One Potato Two

Sorry, this is a tennis-related post.


As I go off to play two tennis matches today (luckily both are doubles...one womens' and one mixed), Kei Nishikori will be playing his first ever ATP semifinals!!

Woooooooooot!!!!


He will be playing Sam Querrey, who is pretty local to me.
(Somewhere Southern California).


Also playing is my favorite American player, James Blake, and Robby Ginepri.

I actually cheer for all of them, so I guess I don't care who wins this tournament...

Well, maybe I want James to win and Kei to come in second.


I will probably not get any work done today.

I got a letter from the IRS saying that I owed them money.
The amount?
It's like a year's worth of salary for a clerical assistant.

I was like, "wth?" (not wtf because I am a lady!)

It turns out that one of my clients from 2006 turned in paperwork and added two extra zeros to my compensation.
TWO. EXTRA. ZEROS.
That's a lot.

Ugh.
Although it's as simple as checking a few boxes and returning a letter with evidence, this is one extra thing I don't have time to deal with.


Thanks, IRS!
Sending you lots of love too...

I was talking to a friend about takoyaki.
She pointed out something interesting...
"Octopus balls" doesn't sound too right.
I wrote a translation note for Kagetora before, but I didn't use the term "octopus ball."
Phew.

My translation note went like this:
Takoyaki is a grilled ball with a piece of octopus in the middle. It is made on a grill shaped in half circles. You whisk some flour, water, and egg and pour it into the hot grill. You then put a piece of octopus, some cut up green onion and grill for a bit. The hardest part is flipping over the mix to make a ball. You use a takoyaki pick, which is similar to an ice pick but thinner.

Anyway, speaking of takoyaki made me want takoyaki, so I had a takoyaki night.
(Alone with takoyaki on a Friday night...can my life get any more pathetic? I was also working).
And I thought providing some pictures would help understand the translation note better.

First, I took out my grill.
I think I said this before, but every household in the Kansai region has a takoyaki grill.
This one is electric, but my mom said when we lived in Kobe (I was one year old then), we had one that used gas.
In her opinion gas one makes better takoyaki.
Oh well.

Here is my grill:


If you look closely, there is a smiling octopus at the bottom.
Is he happy that he's about to get eaten?

Next I take out the mix.
You can make your own by using soft flour, dashi, egg, and water.
I read somewhere that adding a hint of baking powder will make it more fluffy.

But anyway, I use the pre-made mix sold in Japanese supermarkets.
These are for okonomiyaki, but great for takoyaki too.




I mix the mix with egg and water.
I boil the octopus. This octopus was provided by a sushi chef as sashimi.

So here's the mix and bits of octopus.



I wrote in my note that you use a takoyaki pick, but I don't have one so I use a skewer.

Pour the mix into the grill, one at a time.
I am not that good at flipping them, so I don't put in much dough because it's harder to flip when it overflows.

Here's a picture of one still cooking and one almost done.



When you flip it, you use the pick to trace around the mix in a circle to loosen it from the grill.
Then you tap one side...and flip!
This takes practice, but you'll get the hang of it.

Since I was alone, I was making only two or three at a time.

Here is a lonely takoyaki:




And now it has friends!




Sometimes when you don't have octopus, or if you're a vegetarian, you can put cheese and natto (or just one of them) instead.
My friend Ard actually liked the natto/cheese one better.
But natto gets messy, so I didn't make any this time.

Today I looked up Snufkin, a character from the Moomin series.
This was related to work.

Anyway, I had to save a picture I found to send it to my editor,
so I might as well upload it here too.
Snufkin is the one in the hat.




Snufkin is referenced in the manga "Akazukin Chacha" too.
There is a character named Popii　who lives in a tent for a while.
If it wasn't for Akazukin Chacha, I wouldn't know Snufkin.

Akazukin Chacha looks like this:



I tried looking for a cover with Popii in it, but it might be too small...

I saw on the news right now that Iron Chef is to be animated.

Really!?

That's...interesting.

It's going to be one of those cartoons that implement the anime/manga style.
Like...Boondocks, I guess.

I think the most interesting part of this news is that it's going to be aired on The Food Network and the Discovery Channel.
Discovery Channel?

I buy DVDs from the Discovery Channel (like Man vs Wild...information I would never use because I never go out), but I don't think I'll buy this one...

This has nothing to do with work, but I thought it's a cute marketing ploy, so I'll introduce it here.

Dragon Ball GT is going to be released on DVD starting tomorrow (today in Japan), and they're going to have hanging posters on various trains in Tokyo.

Two posters will make one set, and the first one is Goku shooting out a kamehameha. The second poster will have a hole in it.

Goku was in here and shot a kamehameha!?
...is the point.


Pictures might show up on otaku websites in the next few weeks.
If anyone finds a picture, please let me know!

Happy February!

Today I'll introduce random news articles I saw lately.

This August, they're going to have a "musical play" (I don't know what that means) of the Glass Mask.
Over 2000 people applied.
(The news article didn't indicate if they were all female, but I think it would be interesting for a guy to play either Maya or Ayumi.
Those Japanese males look femme anyway).

Anyway, I'm more curious which part of the Glass Mask they are featuring.

{Spoiler alert}
I would like to see the part where Maya's mother dies and she is kicked out of every TV show and play she was in.
Maya also can't act anymore because of the shock, but recovers with a tiny role when she eats mud.
Yes, that's the best.

Another news article I saw...Gyakuten Saiban in Concert!
Unfortunately I won't be able to go.

But maybe if it's successful, it'll come over here.
(Wishful thinking).


I thought the logo was super cute, so I will paste it here.



I recently bought the postcard book (two of them, because I'm otaku like that), but maybe I'll buy the orchestra CDs too.

My stash of natto came back from my mother's fridge.
She was keeping it for me while my condo went through fumigation.

I've been craving natto for the last two weeks.

I usually eat them in the morning, but if I can, I will eat it three times a day.

Just from what I've noticed, many people from the Kansai region don't really like natto.
And men don't like it either.
My father is from the Kansai region and he didn't like it.
I don't think I met a guy who likes it...

Although when I worked at a ramen restaurant, the kitchen guys (who were Latino) loved it.
They would chop up green onion and have it over rice, like a typical Japanese person.


My favorite way of having natto is with green onion, okra, and Chinese hot sauce (made by Huy Fong).
Some people put raw egg in it, but actually I prefer it with a sunny-side up.
Some people stir it before putting the sauce (or soy sauce) in to make it more sticky, but I like putting the sauce in first.
I've seen people put sugar on natto, but I would never do that.

The saddest thing is how expensive natto is.
A three-pack is on average $1.59.
What a rip-off! In Japan I can buy the same brand for 79 yen.
So I usually wait until they go on sale for 99 cents and buy a bunch.
The limit is 6 per customer so I make many trips or take a family member.


For those of you who never tried natto, I would recommend getting the "natto-ichi" brand.

Looks like this:



Or you can order a natto-maki at a sushi restaurant.

I was reading some Japanese article today and it was talking about Big vs. Small.

The flushing lever of Japanese toilets can be pushed up or down.
I think Big is up, and Small is down? I don't remember.
Anyway, it indicates how much water will be used to flush.
Big is used for poo.
In Japanese, poo is called daiben, literally "big excretion (in this case, feces)" and pee is called shoben, literally "small excretion (in this case, urine)."

I guess most people flush using Big.
Reasons vary.
I think the most common one is that for Big, you just have to push it up once and it's over, whereas for Small you have to hold it down (in some cases) until you feel you've flushed enough.

But to conserve energy people should be using Small whenever possible.
The amount of water, according to this article, is 2 liters.
2 liters!


I'm just wondering what you should use for diarrhea.
I guess it varies on what kind of diarrhea you have...


This was one of the random Japanese culture information posts.

Work?
I spent the whole day watching Aussie Open.
(Translation: I didn't work).

I think I mentioned losing my health insurance earlier.

So I finally got to looking up plans.

First, I decided what I want.
I want to keep my current doctors, so it has to be a PPO.

I also want an HSA.
So that meant I had to get a PPO plan with a high deductible.
Well, maybe this will discourage me from making pointless trips to the doctor and encourage me to take care of myself.

Then I calculated the different costs I spent on medical bills.
It turns out that I don't spend much on dental (just regular cleaning and xrays), so I decided I don't need dental.
And I guess I didn't see the doctor much last year.
Most of it was the premium I paid every month.

So I figured I could just have a high deductible and low premiums for this year.
If I need the funds, I can just take them out of my HSA.


Sigh.
Dealing with health insurance was so easy when I worked for Company H.

This is one more headache you have when you are a freelancer.

Since rain is coming this weekend,
my friend Dave and I decided to hit the courts one more time.
(We played at UCLA yesterday too!)

We decided to play at 4pm.
I have a deadline tomorrow, so I thought to myself,
"Okay, I'll finish this manga by 3pm so I can go play tennis without worries."



I was at page 12 when I left.



Oh well.
Another all-nighter tonight!


Tennis was fun.

I went to the Paprika screening at Anime Jungle with my friend D along with other people.

D had already seen it, but I guess the others didn't.
Sheesh, they didn't support my work!

Anyway, the "error" I was talking about was fixed.
I guess they fixed it in the DVD making process.


Ah, but the blu-ray version was so nice!

I might just have to buy a PS3 just for this.

There were many people at the screening.
Some had to stand.



Gosh, I really like the music.
I think I'll buy the CD.

I'm dealing with some weird eye pain.

It doesn't seem like an infection...
It just feels like someone socked me in my eyes and I have a bruise.

So I haven't been able to work as much.
I can't really stay on the computer too.
Or watch TV.
Or read manga.


...Then really, there's not much to do in life, is there?

It's raining in LA right now, so it's not like I could play tennis too.