Ello Bello
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Bill at RSoN got wind of a new bilingual manga that’s in the pipeline and has begun syndication of it on his site every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. It’s called Ello Bello, and features full parallel English and Japanese text with kanji and furigana. In short, great study aid for those who are learning either language.
Check out Ello Bello here. The format seems to be single sheets, featuring 3 large frames or so. The Japanese is placed naturally inline, and the English runs alongside it in the margins. I’m not gonna lie - the name of the manga and the first episode are rather cryptic, but supposedly it will deal with a foreign exchange student joining a Japanese high school band. Just thought I’d pass it along to any and all interested parties. Let them know what you think if you have suggestions, ok? 
Like Big Butts?
Toto (US, Japan), the famous Japanese luxury plumbing fixture company is at it again. Advertising Age had a quick writeup about a new ad campaign over Times Square in New York City involving giant butts.
On July 1, the Toto Washlet company will unveil a giant two-story billboard wrapped around three sides of a Times Square building. And on that billboard will be giant two-storied rears, smiling down on the city. Why are they smiling?
Because the Toto Washlet is moder-day [sic] miracle of science (according to the press release). It “upgrades a standard U.S. toilet to state-of-the-art in personal hygiene. It cleans and dries with aerated water and warm air (both adjustable, via wireless remote, for temperature and strength). While over 17 million have been sold worldwide, the U.S. remains an untapped market.”
Oh yes. They are at it again. This is the Clean is Happy Campaign. It’s catching eyes. I first became aware of Toto’s preoccupation with launching the Washlet stateside through Trans-Pacific Radio’s TPR News Podcast (16 May 2007). Washlets, for those who don’t know, are the crazy toilets with heated seats, remote controls, all manner of bidets and air-dry jets, which I suspect could make coffee or french fries if properly configured. Here’s what they had to say about the situation.
Every year or so, we see a PR piece disguised as news reporting making the claim that Japanese toilet maker Toto is hopeful that its bidets and warm-seated toilets will soon catch on with consumers in the United States. A recent Japan Times article that struck this observer as somewhat ‘cheeky’ reported:
In the United States, explosive sales are unlikely in the coming years…Some observers say the number of plumbers there well-versed in the installation of Washlets is still limited, making it hard for the company to offer adequate after-sale service.
This line was taken from the company’s website, “[The] Washlet is the kind of product whose popularity and demand grow through experience of use and word of mouth. (sic)”
Gotta say - I’m not sold on the notion of the American market receiving the Washlet with plaudits and confetti. Skeptical at least. All I know is that I like toilet paper, and I hate the disturbing moment of confusion when I sit down on a heated seat and imagine that someone has just been there. Eeew. So for me, clean may be happy, but my clean is attainable without the gizmos in a Washlet. If you’ve tried one, weigh in on this one. Do you think it’ll fly?
Also, for those who missed it…my buddy Nick discovered one of the TMI-dark-secrets of Japan - why the Washlet is really so popular. To laugh and find yourself pretty disturbed, and discover what they mean by “pamper yourself” - read Nick’s account. It’s “fun”. 
Ahem.
Volunteer Pirate
Yaaaargh! I am going to be a pirate. Not gonna lie, that was definitely my preferred vocation as a child during various phases. Well, now I get to make good on it. I have been asked to join in the Suigun Race. They’re seriously into the whole pirate thing here. Full out. You guys saw my photo post on the Murakami Pirate Museum. You saw the video showing the rapids and hard to navigate areas. Well, now I get to race pirate style along with some coworkers (I think) to claim pirate victory for our team. We’ll see. Sounds like a hoot. Apparently the teams like to do themes, so costumes are a common sight. Anyway, for those who are interested, I’ve sprinkled links throughout the last few sentences with no skill whatsoever. Find your own way, and don’t whine about it. Pirates don’t whine. Unless it’s about rum. Learned that from Cap’n Jack. I hated the third PotC film, by the way. Was it just me, or was it lackluster compared to the others? The first was the best. Wish they’d just leave it. Anyone want to rumor monger about a fourth?
Mental Health Day
I took 年休 nenkyuu today because I needed what my mom used to call a “Mental Health Day.” Lemme briefly ’splain that. You see, my mom rules, and she is a teacher - she therefore understands perfectly what school stress is like. Granted, she’s not an expert on school stresses in Japan, but she gets the gist. We basically agreed that taking days off of school is more fun when you’re healthy. When you’re sick, why not go to school and deal with the drudgery anyway? When you’re home, why not enjoy yourself? Therefore, I took a mental health day. Looks like laundry, dishes, bits of spring cleaning, maybe a ride to the police station to register for a scooter license test, some dinner, reading the rest of a great book, and sleep. I just really needed this more than you can imagine. Sigh. Me time.
Fun afterthought - Ken Y-N from WJT started a new goofy site. Check it out. My Buddhist name is Tripitaka Master Vast Carrier. What’s yours?
Close Call
Disaster has been avoided. I am writing this from my iMac. Can’t tell you how relieved I am. And before you ask, backups are already in progress. 
Lesson learned.
Now I too can join the “I Survived the Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.4.10″ club. All the thanks and credit goes to Igor Minar (who passes credit to Mike Brooks). You guys saved my butt big time. For those who want to duplicate the fix, here’s what I did, following Igor’s instructions.
1 - Download a chip architecture appropriate copy of the DMG for the standalone combination update for 10.4.10 from Apple. (Intel / Power PC) Put it on a USB key (if you use PPC, make sure you have a properly formatted key, otherwise, you’re all set). Plug said USB key into your Mac and proceed to step 2.
2 - Boot from your Mac OS X Installation Disc. (NOT an update disc.) Choose which language you’d like to use, but once the menu bar at the top appears, don’t do anything else with the installer. Choose Utilities, then Disk Utility. Repair the disk permissions and the disk if necessary and even if it’s just “voodoo.” Close Disk Utility.
3 - Copy the DMG from the USB key to your computer’s hard drive. (I’m using the Intel DMG, since that’s what I really used. PPC people just change the name.) Go to the Utilities menu, and choose Terminal this time. Enter the code below and hit enter after each line.
cp “/Volumes/USBKEYNAME/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.10Intel.dmg” \
“/Volumes/YOURMACHDD/”
4 - Mount the DMG file. Hit enter after each line.
hdiutil attach \
“/Volumes/YOURMACHDD/MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.10Intel.dmg”
5 - Run the update. Hit enter after each line (4 times total).
“/Volumes/YOURMACHDD/usr/bin/open” \
/Applications/Utilities/Installer.app \
“/Volumes/Mac OS X 10.4.10 Combined Update (Intel)/\
MacOSXUpdCombo10.4.10Intel.pkg”
6 - Follow the instructions on the GUI that popped up, restart when prompted, reclaim your machine, and THANK IGOR and the others who got this fix out there!
Whew. Glad that’s over. Now for laundry and apartment cleaning. Fun. (Actually, relatively speaking, yeah…it is.)