After having been missing for ~65 years, an old copy of the Genji manuscript was found. it had been given to the Osawa family by Hideoyoshi and is considered something of a national cultural asset. now i want to hunt down a 2000円 bill.

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Went to the Apple Store in Ginza on Friday. They have this really cool video screen next to the elevator entrance on all the floors that gives you an overview of what’s on each floor. Found a video of it on YouTube so you can check it our for yourselves.

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The new BMW 7 series looks a bit pedestrian ne? Or rather too much like a Lexus of some sort. Too upright to my tastes. I’m still partial to the more low slung and powerful look of the E38 or even E65 (though everyone seemed to hate that one.) But who am I to talk, I’m an E30 guy :P

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I stood for some time watching the clouds move across the sky. Those in the foreground moved with great speed, while in the distance, they were still. The sun colored the closer ones a mixture of gold, pink and orange. It appeared that the city abruptly ended some place not so far away. As if there were some sheer drop off; the end of the earth. Everything ended but the clouds.

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Gen. Clark is Right

General Wesley Clark was right when he said “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” I’m glad that someone finally had the balls to say it on national TV. But now all the neocon trash and their sympathizers are acting as if General Clark belittled or insulted McCain’s service, which is absolute bullshit. What he said is the simple truth; being a war veteran or a POW does not mean that you know how to run a country. McCain sympathizers should be happy about this fact, for if it did qualify one to be president, John Kerry would have been elected in 2004.

Recent little thoughts that popped into my head:

The Japanese don’t actually like music; instead they use it as a way to form a self image, as something to define themselves by.

I wonder if the designs of pubs and restaurants etc. in certain areas of the world are that way because that culture likes it that way, or because that’s just the way it has been traditionally. Think about the interior design of your average British pub Izakaya for instance.

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If you’re a Joy Division fan, or just a fan of movies about music, check out Control. Sam Riley looks so much like Ian Curtis it’s scary. I had no idea he died so young; only 23 years old.

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Microsoft Sucks

Here’s another perfect example of why Microsoft and Windows Vista sucks. They purposely broke Vista so that it may not get DHCP addresses from certain types of wireless routers. My roommate ran into this problem this morning, and without my help, he would have never been able to fix it. Like most people, he doesn’t even know what DHCP really is. What is the average consumer supposed to do in this situation? Buy a new router? Fuck you, Microsoft.

The six most important seconds in music

Was listening to some music from Crystal Castles the other day since they’ll be playing shows with Nine Inch Nails in their coming tour, when I got the urge to check out some chip music and headed over to 8bitpeoples. Oddly enough, the post on their front page is about Crystal Castles and how they’ve been illegally sampling various chip musicians who release music through 8bitpeoples. Reading the post from 8bitcollective, I was linked to something even more intriguing: a video explaining the Amen break; quite possibly the most important 6 seconds in music. Amazing to think that something so ingrained in pop culture and what spawned entire music genres is a six second break from a Winston’s B-side called Amen Brother released in 1969.

Maybe I’ll drop by the toy store to look for some everlasting edamame.

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Do a google image search for ganguro and std and you get pictures of my fellow Las Vegan living in Japan type person, Leah Dizon. Had a real good laugh with that one.

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Food Prices

I was watching the NBC nightly news podcast this afternoon when they mentioned the price of food going up. So I decided to take a look at prices online from one of the stores I used to shop at in Vegas, and compare to what I spend here in Tokyo. Though the current exchange rate is somewhere around 108 yen to the dollar, I’ll use 100 yen to a dollar for simplicity’s sake.

And it continues on in this manner with meats and veggies etc. For instance, I buy packages of 2 large chicken breasts for around $3.15. I’m shocked. When I came to Japan, I felt like everything was so expensive. Have prices gone up that much in the States in the last 6 months? Or was my initial perception of prices in Japan just misguided?

Republican Strategy

Caught this one over at the Huffington Post. It’s brilliant; what if McCain doesn’t accept the nomination? He is only a presumptive nominee after all. Everyone knows that McCain doesn’t have a very good chance of winning the election, and switching candidates would throw a hell of a monkey wrench into the Democratic machine. Just imagine if someone like Colin Powell (a long shot, I know) swoops in and takes over. Considering his public disagreement with the Bush on the Iraq war, he could be just what the Republican party needs to keep the Whitehouse.

Now I’m pretty fucking far from a Republican sympathizer; I believe in all my heart that they have been the worst thing for the United States during the past eight years. But I like Colin Powell. I think he’s a good man. Still, my big fear is that no matter who the Republican nominee ends up being, the neocon dogshit (still doesn’t sound harsh enough) won’t be ousted from the party. Unless those (dare I call them) people (read: Karl Rove and his ilk) are rounded up and shot, we as citizens of the world, not just the United States, could be in real trouble if the Republicans win the election.

Chris Pearson wrote an interesting article about creating a user defined functions file that will work with any WordPress theme, theoretically greatly reducing time wasted customizing a theme when you want to switch it up. Pure genius.

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Earthquake

Awoke to a pretty good earthquake this morning. First time I’ve felt one shake my building the way it did though. Normally, from the way my bed is positioned, it shakes left to right, but this time it went left to right and front to back. Looks like they felt this fucker all the way down in Shikoku The quake was in norther Japan, and I haven’t seen any reports of injuries in Tokyo.

Tim Russert: 1950-2008

I’m a bit of a news junkie. I used to watch CNN every day before work, and make sure to catch the NBC evening news when I got home at night. Weekend TV for me always consisted of CNN or CNBC/MSBNC. So I was just flat out shocked when I read that Tim Russert died. We was a good journalist; winning an Emmy and an Edward R. Murrow Award in the last eight years. I enjoyed watching him on Meet the Press and listening to his commentary on the other various news programs he often appeared on. It’s really strange knowing that a voice and a face you’ve seen so often will no longer be a part of your life. RIP Tim, you’ll be missed.

Trent Reznor has too much time on his hands.

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Possibly the best FireFox addon ever created.

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Internet, at last!

Finally, I’m connected at home again. Somehow we lasted nearly a month and a half without internet access at the apartment. Thank god for video games.

A quick summary of the last two months: Two friends and I were able to find a three bedroom apartment in southwest Tokyo. We are proud owners of an American sized refrigerator, a small washer and a small dryer. The entire spring/summer break was spent without internet, so we played lots of video games and did a little exploring. Living in Tokyo without a bike is… well stupid and frustrating. So I bought a BMX bike and put quite a few miles on it already. Besides being a blast to ride, it’s good exercise. I’m the fittest I’ve been in a number of years (not that that’s saying much…) Started the summer semester at TUJ. It’s a shortened semester, but the syllabus for each class is the same as the ones used during full-length fall and spring semesters, so I’m slammed with work. Though I only go to school MWF, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays are devoted to homework and studying.

Nothing else to report really. Just all sorts of school work keeping me busy. Tonight for instance; I could have gone out, but no, I’ve been working on a paper for the last five hours. And now it’s 1:16 and I’m going to bed. Good night.

looks like i’ll be without internet until the 7th of may. yay! :( but when it does get installed i’ll be a happy camper. 100mb up and down baby. i loves me some fiber.

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