Status Queue

Street art by Stinkfish

Facebook status updates as diary. A year of crisis and mini-crisis.

January
...discovers that melancholy without irony is not worth talking much about.
...interns at a place where young folks are encouraged to create their own paths in life, while a few feet away, just outside the building, are day laborers who must have journeyed harder and farther. Who will ask them about their longings?
...After Jandek, everything else is just noice.
...keeps trying on prosthetic ghost limbs.
...attempts to mimic Yahoo Babelfish: Uno, this crash won't end in the well, like yore 13?
...Dear stars, please look after those who are driving 13 hours tonight to be with their beloved.
...would like to comb your hair.
...just found out that he was left-handed as a child!

February
..., in a dream, was told he was an alien by an alien...
...wonders if the stray cat was expressing an opinion by pissing on today's papers?
...Insomnia, thy name is Egypt.
..., when in doubt, applies glitter.
...is calling it a Mizoguchi moon.
...London calling.
...wonders if the attraction to sleep is because it is an alternative (or escape) from linear thinking which there is too much of.
...is being psyopsed by one of the cats.

March
...finds it difficult to absorb the news but would like to share it with <3 friends.
...misses Final Cut Pro. I hardly knew ya.
...may need to detach from his detachment.
...wholeheartedly supports "the people demand the army returns the popcorn machine" movement.
...hopped unto the anxiety train. Choo-choo.
...suddenly finds the phrase 'pleasures of exile' annoying as hell.
...is having mightmares.
...complimented a plant, twice.
..."But I'm not good with anger. I go straight to depression." (Bored to Death)
...dreamt that his tax preparer was also his psychiatrist.
...is inclined to take arbography, if all else fails.

April
...4:44 p.m.
...dreamt of a pen and pencil that jumped to their deaths.
...is getting an I patch.
...was unable to determine if it was a burning book or a book about fire.
...notes that the body remembers it differently.
...name dropped Fragonard and Ai Weiwei in a dream set in a hospital.
...can only afford a second-hand poem.
...Dial it down, sunshine.
...'s eyes were dilated for envy.

May
...may have uttered the following in his sleep: "I come from the future. Listen to what I have to say..."
..."Number 7 has no answers."
..., observing today's clear skies, wondered about the cloud control units.
...'s mother's sighs are like daggers.
...will be citing grudges, slights, and snubs in the MLA format.
...longs to be a region-free player.
...Friends, let's slip away...
...Month of May, you have been unkind.
..."Don't get high on your own supply."
...'s timepiece insists that he's in another time zone.
...'s fam is hellbent on sending him off to the equivalent of Siberia.
...needs to be in a square. Pronto.

June
...Poll: Lil white lies (others not hurt) to achieve goal or tell truth and blow lifetime opportunity?
...dreamed of overpriced lemons.
...has a pinky toe situation.
...Oh June, how could you?
...'s tendency to misread is getting out of hand: "unmarried emails" made him look twice.
...has been to the moo-vies.
...This light, this wind, at this hour, induces reverie.
...was told the following: "You have nothing here. You only have the sunshine."

July
..."Even if it isn't as it should be, even if they make it hard, where else would we go? Who else would have us?" (Treme)
...lost his sideburns to summer.
...Maple syrupy day.
...is breaking up with Los Angeles.
...had an L.A.-centric diva dream. Just before quitting: "I come in on time. I have the least retakes. And I have an Emmy."
...got a ticket.
...is drunk on nostalgia...
...dreamed that the world momentarily lost written communication...
...highly recommends shredding old paperwork (credit card bills, embarassing poetry, clippped articles, etc.) as therapy. Side effects may include nostalgia.
...went to a taco spot called Taco Spot in Eagle Rock where he supposes that there are eagles and rocks?
...may be trading CA for .ca.
...did Porto's in Downey and Glendale within a 24-hour period.


August
...Dude, vivre sa vie.
...When in doubt, bow or nod profusely. [omgwtf.jp]
...spoke to his daddy-p for the first time in 19 years. [omgwtf.jp]
...is completely, absolutely sold on mechanized butt wash. [omgwtf.jp]
...One typhoon is enough.
...On my profile page it says, .
...was told by his well-meaning uncle to have kids so that there will be someone who will pray for me at the even of my passing and for someone to (literally) pick up the bones. That's it, when do I become Canadian? [omgwtf.jp]
...impatiently awaits for his clothes to dry on the clothesline while the sea breeze tells him to wait till morning.
...observes that in the go-go-go economy of Okinawa, fueled by tourism from mainland Japan, Taiwan, and China, some of the locals are left out by the financial rewards, resorting to a kind of traditionalism (like my uncle's decision to live farther inland and tending to small plots of land) which is in fact a reaction to an alienating capitalist wave of 'foreign' investment.
...went ahead and ordered the goya juice.
...bypassed the McDonalds and KFC for the goya burger.
...was told that the food and water placed before a closed stall were for the stray cats that roam the market at night.
...stands out for perspiring all day the whole thirteen days he has been here, and may have produced extra sweat glands in the process.
...went to the corner store (to flee from his uncle's) and met a lady and her dog companion Nora who have been hiking around the island for the past few days.
...attended a neighborhood (obon) block party which was held underneath an old tree filled with fruit bats.
...is terribly glad that the kids (nephews and nieces) have not yet called him ojisan...
...is going to jigoku for the crushes he has had in Oki. [omgwtf.jp]
...For those in the know: Vancouver. Study permit (5 years). Bam!
...It's awfully expensive here in Toronto. Send me your love and $.
...found the first apartment viewing a disaster, not for himself, but for the person who was showing the place. [Toronto Rooms]
...envies the middle-aged Spanish couple who take their time preparing their meals at the hostel. Yesterday, they had shrimps and pasta, and they also cleaned the communal kitchen for the rest of us.
...'s hostel is in the middle of a business district where nattily dressed men pretend they're not robots with their averted gazes and their look-at=me gait.
...may have to take antibiotics regularly if he's to rent a room at this place. [Toronto Rooms]
...spent about 15 minutes talking to the potential landlady about rental matters, and then proceeded to talk an hour and 15 minutes more conversing about other stuff, like Herzog's latest film, vacationing in Cuba for the winter, and why liquor stores in Toronto are ran by the government. And oh yeah, the place is sweet. [Toronto Rooms]
...went inside the old church across the street from the hostel and lighted a candle and watched the flames go by...
...was told by his Brazilian and German hostelmates that he looked partly Latin and assumed that he was part Mexican. Verdad?
...feels like a semiotic mess.
...will be a T.A. for an undergrad film history course but isn't allowed to take a graduate level film history class.

September
...managed an incomplete sentence at today's seminar while his classmates spoke in paragraphs. Plan B: Bartending school.
...misses hearing random Spanglish.
...is watching live Caltrans footage.
...wonders why there's no trace of snow on the university website.
..., ugh, snap out of it!
...How can I be homesick for places that were never my home? ...Am I mistaking homescikness for something else like a longing for a home, THE home?
...'s first day as a TA started out really badly but also got an applause at the end of class...
....produces a crypto-accent when he gets nervous.
...found out its called shorelessness.
...scoffs at calling it fall or autumn and prefers calling it as pre-winter.
...was told about cyborgs and aborigines in hushed tones while in the library also know as The Fortress.

October
...is another one of those dodgy exiles doing something called comparative literature.
...was told in a dream that his Kanji is like a crooked lane in his hometown.
...wonders how to turn doubts into donuts.
...Dear Friday, I'm already looking forward to sharing a drink with you.
...stands by his X.
...is still coming to terms with fragments of disbelief that comes his way like falling leaves.
...keeps forgetting that he's no longer talking with Americans...

November
...'s inability to cook has reportedly been turned into an Estonian family's cautionary tale.
...Occupy Melancholia.
...wonders aloud if Occupy (and other historic events in 2011) will affect the direction of his studies...
..."Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." (Rosa Luxemburg)
...can't wait for the new year (1968)!
...Eisenstein, did you ever hear of livestreaming?
..."Remember MacArthur Park!"
...kept on Googling to find out what it was called: snow.


 December
...thinks this is potentially life changing: "Why does it have to be between two national literatures (or cinemas)? Why can't it be a question? (E.C., September 2011)
...fantasy Facebook check-in would look like this: "--at LAX."
...is going home after this exam and watching an Ozu film.
...politely asked his host how she seasoned the fish. It was chicken.
...went to a holiday choir program last night and kept thinking that the music would fit in well with the end of the world, which only made him want to rush out of the auditorium to go see "Melancholia" again.
...just realized that X stands for ten, also.
...is a flaming pinata.
...is paying up in besos.
...is no longer negotiating with nostalgia. Capish?
..."You say L.A. like you're from there." Verdad?
..."You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world. But then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me the most were the very things that connected me with all the people who are alive, who have ever been alive." (James Baldwin) Happy holidays. Now go read.
...is considering being reincarnated as a neon sign.
..., in a dream, was presenting on Van Gogh use of space and poetics of objects (none of which I know anything in my waking life) only to be informed by the professor (who comes out of a booth wearing goggles) how all this relates to photography...
...asked Santa for a teleportation device.
...proceeded to chop onion with sunglasses.