aspir(al)ing

Living In The Past.

Posted by terri | Filed under ryuichi

Finally! After a month of having two awesome gifts in my possession, I get to watch them on my TV! My friend Tomoya gave me two LUNA SEA concert DVDs from Japan: 真冬の野外 (Mafuyu no Yagai – 1996.12.23 concert) and 真夏の野外 (Manatsu no Yagai – 1998.08.10 concert) both of which needed a region 2 or region-free DVD player to view them. I did not have one, except for my iBook, and I couldn’t figure out how to hack my Blu-Ray / DVD player (and not that I wanted to try.) Thankfully, I was given a DVD player by a friend who recently upgraded their home theatre and then I was able to dig up the hack for unlocking the region code. WIN!

This entry is a continuation of the one two entries ago, as I had promised Tomoya after receiving his thoughtful gifts. No one cares to know about how crazy I am for this band, except for maybe Tomoya, but I definitely will love writing this entry!
Read the rest of this entry…

Twitter-pated!

Posted by terri | Filed under blogmeta

Today makes one year since I relaunched my blog (which was still ra-se-n.net) as well as my then dormant Twitter account. I have not really done that many blog entries in the past year (34, not counting this one) but I have done a lot of Twitter updates (776, if you’re wondering.) My preference in the “method of oversharing” is clear.

I can’t remember when or why I first signed up for Twitter, but in the beginning, I hardly put it to use. I knew of a couple of social media gurus who used it, and I think I just signed up for the sake of signing up. It was when iPhone 2.0 came out that I had started to use it more and more; it made all the difference. Though I could have used Twitter via mobile web, it didn’t provide the fluidity of a native app which 2.0 offered. Needless to say, I twitter from my iPhone almost all the time.

I recognize that Twitter takes a lot away from my regular blogging as it meets the need of getting quick and sometimes random sentences and thoughts out there on the Internet. I think with Twitter, I may never get into that groove of blogging nearly everyday like I had back with my old blog back in 2001 – 2002. Things roll so much faster when all I need to do is get a thought out in 140 characters or less.

When I do put a blog out on aspiraling.com, I try to put a little more thought and cohesion to my entries, but more than half the time, I get distracted and end up giving up altogether. For 2009, I had hoped to make it a New Year’s Resolution that I would write at least one entry a week. Perhaps if I had verbalized it here, I might have actually stuck to it; but then again, I’m not very good at verbalizing things a lot of the time so that’s why it never happened. As I am trying to get more into the routine of things, I am placing hope that I can get myself and my thoughts more organized and that this current run of my blog will have more significant and interesting entries in its second year.

I definitely find my Twitter entries (or “tweets”) to be rather significant and sometimes interesting as I go through them. I find Twitter as an awesome tool to post-remember things that I’ve felt and experienced, even if they are about the most trivial things (and maybe not so trivial. Anyone remember the blackout aka #hipower?) And though I put them on the Internet to share with others, I don’t think I use it much as a tool for communicating with the world like many other people do. A lot of the time, I end up forgetting how much of the world is actually reading my rants and blurbs.

To celebrate my one year with Twitter, I went ahead and archived all 776 of my tweets into a .csv file using a web app called Tweettake. The app works fairly well. I’m a little sour that I hadn’t thought of creating the app first. It would have been an awesome challenge to create it for myself, but I guess I can be relieved that someone made it so that I can use it right here and right now.

Upon seeing what I’ve written in the past year in tweets and entries, I’m finding that it would be awesome to utilize my blog more and to make something meaningful out of my online presence, even if it is just for myself. I can definitely celebrate the success of my blog, but I would love to reach for more.

Twenty-Nine And a Half.

Posted by terri | Filed under health, watashi

I had a good friend who once told me that St. Patrick’s Day is a day that I should celebrate because for me, it marks 6 months until my birthday. That was something I could appreciate because that day marked the longest possible time between my last birthday and my next birthday. On the other hand, I hate being reminded that I am getting “incrementally older.”

Today being March 17th, I am now 29 “and a half” years old. I have been thinking about this day for awhile now. I figured when the day came, I would just be thinking about how I can savor the next 6 months of being a “twenty-something.” The big 3-0 seems like a huge deal to me and I guess it has a lot to do with the unrealized potential I’ve had throughout my twenties and earlier. The sensible part of me says that age really is just a number, and that I shouldn’t let a number tell me that it’s too late to follow my dreams or to strive for something better. Then there’s a passionately sensitive part of me that says that I just can’t ignore the significance of two whole digits changing in my age.

A week ago, I got a HUGE wake up call about how I’ve been living my life these past 5 years. At this time, I won’t go into details except to say that it has to do with going to the doctor for the first time in 10+ years. My outlook on life, in a matter of a 15 minute visit with the doctor, ended up changing entirely. In this past week, I’ve gone through a range of emotions such as embarrassment, disappointment, and sadness. Perhaps a sense of relief came over me as well as I have finally gotten explanation of what was going on with me as mentioned in an earlier entry. I’ve approached the news with humor and also with anger, but I have no choice but to look my situation in the face and just deal with it. So today, instead of thinking of unrealized dreams and lamenting on the past, I ended up thinking of the future — knowing that my situation presents an opportunity I have NO CHOICE but to take.

In realizing my mortality, my thirties are definitely going to be different. It definitely takes something like being told that you can die if you don’t change that can motivate you to realize your potential. I know it’s not going to be easy, and so I’m very grateful for the support system I have and for those who haven’t been so supportive because of their lack of understanding, I won’t take it personally nor will I let it set me back.

I know 30 is really just a number, and when I get there, I probably will think it’s not such a big deal after all. I have friends who are already there who say that ends up being the case. So maybe this news comes as a coincidence coming near my “29 and a half birthday.” Whatever the case, I have quite a road ahead of me.

Aloha!

Hello from the island of O'ahu in the beautiful state of Hawaii. I am terri, a local girl who at 30 is trying to make sure that life doesn't entirely pass her by. I've recently become engaged and am enjoying living a great life in paradise.