Apropos of nothing

I did a job interview today. No, not me applying for a new job; I was actually interviewing someone for an open position we have at ELA. (Remind me to dig up the link for the ELA website one of these days.) This is the second time I've done this. Each time was on a Monday, one of my usual days off. Today, to make up for it, my boss treated me to lunch. (マボドウフランチ...mmmmmm)

After that, I decided to go see a movie. Now, last week I went to see Batman Begins at the big theater near here. (I've previously gone to the little theaters near Yonago Station; cramped seating, small screens...bleh.) I was pleasantly surprised to see that they had comfy stadium seating, and reserved seats. (and a weekly MEN'S DAY! Alas, I work that day...)

So, I went back there today. My choices were GRAND HISTORICAL EPIC or light romantic comedy. For some unknown reason, I chose the light romantic comedy. Hitch. Good natured fun, nice way to kill an afternoon, some bits hit kinda close to home, why do I always put myself through that? (>_<) Oh well. Still a fun movie.

Friday nights are REALLY boring

In the run-up to the Japanese premiere of Star Wars Ep. III, one of the networks is showing episode 1 tonight and episode 2 next week. I've started watching. Jar Jar has made his first appearance. I've started drinking. Sense a causal relationship here?

It's interesting to note that for the opening crawl, instead of using subtitles, they had some Japanese guy actually reading the thing in Japanese. Weird. Also, instead of letterboxing or pan&scanning, when there's action at both sides of the screen, they actually squish the picture so that both ends appear in the 1:33 screen.

I need (another) drink...

Rob

Car problems.

Well, starting today I've got a week-long holiday. Normally at a time like this, my boss is always encouraging me to travel around Japan, see the sights, etc. Now the last time we had a long holiday, I took the train to Osaka for a few days, and that was fun, but this time I've decided to just lay low for a week, recover from a stretch of 11-hour work days, mentally prepare for another stretch of 11-hour work days after we start up again. (Not as bad as it sounds -- I usually get a two- or three-hour lunch break on those days.

My boss helpfully suggested a few places around here that I could take a drive out to for a day. I'd really like to -- there are some interesting historical places within a couple hours drive -- but alas, car problems have come up.

Somehow, the tailpipe has broken off of the muffler, and is now hanging by one support underneath the car. Makes a dreadful noise while driving. Also, I worry about the thing swinging around and, say, catching on some moving part down there. That would be BAD, of course. (It doesn't look like the tailpipe can swing far enough to do that, though, but I get paranoid sometimes.) And then there's the risk of exhaust gases rising into the car instead of behind it....so, a long drive probably is not a good idea right now.

Fortunately, since it's the company car, my school will cover the cost of repair. Unfortunately, the repair shop won't be able to get to it until Wednesday, and I won't get it back until Thursday.

Oh, well.

The sequel to Katamari Damacy is coming soon!

Cover art can be seen at | insert credit |.

I'm already reserving a portion of my miniscule entertainment budget for this...

This sums up my life fairly well.

And now: A Poem, entitled "?", written by 相田みとを (from the book いま、ここ)

物がいっぱい
ありながら
何か不安で
もの足らない
もの足りない
なぜ？

I Used To Be a Neocon by Drew O'Neill

Now this is an interesting read.

I Used To Be a Neocon by Drew O'Neill

Rob

Proof that I've been away too long

About half an hour ago, NHK flashed a graphic up on top of the screen, saying that the Japan National team just defeated North Korea by a score of 2-0, thus qualifying for the World Cup in Germany next year.

Proof #1: I could read that.
Proof #2: I was actually a little excited.

*Rob hangs his head* What kind of red-blooded baseball-loving American am I?

(-_^)

Farktography

One of the sites I browse in my copious amounts of spare time is Drew Curtis' FARK.com. It's one of those sites which collects links to news stories, whether important, off-beat, downright strange...(let's put it this way: they have a separate category for Florida stories). [NOTE: If you're at work, you probably shouldn't visit FARK.com. Wait until you get home.)

One of the things they do from time to time is "Photoshop contests." Basically, they post either an original photo or a general theme, and participants create bizarre images based on that. I've often wanted to participate, but I have no "1337 pShop skilz," so I don't bother.

Recently, they've started a much simpler contest, entitled
Farktography. It's just a themed photo contest. I thought, Great! Theme photos with no manipulation -- I can do that!

Then, I realized that I had no way to post pics to Fark. Links posted to Fark get "Farked," which is analogous to being "Slashdotted," so I'm assuming that if I tried to post a pic hosted here at Snookles.com, well...Scott probably wouldn't appreciate it. (right, scott? :)

The Fark powers-that-be suggest that the webspace that your ISP provides works well, as there is usually no bandwidth limit with that webspace.

My ISP? YahooBB. Their webspace? Geocities.jp. Well, THAT'S not gonna work...

Oh, well.

Here's a link to the latest Farktography contest (theme: "Seen Better Days"). A WARNING: It's a huge thread, and takes a while to load up. Plus, it's still FARK.com, and some links will be NSFW.

Rob

apropos of nothing -OR- Why the hell am I still awake?

2:40 AM. Watching "Will & Grace," a show I never watched in the states. But here. . . television programming in ENGLISH. . . well, beggars can't be choosers, eh? No commercials, either (bonus!)

Hey, this show is damn funny!

Had some wacked out dreams last night. . . a mix of odd vacation experiences, friends morphing into other friends. . . maybe that's why I'm not sleeping yet.

Hey, Jack (?) just made a Diner's Club card joke -- that reminds me of a story --

later. ^_^

"Hanzi Smatter"

Many of the people reading this (assuming there are many people reading this...) have heard of Engrish.com, the internet archive of the use and abuse of English in Japan. Recently, a blogger named tian has started a weblog to record misuses of Chinese characters ("Hanzi," "Kanji" in Japan) in the western world. Here, you'll find pictures of the woman who thought her tattoo said "eternal love," but really says "eternal pain," the boy who ended up with "At the end of the day, this is an ugly boy" tattooed on his arm, the guy who labeled his Mitsubishi Mirage with stickers that said (Honda) Prelude, and many more.

Sometimes, people send e-mail to tian, asking his advice for getting a hanzi tattoo. His advice is invariably, "Don't." Tian's reasons for this advice are concisely spelled out here.