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even when you're not doing anything it's something. days slip through the cracks easily when you're unemployed, but even then, after fishing it back out from the gutters, every day is still interesting.

i had more of that chowder for lunch, as advertised, as promised. i don't know how much more of it i can eat. i'm sure it's not that bad, but through my slightly neurotic eyes (with my inability to consume leftovers of whatever shapes and sizes), that chowder seems like the kind of prison slop you see in exploitation films, that tasteless gruel, that unimaginative porridge. i also discovered that i'm probably slightly lactose intolerant. i never used to be, but i think as i grow older and a daily serving of milk is no longer part of my normal diet, my body has lost it's ability to break down lactose (in this case, a pint of heavy cream).

the power adapter for my circa 2001 ibook finally died today. i knew it was just a matter of time, my legs get tangled in the wires so often, the plug gets violently yanked from the machine like a patient losing life support. this month i noticed the end of the plug would occasionally shoot sparks from the exposed wire fibers inside, and then finally today it stopped charging the laptop altogether. so of course i was in a panic. i immediately called the apple store in the cambridgeside galleria mall, the guy there told me they don't carry the adapter so i'd have to order it online. i wasn't even thinking, so blinded with crisis, i just went ahead and ordered it, all $80 of a replacement adapter that wouldn't arrive until next week. next week! i won't be able to use my ibook at all until next week. the ibook that i use when i watch television in the living room, the ibook that i use to write this weblog with. so with the remaining trickle of electric juice left in the battery i quickly firewired all my files onto my desktop machine, which is how i'm writing now. the good thing is i write much better prose when i'm not in a prostate position, the words flow easier when i'm sitting upright. anyway, want to hear more? you have no choice. it then suddenly dawned on me that i didn't really need an official apple power adapter (as cool as it may be), that i could just get a 3rd party alternative, which would work just as great and cheaper too. i figured i could walk down to microcenter, and called apple.com to cancel my order. too late. already processed, already shipping. i've got no choice now but to wait for my plug which won't arrive until early next week (at least it's shipping from pennsylvania, not california).

last night i was thinking about awkward silences. i think there's truth in awkward silence. if somehow you could read people's minds at the exact moment of the awkward silence, you'd be able to find out what they're really thinking but too afraid to say. i don't think we should be so afraid of them. when it happens, we should sit back and enjoy it for what it's worth. yet you can't just live your life through awkward silences. for the sake of progress, they represent blockage, a lull in the usual smooth programming of life music. did i just contradict myself? anyway, just a thought!

i wrote my parents an e-mail in taipei, sent it to one of my cousins. i was just going to do it in english and hope that he'd be able to read it or find someone to translate, but i figured it'd give me a good opportunity to practice my chinese writing skills (hopefully my parents will get this message):

it got so cold in the house today that i'm wearing socks. this represents a dramatic domestic policy shift since i never wear socks inside the house, i like being barefoot. but this year i'm all about conserving energy and saving money, and since i'm living alone, i'm willing to suffer a little more, like leaving the heat only at 60 degrees. i used to wear shorts and a t-shirt inside the house during the wintertime, but not this year. as soon as i get out of bed, i put on long pants and a long-sleeved shirt, and even then my hands still feel cold and my nose is icy. it goes without saying that my feet are always cold, but that never really bothered me until today. pretty soon i'll be wearing a jacket inside the house and heating myself up by candle fire.

nothing much is going to happen tonight, so this will be the earliest weblog entry ever. eat some more of that chowder (gross), watch a little television, fold my laundry, call it a night.