Month: August 2006

Dog vs. Lizard

Nam sent a series of her crazy minpin mix, Gen, going after a lizard in our yard in Mahasarakham. (Click on any of the photos to open a larger version of it in a new window.)

Note the wild beady eyes of a predator on the hunt.

Can’t quite figure out who is attacking who in this photo.

Nature is cruel, but one thing is apparent – our side yard at the new house is a veritable Thunderdome (and I already have an idea of who the current champion is).

why I love my local baker

I walk into his store after not buying any bread for three months and he says, “thanks for coming by last night.” Which makes no sense coming from a normal baker, but this guy usually opens his store at 2 or 3 in the morning so I guess it’s possible, perhaps in a food-oriented bout of somnambulism…
One loaf of homemade bread and a heaping dose of self-puzzlement, coming right up!

August 6th

Let’s just pretend today is still the sixth. With that in mind:

  • Today I ate my favorite dish at my favorite seafood place in town (anago-don at Uomasa)
  • I walked to the beach with friends, both old and new
  • I washed nary a dish, because we ate out all day
  • We watched 5,000 fireworks at the annual show in town, barely 200 meters from the launch area
  • We watched Breakin’ and the Last Dragon (Sho ‘nuf!) in a sudden fit of 80’s nostalgia (anybody remember Vanity? Also, we discovered perhaps Jean Claude Van Damme’s earliest movie appearance – as a silent [thank god] extra in Breakin’)
  • I received calls and messages from all over the world, all day long
  • I congratulated myself for having the foresight to take tomorrow off work – this, if nothing else, shows some promising personal growth

Today was a good day to turn 32 – I feel special things are gonna happen this year. It’s gonna be a great one.
………….
Cultural Point of Interest – Japan’s Economy Fueled Entirely by Cellphone Packet Fees
We watched the fireworks show from Ohama Beach, a ten minute walk from my house. Like I said, we were right by the mortars and the sound was felt more than heard. The fireworks with low trajectories lit up the surface of the sea to reveal a fleet of pleasure craft anchored just outside the danger zone; I saw twenty times more boats off the coast of Sumoto on this single night than I’ve ever seen before. But that wasn’t the most interesting thing:
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The fireworks were great, but in the end they are just fireworks…
…
…
Much more impressive was the sheer number of LCD screens lighting up the night as people recorded photos/video on their keitai cameras:
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Hey, if a massive tsunami had hit us right then, at least our demise would have been very well documented…
Guess my cynicism isn’t really improving with age…
Or, maybe it is.

The Price of Gas in Japan

This is just a little tidbit and not even really a useful tip in the grand scale of things, but as it stands right now, the cheapest place to fill up your car anywhere in Japan is at a highway gasoline stand. Due to the sharp price rise of gasoline earlier this week, prices are now generally over 140 yen per liter (that’s $4.60 a gallon for regular gasoline! FUCK!). However, due to some provision, the gasoline stations you see at the highway rest stops all over Japan have a cap on the price per liter at 137 yen.
They (read: The MAN) are looking to close this loophole sometime within the next month, so if you happen to pass a gas station on the highway soon, it might make you happy to stop and fill up your tank (It will make me happy, at least. I love sticking it to The Man.)
BONUS TRIVIA
The price of gasoline in Japan can be broken down by the following formula:

  • 30% of the money that you pay for gasoline is the actual cost of the refined dead dino juice
  • 50% goes to taxes
  • 20% is what’s left for the retailer to try and squeeze a profit from (and it’s suspected that at least half goes towards paying for the Minister of Transportation’s fleet of sleek black limousines. It pays to be top dog, baby.)

In addition, that sound you hear at the pump is:

  • Money literally being sucked from your credit card (after all, who carries around that much cash?) at insane speeds, especially if you’re a dumbshit like me and insist on ????? (high octane gasoline)
  • The Man and his band of wild Arab oil magnates sticking a fist right up your ass! That’s why the gas station attendants bow to you when you drive off – you just got FUCKED, kid!

Mozzie Nerve Pinch

Got stung by a rogue mosquito in the back of the head last night and now my neck is all sore from its virulent nerve toxin-saliva or whatever. Told my fellow office drone about it and he said, “don’t worry it’s probably just encephalitis – haha!”
Haha! Very funny, motherfucker.
When you were away from your desk and your client called, I told him you got fired for being a crack whore.