Third post today: Learning Japanese, I think I'm learning Japanese (I really think so)

I have my Canadian Passport now! Woo woo! I'll soon be getting my Change of Name Certificate, which means I can then complete my son's citizenship certificate. I hope to have him baptized soon too.

Anyway, I now have a sister-in-law, and as I'm visiting Osaka in February I must learn some Japanese: but what? Nihongo? Katakana? Kanji? I should learn the feminine forms of spoken Japanese, correct? Or can I get away with a broader or masculine form because I'm gaijin?

I'm also going to immerse myself in some Japanese culture over the next six months -- some Yasuhiro Ozu films, some Akira Kurosawa, Haruki Murakami, Yasunari Kawabata, Shusaku Endo, Natsuo Kirino and Hitomi Kanehara books (in translation, of course!!)... but what if my in-laws are unfamiliar with Ozu or Kurosawa? What if they don't watch movies? or read books? I don't know much about my sister-in-law, only that I can count on going shopping in Osaka. Do they have kombucha tea in Japan? Oolong is very popular, I know that.

More 'Best American Films Lists'

I recently watched two highly esteemed classic films, both directed by Martin Scorsese, and both featuring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Frank Vincent: Goodfellas and Raging Bull. It's taken me a long, long time to see these films. Eventually I do want to see all the 'excellent/very good' films.

For this list, I have yet to see:

Broken Blossoms
Greed
The Strong Man
The Crowd
The Wind
Scarface
HISTORY IS MADE AT NIGHT
STAGECOACH
YOUNG MR. LINCOLN
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
DETOUR
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
FORT APACHE
GUN CRAZY
ON THE WATERFRONT
THE SEARCHERS
A FACE IN THE CROWD
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
MEAN STREETS
THE CONVERSATION
THE GODFATHER PART II
TAXI DRIVER
DAYS OF HEAVEN
ALL THAT JAZZ
DINER
RUMBLE FISH
STRANGER THAN PARADISE
AVALON
JFK

Safe for work and sharing with young relatives -- Robert De Niro shares his craft with Elmo on Sesame Street:

Apple Pie

I need to clean the bathroom, then empty it, today. My plan is to declutter some books and magazines and stuff downstairs to make a place for the bathroom items that won't be used in the shower. Then to apply a bleach or TSP solution to the bathroom. So I went downstairs, and was disappointed (okay, infuriated) to encounter cat urine smells on books. I've turfed out some books, and the ones that don't smell of cat urine will get deposited in a book drop or exchanged for credit at a used books store. I will buy a black light, some pet enzyme cleaner, more bleach, distilled water, and garlic.

So one of the books I was removing was Jean Paré's Easy Entertaining and what did I find but the first page of my mother's apple pie recipe! Hot damn! My father-in-law will be pleased. I am near ecstatic. Maybe it's a sign of my aging that I'm whipsawing between ecstasy and fury right now. But I should photocopy the one page I have and commit the rest to online, and put maybe one copy in the safe deposit box.

How do you get your partner to engage in cleaning, by the way? My spouse seems to be okay with cat urine, and I am not. Should I assume he is insensitive, or that he prefers cat urine to me? He's home nearly all day, whereas I have a lengthy commute, so I can't just drop everything and clean full-time.

IDs indeed

For my son's citizenship certificate:
I need to order a Change of Name Certificate for myself. I am sure my mom had one but I understand she had other things on her mind while she was dying. I have a choice of calling Vital Statistics and ordering over the phone, or visiting in person, or putting materials in a sealed, addressed envelope and asking my visiting friend to mail it when she returns to Canada.

Social Security Card for boy:
Not sure he needs this immediately, but he'll need it one day. I'm tired of looking up tax returns to find out what his Social Security Number is. This will require taking some time off work to apply. However, if I end up employed, at last, at last, at last, for keepsies, I may spend an unpaid, unstructured day catching up on my reading and visiting the Social Security Administration Office.

Change of Birth Certificate:
I was on drugs, literally, the prescribed painkillers you get in a hospital, when I filled out his certificate of live birth. I could not remember if my original middle name was spelled with an 'e' or not, so I went with the middle name I had at the time.

The good news is that I can easily afford the replacement garage door. Yay! Perhaps tomorrow I will remember to take some time to do errands by fax, e-mail and phone. Order some weeding/pruning.

weaning from caffeine, going green(er)

I gave up coffee a month back, which wasn't such a big sacrifice when I was suffering from my third go this year with a sinus infection. The lemon juice and cayenne were doing more to cut the excess mucus than the java was. I was also working somewhere where the morale was as close to the bottom as the company's stock price at the time. Coffee and alcohol were the survival drugs of the condemned, so I had the déjà (did I get that right?) vu of my dot-com bomb days.

Now in the morning instead of coffee I have a hot lemon/honey/cayenne drink, or hot apple cider vinegar/organic maple syrup drink. Sometimes I'll have Renew-U tea. Something to clean the insides without making me jittery and tense. I'd been drinking coffee since 1988, so this is indeed news. Of course, it is summer, and I need coffee the least when there is maximum sunlight. Perhaps I can save my latte money for a light box.

I have been less tense, but some of that might be from rebalancing my portfolios, and reciting the Rosary daily. I have more energy, which I dearly need.

My house has a carbon footprint that is 0.8 of the size of my car's carbon footprint. The house has a fuel efficiency score of 9.1 out of 10, meaning 9% of the homes in the US are more fuel-efficient that ours. We do not have solar power, and live in an old house. We have updated our heating system, purchased new windows and new insulation. I'm now considering duct cleaning and sealing, and other weatherstripping.

I am saving for a new car, as my car is twelve years old and has over 140K miles on it, and have identified the following possibilities, although by the time I have enough for a full car purchase other good options will be on the market:

Toyota Prius
2008 Nissan Altima Hybrid
2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid
2007 Hyundai Elantra

I looked at family sedans at Fuel Economy, a U.S. government website from the Department of Energy.
Any of these vehicles will have fewer emissions than my current vehicle, and better mileage. I'm looking to upgrade to a family sedan as the child grows. If I purchased an Altima Hybrid this year, I would be qualified to take a tax credit.

I'm back.

Here's what's going on with me:
* applying for kid's citizenship certificate
* renovating bathroom
* looking for F-T job
* getting more into a whole and natural foods diet, down to making my own bread and creme fraiche, growing my own vegetables

I made a list of films in the Top 100 Films list by Mr. Showbiz editors that I haven't yet seen.
The Man who Shot Liberty Valance
Godfather II
The Wild Bunch
The Searchers
Bridge on the River Kwai
On the Waterfront
Apocalypse Now
The Hustler
Unforgiven
Deer Hunter
Hud
Red River
The Empire Strikes Back
Hamlet (1948) -- Laurence Olivier
Streetcar Named Desire
Last Tango in Paris
Out of the Past
All that Jazz
Grapes of Wrath
Goodfellas
Stagecoach
Last Picture Show
Die Hard
Midnight Cowboy
West Side Story
The Quiet Man
Reds
From Here to Eternity
Adam's Rib
Patton
The Terminator
Floating Weeds
Gates of Heaven

Have you seen (m)any of these?