-
Site Work
I plan on moving this site to another webhost this week, so there will be some downtime. I may also switch blogging platforms… Anyway, don’t be alarmed if we are down for a while, I have to do some gnarly things to start preparing for the move.
-
In the grass
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,…
-
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…
-
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),…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Scary
“Hey Justin, can you call back in ten? Nam’s driving right now.”
-
“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…
