1.  I am writing to you on a new computer, because my old computer died, sort of, or something.  The screen was weirdly flickering the other day.  And then today it weirdly flickered and then went black.  And then I tried the ol’ turn-it-off-and-turn-it-on-again trick, only it wouldn’t turn on again.  It was dead.  So I brought it to the tech support guys, who were useless (helpful quotes:  “You seem to have a problem with your computer,” and also “You could sell it for parts,”) and then I called my dad, and he told me to get a new computer and so I did.  Good thing I suffer from acute paranoia and thus back up my data obsessively.

2.  A long-overdue story:

Last Friday, VV and I went on a nautical tour of Koreatown.  Koreatown is kind of impenetrable at the best of times, and when you try to apply a boat theme to it, it just becomes ridiculous.  We began our adventure at Cafe Jack, LA’s one and only Titanic (as in, Titanic, the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio)-themed restaurant, I hope.  And also, it is in a big fake boat.  And they serve tea and coffee and sushi (we had the Jack and Rose Roll) and weird fusion food, compelling presented via a poorly translated menu with no English descriptions.  We ordered the pizza cutlet, because who doesn’t want to know what a pizza cutlet is?  Boring people, that’s who.  It turns out a pizza cutlet is a chicken cutlet . . . fried, breaded, and covered in pizza toppings. (I was disappointed because I was expecting a slice of pizza wrapped in meat.)   We chose not to order the skewer fish cake pod, because there are only two words in that name that are actually edible things, and they are not two things that really should be eaten together.

From there, we went to the Brown Derby.  The Brown Derby was that famous restaurant shaped like a hat that all the old Hollywood stars went to, only now, the original site of the Derby has been made into a mini mall.  However, in the interests of historical preservation or of madness, the Derby itself was not demolished, but placed atop the mini mall, like a crown, and now it houses a bar called The Red, where I ordered a gin and tonic and was given a gin and club soda.

And then we went to the HMS Bounty.  A nautical bar full of old people, with signs on wall that say things like “Happy 100th Birthday Doris.”  It was WONDERFUL.

And then, as part of my research project on boys, we watched The Big Lebowski, which, it turns out, is even less sensical and more impenetrable than Koreatown.  (Like, seriously you guys, can someone explain to me why every straight boy loves this movie?  I even asked my most trusted straight boy colleague and he couldn’t satisfactorily explain it.)

3.  I have a cold.  It keeps migrating to various parts of my body.  I wish it would leave my chest, and go to, like, my knee, or something.

4.  Friday I start my MA exams.  I am using them as an excuse to order lots of takeout.