Those green specks coloring the nightscape - it's the first time I see them

Just watched Tae Guk Gi, a Korean movie with a predictable, bitter, and stimulating ending about the Korean war and two brothers who get caught up in it in the worst way. After it finished, Tareq gave me the update on the Iraq war, since I really didn't know that much about it. Simply put, there are about 5 groups who largely overlap in terms of one aspect (religion, ethnicity, nationality) but are opposed to each other in another of those aspects, and all of who are out to get control of the oil, so they all fight each other. Yay! In other olds, about 70% of the world population is opposed to 'the' Iraq war, Mugabe = sad, and it's cloudy with 18 degrees Celsius in Kyoto at 3 am.

Back to my daily life, everything is 'koek en ei' (literally, 'cookie and egg'; I really need to pick up on English proverbs/figurative expressions .. if anyone has any links or recommended reading, I'm all ears).

Thursday, my keyboard came back from Tokyo and in the same state as it was when I first bought it - working with old firmware. Waiting for the new firmware to be published before I update now, on the distributor's recommendation. Also played with an expression pedal for the first time ever, after having Ari and Tareq cut the cable and switch the red and white wires to fix the polarity (there is an occasional incompatibility between different brands of keyboards and pedals), and it is FUN! Friday, drinking tequila with mates in Sanjo, and then meeting Misa and a friend of hers in another of those Japanese restaurants I'd never find or enter without her expert guidance. I'm so grateful.

Yesterday morning I went to my lab to attend some lectures on conceptual issues in the field I'm specializing in, string cosmology. Among the speakers were Andrei Linde and his wife, who are kind of like celebrities in the field, so it was interesting to hear them speak about this stuff. Though the technicalities were way beyond me, it gave me a good idea of what I'm heading for with my studies, and I got a much-desired boost of motivation.

After that, I was quite exhausted (barely slept the night before) and just chilled at the riverside with Misa, eating Japanese and American-style pastries. Then to Ego (the dance circle), where I joined in the monthly battle for the first time. I was paired randomly to a guy who's more or less my polar opposite as a dancer, a guy who dives to the floor as soon as possible and does headspins or flares for the larger part of the duration of the battle. I suppose we were quite a funny team to behold. Anyway, we lost in the first round, but that was fine, because I had a great time in that round, and the response I got from the other dancers (especially the 20-30 people who know me by name) was REALLY great. I totally didn't expect them to be that excited, and at the end of the entire event one of the judges (the guy at who's place we always have afterparties) made a comment about how one of the things that people in generally need to focus on is their personal expression through the rhythm of the music, something which he apparently thought I was good at since he used my name as an example. I can't wait for my first show in two weeks!!

From there, about ten of us biked/ran to Shimogamo Jinja, where we drank beers and watched the fireflies (and felt the mosquitoes) on a bridge over a stream in the forest next to the shrine - a genuinely Japanese moment, and one of complete happiness with my fate. Misa also joined us there, and after an hour or two we slowly headed for Akio's place, where we made merry until around 4 am. Twelve hours later, I woke up at Misa's, went home, and that was my weekend. Very satisfying indeed.

One last remark: if you write me a comment/e-mail, you *will* get a decent reply. I value personal contact very much, and as much as I am enjoying writing this blog because I know some of you read it regularly, I will definitely get around to writing more personal things as well, to each of you individually. I miss all of you and am always very happy to hear from you.