Our Hair!

I only received responses from 3 people when I sent out the email about a documentary on the Black hair care market...so I hope this reaches more people this way...

Here are the links to the documentary. I appreciate even the smallest efforts to strengthen my community. This is only a start...

The links to the documentary are in 4 parts.

Pt 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p96aaTSdrAE

Pt 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWeLiXHcSyU

Pt 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azfEeDRvdlc

Pt 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m67P2kT7TzQ

EW! Everyone's Sneezing/Coughing All Over the Place!!!

I'm in the office and folks are sneezing and coughing left and right, but never pausing to cover their spray! YUCK! How I plan to stay healthy this winter:

1. Continue drinking my pineapple/banana/orange/yogurt smoothies every morning.
2. Keep taking Vitamin C
3. Wash my hands...a lot
4. Cough and sneeze into my handkerchief or sleeve...not on my hands!
5. Hold my breath when walking pass someone who's releasing their germs into my personal space!
6. And thanx to BFR, I now have a new way to pass the time while dodging germ spray in the office...AN INTERNET JIGSAW PUZZLE THAT GETS BIGGER EVERY TIME YOU FINISH ONE!!! AAAAH! IT'S LIKE CRACK...WHITE AND ADDICTIVE!!!

Everyday my place gets a little colder, but I'm faring well. You know it's cold in your apartment when:

1. Your creme hair products are solidifying
2. Steam comes off you after a shower
3. You can see your breath...in your bedroom...during the day!!!

I've been making good use of my kerosene heater, electric blanket, and warm PJs! I've weatherized the widow/balcony door in my room with shrink wrap and I keep the doors to the kitchen and living room closed to trap the heat in my bedroom. Lately it's been about 50 degrees. Doesn't sound bad does it? Now consider that there is no insulation and half of the place is windows that don't recede. The sad thing is that it's only going to get colder. So I'll just keep hooking up the gourmet meals in order to keep my place warm and smelling good...like last night...Udon (in broth made from scratch), shrimp and veggie tempura (with dipping sauce made from scratch), rice...DELICIOUS! So I had leftovers for lunch...see photo on the left. Today, I'll do it all again! I went to Trial (Wal-mart) on my lunch break in search of a toaster oven, since no one has a real oven. The one that I want has both a timer and specific temperature settings...and of course they didn't have any, except for the display that was missing a button...great. But I did pick up a battery operated kerosene pump to that I don't have to manually pump the kerosene into my heater's tank...outside...where it's cold! That blue thing is the kerosene tank and that's the old pump on the ground there...see that green part that's where you squeeze...and squeeze...and freeze until the tank of the heater is full. With my new one I just press the button on top and the black nozzle at the end of the tube has a sensor and the pump shuts off automatically when the heater's tank is near full...YAY!

One of Many Cold Weekends to Come...

This weekend was both busy and uneventful at the same time...Friday night three of us went to the yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant around the corner. My neighbor who's been here for a while is friends with the owner and manager so we got the hook up...Well some free meat anyway. Saturday was spent under my electric blanket (THANKS MOM AND DAD!!!)...With the exception of about 45 minutes that it took me to throw on some clothes, bike to the store, buy a few things, bike back, put my PJs back on, and get back under the electric blanket! Sunday we had another taiko performance at an elementary school fall festival...At least that's what I think it was. This is our second performance so I decided to try out the harder part of the easier of our two pieces. SUCCESS! I'm assuming that's how they want us to learn since no one has separated we newcomers to show us how to play the songs. Up until the last practice, I had be playing the most basic rhythm while committing the other part to memory. Every now and again someone would come over and play something then look at me like "Repeat it"...Then they get all giggly when I do. After the performance they fed us udon (noodles) and onigiri (rice balls) YAY! We also got to pound mochi (glutinous rice dumplings of sorts)...What a work out! Thanks to taiko, I had a hard time buttoning my 3/4 length sleeves this morning. My arms really are going to look like Popeye's! That night the taiko group had a Bonenkai (end of the year party) at a restaurant. I had fried wings for the first time since I've been here. Wait, let me rephrase that. It's the first time a I had good fried wings since I've been here. I was doing to much when I made them at home and they turned out yucky...But I ate them anyway cuz I made them. You know how that goes. I like the idea of having an end of the year party and then a beginning of the year party after New Year's. Mo' partays!!!

Yesterday, my supervisor came over to tell us that the office's end of the year party was cancelled due to the fact that a lot of student's have committed suicide recently. WHAT! It makes sense to cancel the festivities out of respect now that I've had time to think about it, but when he first came over and told us I thought to myself, "And what do the two have to do with one another???" This place is bizarre. They blame it on bullying in schools. It's so sad that folks can't just admit that the society is too high strung, uptight (when not under the influence of course), kids have extraordinary amounts of pressure placed on them in school, and parents think it's the teachers' responsibility to raise their kids. It's hard to see any solutions to the problem being made anytime soon. What can ya' do when it's been this way for so long? Whatever it is, I hope it gets done fast.