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Choose your own bitter pill
I found some really good videos on YouTube, but they are all downers. I don’t know if it’s wise to watch so much sadness and suffering in one go, so I suggest choosing a single theme from the following: 1. Sadistic dolphin killings in Wakayama, Japan “Each year, the idyllic and peaceful setting of the village of Taiji in southern Japan is shattered by almost unspeakable cruelty as incredible pain and ultimate death is inflicted on defenseless dolphins.” I actually had no idea that this was taking place so close to where I lived – it’s in Wakayama… If I had known that just a couple years ago… Dolphin Massacre…
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Hu Jintao doesn’t read this blog…
And now I know why – this site isn’t commie compliant! China is blocking my domain! (According to these guys, at least.) I am deeply, deeply honored. In fact, I think this calls for a tribute:
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Peyton Manning – The United Way
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50 Years of Skyline
If the grand tour of Japan proposed on this Nissan page doesn’t include a couple of timed laps around the Osaka sotokanjo, it just ain’t worth doing. I remember one of the early Japanese car magazines that featured a reader’s photo corner where you could send in copies of your speeding tickets – the reader with the highest recorded speed won some sort of prize. Ah, those were the days (before 50+ kmph over speeding tickets cost you your license plus a night in jail).
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Banks and Blades and Monster Geckos
One of the coolest things about rural Thailand is the prevalence of bladed tool vendors outside of banks and government building selling scythes, spades, hatchets, axes, machetes, and cooking knives of all sizes and types. I went to the tax office with some Japanese teachers last week and as they waited in line inside, I was just outside the window closest to the tax clerks, handling what could basically be desribed as a ghetto battle axe, with a rusty, roughly machined blade welded to a steel pipe that served as a handle. I don’t know if the clerks saw me outside in my adolescent dwarf warrior state, but when I…
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The Ballad of Black Mesa
this is the coolest thing i have ever seen. for today, at least.
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A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer
Old news, but: “Diamond Age, based on Neal Stephenson’s best-selling novel The Diamond Age: Or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, is a six-hour miniseries from Clooney and fellow executive producer Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Productions. When a prominent member of society concludes that the futuristic civilization in which he lives is stifling creativity, he commissions an interactive book for his daughter that serves as a guide through a surreal alternate world. Stephenson will adapt his novel for the miniseries, the first time the Hugo and Nebula award winner has written for TV. “ Clooney, you say? As in, George Clooney? Um, yep. And to think I was going to call…
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Adam got Farked
One of Adam’s old posts on Oita Aquarium (link) got farked over the weekend (it’s on the front page of the Tech section right now). It seems to have been picked up on a few other blogs as well, which is why I noticed it. Congrats, dude! Now if you’d only fix your comments and add the Google Analytics code I’ve been bugging you with for a year…
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All you ever wanted to know about using squat toilets
I’ve lived in Asia for over a decade, so I’m used to squat toilets (as opposed to western-style toilets that you sit on). I prefer squat toilets everywhere except for my own bathroom, actually. I know that doctors and health professionals say that you don’t “get germs” from other people via toilet seat transfer, but what can I say? They probably live sheltered lives and have never SEEN the disgusting state of nasty public toilet seats – you know, the ones yellowed from age, with huge welts from cigarette burns, cracked in three separate pieces and with stinky bits of shit and god-knows-what stuck to it. You know, the kind…
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Nam’s ducky cowboy hat
We came across a roadside vendor selling cowboy hats at the end of last year, and this one just stood out. In related news, I found a hidden horse ranch on the dirt road behind our house. Now all I need is a good set of spurs! ||||||||||||||||||| UPDATE (transcribed from Google Talk session with Adam): me: oh wait i just realized something it’s not a duck is it Adam: no chicken me: oops always thought it was a rubber ducky Adam: nah, dude, its like a chicken in a biscuit me: godammit oh well the name stays this is nam’s ducky hat godammit Adam: cool
