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OK, just one more…
Why stop when I’m on a roll? Meet Dudley Hiibel. He’s a 59 year old cowboy who owns a small ranch outside of Winnemucca, Nevada. He lives a simple life, but he’s his own man. You probably never would have heard of Dudley Hiibel if it weren’t for his belief in the U.S. Constitution. One balmy May evening back in 2000, Dudley was standing around minding his own business when all of a sudden, a policeman pulled-up and demanded that Dudley produce his ID. Dudley, having done nothing wrong, declined. He was arrested and charged with “failure to cooperate” for refusing to show ID on demand. And it’s all on…
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CSS Zen Garden / Hangame Japan
Now that I have a legion of troopers aspiring to find the One True Way for their site design, I present a Scroll of Knowledge: http://csszengarden.com Hurry up and click already. // For the troops on furlough, I present the best and most addictive free game site in all of Japan. I’m talking original MMPORG (if you now what that abbreviation means, you are a fucking nerd. like me.), card games like poker and hanafuda, mah-jong, pachinko, etc. etc. etc.: HANGAME Japan I think the parent company is one of the biggie Korean portal sites like Daum. John and his wife got me hooked on Korean hanafuda (called “Go Stop”)…
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Look wot I can do!
Wow. I just wrote the PERFECT POST here and lost it when I accidentally closed the browser window. Hooray for me! No, I will not attempt to recreate it. That would be like trying to top my harshest drinking record (16 Spirytus shots) – maybe possible, but not without great suffering. Speaking of Spirytus, I just found out from the distributor’s site that the shit isn’t really meant for drinking as-is (as if we didn’t know before): Poland is a big, world producer of spirit obtained by the fermentation of grain or potatoes. The purification of the spirit is made by rectification in modern automated plants. Spirit obtained in this…
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Tilted Cab
A truck garage near my company. I like watching the mechanics stripping down cabs when I’m waiting at a red light in front of the garage.
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Fiery Cumulus
The most inspiring sunset this year was the one I observed from the roof of my relatives’ Tenrikyo church in Asuka Mura. I hope we can have a BBQ there on the roof during the summer.
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Shades of Quadrophenia
I liked Sting in Quadrophenia. He fit the role rather well, I think. It’s interesting to think that if the Mods and Rockers could find a common ground living in the current day it would probably be their disdain for Honda knockoffs.
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Miwa Otori
If you drive down route 169 from Nara toward the city of Sakurai you will see a huge black “o-tori” that stands at the entrance of a parking area for Miwa shrine (Miwa-jinja or Miwa-myojin in Japanese). This is the largest o-tori in Japan and the jinja is located at the base of a mountain. There is an ancient cedar tree there that a white snake (actually a reincarnation of the myojin) is reincarnated in. But you might not find many references to it on the web because the animistic details of the shrine might not have been written about much in English. And the history of this shrine, one…
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Sony Obelisk
This is a wired remote controller for my Sony head unit installed in one of Silvia’s 2-DIN slots. I specifically bought this toy because it had been around for at least 10 years and I thought it would be dropped in favor of a new model. Bingo! I was right and the new ones are wireless, though less 80’s-looking and hence worthless in my opinion. I think I may be one of three people in the universe who can change the settings for the subwoofer output’s high pass filter one-handed in the dark without looking at the display. Now somebody give me A GODDAMN COOKIE.
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Running Strong
My Silvia still runs smooth after 150,000 kilos. That’s quite a distance for a four-banger, and is a testament to the design of the SR-20DE engine. The engine is chain driven and my mechanic tells me he sees them pass the 200k mark in other cars (Nissan Primera, etc.). The thing is, I’m not just puttin’ around all the time. I put serious (but loving) strain on that car and she comes through every time. So I reciprocate by keeping her pretty. This, in fact, is cause for ribbing from my buddies (when they see me bust out the tire wax) and also causes Nam to get quite angry (note…
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“Osaka’s Nile”
This is the view toward Dotonbori bridge from Sakai-suji. Came out rather poorly but I think it does this area justice, really.
