Old school elevator buttons are cool.
Jeangrish
Amusing concept. Perhaps jeaning is the next big thing.
Rear Spoiler on Gloria
Like a zit on a classy older woman’ face. Or something like that.
Random Osaka Car Photos
A double winner!
Check out the plate holder – made of a special reflective material that prevents highway cameras from getting a shot of the number plate – that is, uh, assuming there is one.
It’s art, dude!
In front of the fourtwenty head shop in Amemura. Note the classic Osaka parking job – sometimes you need a can opener to get out.
Mass consumption
Proof that tonight’s yakiniku feast was of the all-you-can-eat type.
Piano Brothers
My dad just sent me this clip:
PianoBrothers.wmv
On days like this, the world is mine
I was awoken by the mailman, who came with an Amazon package. I’m now listening to Aphex Twin and eating oranges and I feel very
, if you know what I mean. It must be from that wine I had before bed. Red wine dreams are always good. Aphex Twin is always good. Today is going to be an awesome day, I can just feel it.
Implications?
Unconciously sketched by the GF while on the phone with me….
True Grit
The guy I work across from, Angry Hiro, spent the whole day teaching a particularly inept vendor a lesson by yelling at them on the phone for ten hours straight. I am currently trying to recall the funniest combinations of “dumbass,” “dipshit,” and “fuckhead,” and spent most of the day cracking up with my coworkers. Angry Hiro even used our amusement to belittle them, holding up the receiver and yelling shit like, “Do you hear that? They’re laughing at YOU! ASSHOLES!” In between bouts, he was popping these little white pills like mad and wiping sweat off his brow with this gaudy brown-and-black checkered hanky embossed with a Chanel logo.
When I asked him what the pills were for, he barked, quite proudly, “ulcer!”
It is a testament to the twisted state of corporate life to realize that I can respect that. Dumbass.
Shopping Alert
If you are a techno gadget freak, this is not news to you but I’m posting this for all other forms of life in Japan:
BUY AN LCD MONITOR RIGHT NOW!
I bought two last week because everyone is predicting the prices will rise again soon… I bought a new high performance 17″ Mitsu for 1/2 the sticker price (at an online store I use often – PC Success), and it’s kicking ass for all the games I play. I also got a 17″ Iiyama for Nam, who spends many hours every day working on her doctoral thesis – this should help prevent eye strain. Our old CRT’s are out in my hallway, doing what they do best – taking up space! An unexpected bonus of switching from CRT to LCD was that it opened up a huge (albeit dusty) space on my desk (which I actually already filled up with stacks of CDs, assorted phone bills, food wrappers, etc., but that’s another story).
I opted for the Mitsubishi and the IIyama because these two companies along with BENQ are the only ones that use a 100-240V power supply, which is what I will need to use them in Thailand when we move. I’m only writing about this because I actually went to Osaka to compare product catalog specs to actual rating labels on the floor models a couple weeks ago, and I thought I’d save someone else the trouble since I’ve seen this question asked elsewhere.
To give you an idea of how cheap LCD monitors really are in Japan right now, I just saw offers for some 19″ models under the 30,000 mark – wow! I remember when 15 inchers were twice that price – not so long ago. I’m glad I waited so long to get ours.