(no subject)

Dinner last night with Marina and Drew went well, though I still feel like the conversation remained superficial. Somehow Drew and I ended up talking about movies, science fiction and gaming--all of which interests somewhat exclude Marina. I always feel vaguely bad about that, but enjoy the conversations. He and I like many of the same things.

So we tried to change the subject several times, talking about babies, work, and other such things.

Why is it, though, when she asks me "What's new?" I always say "Nothing" even though there are tons of things I could talk about, if I wasn't afraid of revealing things that might make her wonder about me. Eep. I think I just found my scary thing for today (if trying to rebuild a potholed bridge in another friendship wasn't enough for one day). Send her a note that says something like "I feel really stupid saying this now, when it's no longer new in any way, but I don't think I've ever told you. I have had a girlfriend for three years."

I did manage to toss Jen's name into the conversation casually: "After watching Lord of the Rings for the second time, I turned to Jen and said, 'what a lot of beautiful men!'" No one asked who Jen was, and I didn't say anything more either.

(no subject)

So cassidyrose was talking about "Let the Day Begin", by The Call. That reminded me of one of my all-time favorite songs, The Call's "I Still Believe".

( Lyrics to follow )

Time to go put the cd in the player. :-)

(no subject)

Phooey, can't find Reconciled. Playing Loreena McKennitt instead.

Han Suyin

I've been frustrated all day trying to add some more interests to my personal info--the page kept refusing to update. But one of the things I added was "han suyin", which turns out to be a unique interest. She is a Chinese-Belgian doctor and novelist. In googling to find a biography/bibliography page to link here, I found some interesting quotes from her. Unfortunately the quote page did not list the book or speech from which the quotes come.

( Han Suyin quotes )

I first encountered her work by purest chance. At a bookstore in Hong Kong's Kaitak Airport, while waiting for a flight to Shanghai, I bought a book called The Mountain Is Young. It is one of the best love stories I have ever read, beautiful and real and evocative, set in the incredible locale of Kathmandu, Nepal, during the time around the coronation of Nepal's King (1952). I was so floored by this book that after I returned to Japan I made several of my friends read it, and I still reread it regularly.

Since then, and after returning to the US, I've made a project of reading any works by her I could get my hands on. It was difficult to find many; bookstores never seemed to have them, and they often end up misfiled under S instead of H, but I found a number at the University City library. I think I ought to go add any of them I can find to my wishlist at Amazon, or maybe just order them outright.