Nam called me up in a panic yesterday because she crossed paths with a snake in the yard of our house (in Thailand). She told me it was about a meter long and light green, and she asked what she should do so I said LEAVE IT ALONE, because all I could think of was:
Behold the awesome glory of the White-lipped Pitviper.
Of course, it might have been the Toothless Leaf-eating Snake of Northern Thailand, but I wasn’t about to ask her to see if its head was shaped like a diamond or not (and I’m sure Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin would have agreed with that decision). Meanwhile, the snake decided to escape – up the storm drain of our house and onto the first story roof. Cool!
I told Nam to go get help, but just then a university kid happened to walk by, so he helped her somehow knock the snake off the roof and over the back wall into the adjoining forest. So all ended well, because I had heard before that Thais immediately kill any snakes that come near their homes, but Nam assures me that people in the Isaan region (where our house is) think it’s bad juju to wantonly kill shit, so they just try and get along with nature. That makes the Discovery Channeler in me so goddam happy to hear…
Thailand is not the best place for those squeamish about snakes and crawly things – a large portion of the cobra family (including the King Cobra), krait family (including the beautiful Red-headed Krait), as well as several kinds of waterbound and sea snakes can be found pretty much throughout the country.
Author: Justin
Underground
What compels people to shun the world above ground, the sunlight, the weather, the outside? The unnatural lighting of the underground makes faces look sallow and haggard. Everybody’s eyes are just… dead. I began to think it would really be best for everyone if the city burned down once every 50 years, just so things could be started anew. Because the underground is undeniable proof that something is wrong, and wrong in a way that can never be fixed.
…………..
It’s like a magnet for insanity, as well. The jittery guy on the subway who everybody avoids because he’s nuzzling a grimy teddy bear and gets visibly spooked when approached – make no mistake, he was drawn here. The uncomfortable sheen of fluorescent lights, the raw and sudden clamor of disembarcation, and the sweet, lingering stench of beer vomit are familiar and comforting, companions in despair.
………….
Kyorisoku – New Mapion Feature
Mapion is my favorite map site for Japan because of its huge-resolution BB (broadband) maps and excellent GUI. I was on the site today looking up directions when I noticed a new feature – distance measurement! Basically, you plot a course on a map by drawings points with your cursor and the distance between each point as well as the total are calculated in a handy little table, which also shows estimated time and calories burned if you walk, jog, ride a bike, or drive the route you plotted.
For instance, this is what it would look like if you walked out of the men’s restroom of Jusco (Sumoto branch), crossed the parking lot, ran to the nearby Sumoto river, and walked over water to get to the nearest Mobil gas station:
(click to see full size)
Unfortunately, there’s no info for performing that last miracle – but remember, IT’S STILL IN BETA. Let’s see if Mapion can include that, plus wind resistance, blood-type factors, and gravitational pull of passing delivery vans in the next version, k? Until then, you can see just how long it takes to get from my corner (where the nearsighted old man and his wife attempt to hawk wilted cabbage to all who pass) to anywhere else in Japan…
I think this new feature will be damn useful for planning bank heists.
Zatoichi #4
Real men wear haramaki (to literally hold their guts in if they get slashed).
-phagy
One of the most interesting things I’ve read in a while:
Eat Me: The Soviet method for attacking infection that we can learn from
Favorites passages:
– “You send your bacterial sample to the lab, and it’s either matched up with an existing phage or a phage is cultured just for you.”
– “Phages are also sold over-the-counter in Georgia. People take the popular mixture piobacteriophage, for example, to fight off common infections including staph and strep. These phage mixtures are updated regularly so they can attack newly emerging bacterial strains.”
– “One company recently tried to open a phage center in Tijuana but was deterred by the Mexican government. Phages might be offered someday at clinics on Native American reservations, as a casinolike quirk of legislative autonomy.”
I like the fact that you can legally procure heroin in TJ, but a sure fix for an infectious disease? No, senor.
Love letter to Senior Vice Justice Minister Taro Kono
Right back at you, asshole! (Update 2006/07/05: That link is hosed. I’m pasting a copy of the article below.)
A Justice Ministry panel studying an overhaul of Japan’s immigration administration is set to propose that the proportion of foreign residents to the nation’s population should be kept at 3 pct or below, Senior Vice Justice Minister Taro Kono said Tuesday.
The proposal will be included in a draft package of immigration policy reform measures to be drawn up shortly, Kono, who heads the panel, told a press conference.
According to the ministry, foreign residents accounted for 1.2 pct of Japan’s population at the end of 2005.
By contrast, the proportion stood at 8.9 pct in Germany in 2001, at 11.1 pct in the United States in the same year and at 5.6 pct in France in 1999.
The panel is also considering requiring foreign nationals of Japanese ancestry to be fluent in Japanese and have regular jobs as conditions for their residency in Japan, Kono said.
Such people are currently allowed to live in Japan if they have relatives in the country.
The panel now believes it necessary to toughen the criteria because the number of problems caused by such residents has been increasing.
Look, if there’s one thing I learned while doing basically every menial job available (short of washing corpses, which I wanted to do for the high pay but couldn’t because of the dirty foreigner thing) in this country, it’s that there are some jobs that Japanese people simply will not do. They simply are not HUNGRY enough to have to do these jobs – on loading docks, factories, piers, junkyards, resorts, roadsides, etc., and I’m not even including illegal shit, just jobs that ARE NOT NICE TO DO. Well guess what? Tens (hundreds?) of thousands of South Americans with Japanese ancestry are willing to do those jobs – and many of them already are. Hell, many people are doing these jobs WITHOUT visas, and Immigration as well as the police are fully aware of the situation – up to and including exactly which room of what shitty little hovel many of these illegals sleep in! This is a societal problem that will NOT be improved BY EFFECTIVELY MAKING CURRENTLY LEGAL WORKERS ILLEGAL.
Isn’t it better to at least have these people paying taxes/soc security and checked on periodically by immigration (during visa applications/extensions) than to have them arrive on tourist visas, work for five or ten years illegally for employers who are cheating the system, and eventually get caught and deported ON OUR DIME?
One thing bugs me about the article though:
The panel is also considering requiring foreign nationals of Japanese ancestry to be fluent in Japanese and have regular jobs as conditions for their residency in Japan, Kono said.
This is referring to the Nikkei (Japanese Ancestral) visa. That’s the one I’m on. I would qualify under these proposed terms now, but I sure wouldn’t have twelve years ago.
Such people are currently allowed to live in Japan if they have relatives in the country.
Uh, no. It’s called the Japanese Ancestral visa because the qualifier is your ancestry, not where you “have relatives.”
What-eva. I’m outta here.
Feverish Meat Dreams
I’ve been down with a completely unprovoked itchy throat/summer head cold the past week (damn you, yahweh!), which I think is more than evident in my writing. Not that I care. I have a cold, you see. It makes me want to glom a big phlegmy sound like “mweh” at the world. So: mweh!
But what is a puny cold to a man in the land of samurai ninja kamikaze? Pshaw. I have been down, but not completely out of action (and as such, I may have unwittingly figured out why so many feudal lords suddenly died of pneumonia – “What’s that? Rest, you say? Ridiculous! It’s just a little summer cold! Besides, what do you think, are those taxes magically gonna appear in our coffers? Are those wretched peasants just gonna start raping themselves? I think not! I have responsibilities, dammit!)
……………….
It bears saying that this past Friday we had a company drink up at what may be the best yakiniku restaurant in Japan, previously completely unknown to me astoforthsuchwhither. There are a lot of good places to eat yakiniku on this island and the meat is world famous – both Kobe beef and Matsuzaka beef originated from prized Awaji cattle stock. The restaurant we went to is located on a cattle ranch, and they had, overall, the best meats I have ever seen, anywhere.
I mean, I’ve had better individual items at other places, but this place brought together an excellent spread. And get this – the prices were completely reasonable! I’ve been burned for twice or three times as much as I spent that night at places that spend too much on antique decoration and waitresses that wear kimono, but serve girly-sized portions of overpriced meatribbon. No more. It’s all about the shimofuri, baby.
For me to speak so highly of this place also proves one of my long-held suspicions: Although I generally prefer sumibiyaki (cooking over charcoal) style yakiniku because it seems more authentic and just, well, cooler – nothing beats a strong gas burner and a properly shaped cooking grill for lightly searing a good cut of meat. This place was using thick metal grills that looked custom-made, and they worked very well.
If you come out to visit anytime before I leave in October, you already know what’s for dinner.
“The devil is beating his wife”
Someone at work asked me what this phrase meant the other day. I just got around to looking it up. It refers to the weather condition when it is sunny but raining. I never knew there was a term for it. I always just thought of it as “Hawaii weather.” Apparently, the following phrases also mean the same thing:
“foxes are on a marriage parade”
“witches are doing their wash”
“a tailor is going to hell”
(source)
To these, I would add another:
“The Big Monkey in the Sky Is Peeing on Us, Violently”
Mine makes a hell of a lot more sense than that foxes’ marriage parade bullshit. Fucking illogical weather arcana!
UPDATE: Duh, I completely forgot the term “sunshowers.”
Ye olde win/mac debate
This guy makes me feel much better about not buying a sleek new MacBook Pro. I want a pretty, shiny new toy, but I just cannot justify it.
Sidenote: Why are decent graphic cards for Mac still so goddamn expensive?