my hard drive passed away last thursday. i killed it... all the data of the past two years gone...
i left my macbook in a kind of tilting position on my bed and even thought "hm, this looks kinda dangerous..." and of course i had to knock it over when i climbed back to bed. well, considering my degree of clumsiness it had to happen sooner or later - it's even quite a miracle that i hadn't destroyed anything important before.
at least i've learned some lessons: from now on i will always double-save my data and act on common-sense...

i haven't stepped outside of my home for 3 days... not because i've started hibernating (though i've always thought that would be a great idea...) - nope, the reason is quite mundane: i've been a bit feverish and anyway didn't have anything to do but writing papers... isn't my life exciting? * small excerpt of n's dad's alarm clock collection. picture taken last friday, at the weekly thai dinner at n's place. it's probably the most packed place on earth as her parents are kind of compulsive collectors, but i love it there, it's so charming : )

i've been looking through my old blog entries the other day and remembered how i had this huge girl crush on rei shito! ever since i saw her on the sartorialist i became infatuated with her style, and after i learned that she was a streetstyle photographer for FRUiTS i loved her even more as this was the reason how my obsession with japan and streetfashion photography started! but i couldn't find out more about her as she didn't have a personal blog back then... but that's not the case anymore, yesterday i googled her again and voilá, rei's own streetstyle blog: STYLE from TOKYO rei by the sartorialist

i'm currently working on an article about the story of chairman mao's mangoes and i think i've never had more fun doing academic research:

"After they had thrown a welcome party for their mango, which ended at 11 at night, they decided they should put it in some chemical fluid to preserve it forever. Through the rain they drove to the Agricultural Exhibition Center, but in vain - no such fluid was available there. They drove on (by then, it was already 3 a.m.) to the Museum of Natural History, where they arrived at dawn. So it took them two to three hours to drive a couple of miles, which either means that the streets were crowded with frantic mango preservers, or their revolutionary fervor had completely muddled their sense of direction. Their trip to the Natural History Museum proved to be lucky: the mango was carefully placed inside a glass jar filled with formaldehyde. In the morning of 6 August, they could take their mango back home."
Alice de Jong, "The Strange Story of Chairman Mao's Wonderful Gift", Reminiscences and Ruminations - China Information Anniversary Supplement, vol. 9, no. 1 (Summer 1994), pp. 48-54

one of the infamous wax mangoes that were made to memorate the chairman's great gift (the east is red)

my favourite things #4 and #5
* marc by marc jacobs mouse ballerinas
* my mum's old handbag

iliveinoctober via narumi

i love you magazine via blica