Help Me Bowie/Ziggy Fans

Ok, I have scoured the web to find this info, but I cannot seem to locate it.

Velvet Goldmine was the name of a movie about Ziggy and Iggy (and maybe a little Lou Reed in there too) but I swear there was another movie made around that time about Ziggy Stardust too...one without Ewan MacGregor in it. Do you know of it and what is the title? Or...am I wrong?

Ubuntu Christian Edition!? Oh Jesus...

New Information has come to light that made me feel that I had to rework the original post I wrote, and repost it here.

My rant begins with me seeing an interesting little app. in Linux Mint called "Mint Nanny" which is a domain blocker. I have been interested in installing such a program in the past, and may try it out. I wondered if it was available in Ubuntu, so I did a Google search and found something called, "Dansguardian" which brought me to a Linux forum where mention was made of Ubuntu CE.

Ubuntu CHRISTIAN EDITION!?!?! GGGGGAAAAAAGGHHHHHH!!! (repeat this 5 times while running down the street naked pouring jello over your head and you will arouse the shock in others that I feel now.) What the bloody hell does religion have to do with computing? This really bothers me quite a bit, and the respect I felt for Ubuntu has just diminished. I am unhappy. There are no Atheist, Hindu or Taoist editions, but the Christians have a version?

Edit: Wrong! I just found out that there is Buddhabuntu, Sabily -- for Muslims, and even Ubuntu Satanic Edition. Damn!...ed.

Organized religion is one of the absolute worst things to have happened to the world, yet there are religious Ubuntu versions. I am actually cool with Jesus, Buddha, and others... just not the religions that claim to represent those figures. But my beliefs are irrelevant too. It would not matter if Christianity were the greatest thing in the world, there still should be no Christian Edition, nor Satanic, nor Atheist, Democrat, Sportsman, Punk rock, nor Porn Stars of the 80's Version. That is what desktop wallpapers and applications/software are for.

Now that I think about it, I might get a kick out of a Taoist operating system... but an Ubuntu version would still be inappropriate. The first image at the top is the actual desktop image that comes with Ubuntu CE. The second image here is one of MANY Satanic Edition desktops. I read a bit about it, it seems more about free metal music than the devil...but I don't care. Standard Ubuntu has no religious or political references in it whatsoever, but the fact that the company/community allowed a religious edition just got under my skin. It ain't right.

Edit: The dogma-editions I mentioned are apparently not "Official" Ubuntu distributions, but I don't think using the word "Ubuntu" in these variants should be forgiven. Freedom of expression. I dig it, but can't these guys just go off and make something new? No?

A fella in the Linux Mint Forums recommended Ubuntu CE to another guy because it comes with software installed to help block unwanted websites from his kids. The guy replied, "No thanks. I am trying to raise my children in a safe and happy atheist home." The reply came back from the fella who gave the recommendation, "Don't be so judgmental...(insert long-winded reply here)". I just had to laugh. "Wait wait wait...a Christian...just said...don't be judgmental?" No really.

Edit: Atheists can be equally as judgmental and "In your face" as any religious group can be, and I have had to put up with more than my share of b.s. from both Christians and atheists. If there were an "Atheist Ubuntu Edition", I would be equally as irked. My comments are not anti-Christian, I am vehemently against mixing religion or other social regimes with computing. Bringing religion into the virtual world just creates more divisions we don't need. We already have an anti-Windows, anti-Linux thing going on. Mostly I am just pissed that the name of the system I use is being used in league the names of groups I don't support.

In a nutshell. 1. No religionbuntu 2. Keep your beliefs in your "Home" folder.

A Taste of "Mint"

As of tonight I am testing out a fairly new version of Linux, on an operating system called, "Mint". Ubuntu is good and recently I even stopped hating XP enough to use it off and on, but I wanted to try something new. Part of it is boredom, but some things about Ubuntu still bother me. Glitches are one...the fact that there is an Ubuntu CE "Chaps my hide".

I Googled "most stable operating system" and Linux came up as #1. In case you want to know, "stable" is based on the length of time that an OS can stay on without requiring a reboot -- referred to as "Up time". Apparently the current longest up-time without a restart is 18 years! It is a Unix machine. I already use Linux so I did a new Google search for "most stable linux distribution" and came up with the Distrowatch website. Ubuntu is still #1, followed by OpenSuse, Fedora and Debian. Linux Mint is a newer distro that someone on the Ubuntu forum suggested I try. It is #6 in popularity on a list of 10, but I liked the description. "Mint is...what many refer to as an 'improved Ubuntu'." So, since my laptop is currently available for testing purposes, I installed it.

Slightly anti-climactic in that I don't really notice any major difference between Mint and Ubuntu, except that the color scheme is all green and the menus are in a different location. If any Ubuntu users are reading this, at first glance Mint reminds me of a green Kubuntu. Mint uses the Gnome desktop manager, but the menu is at the bottom like in KDE (and windows). The repos are identical if not very similar, and most of the Ubuntu out-the-box apps are the same too -- Gimp, Pidgin, Firefox, Thunderbird, Rhythmbox, etc. Even the "wait" circle icon is the same. I "think" that newer versions come just after new versions come out in Ubuntu, and so far I wonder, "How is this any different than another version of Ubuntu?"

I did notice a couple new things, one being "Mint Nanny" domain blocker comes preinstalled. Hey! Just like Ubuntu Christian Edition! JOY! (gag)

Anyway, I am going to try this out and see if any of the things I bitch about in Ubuntu are any better in Mint, but given that this is based on Ubuntu I kinda think that something LIKE what I am used to, but arranged differently is just going to be annoying. Hey, but like I said, I wanna try something out. I may get real weird and install Debian or Fedora next time.

To you this may mean, "Good then I don't need to try it". But it also means that my first impression is that it is safe enough to try out. In other words, you don't go to install it and your PC is sucked inside and thrown into a spiral vorple-dimension as red antennae-purpies sprout out of your forehead and you suddenly look like a hamster but not to anyone else.

Early music discovered on carving

I am a big fan of the BBC, especially the Science and Tech page. "Markings on a 16th Century carving from Stirling Castle could be the oldest surviving piece of written Scottish instrumental music, historians believe." "A sequence of Os, Is and IIs have been found on one of the wooden medallions which would have decorated the ceiling of the castle." "It is believed the music could have been played on instruments such as harps, viols, fiddles and lutes."

And not only that, a harpist familiar with medieval music recreated what he thinks is the tune written on this carving. Follow the entire story and hear the tune HERE.

No Shit?

File-Sharing & 'Net Piracy'

(Note: I rewrote most of this post on 8/27.)

"UK file-sharers will be 'cut off'"

"The UK government is to announce that people who consistently download films and music illegally will be cut off from the net."

"The announcement will come in the form of an amendment to the Digital Britain report, launched in June. It is believed that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has intervened personally to beef up the report.

The amendment will make it easier for internet service providers to act against pirates. ISPs have said it is not their job to police the web. It is likely there will be widespread anger from ISPs over the u-turn. Much of the Digital Britain report is dedicated to ways to get people online and many felt that a policy of cutting off persistent downloaders would go against this ethos."

-- The BBC online news source

Wow. So, no more torrents? How will people get movies? TV shows? Music?! Girly flicks?! They expect people to PAY for that kinda stuff?!?! ...oh yeah, they do huh? This has spawned a "torrent" of thoughts in my head from this one subject, bear with me.

The above is going on in Britain, not yet in the land of the free (free if you are in the majority). But it brings up a thought here, not whether people will find ways to keep pirating -- cuz they will -- but more than that, the Internet has been the biggest spring board for an enormous section of society to enter into an era where we think shit is FREE! (I edited this and dropped the word "stealing"). And btw, if you don't pirate media, but you steal bandwidth on your wireless machine, you had better hoist your Jolly Roger! Not only is Net giving and getting habit forming, many feel justified in taking for free what was intended to be sold. The current teen population is actually being reared on "free" media. People are going to be seriously pissed if the flow stops.

Can you imagine if your Internet service were just gone? And you called NTT -- or whatever company Americans/Brits use -- and they said, "Sorry sir, you will have to talk to our department in charge of Internet thievery." That would suck, but not anywhere near as bad as having no net at all! Then the question becomes, "Is a computer without the net worth turning on?" I know that I would spend far, far less time on the PC without the Net.

Another article on BBC said, "Whether it's a new number one single or the latest film out at the cinema, look hard enough online and you'll be able to find a copy to illegally download for free." No, it isn't hard. Right now is the easiest time that there ever has been to get free music and movies. In fact, most recently I have noticed that doing a torrent search for a particular musical group or artist, more often than not brings up their entire discography; not just an album! So no, it ain't hard...probably too easy.

Rewrite starts here:
I never posted my opinions about file-sharing until now, because most arguments address the general topic of file-sharing and lump all types together, which confused me from formulating a proper opinion. I think most people are missing the point.

Some people often have a “Punk-Rock Robin Hood” attitude towards file-sharing: The corporations are ripping off the public in the first place, so downloading free movies and music is just us taking a little back. But in fact 60% of the Americans who download illegally blame finances. “I ain't got no money to buy the music and software I want, but I can download it for free, so I will.” Personally I just feel there is very little that is worth the price on the tags, and if I have to pay $20 for the new Manson album, you bet your boots I am going to burn a copy for anybody who wants it (I don't actually create torrents). Still other just think that downloading shit is easy and free and don't care enough to make any excuses. But I don't think WHY you do it has any relevance to the issue at all. I think there are two issues here that split the topic.

1.Providing stolen/bootlegged/hacked materials to the public,whether obtained online or not is just wrong. First thing comes to mind are camcorder movies. This is the same as stealing a TV and then giving it as a gift.

2.Providing materials (software, DVDs and CDs) to the public which the provider actually purchased, online or in anywhere else.

I think #1 is pretty clearly "wrong". But in the case of #2, is it morally wrong to copy a disc that you paid* for and share it with others? And is it wrong for them to accept it? I don't think so. And just because it is financially problematic for a business or an entire industry, if it is not "wrong" then certainly any sort of legal action against file sharing should not be approved. It reminds me of the concept of freedom — one person's freedom negates the freedom of another person. Who has more right to be free?

*(An argument could be made that RENTING materials and sharing them would be wrong.)

File-sharing when the original free-provider paid for the media can be likened to a situation where a guy buys a lawnmower and then shares it with 1000-10000 other guys so they don't have to buy one. Do the lawnmower companies have the right to complain to the government that this sharing will destroy the lawnmower industry and have a law made that stops lawnmower sharing? People will argue that the media industry is entirely different because of the figure$ involved, but that is wrong thinking.

This is not a new issue. Back when I began using computers, in order to share programs you pretty much borrowed a friend's floppy or wrote to a shareware company via snail mail. And some people said Shareware was stealing. Before that I was dubbing friend's cassettes or records, and sharing mine. Some people call that illegal bootlegging.

The only things that actually bug me are:
1. If file-sharing continues in this way, and the media industry stays the way it is now, we may ultimately cause these companies to make no money and they disappear. I don't think they should be able to sue based on this theory, but it would not be good for us either if the music we liked was no longer pressed onto CDs because the companies thought they wouldn't make any money off it. Dunno if this is a real danger.

2. Related to people who claim they are "borrowing to see if they want to buy it". That is straight-up bullshit. You cannot try an apple at the store before you decide if it is delicious, or screw a chick before you decide if you wanna keep dating her. Yes I know that is the way it is done...but at any rate, there is almost nothing in the market that you can try before you buy. The only exception I can think of right now are the free samples in supermarkets. People who say they download to try something before buying it are confused into believing that they are doing something bad, but need to make an excuse for their actions, and think we are dumb enough to believe their bullshit.

No excuses are necessary, sharing is not immoral. What IS immoral is making the attempt to sue torrent sites or to get laws passed where we millions of down-loaders are sued or have our internet service cut off. We will share, even if we have to walk the goddamn CDs down the block to whatshisface's house. If torrent sites and using them becomes illegal and punishable by law? I will start a system where me and as many people as I can find will split costs to buy DVDs, CDs and software. Fucking system.

Word Press...Yeah Right.

Heya. Word Press is boasting no less that 3Gb storage space for each free blog site. Why is there just a period instead of an exclamation point there? Well, at first 3Gb sounds pretty impressive and so I went over to take a look, and even signed up for a Word Press blog account. Then I went to make my template with the CSS editor -- that is the "advanced" editor for doing things like I do to my blog templates -- and I was annoyed to find that one can edit and "preview" changes made to the template, but "If you would like the ability to save your changes and make your design visible to the public, please purchase the Custom CSS Upgrade." Ah, so there is a catch. Well, I would rather be dipped in Cheese-whiz before I used a standard template blog.

In case you didn't know, all the images we post here are stored in a free 1Gb Picasa Web Album connected to our Gmail/Blogger/Google account.) I reckon that Blogger/Picasa's 1Gb is pretty spiffy, but after several years of blogging that 1Gb fills up and people like me end up with other accounts posting as seemingly different personalities, such as Ol' Wisely, etc. But, being able to hack my template will keep me here for a while longer.

Top 10 Jokes of 2009...in Scotland

Just happened upon these jokes that were the top 10 jokes judged at the Edinburgh Fringe...never heard of it, but here they are!:

• 1) Dan Antopolski - "Hedgehogs - why can't they just share the hedge?"

• 2) Paddy Lennox - "I was watching the London Marathon and saw one runner dressed as a chicken and another runner dressed as an egg. I thought: 'This could be interesting'."

• 3) Sarah Millican - "I had my boobs measured and bought a new bra. Now I call them Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes because they're up where they belong."

• 4) Zoe Lyons - "I went on a girls' night out recently. The invitation said 'dress to kill'. I went as Rose West."

• 5) Jack Whitehall - "I'm sure wherever my dad is; he's looking down on us. He's not dead, just very condescending."

• 6) Adam Hills - "Going to Starbucks for coffee is like going to prison for sex. You know you're going to get it, but it's going to be rough."

• 7) Marcus Brigstocke - "To the people who've got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn't invent it!"

• 8) Rhod Gilbert - "A spa hotel? It's like a normal hotel, only in reception there's a picture of a pebble."

• 9) Dan Antopolski - "I've been reading the news about there being a civil war in Madagascar. Well, I've seen it six times and there isn't."

• 10) Simon Brodkin (as Lee Nelson) - "I started so many fights at my school - I had that attention-deficit disorder. So I didn't finish a lot of them."

80`s

"It is ridiculous claiming that video games influence
children. For instance, if Pac-man affected kids born
in the eighties, we should by now have a bunch of
teenagers who run around in darkened rooms and eat
pills while listening to monotonous electronic music."
-Source Unknown

Opera in Glam-pop: Klaus Nomi and Togawa Jun

Ever hear of Klaus Nomi? I only knew his cover of "The Twist" but you should hear it too:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBLKUvyIR0o&feature=related

I have been lucky to hear some seriously odd music in my day. Not nearly enough, but more odd than the typical kid from the trailer park. Way back in 87' when I started college, there was a fella from SF who, like me, moved from a real city to CENTRALIA to study art at a community college. Centralia is a hick-town of 20,000 85 miles south of Seattle. We hated Centralia -- as everyone should -- but we were there. He wore a straight jacket to school as a regular coat...and that combined with him being flambouyantly gay, you can imagine that the lad would have few friends the "other" girls and me in THAT town. He must've thought I would be one of the only people he knew that would appreciate a man singing soprano in odd art-wave-glam music. I liked/like his voice and his make-up, but the Casio keyboard, shite music is sooooo unfortunate.

Talking about Nena Hagen and now Klaus Nomi, this is becoming a theme. Weirdos who use the opera-smack down to terrify the world and bring a smile to my face. Odd as it may seem, I never had a Nena Hagen album, but I had 1 or 2 albums by Togawa Jun... got them from a Japanese artist weirdo when I was at SAIC studying painting.

Togawa Jun was a Japanese pop-freak, and I have no idea how she became popular in Japan. Basically she would sing cutsy-cute songs then bust out into a growl or an operatic voice. Again with the shite keyboards, but it was long ago pretty cutting-edge. She would sing, "I love you I love you" in a sickening cute, little girl voice, batting her eyelids, and then "and if you don't say I love you too...I'll kill you."

I think the song "Konchugun" is my favorite example of her music. Unfortunately this version is live. For the live of me, I cannot figure why she is kinda just posing in the vid with her hand in her pocket and not making odd facial expressions, hunching over and being wild...maybe she's high?

In one of her mixed cute-odd songs, Tamahime sama she seems slightly cute...slightly reminiscent of a mental patient... but she is singing about menstruation. To Japanese people that had to have just been fucked up...especially in the early 90's/late 80's. "I can't see anything, and I can't here anything. I can't understand a word you're saying!" These are the lyrics where she is talking about PMS. It is a funny song -- if 1. you are a weirdo and 2. understand Japanese.

Other songs of hers include titles like "Insect Woman" where she sings a very calm...boring...song with a lovely voice, but is singing about being a bug. I like the so-called "punk" version best though. No wonder every time I said "I got this new Togawa Jun album! Do you know here?" to Japanese people in college they would shriek and shoot poison out of their eyes at me. People didn't seem to like her at all. But YOU might! I can tell you with courage in my heart, and one hand on my chest and the other pointing aimlessly into the sky, that her studio stuff is way better than these video links. And guess what? A blog I just found called "What Fucked You?!" just happens to be sharing a 3 album set, down-loadable for FREE and everything!!! Just follow that link!

...shit, check out the rest of the blog. Seems to be a real music lover there!

EDIT: The titles on all the songs in the Togawa Jun albums I downloaded from the other blog were all cursed with Japanese OS encoding. I wanted readable Japanese, so here is the track list for Togawa - Legend, Self Select Best and Rare 1980-2007.

Disc 1
01 諦念プシガンガ
02 昆虫軍
03 隣りの印度人
04 玉姫様
05 蛹化の女
06 怒濤の恋愛
07 レーダーマン（ORIGINAL MIX）
08 母子受精（ORIGINAL MIX）
09 電車でGO
10 踊れない
11 眼球綺譚
12 海ヤカラ
13 極東慰安唱歌
14 夢見る約束
15 遅咲きガール（SINGLE MIX）
16 好き好き大好き
17 オーロラ B
18 恋のコリーダ
19 さよならをおしえて It Hurts To Say Goodbye（SINGLE VERSION）
20 フリートーキング
21 パンク蛹化の女
22 工場見學
23 動力の姫
24 マロニエ読本

Disc 2
01 バーバラ・セクサロイド
02 肉屋のように
03 コレクター
04 バージンブルース（SINGLE VERSION）
05 吹けば飛ぶよな男だが
06 Men's JUNAN
07 ヒステリヤ
08 赤い戦車
09 君の代
10 ヴィールス
11 12階の一番奥
12 NOT DEAD LUNA
13 テーマ
14 ヒス
15 いじめ
16 オープン・ダ・ドー Open the door
17 ラジオのように Comme a la radio
18 地球ゴマ
19 青銅の軟体
20 東口トルエンズのテーマ（NEW MIX）

Disc 3
01 マスタード
02 GESSEKAI RYOKOU
03 SHINKUU KISS
04 フィギュア＆グラウンド
05 家畜海峡(G）
06 聖なる泉～モスラの旅立ち～
07 神聖ムウ帝国亡国歌
08 おおブレネリ
09 リズム運動
10 ラジャ・マハラジャー
11 蘇州夜曲
12 降誕節
13 The homage for Jean-Luc Godard～movement #3
14 リボンの騎士
15 二人のことば
16 朝の流れ星
17 スキスキ大スキ
18 鈴木建設社歌
19 ローハイド～TVドラマ「ローハイド」より～
20 彼が殴るの
21 骨
22 Femme Fatale

Hooked on a Weirdo Hottie

Wow. I am all into Nena Hagen now. Lately I have been frequenting YouTube you know, and I found some more recent Nena H. stuff that I quite enjoyed. "Cosma Shiva" "Handgrenade" and "Antiworld" are kinda on the new side I think... and I also think I will hook me up with a discography download. ...reminder to self: get "Return of the Mother". Funny, I never actually knew that she was attractive though. ...how could I? Not like I ever saw anything more than kabuki makeup and colored hair sculpture! She is 55 now, so that means when she did the Rammstein cover, she was 50 or so. Rock on seems to mean something to this chick eh?

Cosma Shiva is Nena Hagen's daughter, whom I never heard of til today. She is lovely and like her mom, she is seriously gorgeous in front of the camera. I mostly mention this only for eye-candy value. Her mom is mostly attractive to me because she is a lunatic, but also a good-looker!

Nina Hagen - Tiere

This feels new. Her makeup makes me wanna give her a smooch, but the lyrics are awfully preachy. Oh well, she is a vegetarian trying to stop me from eating her friends. ...though I don't eat elephants or whale.




Animals would never do something like that,
Thus never again call me a stupid chick.
Holy is the cow, leave her alone!
Animals are not as mean as you are.

chorus

In the jungle, the animals,
that's where animals belong,
And not in the zoo;
There they are not happy.
They don't belong on the shoulders of your rich doll;
And frogs and bullfrogs belong not in the soup.

chorus

No bird would build you a cage,
And force you to sing.
No pig would fatten you up
and lock you up in the slaughterhouse,
Pin you on a hook and
Tear off your skin.

chorus

My relatives are the elephants,
And what I love to draw are whales.

chorus

Scary Nena

I had a strange hunkering for Nena Hagen's NY NY suddenly, and while looking for a studio version of the song on YouTube I found the GERMAN version...Kyaaaaahhhh!!! Very nice. Then I just went apeshit and listened to all sorts of Nina Hagen I had never heard, and more importantly SEEN! Nena ruled, and it was too bad that Americans couldn't get a bit more weird to make her bigger in the US. The third vid here is Nina's version of the Rammstein song "Seemann" with Apocalyptica. I never knew she was considered an opera prodigy by age 9...very interesting bit of trivia there. Confusing chick. She is a recent member of the protestant church, but believes that Krishna was the king of Jerusalem. Was?

Most recently she appears as the scary feminine vocals in KMFDM's "Witness" and "Bereit" on the album Adios.

Blowin' Bubbles

The heat is kicking my ass for sure, but I realized that if I get the kids to the park, somewhere near 9am, then I won't burst into flames in the Osakan-Hell-summer-mess-death that keeps me pent-up in the sanitarium...house most days. Here is a photo of Mika the pro-bubble artist. I didn't get video of her special bubble trick though. That is where she blows some small bubbles, then uses the big bubble wand to make a huge bubble around them. The bubbles we got are pretty watery, so it is tough to make the real big bubbles like this one. And here is a little vid of the most handsome guy on the island doing his bubble thang. If he can keep that aloof expression, and a bottle of bubbles in hand, he will rule the dating world in another dozen years!

Vibes 2009

(Grumble grumble) Well. It appears as though I will not be making it to Vibes this year...unless I get a JOB between now and October 10th. Though I would LIKE to go, and I even left a spot on the back of my leather jacket for the 2009 Vibes Meeting official badge...but yeah, it is FAR this year.

Vibes is that ride I went on last October, and skipped out on a ride with my friend's club to the hot-springs camp "Hirayu" (because 1. I have done that ride before, 2. I could only afford one ride). Vibes is actually a Japanese Harley/Harley riders mag with naked Japanese chicks in it. Ok...one naked Japanese chick at a time...but always very nice. The ride is sponsored by the magazine, and it is one of the larger biker events here. I don't know what the largest is, but Vibes is so big it is like going to a college campus where the parking lot only has motorbikes, and every student is wearing leather. Lots of posers, but the majority of Japanese biker posers are quite friendly. In which case, I am happy to go and meet them.

Still, aside from being broke, Vibes is in Niigata Prefecture this year. Where is that? Up north where they grow rice! How far? Roughly 800 miles round trip, which I would do alone. Last year I went to Niigata with Splendor, and me and Hiroshi rode most of a day to his parent's house in Ishikawa Prefecture, and stayed there over night. Then we went the rest of the way and met up with Splendor. We stayed on Sado Island one night, then Hiroshi and I stayed at his family's house on the way back too. So that was 4 days. The trip was 800miles round trip, including a little putting around the island. True, we could have done that in 2 days, but we were enjoying the scenery which I had never seen. I could race up to Niigata and do 400 miles in one day, but looking back at last year's Vibes event, which was 600 miles round trip, it took me 6.5 hours to do 300 miles. And being a math whiz, I can tell you that 400 miles would take even longer than that! (I am so smart).

So, IF I get a job, and IF I feel like busting my nuts racing up the fuck Japan, and go directly north on the highway instead of up the coast, I could go to a big biker party for a couple days. Basically, you get there, put up your tent, go eat something, drink and meet people...sleep, wake up and hang out all day and all that night with biker types, wake up at 6 or 7am, eat breakfast and ride all day back home. ...that actually sounds pretty awesome right NOW...October though...north? Maybe no.

Question for you Ty. Is 400miles far to you? I have lost all sense of what far is in America. Distance is one thing, but riding alone is another. Somehow everything here feels far, even though it is just an island.

Osakan Summer Hell

Yup. Too hot. Every summer since I came to Japan I have said, "I hate it here I wanna leave".

Part of what makes me want to "get away from it all" is the Japanese summer.

Friends who moved here from the States agree that Summertime used to be my favorite time. Being from the PNW it's no wonder. The heat is mild even though we complain about it being "hot", there is usually a "heat wave" that lasts only a couple weeks before a rainy day will cool the temperatures, and the cool nights make it possible to get out and have a good time for people without kids (heh) . But here...it is just hot aaaallll summer, most days lately it is 30C, but some days it gets up to 34C. That is just a 4 degree difference, but you have to remember that 30C is 86, whereas 34 is 93F. That is not as bad as the 39.5C/103F day I hear Seattle just had, but then again, when it gets that hot here, there is very little relief. We have to stay locked up inside where the A/C is at and when I go outside to the convenient store, I feel like I am walking through the streets of Hell in the movie Constantine! The heat just never lets up in Osakan summer. Night time isn't really any better because everyone has their air conditioner units on, and the hot air exhaust keeps it hot outside even without the sun.

What drives me to type isn't the heat so much as this: The best part of being a little kid is summer vacation right? Wrong. My kids are far, far better equipped to deal with the heat than I am because they cannot compare to what "summer SHOULD be like." But they cannot enjoy playing in the park right now -- no green grass, just dirt/sand and a couple trees that make the parks virtual deserts. There are no lakes to take them swimming in, and the pool costs $10 for adults on the CHEAP days. A trip to the pool for just me and the two bigger kids costs $26! To sound like an old duffer, "When I was a kid, swimmin' was FREE!" Yes, we were able to enjoy swimming in the ocean over in Kobe, but now the jellyfish are in, and that is all over.

So, winter is hardcore and we are locked inside, summer is hardcore...and we are locked inside. Next Spring I had better damn well figure out just what the hell to do in Seattle for a job, or I will go out of my mind. Not a far trip for me, but hey...

The "What to do when we move back" is my curse it seems. Could never really find a good job in Seattle, which is why Japan (English teaching) was so compelling. This brings up a different topic, but just put in some of your good thoughts, prayers... native drumming...smoke a real good bowl....whatever you do... for Papa Jamesson to figure out how to make good money in Seattle in 2010 and move out of the Constantine Hell streets!

Seattle PI Stops the Presses!

Not living in Seattle, I don't pay attention to the local PNW news that often. So, I just found out that in March, the Seattle Post Intelligencer switched to being an online only news source. That means the "paper" edition is gone, after 146 years of print. It was Seattle's oldest business. I am a bit confused because I wonder, if it is still online how does that put it "out of business"? But after listening to the press conference, it seems like that is the case. Not sure why employees will not be needed or get paid for going online only, but there is more to this picture than I know or care about.

Now, in my opinion, computers are cheap enough now that most people should at least get a USED one, and then stop buying papers entirely. There were apparently approx. 150,000 subscribers to the paper before the closure, but how many hits do you think the web site gets per month? Irregardless, newspaper printing is really not a good thing for the trees or the air. So get on with the closures!

The copy editor Glenn Ericksen said that the Web "lowers the standard of literacy all around. Who needs copy editors on the Web?" Well, that sounds like a pretty fucking cynical view of the Internet as a whole...how bout getting in here and making it better then?

I saw a bit of tech on the TV that I want to get out to the public ASAP. We are already reading news, books and mags, online or in palm pilot devices, but this device is a sheet of plastic (about A4 size...or a PAGE size for those in the States) with some electronics hooked up to it, that can download the paper or books. The sheet of plastic works like a monitor and displays the text. Oh yeah! Bring that shit on!

Print may or may not be better for the eyes...what is the current consensus? ...but paper printing ain't a good thing. Sorry P.I.

10 tricky children's questions

BBC had an interesting article which I am going to repost here. Please note that on #10, I assumed that "2 Dads" meant in the same house, as opposed to "1 dad and 1 step-dad". Shows the homo-culture I grew up in doesn't it?!

[Your answers to 10 tricky children's questions

This week the Magazine posed 10 awkward questions children ask their parents. Here are suggestions, from readers and experts, on how to answer these stumpers.

Where do bees go in winter? Don't know the answer? You're not the only one.

According to a new survey, four out of five UK parents have been stumped by something their children have asked. So we posed our own question - what difficult things have children asked you?

We then threw 10 of the best back to the readers, asking for kid-level answers you would offer. Here's a selection of the best - along with suggested answers from a philosopher and from experts from the Science: So what? So everything campaign.

1. WHY DON'T ALL FISH DIE WHEN LIGHTNING HITS THE SEA?

What about the fish?

"The lightning spreads out through the whole of the sea, so there's only enough electricity to give each fish a tiny electric shock, so small that it wouldn't even notice."
Matt, Winchester

"Think of it like this: If you poured a drop of Ribena into a teaspoon, you would see that is was a very dark purple colour. Now, if you poured that into a bath full of water, it would spread out and soon disappear completely. Lightning is just like that - when it hits the water, it spreads out straight away and becomes harmless to all but those at the very point where it entered the sea (lightning moves a lot more quickly than Ribena, but doesn't taste as nice)."
Darryl, Cardiff

Expert's answer from the Institute of Physics: "Fortunately, only very unlucky fish ever get killed by lightning. Air is an electrical insulator, which means that electricity cannot normally flow through it. During a lightning storm, the very large voltage between the cloud and the ground causes the air in between to break down along a very narrow path, and all the electricity passes down this path (called the lightning streak). When someone is killed by lightning, he or she has unluckily become part of the path and the enormous current that passes through the body kills him or her. Sea water, on the other hand, conducts electricity so as soon as the current enters it, it spreads out in all directions and any fish in the way would probably only experience a small current passing through it, so sparing it from death. Only fish very near the water's surface would be killed. A fish as little as a foot below the surface would probably be quite safe."

2. HOW MUCH DOES THE SKY WEIGH?

The sky can be measured in elephants. Lots of elephants

"About the same as 10 million million elephants."
Stu, West Bromwich

"The sky weighs 14 pounds for every square inch on the earth's surface. That ends up being more than 11 billion billion pounds."
Kop, Salt Lake City, Utah, US

"More than you think, kid. The Earth has a surface area of 197 million square miles. Multiply that by four billion to give you the number of square inches. With atmospheric pressure being an average 14.7 lbs (6.6kg) per square inch, this means that the sky weighs roughly 5.2 million billion metric tons. Now go to bed."
Boris, West Midlands

Expert answer from the Science and Technology Facilities Council's Space Science and Technology Department: "If you want the total weight then it's about one millionth of the mass of the Earth, which is the equivalent of 570,000,000,000,000 adult Indian elephants."

3. WHY CAN'T PEOPLE LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE ALONE?

"Most of us like having other people around, and enjoy helping others. But if we feel unhappy, it's hard to do this. People who annoy other people aren't happy, but they need friends. It's good to be brave and show friendship to them, but it doesn't always work."
Alison Blenkinsop, Aldershot, UK

"If people left other people alone, they'd get very lonely very fast, and no one likes being lonely. If everyone in class kept themselves to themselves, how many friends would you have?"
Ewa S-R, London

Philospher Mark Vernon suggests this approach. "Human beings are social animals, like ants; we thrive when we live well together, in families and communities. But unlike ants who just get on, humans make friends and enemies. It's then that we can't let others be.

"Or, a really short answer: As we make friends, so we make enemies."

4. WHY AREN'T BIRDS ELECTROCUTED ON WIRES?

Is this bird in trouble?

"Because the wires are only dangerous when there is a way to touch the ground. If the birds had one foot on the wire and one on the ground, they would be electrocuted."
Tony Hengeveld, Stevenage, UK

"It's like touching your tongue to just one end of a battery - then your tongue doesn't go tingly, but if you touch both ends at the same time, it does. Electricity has to flow between a positive and a negative, and birds only touch one wire at a time."
Aidan Reilly, Cambridge

Expert answer from the Space Science and Technology Dept: "Being electrocuted involves a current passing through you. For a bird to be electrocuted it would need to touch two wires at different voltages, or one wire and the grounded structure of the pylon, at the same time. If they did this there would be a current flow and the bird would be likely to be electrocuted. However this is very unlikely to happen and electricity authorities also give considerable thought to the design of their pylons to minimise the chance of birds being electrocuted."

5. WHAT IS TIME?

"It's a big shoelace of beads stretching into the distance and each bead is a little moment where we have done something that we remember - either fun, or bad, or sad."
Elizabeth Whyman, Crawley, West Sussex

"Time is an idea thought up by people, to organise their lives and make sure everyone knows when things are meant to happen. So that when Mr A plans a meeting with Mr B they both arrive at the same time on the same day in the same year. It is a system that counts in years, seasons, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds."
Gita, London

"Everything is always getting older - the grass is getting older, the cheese in the fridge is getting older, the table in this room is getting older, and people and animals are always getting older, too. Time is a way of measuring things getting older, a way of helping us to see exactly how much older anything is getting."
Adam Budd, Edinburgh

Expert answer from the Space Science and Technology Dept: "This is a difficult question to answer. Some scientists may call time the flow of cause and effect. A more detailed explanation could be, according to the Theory of General Relativity, that time is the path which an object will take through a four dimensional universe when left to itself. In such a universe, the four dimensions are indistinguishablefrom one another: they are not three dimensions of space and one of time. Such an approach can be used to explain the time dilation of special relativity - that time slows down as one approaches the speed of light in a vacuum - but this is not an argument that is accepted by all scientists."

6. WHY IS THE MOON SOMETIMES OUT IN THE DAY, TOO?

The moon - out before dark

"The moon is actually in the sky for a lot more time than you can see it, but the Sun's so bright that it outshines it. It's like streetlights - if a streetlight is on during the day, you can't see it from further down the street because there's too much sunlight, but at night you can see the same streetlight from a long way away because everything else is darker."
Graham Bartlett, Cambridge, UK

"Its school is on holiday."
Freddie, Durham

Expert answer from the Institute of Physics: "When the Moon revolves round the Earth, half of the time it is on the same side of the Earth as the Sun, and the rest of the time, they are on opposite sides. When the Moon and Sun are on the same side, the Moon is 'up' during the day. When they are on the opposite sides, the Moon is 'up' during the night. So surprise, surprise, the Moon is up during the day as often as it is up at night."

7. WHY DID GOD LET MY KITTEN DIE?

R.I.P. Puss-puss

"If all kittens lived forever, there would be no room in the world for new baby kittens. Perhaps your kitten died because somewhere in an animal shelter there is a very lonely young kitten who needs the loving home you could provide for him or her."
Carol Poster, Toronto, Canada

"Sometimes, pets get very sick. Vets try to make the animal better, but they can't always because sometimes the pet is too ill. It is kinder to let the animal die than to make it live longer but in pain."
Mark Booth, Stockton on Tees

Mark Vernon's answer: "No-one knows for sure, though many people have tried to find an answer. What we do know is that when people and pets die, we care for them all the more, which says a lot about why compassion is so important."

Or, a really short answer: "No-one knows, but you know you care."

8. WHY DO I LIKE PINK?

Because you like flamingoes and flamingoes are pink?

"Most people have a favourite colour. It's their favourite because seeing it makes them feel good. You like pink now, but when you are older, you may like a different colour."
John Woodgate, Rayleigh, England

"Because it is a beautiful, happy colour associated with lots of lovely things including flowers, food and rosy cheeks."
Ros, Cambridge

"Girls have been conditioned to like pink. Society has decided that pink is a girl's colour and manufacturers have pandered to this stereotype and produced virtually all girls' toys and most clothes pink. This means that girls are always surrounded by pink and their favourite toys are pink."
Daniel Meadowcroft, Stockport

Mark Vernon says:"Favourite colours unconsciously remind us of things that we find pleasurable or valuable. Pink is often associated with fun, like pink sweets; or the feminine, like pink clothes. Sweets are pleasant; the feminine is valuable."

His really short answer? "Pink reminds you of other things you like."

And psychologist Dr Stephen Briers, of the Science: So what? So everything campaign, says: "Traditionally it is thought girls like pink more than boys do. Scientists have found there may be a biological basis for why girls prefer pink, or at least more reddish colours than boys. Research has found that although more people prefer blue, women tend to prefer pinker shades. Some biologists say that this is because in Stone Age times a woman's role was to pick out reddish-coloured fruit, so they became more sensitive to reddish colours. Another scientist has suggested females may also prefer reddish colours because they need to be more able to spot when their children are ill with a fever (and therefore have a more reddish tone to their faces), or because changes in skin colour can let you know what a person is feeling and help females to read emotions better."

9. WHY IS WATER WET?

Not too hot and not too cold

"Water is wet because it's not too hot and not too cold. If it's too cold, water turns to ice. Ice isn't wet at all, it's solid and dry. It has to warm up to melt back into water. If water is too hot, it turns to steam. Steam isn't wet either, it's more like air. It has to touch something cool - like the bathroom mirror - then it becomes water again. It's lucky for us that water is wet when it's not too cold and not too hot. Just right for bubble baths."
Mark McAndrew, Manchester, UK

Expert answer from Stephanie Bell, of the National Science and Engineering Week: "There are two answers to this question: One answer is about what makes liquids stick to surfaces and 'wet' them - which is to do with forces between molecules. Water molecules are 'polar' - the arrangement of electrons means that electrical charge isn't evenly spread - and this makes water particularly attracted (electrically) to many surfaces. It also causes water to have lots of other interesting properties.

"But why does water feel wet? This is for a completely different reason. When you have water on your clothes or skin, it normally evaporates into the surrounding air. Evaporation produces cooling, because it takes energy. The feeling of wetness is actually coldness. You can test this by comparing water with another liquid - cooking oil - which doesn't evaporate so freely. Fill two small cups (egg-cups are ideal) - one with water, and the other with cooking oil. (Young children should ask an adult to help.) Let both liquids come to room temperature for a day, or overnight. Dip one index finger in each liquid, lift them out, and then observe for a few minutes."

10. WHY DOES MY BEST FRIEND HAVE TWO DADS?

"Because that's how things turn out sometimes. Real love comes in lots of different packages, but the packaging doesn't matter - it is what is inside the package that matters. Your friend has parents who love and care for him just like we love you. Being loved is the most important thing."
John, London

"There is more than one job to being a Dad. There's helping to make the baby you, and then there's looking after you and helping you to grow up. Sometimes one person does all the jobs and you have one Dad, sometimes the jobs are done by different people and you then can have two Dads."
Gill, Sutton Surrey

"A child always starts with one mum and one dad. When the child is born, the mum and dad are usually best friends. But just like children, adults can change their best friends. Sometimes, the mum or the dad finds a new best friend. When adults find a new best friend, they are often called 'step-mum' or 'step-dad' because they are a 'step' away from their first mum or dad. When we say someone has 'two dads', it might mean their mum was best friends with one of the dads when you were born, then became best friends with another man afterwards."
Mark Booth, Stockton on Tees

Mark Vernon says: "People meet and fall in love. It's an old story. Ideally, their love grows, and they may raise children, as an expression of that love. Usually, a man and a woman fall in love and have kids. But it can be two women, or men."

And his really short answer: "Two men, and two women, can fall in love too."]

Office Space Superfriends

This is old, but I thought that there was a chance that you might not have seen this. Classic silliness.

Redneck Skills Back at Work

Do you have one of these leather punchy things? Very useful tool that I got from my dad's toolbox so many years ago. Very helpful when I was making native-style chokers, and my wallet, medicine bags and other stuff. Well, since my last camping trip I have been looking at the crappy sheath I made for this particular "camp" knife...they call it a hunting knife, but I don't hunt... and thinking how the sheath was just totally not useful anymore. I made it so there was no belt loop thang.

So yesterday, I bust out the hole punch and some suede I had in the form of a bag that I made a while back -- which nobody loved anymore -- and bust out a new sheath. How could I use suede? Because one part I kept from the original factory "Buck" sheath, was the inner plastic sheath. That is how they can make cheapy canvas sheaths, and it is the same important part that I needed to sew up a new suede one. I used waxed cotton string for the thread, and Velcro inside the handle stay. I don't plan to carry it around much ...mmmm-hmm... so the fact that the belt loop spot is thin suede doesn't seem like an issue to me.

If you care, I like this particular knife because it is REALLY tough. Full tang with a molded plastic handle, rubber grip. So I can use it to cut kindling for the fire without worrying about breaking the handle off like if it were wood or bone, then clean it off and use it for cooking. The factory edge was shit and so several years ago I took it to a bladesmith and had them put a "hollow-ground" edge on it. Very, very sharp. The knife itself only cost $20 at the Navy Base, and the edge was probably at least that much...maybe 10 years ago? Anyway, it is a good knife for camping. Also, it is not stainless steel, so good for striking against a flint for starting campfires the oldschool way like I like to do. This knife needed a good rough-look sheath, and I think it will do quite nicely.

Iron Man 2 Trailer Leakage

Well, I guess the guys at "Daily Motion" wanted to keep their video footage to themselves and killed my link. So, I will just have to put a regular ol' link to the Gizmodo page where the Iron Man II bootleg trailer is being hosted.

Citronella is a Geranium?!?

The mom-in-law gave us a rather ugly plant back in the Spring, I say ugly because the stems are nothing wonderful, and I was told that it was good for keeping mosquitoes away. "Why, because they look at it and flee?"

To me it was just a green weed. Then, when it really started getting hot this summer, I noticed a citrus smell that I knew...citronella candles?! Holy crap, could this be citronella? I never really considered what citronella candles were made of. I used the blessed Google Image Search and to my continued surprise, not only was this plant citronella, but found out that citronella is a geranium! It will have flowers someday?! It hasn't produced any flowers yet, but now I think that it would be pretty cool if it did. And now I know where those bug repellent candles that don't work come from.

Sex with a robot.

Safe for work... sorta

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Comic Book Hero Movies

So many You Tube "Trailers" are just absolute bullshit, but it seemed like this was legitimate... until I watched it, put down my hope and smoked a bowl of reality. If you look at the rocket ship at :15sec which I believe is a shuttle from Planet of the Apes, and at :28sec where you see what looks like the Silver Surfer from Fantastic Four, with color added (look at his collar, no fabric seam), and again at 1:24 where this looks like the 3 guys in the recent Star Trek movie diving down to knock out the giant drill on Vulcan... Other areas make it clear that this is fake, and apparently it is a fan's "What if?" but GREEN LANTERN is one of the coolest characters they could make into a movie, just considering visual and special effects.



EDIT: Thanks to blah-blah company, the video is no longer available due to copyright complaint b.s. Schucks, there goes my post. But yeah, I am waiting for...

Ironman 2 (2010)... but with Don Cheadle? Yuuuuuck...
Green Lantern (2011?)
Batman 3 (2011?)
Captain America (2011?)
Superman...2? (2010?)
Spiderman 4 (2011? Actually no...I don't give a damn)
The Hobbit (2011)
Justice League: Mortal (2011)

... in that order. Still wishing that Superman vs. Batman would be made...who is keeping this from us? Dicks in the movie industry who don't want us to have an ACTUAL good time? "Dark Knight Returns" was supposed to be recreated in the more recent Christian Bale movies, but the fight with Superman was left out completely. And the other wish is just to stop fuck around with the "introduction" to members of the Avengers type movies and just get out there and make a $500M Avengers movie with massive talent and massive effects. Some say 2012 for this movie, listing off Iron Man, Hulk, Capt. America and Thor...I will believe it when I see it.

I never liked Thor...supposed to come out in 2011... Gosh. Basically Hulk, but with less anger and more lucidity? Likely to be replaced by a gigantic ego. ...yawn.

So, no Avengers yet anyway, and no Secret Wars either. Nope, the movie industry has to milk the wallets of the masses with mediocrity first...then when they get around to something big, the whiner actors will not do it because of lack of money, the directors and writers will be limited by someone else, and we will get an 80's quality piece of poo. But anyway, Green Lantern will be fun.

Green ARROW anyone??

Wimp.com

Dunno if you ever checked this out before, but Wimp.com has quite a variety of video clips, ranging from the funny to more serious ones. I consider it something like a "best of" in comparison to YouTube which is very hit and miss.

I just watched this one which pretty much explained to me the difference between a democracy and a republic. Found that very interesting. There are often very humorous vid clips in here too. Here is me just clicking "Next" to see what I came up with:

Insane beat-boxer

Beat-box...on a flute

How to tear an apple in 2 with your bare hands

Our small world. (I never tire of this)

Vortex Canon

Talented car and dirt bike combo

Rat brain controls robot. Ok, this is pretty sad, no lines for technology ya know. But the science is good.

Too much clubbing for this family I think. But, they should all be proud of the confidence it took to do this.

Osterich egg vs. a microwave

One for the kids

Kung-fu

Animation: Granny vs. Death

Tony Robbins...

Saturn Moon home for life?

Ok, there's lots more, but I have to do something other than sit at the computer now.

Git a Job

Well, it ain't the same as GITTIN a job, but I did APPLY for a couple today. My first attempt at a new job after the translation career fiasco. That flop was pretty damn disheartening, so I have been in the "What the hell do I do now?" kind of mind set. So, I have been thinking of what the hell to do now, and am still interested in working from home. I am also hoping that I can move the family back to the West Coast and raise us some 'Merikins... And so I am applying to work at Berlitz again.

This time though I am applying to work through the Berlitz Virtual Classroom. My old boss was totally unhelpful in getting me into that area, though I asked him several times. (The company really hates helping anyone relocate from one part of the company to another...fuckin wack) I don't know what they pay in the US for work with the Berlitz Virtual Classroom (BVC) but it has to be shit. The pay isn't going to be "awesome" here either because of the cost of living. But, I need A job to start with to get back to the land of green rolling hills, chocolate-cake laden coffee shops, cheap Jap-bikes, and gigantic grassy parks for muh chillinz.

Yes sir, I reckon I better teach me some-a that English on the ijit box then... mm-hmm.

(Sorry, I just watched Sling Blade again yesterday, so the hick language centers of my brain are really going berserk. You remember his name was CARL don't che? Likely tuh sent me up tuh the nervous hospital...mmmhmmm)

The Martian Chronicles -- Miniseries (1980)

There was a show on TV when I was a boy called "The Martian Chronicles". I didn't really know or care about good or bad acting back then, and the boring parts were left out of my memories. Being 1980's television there has to be a lot of crap that I either giggle at or ignore, but I have been meaning to do a torrent search for this show for a long while. The only thing I actually remember are the Martian's mirrored eyes.

I am actually typing as I watch, and these are my impressions. I am surprised to see that Rock Hudson is starring in this mini-series. At 11 years old I had only heard the name, now I am surprised to find him acting in such a "recent" show. Second thing I noticed in turning on this mini-series are the crap FX, including the red-white-and blue flames coming from the rocket's booster engines, and the full-face motorcycle helmets used by the astronauts... And of course one has to laugh at how in the 80's they still made full segments of film on long goodbyes, getting on board, blast off, ship docking, walking for hours in the desert mountain-scape doing nothing...etc. etc. Did people really have zero imagination back then or was it just assumed that the audience needed to be guided through the mundane?

Acting is pretty bad. The first Martians we see are a couple. The man is jealous of his wife's hot and steamy visions of the coming humans. And who can blame him really, since she looks more like she's having an orgasm than a vision of the future. ...so he kills the first humans who arrive...can't have em' screwin' his woman ya know. But the acting pales in comparison to the soundtrack. Wooo! 1980 is still preeeeetty damn close to the period when music was almost destroyed outright. Ouch. The makeup for the Martians is fun, and dude's gun is pretty nifty...but it is further startling to me how nobody thought to put a red filter on the camera so the skies of Mars wouldn't be BLUE! B.S. like there being any breathable air at all on mars and water in the canals is just silly. But the 80's was really just full of silliness enit. Conan the Barbarian...Gremlins... In the second ship that lands on Mars...isn't the commander the Man from Atlantis? Ah no, that was Patrick Duffy, this is Nicholas Hammond the guy who played The Amazing Spiderman! Weeeeird. The character is an amazing dumbass. "I really think I'd better check up on the ship" "Do it in the morning pal!" (pause for idiotic thought processes) "Why not?!"

What an amazing bunch of idiots that the Earth sends up to Mars too. Couple of old farts and one "rough-neck" from Jersey or NY...who plays accordion as they booze it up? Of course, the one black guy (Bernie Casey) who gets sent up is smarter than all of them. He just took a little trip out into mars on a mini-helicopter and deduce that all the neighboring cities have been uninhabited for 1000 years, but that the fifth city he saw had been decimated 1 week to 10 days prior by Chicken Pox. Pretty good guess work on his part eh?

Ray Bradbury called the mini-series "Just boring". So, since I downloaded an audio book of the Martian Chronicles by accident (when downloading the miniseries) I will listen tothat later on to find "How it was supposed to be". It is as it often is, going back in time to see a show from childhood -- nostalgia saves the day.

Must see if I can find a Space 1999 torrent now.

EDIT: Just a curiosity, noticed a report in today's BBC news about mysterious rapid production and destruction of methane on Mars! My thoughts are that it is likely geological in origin, rather than organic, but you can read for yourself and form your own opinions.

Another Remix, You are gonna love my nuts.

The O'reily remix seemed to be a hit with the kiddies so I am sharing this one as well.



----------------
Now playing: Rap Chop
via FoxyTunes


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Now playing: Rap Chop
via FoxyTunes

2. The Mad Cheep-Ass Watch Collector's Trinkets

Another recent acquirement: A Gruen Chronograph so friggin cheap I couldn't help myself. It isn't really my style and I may just give it as a gift? though I may not? It has its cool features and looks, but it is really heavy and I am not a big fan of metal-link bands. The future is uncertain with this one?

Kobe Port Fireworks

Ah Kobe...my Seattle away from reality. As far as I am concerned, Kobe is the best thing that Japan has to offer. For the single man – or married man with a wife who likes adventure I suppose (I am actually pointing fingers, not talking about myself) – Kobe kicks all kinds of ass over Seattle. But for the family man trying not to lose his mind in the "candy store", Seattle with its hairy, quasi-hippie, man-girls with their "I just came down off the totem pole" look, will do fine. Here are my dates for the evening, the royalty of Kobe, awaiting my phone call!

Kobe fireworks – well, Japan fireworks I should say – differ from American 4th of July quite a bit in that first, there is no accompanying, “America...fuck yeah.” feeling that you get with the big booms. There is no Star Spangled Banner, nor Jimmy Hendrix Purple Haze with the purple fireworks. No Chinook helicopter from Ft. Lewis dangling a humongous American flag below (I dig that) ...but they ARE good fireworks! For a yank, there are rather large gaps between stages of fireworks, but to Japanese people this is more of an aesthetic respite. (That's fancy talk for time to take a swig of beer and munch down a piece of fried chicken.)

The funny thing is, the last time I was at Gasworks Park to watch 4th of July fireworks in Seattle, the fireworks were actually done by Japanese fireworks experts. So, not only do they look similar just because they are fireworks, but because they are made by some of the same people. I learned that they all have proper names, for example chrysanthemum, peony, etc. Of course if I say “willow” you can probably just imagine which one I am talking about right away. But as far as a typical American is concerned, I bet most people just think of them as “Ooo's” and “Ahh's”. And apparently Japanese fireworks pyrotechnicians are going for the “perfect circle” with the flowers, and it is considered amateurish if the circle is off a bit. Yup, this is Japan all right.

Before I get to chatting about my gorgeous friends, I want to say too that being right down at the pier with the Kobe Port Tower and the...white artistic structure there...which apparently lights up green at night... really is a great feeling. I know I have never really fully left Seattle. There is just no way to feel “home” here, and Osaka sure does NOT help. But Kobe is really, really beautiful and Hyogo prefecture (Kobe is in Hyogo) is green and lovely too. Many times I have wished Kobe were “my town” but when I say that, several people remind me that it is probably better that Kobe remain my “escape to somewhere" town so I don't end up hating it too. People know me, I tell ya.

Okay, so Misa and Kaori. Yup. I would stop and take a minute to write something lovely and poetic to remark on their beauty, but really all I want is a biscuit to sop em' up with. Sometimes "Hick" visuals work best don't you agree? The fireworks and night view were great, but talking with the girls and hanging out at Starbuck's later was just what I needed. Naturally I made a (wishful) gag about them walking behind me as my wives, and how awesome that made me look, but they came back with "No no, you are our pet!" But hanging out with them and laughing for a few hours worked like a medicine! I really ...no fuckin' REALLY needed to laugh and be stupid. I have laughed till my jaw hurt or tears rolled down my face FAR FAR FAR too infrequently since coming to Japan. Even hanging out with the motorcycle dudes in the group I ride with is way too laid back. So these gals were my angels yesterday. And yes, their being absolutely my type has a lot to do with the happiness, but when we are all together, we are like a dumbass comedy team. Admittedly I am the dumb-ass comic relief and the girls alternate playing the straight man and fill in with plenty of silliness of their own. Nothing beats a friend who makes you laugh...except two friends who make you laugh!

Kujo Matsuri

Yesterday was the annual Kujo Matsuri, which just means "Kujo Festival". This one was special to me because my 4 1/2 year old son Alex and his entire kindergarten took part in the festivities. (Mika, my oldest, went to the same kindergarten but could not participate because we were vacationing in Seattle.)

So here is Alex wearing what they call a Happi, but it isn't what I had in mind. I was expecting little kid sizes in blue or some bright color, but instead they were old white ones, and pretty clearly adult sizes. So what should be a short sleeved, mini-jacket made him and all the other kindergartners look like monks walking to a temple and reminded me of images like THIS ONE.

There were hundreds of people in the shotengai (shopping arcade), some just shopping, some there for the parade. A bit stupid to me, but the typical shoppers actually seemed ANNOYED that the kids were parading down the middle of the shopping area. It only happens once a year, and there are signs and cops everywhere guiding and reminding people that there is an event taking place...so fuck off and take another route is what I want to say to the annoyed people trying to ride their bicycles through the sea of people.

I apologize for the blurry images, but we were on the move. Other images include the very small "float" that my kid was walking behind and Mika in her yukata (summer kimono) with her friend Shizuku. Shizuku is also one of the little kids that I teach in my Saturday morning Kids Kung-fu class.

Finally, I do have to say that I was planning to wait a few more years before getting a fish tank. Huh? What am I talking about? Well, we bought this one today because of a game that was part of the festival. It is called "Kingyo-tsukui" and involves picking up goldfish -- kingyo -- with a rice paper "net". They scoop up as many as possible before the paper tears. They came home with 9!!! Nine goldfish...(sigh). So they went into the wading pool which I have set out on our porch, and this morning we went tank shopping.

Luckily there was a nice set for $17 that included a filter, food, tank, pump and water treatment kit. I am noooo stranger to fresh water aquariums and have spent hundreds of dollars on 35 gallon tanks, fancy tropical fish-eating fish, and know how much work I am in for and how much the water will reek if not cleaned regularly. The last fish I had was an Oscar. How many hours before the kids don't give a care about these fish? Well...likely a few more hours before half the fish die from the shock of being played with in a game all day by wild children. They are very cute in the tank for now anyway.

So this is not the end of the evening's festivities by a long shot, but it is the end of THIS story. After this event I took the train to Kobe to watch fireworks with a couple of friends over there. And in case you are wondering why I didn't take my kids to see fireworks, all I have to say is that the fireworks display was just off Kobe pier, only a couple blocks from central Kobe -- a city of 3 million people! Besides that, fireworks here are more of an adult event. Lots of beer drinking and hot women in yukata to oogle...including the ones I went with.