So my CNY (that’s code for “Chinese New Year”) vacation is almost over. Two key things went down during it:

1. I had a big, high-paying translation project. My roommate Lenny helped me out by doing a third of it. The money was very good, and the material was not too bad (actually kinda interesting in parts). Still, I’m glad that’s done. My regular “news translation” job (the one that pays the bills) has already started up again.

2. Russell visited from Japan. We had a great time.

Oh yeah, I also made some key domestic scientific discoveries, namely:

1. If you poke holes in an orange with a skewer and then leave it for 2-3 days, then try to eat it, it will be partially dried out. Not only that, but it’s extremely hard to tell which parts are the dry bits and which are the juicy bits once you peel it. Dried out orange tastes really bad. A most non-triumphant discovery for oranges.

2. Cookies dissolve way faster in warm milk than cold milk. This discovery is going to save me so much time on my cookies-and-milk work!

Oh yeah, and one more discovery:

1. The movie Zardoz is really, really bad. Yes, it’s 70s sci-fi with Sean Connery (after he was young Bond but before he was gray and refined—weird), and yes, it had a few cool ideas, but it’s still really, really bad.