Title inspired by Wreck-Gar and the junkions. A classic cinema moment, and I don’t even like Weird Al. I wish I lived in a universe in which the phrase “barweepgranarweepninibon” inspired an impromptu dance party.
So I finally did it. I finally graduated to the next generation. Yesterday, armed with a head full of reviews and pricing guides, I set out to the big electrics store in Wakayama and splased out 180,000円 on this. I have to wait a week for delivery but I’m sure it’ll be worth it, I will no longer have any use for the outside world. Once I get a PS3 or X-Box 360 installed of course. I’m sure there will be resistance from the wife, but with my birthday coming up I’m pretty sure stopping me will require a herd of wild elephants. After all, what’s the point in scrimping and saving for a new gadget if you can’t maximise its potential?
It’s a good news weekend all round it seems, summer has ended with the abruptness of the average train wreck (if such a thing can be averaged), the weekend was mostly cold, rainy and thoroughly enjoyable in that sense, it’s no secret I’m sick of summer, it was no secret I was sick of it before it started either, the end is in sight and soon I’ll be freezing my rear end off once again, bliss awaits.
I’m sure I had further things to add, but frankly not. Save that I finally got around to playing “Portal” a year later than everyone else. It was thoroughly entertaining but for some reason gave me a splitting headache, probably due to the constantly changing perspective. I don’t know if I can really be bothered to do the “advanced” chambers however, it seems like the real fruit of the labour has already been received.
Anyway, have another Transformers video:
- Thanks
to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds
of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative. -
![[info]](http://www.quotationspage.com/icon_info.gif)
![[add]](http://www.quotationspage.com/icon_plus.gif)
![[mail]](http://www.quotationspage.com/icon_email.gif)
Kurt Vonnegut (1922 – 2007), “Cold Turkey”, In These Times, May 10, 2004
Filed under: Entertainment, health | Tags: Danny Choo, health, Stormtrooper
Health checks. Japan has them, and in great number. I’d be happy with this save that I have got to the age where they are starting to terrify me ever so slighty. It wouldn’t be unfair to say I’m passed or in the process of passing my most verile years, at a ripened 26-soon-to-be-27, I can see the crest of my fourth decade rising ahead and I’m none too pleased about the baggage that comes attached with that. I never wish to have to discuss my prostate and the investigating of it with anyone.
Since the worrying and expensive incident of noncancer I have been eager to avoid having any further checks carried out as I am a lover of bliss, and ignorance is one of the “must have” items for collectors. However, the inevitable treachery of common sense dictates that if it’s free and likely to help in any way then one should snap up the opportunity. So, today I trotted up to the health centre to claim my gratuitous bill of health or lack thereof. After being whisked through height/weight, eyes/ears and blood pressure I joined the incredibly long line for blood tests. What’s more enjoyable than filing rank for 30 minutes to get stabbed in the arm after all? Finally my turn comes for intravenous intrusion and I query my would be assailant as to whether I needed it as during the time I had been waiting several people seemed to have left without blood loss. As it turns out, the woman at blood pressure booth had made a mistake and handed me 3 vials for no reason, as I’m not down for blood tests this year.
I think my point is this, there is always a way to make matters of health more painful than they need to be. An optimist would point out “at least you didn’t have to have the tests right?”. Smarmy bastard. Lucky I only know miserable sods really.
In other news, Mr. Danny Choo makes me happy for some reason.
Filed under: Entertainment
For reaons I can no longer fathom, long ago I signed up for updates from a somewhat episodic charitable organisation called PEPY. I don’t feel terrifically bad about describing them in a negative sense, as whilst they’re goals are noble and carried out with enthusiasm I remain unconvinced by their methodology which seems to revolve largely around cycling around poor countries and offering unskilled labour on occaisions. They also coined the term voluntourism which I file in the “Abusrdism of English” drawer alongside Frappucino, ginoromos and sassitude.
Frequently any details I get from them go unread into the trash can, however in recent weeks I have found myself entertained by the number of people that fail to grasp the difference between “reply” and “reply to all”. This all started with a boring exhange between two people followed up from an equally boring request for ideas about a 20 minutes “being green in Japan” presentation:
Email 1:
Aileen to PEPY
Hey guys
I have uploaded a bunch of files that are useful resources for JETs
that you may want to use in school, eikaiwa, international
associations, etc.
These files are all from the PEPY website www.pepyride.org, under
Media, and then JET resources.
Hope you find them helpful!
OK. Normal enough. If dull,
Email 2:
NP to PEPY
remove me from your mailing list. in addition, this is being forwarded to federal authorities for fraud investigation.
Because the federal authorities really give a rats ass about you receiving an Email from a wouldbe Japanese chartiy. I’ll expect the Black Hawks any second. Probably would have been easier just to send this back to the sender rather than x thousand people. Now everyone know’s you’re an ass.
Email 3:
Daniela to PEPY
Hello Nina – (And everyone else)
We have removed you from the PEPY AJET list. We make it a point to only add members who have signed up for our listserve at JET events or emailed us to join this group. I am sorry if you feel you have been added to this group in error.
For everyone else, there is an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of all of the group emails, though we hope you continue to join us on this discussion group! Thanks for your interest in PEPY and for all of the 1st year JETs, welcome to Japan and to PEPY. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you to add development issues to English lessons, raise funds and awareness for global issues through our work as teachers, and hopefully some of you will choose to join us in Cambodia personally.
Many thanks,
Why thank anyone for being an ass? But expertly handled none the less, however, if she has truly been removed from the list should she be receiving this?
I’m always surprised at how forward and often rude people can be on email. (Really? Why? It’s much easier than doing it in person)
It’s too bad we can’t be just a bit nicer to each other. We get the same kind of strongly worded emails at Kyushu Connection. (Self promotion much? How about you ignore, delete or flame the sender? Or better yet, sign their email up for a whole bunch of spam mail) Somewhere along the line people sign up for information and instead of being polite when they no longer want it, they try to make you feel bad with idle threats and unkind words, which really is unfortunate considering the wonderful VOLUNTEER (Holy shit caps!) work you all do at PEPY. Perhaps in the future when people receive unwanted emails, they could say something like, “I appreciate what your organization does, however, I kindly request that you remove me from your mailing list. I have asked several times and I haven’t had much luck. Perhaps you could direct me to your unsubscribe section on your email or website.” (Jesus didn’t have that much patience, after numerous attempts I would be looking for ways to send them malware)
CBT
It tends to surface after three or four weeks of unapologetic update absences. In spite of swearing myself to an oath of writing more concise (in Japanese 簡潔 – I needed to use it before I forgot it) and frequent posts, I find myself floundering in a sea of blog note paper, sailing on the listing ship of good intentions, a ship that has failed to get me to numerous destinations including recent goals of running three times a week, studying for 2 hours every day and putting all alcohol on a month long hiatus. I also feel a flower of pain my grammar cerebrum as I realise the previous sentence was longer than Denmark.
Invariably, I find that my blog writing time falls in my hours of gainful employment in which I am free rather than my free time, in which I tend to pursue equally unproductive activities, but those which come with bright colors and shiny baubles. In an effort to catch up with issues salient to my current state of affairs I fear my only recourse is to resort to the antithesis of anyone who fancies themselves as a journeyman blogeteer and bulletpoint my way through August. I never did much like August anyway.
NOTE: I will follow up with an annotated (or not) pictures only entry.
Fukuoka: Fukuoka is fantastic. All the cosmopolitan glow of Tokyo, but without the creeping suspiscion that even then people working in McDonald’s are looking down on your social status. They don’t need to hear you aren’t an executive working for Panasonic, they just look at you and they know. It makes them feel a little queasy.
Korea: Well the food was great, damned if there’s anything to see there. Don’t go to Seoul, you’ve already been there. It is the same as every major metropolitan city in the western world with no defining characteristics save that getting about is irritating as language ability outside of Korean is of little use. The fabeled “Market town” in the centre is full of copies of the same three stores selling: Korean souvenir crap, seaweed or old clothes. I also have a policy on ignorning pushy sales people, I ended up ignorning most of Korea. Pusan, however, is fun, particularly to the shoestring gourmet (someone who likes cheap yet surprisingly good food as opposed to someone with an affinity for shoestrings). One can also buy absurdly expensive international products from YSL, Gautier, Prada and all those other self felicitating brands that you’d have to be intensely insecure to invest in.
Beijing Olympics: I hate Beijing and you do too. However, in terms of entertainment value the Olympics were a nice time sink. I was disappointed I didn’t see any podium-top anti CCP demonstrating however, I was looking forward to some radical flinging away a gold medal in disgust and proclaiming to the world they have no need of medals from the corrupt regime. Of course, if this were done with silver or bronze one would just come off as a sore loser.
Obama/Biden: The most entertaining circus in town has started. I knew nothing about JB until the day before his nomination, he seems like a safe choice and also he has no money, which seems to be a plus these days. How does a senator have a net worth of -$300K? Perhaps he should be kept out of the loop when it comes to decisions regarding the economy.
Translation: Wouldja believe it? I passed that translation test, somewhat suspiciously I may add, but a pass is a pass and that means I get a week off work to go to Japanese class later in the year. Go me!
New ALTs: The new arrivals seems promising. I’ve only met three so far, but they seems nice particularly Terence from California who seems to share almost identical interests to me, Theo and James. One or two more and we have ourselves an enclave I think.
Hot: It’s still hot.
Batman: Was great. Did Heath Ledger die of suddenly being too awesome? I mean, he was the guy from “Knight’s Tale” for crying out loud. Suddenly he’s the very epitome of the Joker? I think he quite literally poured his entire soul into the role.
OK, that’s more or less enough without entrenching myself in notes from amusing tiny incidents et al that have become progressively hard to describe as time has passed. Everything else is more or less hunky dory. I forgot my sister’s birthday again this year, but I’m pretty sure that’s fine because I don’t recall her remembering mine ever. It’s really the best way to do things, perhaps I’m the birthday miser but it seems the achievement of having stayed glued to the earth without expiring for a single orbital cycle is no achievement really worth much celebration. To hell with you people and your birthdays.
-GaZ-
- Personally I think birthdays and anniversaries are like menstrual cramps, a regular pain in the ass that’s somehow connected to birth.
-
Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, September 30, 2003
..all right don’t bother.
In keeping with my families fine military tradtion (my Dad was in the territorial army for a couple of years – so he used to turn up on satudays and pretend to play soldiers for a few hours), I’ve been investing a lot of time recently in contests of strategical prowess. Honing my skills for when the inevitable war with Tonga comes to Japan and I will be required to lead our brave Japanse brethren to an overwhelming victory. I’ve been brushing up my art of war by:
a) Playing AGoT against Theo
b) Playing the old school Age of Empires II
c) Registering with Travian
Things however have not gone to plan whatsoever. My most recent outing of AGoT resulted in two crushing defeats. An experimental Targaryen deck I prepared looked tasty for about 3 rounds before falling to pieces. A Baratheon deck I thought so hard about and poured my soul into fell apart after about 5 seconds, leaving me to declare in the 3rd round, at probably a record breaking speed.
Age of Empires is more difficult than I recall it being. I’m sure I could beat multiple opponents with the difficulty level set to high previously. Upon restarting my campaigning I seem to lose track of what my poulation is doing after about 20 inhabitants and forget to build any defenses, making me seem a bit like the military equivalent of Poland.
Travian is irritatingly slow, although I suppose that’s the point. Log in once or twice a day, spend all my money before someone else takes it and wonder how the hell people managed to get these huge populations and massive armies whilst I have a rat and a donkey (flatulent).
It’s entirely possible I am not the mighty strategos I thought I was. On the plus side, this would make fine evidence when it comes to getting me out of conscripｔion (I say getting out of, I think perhaps the wisest idea for conscription would be to just not go, and see what the hell they did about it, if anything).
