A candy-pastry shop at Venice, late April 2009. Oops, this was way too big at 900 x640. Now it works at 650 x420. Perhaps this theme is a bit cramped for uploading big pictures. If that continues to be a problem I will switch to another theme.

© Young Mi Angela Pak, 2006

Golden bamboo trunks and leaves taken at the Santa Cruz Bamboo Grove.  Slowly working toward uploading images and texts.

But as it turns out, the two spheres of my life are rapidly converging and flowing into one another, and I am not certain these distinctions have much validity anymore.  In any case, I have learned over the years that a blog is not much useful unless one keeps uploading new materials.  Spending much thought on what the blog is all about at the expense of steadily contributing– whatever the content is– to the page is bound to be a waste of time (and electronic space).  

Still, I want this page to be helpful for my students, which is not what Q Branch is really aiming for. This does not mean I will make the postings here didactic or summaries of my class lectures: I promise to keep it just as fun, weird and tacky as the other blog!  Anyway, I am starting off with a few exercise postings and eventually move onto the items related to Japanese culture and history, broadly defined.  From there we shall see how it goes.  Thanks for noticing/reading this blog and if you liked it, please come back!