Food, Red Cliff, knitting, and Ooku picture!

Even more random things:

1. I forgot how noisy summers here are; the cicadas hum day and night, the buzz so constant that it becomes background noise after a few minutes. I remember how much I laughed when New Jersey was making a big deal over cicada season there, which apparently only happens once every seventeen years. They can have the cicadas! Well, I don't mind the noise, but occasionally one dies and falls out of a tree, and let me tell you, those are some ginormous, UGLY bugs!


2. After fifteen years or so of being fed very good wine by my dad the wine freak oenophile, I have discovered that I seem to like Bordeaux. This makes me feel somewhat better, as the first wine I figured out I liked was German Rieslings, which are sweet and taste like grape juice and are apparently highly unsophisticated. Now I can say I also like fancy expensive wine as well! (On the other hand, I still cannot tell you anything about chocolate overtones or berry smells or notes of oak or whatnot.)


3. I may, amazingly, be burning out on tdramas! At least, aside from Mars, which I am now obsessed with as in I flip through the manga once I watch a few eps and then read ahead a little then try to convince myself that going to bed at four in the morning to watch another episode is not worth it. On the other hand, most of the other tdramas I have tried sort of suck. Or, they don't suck completely, but they're also not excellent. For the record, I don't think it's anything intrinsic in the Taiwan-ness; much like the manhua here, I think it's because the industry is still very young and therefore doesn't have as much mature work. Plus, Sturgeon's Law applies even more when the quantity availble is small, IMO.


4. It is still REALLY hot and muggy.

And now, giant pictures of my favorite spread from Ooku, food, knitting, food, some scenery, food, TAKESHI KANESHIRO, food, TONY LEUNG, and more food.

( Giant photos )