Odds & Ends

Posted on December 7th, 2006 in Customary Drivel by Deas

This entry is where bits of junk are collected when they don’t fit in other entries. I’ll probably continue it as a series from time to time. Not because I think you’ll find it interesting, though. Why do I say this? Well, I read an article that claimed that people who have web sites are pretty egotistical. They obviously think that they are worth someone spending their free time on. I don’t think I have internet based delusions of grandeur. I think I’m partially like Nikki, in that I just like to write, I’m partially doing this for friends and family, and partially it is kind of a new style of doing an open journal. So, I will keep posting, even when the present trend of nobody commenting continues. I realized that I don’t have any of the characteristics that make a good blog before I even started it. Those are, according to some internet people - candor, urgency, timeliness, pithiness, controversy, and utility. Am I ok with that? Mmmmm….yup, I think so.

My state made the news today in a goofy way. A mom had her kid arrested for opening his Christmas present too early. It’s awesome. Ha ha ha. I can’t believe it, but it has sure gotten a lot of coverage. (Slow news day, much?)

I also found a cool tutorial on how to remove tourists from your photos. I intend to try it out, provided my camera survives until my next trip, and provided I purchase a tripod (again). It’s the same technique used by the guys who made the short film 405 - when they have the shot of the huge empty highway. They didn’t shut the highway down, they just took a bunch of photos and stitched together the empty parts. Cool.

Linerider 2 has been officially released by the original’s creator, and can be played at Linerider.org . It has acceleration lines, an eraser, and the ability to draw lines backwards, as well as zoom in and out. Awesomeness. More time to be killed.

I am getting frustrated with my reading of Harry Potter in Japanese. It is becoming a huge chore, and I realize more and more how little Japanese I know. How do I know I don’t know Japanese? I have to force myself to read HP, whereas I go out of my way to read other stuff. Also - just noticed today after doubling up and then checking over in English - the Japanese version is WAY longer than the English version. This has me confused, considering that Japanese is a high context language and English is a low context language. This means that in a typical English sentence, more information is explicitly states by necessity than in a typical Japanese sentence (where it is not uncommon to leave out the subject, verb, both, or virtually any other huge meaning clue). It’s almost 120 pages longer. SHEESH. Maybe this can be accounted for due to the problem of explaining cultural references in Japanese, or complicated linguistic jokes. I dunno. But it is becoming slightly tiring. My goal is to have it read by the next time I go to Yuge, because I am giving the English version to a student there. Yup. Ok, I’m done. 4 posts in one day. Yikes. I think I’ll fudge the dates so you won’t know. Shhh.

Frigid is the Word

Posted on December 7th, 2006 in Customary Drivel by Deas

(…I choose to describe…all the feeling that I lost lying here right on my side… 32 points for the reference, 40 if you sing the original.)

This shall be known as the TMI entry. Well, the “winter has come” / TMI entry. For those of you who don’t like TMI, just don’t read this entry. Simple. Ha ha. Some will get a kick out of it, though, I think.

Winter has come. My bed is freezing, and when I wake up I can sometimes see my breath. That is not cool. It also makes me mimic Mr. Luke King, in that I wait until it is past the point of absolutely necessary to get out of bed to make it on time. Thanks cold. You made me almost late. I’m not taking the blame for this one.

Winter has come. When I ride my bike for a long time, I start to taste blood. Thing is - I can’t figure out if my lips are that chapped, or if it’s an illusion. I am betting illusion since I haven’t seen anything bad. I use what’s left of my Burt’s Bees balm. You know, I guess it is possible to blow your nose too much…but I don’t…and wouldn’t go there even if I did. Gross.

Winter has come. The bathroom at school, like most rooms in most buildings here, has no insulation. Pee steams. A lot. A whole lot.

Winter has come. Gastrointestinal distress is easier to deal with in a crowded but silent office. The kerosene heater will back you up, and no one will be the wiser, because the whole room smells like kerosene, or like an extinguished kerosene heater. Shhh. Silence is golden.

Winter has come. I have just started into my 3rd box of tissues, my 4th roll of toilet paper, my 2nd bar of soap, and my 4th new razor. I am learning how efficient I am at living alone, and it makes me think that I could, perhaps, become a professional assassin. Except that I am pretty sure the ability to kill people well is more important than efficiency - unless it’s efficiency in killing people.

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In other news, unrelated to the coming of winter, but figuratively frigid, BenQ has pulled the advertisement I found so distasteful, and has issued this apology (which is now all you will get on their website if you go):

This was a good move, BenQ. I’m glad you realized that you can’t keep the “your national trauma is my edgy commercial mise en scène” approach to advertising going. It will torpedo your
marketability, which is the exact opposite of an ad’s purpose. Apology accepted.

Today was a slow day at the office, since we’re still in the exam period, so I played about on the internet and learned about the clerihew, the higgledy piggledy, and other forms of comedic verse. I also watched people argue about whether or not secularism killed Russia and how the vodka problem happened. I read peoples’ reviews of the ISG report, and was incredibly bored, and not at all surprised. I found the above apology from BenQ. And I also decided to write a TMI entry when I saw that the weather has changed enough for pee to steam. (I discovered that on my own, in real life, not on the internet. Just in case you were confused.) That is all. Just thought I’d share. Feel free to reciprocate. Or not.