look at these two cute couples: you guess who is with whom?

enter the dragon

stevey snapped shots of everyone showing up

some columbia friends: yasemin and jen, with yours truly in the faded back care-taking the gyoza

literature

2006-01-25T11:56:00.000-05:00

sometimes i don't like reading because it deflates the authenticity of my own human experience.

you know you're home when...

2006-01-20T17:21:00.000-05:00

yes. you know you're home when you inadvertently arrive at the aroma that is 191st street off the 1 train. there is a very distinct smell as you walk out the elevators and head on the street to walk up to wadsworth avenue. maybe the smell finds origin from paul, monica, star and their associates, i'm not sure. but that smell now equals meaning to my mind: welcome home! here's the thing about smells. for example, when you get off the B/D train at grand street, you don't have to see all the tiny little asians running around, you know by the smell, before you even leave the tunnel, that you're in chinatown. for real, do you think its possible to just close you eyes as you ride along and get off only according to the smell as the subway doors open? for example, if you didn't see the picture of me and stevey in soho and could somehow smell, do you think you could pick out the diner we're sitting according to contemporary psuedo_medicinal_lore, smell is the sense most closely associtated with memory. i don't know if i buy that or not, but let's consider that the point nonetheless.

my absolute un-favoritist smell: the smell of ex-girlfriends. i dated this girl in high school and even to this day, when i catch a whiff of the lotion she would wear, i feel like i'm 17 again. (then again, i feel like that often as it is anyway) now, for real, if you look back on your relationships, most likely, not that many ended horribly. so again, most likely, you have positive emotions associated with those memories. so where am i going? i hate the smell of ex-girlfriends when you have to live with the looming: why didn't that one work again? because you probably just remember the good times more vividly anyway. the issues and concerns seem to melt away with time, but the fun times, the inside jokes, whatever, that all remains. so this jog back into a past (that was good) juxtaposed with a present (that is nothing) carries a wind of a different manner. and you wish you never had the accompanying residue of that once pleasant smell as it corrodes to the order of stench.

puff, puff, give

2006-01-17T11:55:00.000-05:00

ok so its been awhile since i've posted any activities. its been a little theoretical lately. so i'm gonna bring back some event reports.

two frandsens: one is a poser...

did you know you can use physics to melt ear wax out of your head with conical wafer-looking tubes? i didn't either and i'm still not sure if its true. as my intuitive and almost genius cousin commented, we will never know unitl we can run a true control test with reproducible results. so for those of you that still have access to ear wax burning/melting cones, try a dry test run for us and please let us at the shake-down know how it turns out.

to say the least, its pretty funny to hold that thing up on your ear while the flame glows bright in the eyes of those watching you, because lets be honest, you can't see anything. you can definately feel the flame heating up the side of your face and the intesity of interest and the flame glowing the the eyes of the observers, wondering if the assisant (KD is this case) will be able to cut the cone before your hair is all ablazed, but you have no idea what's going on so close to your own skull and its accessories.

and what would we all do without good friends? especially the ones who watch the fire around our heads. cheers to you KD and marcy marc...

and y'all should be happy i don't have pictures of the results of the activity, for they not for the lite-hearted.

oh, inverted world.

2006-01-12T10:32:00.000-05:00

for those that know me, you may have already heard this exposition. in fact, if you've ever talked to me you have probably experienced it as well. for example, if you have had "A" conversation with me in the last month, you have most likely been subject to an honorary tribute to the white stripes. and yes, i know they were the subject on a posting awhile ago as well. or maybe you heard me talk about lazy sunday, or the new beck album, or how solid each weezer album continues to be, or how i hate walmart, or whatever. but let me discuss this inverted world.

one thing that people will never surrender is their taste. and this has nothing to do with CN VII. so, people love their music. people love to share their music. and we all do it. we constantly recommend this or that. i am guily in a bad way, in fact, nothing makes me happier than when someone tells me how much they have been listening to death cab lately (3 people this week alone) and they can't get enough or whatever. there is as much joy in the recommendation as there is in its receipt. taste sets us apart, as it breeds individuality. without individual preferences we would be a stale society steeped in stagnance. musical taste is no different. nor are movies, tv shows, books, museums nor even boy/girl friends. in fact, i think that this may be one of the reasons it can be so difficult for single people to be completely satisfied in a relationship. there exists an element within us that wants our partner to be the living realization of our tastes. when considering this living emulation, whether is be as shallow as the jokes they tell or deeper as in the way they perceive people, you want that person to epitomize all that you deem as "good taste." otherwise, what do you have to set you apart if not your taste?

and for me, that means the white stripes, AD, BMX bikes, hating walmart, the daily show and mac elitists. and i will forever try to sell you on my music, even if you don't like it at first. and yet therein lies the great irony. i seek to force my tastes on everyone, while concomitantly claiming that our tastes delimit our individuality. mutually exclusive? maybe, maybe not.

in the present tense, be sure to check out "oh, inverted world," my latest shins album discovery and my latest profile picture. and i will continue to post album covers on my profile of whom i am currently tuned in to.

two people you might like___

2006-01-06T00:14:00.000-05:00

if you live in utah, these are probably two people you might like. if you ever thought you would be this uncomfortable watching two people you might like having a conversation, think again. click here, you gotta see this. then go to dave and bill (1/3/06).

two words. un. comfortable. seriously, this is heavy. funny, but not in its usually way...

2006!!

2006-01-02T12:26:00.000-05:00

i know, nice title. well, it is 2006. happy new year to y'all.

in fact. happy new year to all y'all who are actually cerebrating new years day with time away from responsibility. some of us have already re-entered that realm. at 9:30 this morning, we at the columbia medical center began again. notwithstanding, the rest of the columbia community doesn't begin til jan 17, or that most other schools don't start til next monday, or the ridiculous fact that the rest of the country including banks and postal services are enjoying this national holiday. so forgive my complaints.

forgive my complaining. but at the end of the day, don't we all really deep down love to complain. there is an element in modern society or maybe just our generation that likes to compare adversity. as if we validate ourselves by bragging about how hard we have it. recently, i've been reading "notes from the underground" an obscure piece by dostoyevsky. he furthers this point by inserting that "it's the moaning that expresses the pleasure of the sufferer, for if he didn't enjoy it, he wouldn't moan. . . moans that express all the humiliating pointlessness of the pain." and people like to admit that there is pain and there is no enemy, while concurrently bemoaning their complaints.

either way. we started school today. welcome back, here's five lectures that you will need to know. enjoy. i guess the japanese tradition of the new year will find conceptualization this year. because i feel that my 2006 will strictly mirror the manner in which it began.

are you kidding me?

2005-12-20T08:02:00.000-05:00

so the only difference between this subway and the real one is that this one is moving. 8:00 am tuesday morning. i just woke up to the refresh my nyc.gov page (that i had checked at 2:00am last night when it hadn't begun yet) to check the status of the strike oh, and it has. and now i gotta figure out how in the world to get to jfk to fly home for jill's birthday. good hustle mta. good hustle.

-connected-

2005-12-15T08:14:00.000-05:00

so it's early on a thursday morning. i sit here at butler library on campus looking out the frosty window at symbols of academia, grand halls, large steps, stautes, you know, everything you love when you walk on the columbia campus at eight in the morning. not so surprisingly, the library is already starting to fill up this last week of the semester heading into finals... and i sit here with my free daily medium hot chocolate and donut from dunkin donuts, thinking.

it's the eve of my two last finals on my first semester here in dental school. and i cannot wait for this to all be a memory instead the current place it sits in my mind. more importantly, it is the eve of the long awaited MTA strike. so at 12:01 tonight, if a contract has not been drawn, there will be no subway, bus, ferry workers running the show tomorrow. yes, strategically placed right before the christmas/holiday/whatever else anybody wants to call it season, putting huge strain on the massive commerial activity asssociated therein. the city sits to lose 1.6 billion dollars everyday the strike continues. so hopefully i won't last too long if it does get up and running. c'mon, i have some money spending to do. luckily, i have my trusted yellow steed, so i should be alright getting to school to write off this semester tomorrow morning.

nonetheless, i got a taste of the enormous residual dependency developed into society yesterday morning as i went to school. for whatever reason, still unbeknownst to me, the 1 train subway trains were super crowded in the morning. so tight, that i didn't even have to hold on to any poles because there was nowhere for me to budge. elevator to street level, same story. so packed. realizing that this is days before the forecasted MTA strike, i was struck with the distinct connectedness we share as humanity. long past are the days where we can take our little brother lenny, get a piece of property and live off the fat of the land, you know, with bunnies and stuff. here in manhattan the connectedness bears an even heavier tone.

so stay connected. it's the definitive mark of modernism.

let it snow baby!

2005-12-11T19:50:00.000-05:00

ok. let's get a few things straight. its cold in nyc. its cold in chicago. its cold in iowa. and we know is prolly cold in utah and everywhere else that is cold. this is not a competition. the winter is cold period and so is snow, but it's mornings like these that make the cold bearable. so let it freaking snow. friday morning brought on this anticipated, blessed event. cause if it's gonna be murderously cold, there at least better be some pretty snow to compensate the emotions that swirl in your mind like the whipping of winds through the icy streets. its freezing. its pretty. its the artic death out here. its snowing, that means christmas (and everything else that people celebrate during the holiday season) is around the corner, making my feel cozy inside. so like i said, who knows what i was feeling? emotions being whipped around. bliss. misery. all from the same event. the same conditions. maybe i was being conditioned some how. maybe my conditioning was being conditioned.

friday morning was one of those morning. i woke up around 5:30 to get some last minute cramming in before my dental anatomy final that was going down hours later. and when i pulled open my curtains, the picture above is what i saw. to my complete surprise, it had snowed. plus, it was still early enough that the snow was still white and had not yet turned to that nasty city brown yet. then to top it off, i threw on the new beck album, guero. man, my day started so good. mood-wise, i was drifting like the new fallen christmas (holiday season) snow, that was thick and heavy. good scenes. good music. "my beat is correct" -- beck. and so was the mood. what could be better? such a moment. such a superb moment.

shout out to korea!!

2005-12-07T23:53:00.000-05:00

so here's to korea. korea, the brave penisula. so as y'all know, i'm here in dental school at columbia. and well, columbia loves its diversity. so by that i mean we have x amount of states and y amount of countries represented. but the truth is, there is a predominant korean population. korea is so hot right now. for real, being korean is soo in. korea is the new black. if you wanna be hip this season, be korean. i don't get it. i mean the japanese had their day. prolly back in the eighties, with everybody kung fu fighting (yes, i know, that's chinese, but the eighties didn't know any better), bands like shonen knife, songs like "i think i'm turning japanese" and "domo arigato mr. roboto" (shout out to alien robots.) were getting serious play. i guess we had our day in the sun, the ever "rising sun," but now, its time to pass the wand to our neighbors to the west across the JAPAN sea. so here's to you korea. you're so hot right now.

so, pardon my sporadic spasms of thought. onto the topic at hand. korea. 60% christian. i wonder how that compares to the states' statistics. interesting things going on in the penisula these days. and i'm not talking about the vertically challenged nuclear weapons procurer. i'm talking about a much smaller item with potentially grand implications. stem cells. now, being a faith-guided individual, i find the current situation in korea intriguing. some time ago, a world-leading korean stem cell researcher had to confess to the public that he had used questionable means in the acquisition of eggs necessary to continue his stem cell research. however, subsequent to this tragic announcement, women from all over the country volunteered in great numbers to donate their eggs to the cause. and he was and will quickly be restored to his quasi-national hero status hereafter. i find this situation very interesting. where on one side of the pacific, bush found support from the christian right to impede the very exploration that scores of women from a predominantly christian country anxiously support. could it be that in the grand advancemnet of knowledge in this information age god would support greater scientific discovery towards the alleviation of sufferers? could this research be quicken as it will by the light from above? do faith-based initiatives fall on both sides of this dispute? if america were to change its direction, how much quicker could we spring open the door of discovery? or should we maintain status quo? while i don't pretend to have the answers, it remains a demanding dichotomy nonetheless.

get behind me satan

2005-12-05T14:36:00.000-05:00

the sound of music. yes, the singing and dancing classic flim set on the picturesque hills in who knows where. now, if i were jill, i would know all the lyrics of all the songs, including the one i'm alluding to. yes the inclusion of the allusion. something about butterflies, paper packages with bows, rainbows on sunny day or something else with something else. sorry if i'm slaughtering this song. the point is that the sound of music makes me happy. no, and now, i'm not talking about that cheesy film. i'm talking about the sound of music. the sound of good music.

sometimes, you find a good album. and i mean a really good album. some bands will drop a hot beat or a tight song every now and again. but its extremely rare that a band will lay down an album that you cannot get enough of. you wanna listen to it all the time. and its not just one song stuck in your head, but you want the whole thing. so get behind me satan. its also easy to get behind an album with such a good name. but then again, i guess if you're getting behind the album, maybe that puts you where satan is. nonetheless, this albums is solid. little jack white and his sister really did something right when they put this album together. i saw these guys this summer with my cousins paul and stephen at coney island, and trust me, the white stripes know how'ta rock. solid set. good rock. you wouldn't believe that that kind of noise production would result from just two people, but it does. and it does good.

so i don't know what makes everyone else in this world happy. my little 8 yr cousin lafe just loves to have a certain number of comments on his blog, some conditioned girls just like flowers, some moms just like their children around, others just like others to get off the bandwagon. and while all of these things are good, i love good music. and good albums. and people that know how to do things right... jack white right.

cold as h-e-double-hockey-sticks

2005-12-03T21:11:00.000-05:00

so you gotta love new york. but let's be freakin honest for a second. how do people really live like this? it is uncomprehensibly freezing cold in this place. now, for the title to this post. i don't throw it out there in any irreverence. but more as a location. like cold as snow. or cold as utah. cause, i really believe that hell is cold. and if y'all could walk down the nyc streets when the wind whips through the building tunnels, you would agree. hell is cold. i think i could take the burning. but the freezing is just silly. which is odd, because, i'm the type of person that would rather be a little colder than a little warmer. so on the moderates i prefer chill/cool than warm/damp/sweaty. but on the extremes, i could sit in an osen or a sauna for hours on end. but i feel like i wanna give my life and step in front of the m3 bus rather than walk all the way to the subway entrance.

and maybe i'm just a wuss. but still. i wonder though, now, that i've opened up some ideas. are there other preferences that get switched by degrees? i mean, in moderation one side of the aisle is better, but in excess, you attitudes switch. for example, take dinner with women. going to dinner with a girl, or even two girls could be really pleasant. but, come on, you know no dude in his right mind wants to go to dinner with a whole table full of girls. (especially your girl friend and all her girls friends...) i'd rather take on the new york wind chill factor in a t-shirt. so yeah. not really sure about the reverse-factor on the moderate-extreme spectrum. interesting nonetheless.

if you've got a few moments

2005-12-03T11:33:00.000-05:00

unless you wanna be one of those america haters and if you have a few minutes to love america, you got to see this short film set with perfect timing to moving symphonic sound to appreciate what america is all about. just do it. and let me know if you want more america after seeing it.

another quickie on freedom

2005-11-30T19:04:00.000-05:00

okay. i'm here on campus trying to lock down for a full night of studies, before as is typical, i will allow myself any plausible distraction. in this case: blogging.

freedom of speech. now, to set the record straight. yes, i supported bush's war in iraq. yes, i still do support the war. but, yes, my support for the war is waning. in this particular state of mind, i find witty political signs painted on corny cardboard with chessy colors extra amusing.

protest sign outside columbia street protest: give iraq our constitution, we're not using it anymore.

now, agree or disagree with the ideology. you gotta give him high points for goodness of thought. god bless america and its obessions. long live the constitution. freedom of whatever you want these days...

heroes

2005-11-28T12:15:00.001-05:00

this last weekend i got to go to boston. thanksgiving in new england, how quaint, how fitting. it was a lot of fun. i tagged along with my sister jill and her husband steven to his brother's home in massachusetts. we literally went, i swear, over the river and through the woods to get there. it was a sweet little home (by that i mean a big old home) tucked up next to the woods in the back yard. every vantage point was a postcard in embryo. thanksgiving. food. good food. family. big and small. and of course giving thanks in thanksgiving fashion. it was a good holiday break i.e. break from the busy-ness of my ordinary life.

so while we were in boston, we saw some sights of course. and i re-had a previous epiphany. heroes are heroes. for those of you that have seen the japanese supo-moderno thematic rendition of hero-ing in "ping-pong" you know what i'm talking about. if you haven't check this link. peco my hero. anyway. we got heroes now too. and yes they are sometimes the men and women of the past. that's totally cool. i mean the likes of paul revere, thomas jefferson, john and herbie hancock. what i don't get, is why people wanna tell the dirt story. just to sell some print? what a waste of research. i don't care that the midnight ride of paul revere is not that accurate, or that thomas jefferson may or may not have had shady relations in his home. at the end of the day, these particular men were involved in the establishment of america and the subsequent revolutionization the entire political environment internal and external to the u.s. since their time. can we modernist even conceptualize our lifestlyes sans the documents produced by this elite group of heroes? who else has had that kind of lasting effect on humankind? so let's celebrate our heroes. stopping wasting documentary film on the backbiting and fighting behind the scenes of the beach boys or the beatles. our heroes were good enough to earn our respect. isn't it enough to allow them theirs without all the silly hillary clinton-esque re-writing of history?

to peco and smile, to jefferson and franklin, to george and samuel. we celebrate your deeds. flawed, of course. but who isn't? heroes are heroes yo.

quickie for now

2005-11-24T00:18:00.000-05:00

okay. so religious freedom. freedom to act according to the dictates of one's own conscience. these are the ideals that bought us each here in some fashion or another. and we get to celebrate this everyday in america. but. particulary, right now over thanksgiving. thus while, i have intentions to post again later in the weekend with real thanksgving activies, (signing on/off, not really sure which, from boston, a city full of good old american history) in the meantime, check this out. blogging. the demise of deprivation/oppression/and general overall stifling on expression. you gotta love the chinese. there are billions of 'em so you know it had to happen sometime. anyway, check out this piece in the times and celebrate what america really started so many generations ago. work it china. you know you wanna. come join us in the celebration...

perspective.

2005-11-22T12:33:00.000-05:00

so this week marks the offical beginning of the holiday season. happy holiday. and happy holidays. happy thanksgving. do you think the pilgrims had any idea how happy the market economy would be about the sales profit associated with the holiday they began. i bet they're thankful that they could be of service. hear's to you old-school pilgrims. good job.

so thanksgiving's always a good time. hopefully some time with your family somewhere along the way. time off from school and work. and for those in school its the mark of the beginning of the end. the time between thanksgving break and winter break (christmas break for you traditionalists...) always flies by. why? because every drop of information you have absorbed over the last 3-4 months has to be drained, strained, flitered, and spit out all over your professors. and that testing experience is about that pleasant. before before the mayhem begins. i'm off to boston. i've only been to boston once before, so i'm looking forward to the adventures in boston. i think we might even be visiting plymouth rock. how thanksgiving of us? i know. good americans.

it's been fun this week cause jill and steven brought the triplets to stay with me at my apartment in the heights. and yes they all fit. three cribs one room. i'm just glad it wasn't my room. wait, no it was. all of us crammed in, minus me. i got the couch. jill, steven and me on my double bed was too much family bonding. we got to spend a couple days cruisin around nyc. steven's first time in the city. jane first time on a boat. kate's first time on the subway. zach's first time clomping around on hardwood echo-y floors. peter's first tri-cry diaper changing experience. jill. what can i say? she's already done it all. maybe the first time she's had spinning toilet-paper on her head with strobe lights... but's that's only a guess. you'll have to ask her for the details.

so happy thanksgiving y'all. happy firsts to this holiday season.

looking for some gospel?

2005-11-15T12:14:00.000-05:00

this weekend will open a new era in harlem gospel. so for all of you in the city looking for something to do to liven up your weekend come check it out. the information is listed in the picture above. but the church has built a new beautiful building in harlem and the open house is this weekend. this building a spacious 5-story building designed by the temple committee, will house the two new congregations in the area.

the church has grown tremendously in manhattan in recent years with landmark moments like the opening of the manhattan temple on 66 and columbus, this new harlem building, the continuing construction of another new building on the upper east side, that will become the new stake center, and more housing for byu and university of utah students and church office buildings in the union square area. so there is a lot going on here in the city resultant of tons of growth. nonetheless, the open house this weekend should be something special, with a variety of unique events and activities like the gopsel music presentations. so come check it out if you're around.

what's more american than a little pig skin?

2005-11-12T13:48:00.000-05:00

football. just like jazz music and getting fat, football is one of those things that only americans can really excel at. in harmony with the upcoming holiday season, some of us columbia dental studednts had a little turkey-bowl classic before all of us take off for thanksgiving break. we had jews, mormons, the fighting irish, asians, whiteys, indians, (but no pilgrims) in classic american fashion. the only fair way to break up the teams was along territorial boundaries, mainly cause we had to show the east-siders the true west coast offense. i.e. you can never lose if you can throw td's every possession. inspired by the greats like steve young, ty detmer, and legendary jim mcmahon, the west side was truly the best side. all-in-all it was good fun. and for those that weren't there, you'll just have to take my word for it: there's a reason we are all in dental school and not signing contracts in the league.

one word: posers

west side vs. east side. biggie vs. tupac. who do you really think is more hard core?

columbia sdos: home to true athletes

what does this "W" stand for??

cliche, i know

2005-11-10T12:46:00.000-05:00

so i know its totally cliche to blog about politics, but here's my 5 cents anyway. it seems lately the president bush has taken a lot of heat lately in the press about this mistake and that. and of course bush has made some mistakes. he's not the greatest administrator. however, even though i don't support bush like most of the frandsen men i know, i still think all this finger pointing is ridiculous. if we're gonna point fingers, let's point them at the one man whose fault it all is. nixon. that's right, i blame nixon for all of president bush's blunders. give me a moment and let me explain this. so living here in new york, there's an activist on every corner calling for the impeachment of bush. the other day i was walking to school and i noticed a sign calling for a memorial for the 2000th soldier that had died as a result of the war. now, don't take my tone of disdain to resemble any disrespect for the armed forces. recently, i finished the book "the chosen" by chaim potok. he describes the attitudes that existed during the final stages of wwii. he mentioned that the death tolls would roll in in magnitudes of 1000's a day. he also detailed the anguish felt collectively as their president died. whatever happened to the patriotism of days past? my generation does not feel an once of emotional attachment for any politcal figure, namely the president. and i blame nixon. since watergate, political scandal has become acceptable. (obviously, not acceptable, but we, as modern citizens, do not get all wired up when yet another political leader receives yet another indictment) look what nixon has done to america. look what we allow in modern america. good job nixon. good job.

new york doll

2005-11-05T16:44:00.000-05:00

no i'm not talking about myself or my cute cousin stephen. although we are cute little new york dolls. no this is apparently one the pioneers of rock during the 70's with influence on some of the greats, such as the cure, the strokes, the sex pistols and others. so some guy walks into his new ward in la and the greeter points out a few of the members of the ward. not to mention aurthur "killer" kane, bassist for the new york dolls. from there began the grand task of documenting this man's life from rock star to lds family history librarian. to say the least, this film "new york doll" is definately worth the ridiculously high $10 a ticket here in the city and whatever you bums pay in regular cities. a few of us saw this film last night on the corner of houston and mercer in soho in a quaint little theatre, with no more than 50 seats. it was hard for me to grasp what i was seeing on screen as reality, but indeed it was. highly entertaining. the filming and editing really created a sweet vibe with the rest of the film. for all y'all in ny, la, slc, phx, and seattle, go see it. it'll be worth your time.

postal service

2005-11-04T18:53:00.000-05:00

so i'm not talking about the absolute best band of the last five years. i'm talking about the u.s. postal service. so yesterday i getting my daily dose of the colbert report (comedycentral.com), and some pbs guy was bragging about the documentary he was making about the civil war and all the letters he read as his source of information. which made me think, when was the last time you mailed a letter you wrote to "correspond" with an aquaintance? take for example, my uncle tracy. he sends me a letter each week detailing the events of his family. a special letter from canyon view medical center, addressed to peter u. frandsen, (i haven't had the heart to correct him over the last 4 1/2 years, that my middle name is shigeki, not ushio). but it's become such a treasured ritual. i make some food, sit down, open the letter and laugh to myself as i hear his distinct, semi-poetic, narrative voice come off the page. seriously, excluding email, im-ing, text, commenting on blogs, how many times have i really written to someone in my life? (that weren't in some way related to missionaries) but what would we do without all our technology. freak, you wouldn't even be reading this not-so-new lament of the things of yester-year. oh the lamentations...

"they only come out at night" -- b. corgan

2005-10-31T22:39:00.000-05:00

alright, so new yorkers gotta do everything their way. including the village, west village to be exact. and if you wanna find the freaks, nyc is the place to be, particularly on halloween. they have a huge parade in the village every year to celebrate. anyone who wants can join the parade. if i only had a dollar for every set of gay men dressed up in catholic garb expressing themselves ... so steve, kirstyn, liz and i enjoyed the freak show in the village. however, some of the pictures we took are not postable on this blog. (for those interested you can view them at tinyteven.blogspot.com) but here are a few pictures of us watching the freaks that only come out at night.

if only all halloween festivities were as wholesome and adorable as these little crayons in good ole iowa ;)

2-4. how did that happen?

2005-10-31T22:17:00.000-05:00

i love having an october birthday. october is the perfect month for a birthday. lucky me, that mom and dad celebrated dad's birhtday in such a way that i could have an october birthday. it's place perfectly in the middle of the semester. i wonder if i will still love my october birthday when i'm not in school. cause every year, school starts. by the time i get into a routine and adjusted to another round of classes, it's my birthday. then always after my birthday will follow a round of midterms. by the time those are over, then thanksgiving is just around the corner, and we all know how busy and short the time gets between thanksgiving and christmas. (this year thanks to sdos, that time is gonna fly by) birthdays by design are reflective and this year was no different as it marked another year of life full of big changes. big move. big new school. big new sites. big new city. big new stuff everywhere i look.

this year i celebrated with a night of cruisin the streets, accompanied by a photo shoot, courtesy of stevey.

the following week, i continued my birthday celebration and i finally got to see a show that i should've seen years ago. come on, i have 77 tracks on my ipod. it was about time, i finally saw death cab for cutie live. the show was at the hammerstein ballroom right by madison square garden. tight venue. they played a great set. some old, some classic, a solid "plans" set, with an amazing encore starting with "i will follow you into the dark." none the less it was awesome!! highly recommended...

welcome to new york, ny

2005-10-31T12:13:00.000-05:00

for those i haven't see since i left utah. here are a few pictures of the big city. when i first came out, mom, dad, and nick came out to help move me into my new apartment. i live in "the little DR" (dominican republic) up in washington heights (ye the same spot where old faithful washington, the original george dubya, battled off those nasty red-coats). while my family was here, we did all the nyc goodies, like times square, brooklyn bridge, subway life etc. mom and dad even took to the streets as usual by checking out their favorite museums. dad also insisted that we go to a favorite restaurant that he used to frequent in his crossland days

first entry

2005-10-31T11:50:00.000-05:00

hello friends.

this is the first edition of my first blog. hopefully from now on, you will be able to check it out and see what i've been up too. the first few entries will catch you up on some of the adventures here in nyc. later on you may be lucky enough to read some essays from my growing collection of writings.