As my Google Buzz feed slows to a trickle and GMail incessantly reminds me that Buzz is going away, I’ve already begun to miss it. Google+ is a layer removed from my e-mail inbox, and that’s the only thing I check every day. Fuck GP, fuck FB, and and fuck anything that makes me categorize contacts. I miss Buzz.
Category: Web
Es verdad.
During my first year of study at Tenri University in Japan, I met my cousin Erisa. She was from a line of my dad’s family, the Yoshidas, who emigrated to Mexico, whereas my family went to Los Angeles. I never even really knew we had Mexican relatives until I met Erisa.
She spoke zero English, and I spoke high school level Spanish (just enough to not be able to do anything with), but we were both starting to learn Japanese, so we ended up using that over the time she was in Japan (just a couple of years, whereas I stayed for 13 or 14 cumulatively). We were both totally Japanese in appearance, so it must have been a sight when we had these multilingual conversations out in public.
Even though I was using e-mail and laptops before anybody else around me, nobody else was, and I’ve lost track of many good friends from those days. So it made me immensely happy to reconnect with Erisa on Facebook back in August, by accepting her friend request and commenting on one of her posts. She just replied to the comment today, so I guess she was busy or whatever, but I know I can contact her whenever, now. Maybe this leaves the door open for me to visit family in Mexico sometime…
I still hate Facebook for being evil and selling my private information to boner pill companies, but it did a good job for me today.
Toyota reviving Nobunaga (Toyota ReBorn), plus killer killer whales
Linkdump follows:
Any modern car ad using a 1960’s S40 Crown is worth watching in my opinion, but the CM being referred to (and uploaded to Youtube just 3 hours ago) is just indecipherable. The making of video isn’t much help, either.
Killer whales attack and eat sharks: In itself, not news but apparently orcas screw with sharks the way that dolphins screw with bait balls, using their cunning mammalian brains
This Chinese Village Is So Rich It Built A Fake Great Wall And Arc De Triomphe: I’m not sure those are signs of wealth by themselves — the small Japanese island I used to live on had miniature versions of those and several other famous structures at their aging amusement park, and the last I heard pretty much every last notable business went to shit (probably entirely coincidental with my leaving, but sorry to all my friends there just in case).
(At least one of the links above are from somebody, probably Mark, on Google+, but I can’t find it now)
Diasporical
#1 Rule for Social Networking Sites post-Facebook Domination: If you name your new service something uppity like Diaspora, Exodus, or Migration, we expect you kick things off by nuking your competitors from orbit (or something equivalent to an Act of Gawd).
Tamaleros and Cul-de-Sacs
Coupla good links popped up:
Tamales, L.A.’s original street food (via Dil)
Debunking the Cul-de-Sac (via Joe Jones on Buzz)
Shark vs. Bear in Russia
A Russian acquaintance has told me that the release of photos depicting the aftermath of a fight between a big shark and a big bear in Kamchatka is imminent. Awesome.
The second best Wired article, ever
The first, of course, being Neal Steph’s Mother Earth Mother Board (I miss his entertaining writing for us serfs; I would give my left nut for another Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, or Zodiac)
Just so you know…
…this is the supposedly the longest entry in Wikipedia: List of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition monsters (nothing of value for normal people; do not click unless you want to wait for it to load for a loooong time)
Nerds FTW!
(This post was inspired by a love for Wikipedia and Borabu Dave, who isn’t sure if I’m still running this blog or not.)