Category: General

You do not want to get arrested in Japan like this guy did. You don’t even have to be guilty to go to jail here. In Japan, it’s often said that you’re guilty until proven innocent.

I already knew this, which is why I went the whole nine yards when that chikan wedged his hand between me and the woman he felt up on the train back in October. Had I not caught him, the woman might have thought it was my hand up her skirt. Ever since then, I no longer stand near women on trains if at all possible. (I don’t like men very much, but that’s a rant to be left for another day.)

Last fall someone mentioned in the comments that he heard me smoking on a podcast. Yes, I was smoking but I quit over vaction while I was in the US.

Some people can just put out a cigarette and say “That was my last one,” and never smoke again. Not me. I need a long period of mental preparation followed by a few weeks of nicotine patches.

I love nicotine patches.

If you wear one to bed, you will have the wierdest, most vivid dreams you’ve ever experienced. I have to stress this: a night on nicotine is probably the closest you can come to a psychedellic trip without illegal drugs. If you can handle it, I highly recommend it. Just don’t start smoking or I’ll feel responsible.

I just put on a patch because I was feeling drowsy here at work. It’s amazing how quickly they take effect. The second I put one on my chest right over my heart I could feel it work. Aaaaaaaahhhhh. Welcome back, my sweet mistress. I missed you.

Graham Clark, plays acoustic guitar in bookstores, libraries and schools in New York state. Has lots of free downloads. My whole family sings along with him in the car.

P.S. Raffi sucks.

Chuck Palahniuk, the author of Fight Club, has a particular short story he likes to entertain the audience with at public readings.

Because it makes people faint. According to Wikipedia, the body count is up to 60.

It’s called Guts.

A year or two ago, I read it all the way through. This time, I had to quit about an eighth from the end. The underside of my chin started pulsating –the warning sign that I’m about to throw up.

We have about 45GB of data here in the office that if it were ever lost, our company would be screwed. With a subscription to Amazon’s S3 storage service, the freeware utility JungleDisk and some freeware backup program or other (there are plenty out there), we’ll be able to safely and easily store our data offline for roughly $20 a month.

I’ve been looking at a lot of different online storage services lately and this seems to be the simplest and cheapest setup by far. Not to mention reliable, since Amazon isn’t going out of business anytime soon.

I wish I had found this in December while I was in the US. My father’s PC self-destructed just last week and he lost nearly everything.

今さら。 (ima sara)

A Brazilian/Japanese friend of mine who’s lived in Japan as long as I have kept using it, so I looked it up.

Oooh, I just cant stand it when someone at my level knows more Japanese more than I do.

My neighborhood is the Internet.

I love dealing with small companies. The smaller the better. They reply promptly, treat you fairly, offer you quality products and excellent service. And if they don’t, in this day and age word spreads quickly.

My last pair of binaural mics rocked. But they broke months ago, and I never got around to getting them fixed. I wrote to Giant Squid Audio Labs (whose real name is Darren) mentioning I was a podcaster, a procrastinator and a loser of sales receipts. Within a few hours. I got a reply: Send them back with $12 for postage and I’ll fix them with mics elements better suited for podcasting.

Go try that at Best Buy. Or Verizon. Or AOL. (howls_of_laughter.mp3)

P.S. soundprofessionals.com charges nearly $50 shipping for a $70 pair of mics. For some reason they can’t put them in a padded envelope and drop them into a mailbox.

When it comes to myself, I’m a perfectionist to the point of being neurotic. I can’t stand putting out garbage. If a batch of audio or video isn’t good enough, I either have to force myself to release it (and feel anxious until I get some feedback) or I crawl under a rock and disappear for months on end. The longer I put something off the easier it gets.

I gotta force myself to start producing again. Not because I need the attention, but rather because I don’t want to lose to whatever it is that holds me back. It’s probably a lot like fighting an addiction. I guess I’m addicted to anxiety. Which isn’t all bad–I completly understand others who feel the same way. Having that in common with people has actually made me a lot of close friends. It’s just not condusive to becoming a prolific podcaster.

OK, so I’ve hit rock bottom and it’s time to come back up. For starters, I put in an order for a new pair of binaural mics from Giant Squid Audio Labs. The $15 stereo jobbie just isn’t cutting it. Someone told me my audio quality sucks and I agree. I hate that mic. Even Andy the five six year old hates it. He likes to walk around the house recording himself, just like I did when I was his age.

Also, I’m getting close to shooting some video in Kabuki-cho with Mattias, a listener from Germany who’s doing an intership just up the street from me. As an excuse to make a video there, we’re going in search of the fabled Used Panty Vending Machine. Supposedly, there’s one there somewhere, and if it really exists, we’ll find it by interviewing everyone who should know. Hopefully we won’t get the pulp beaten out of us in the process for filming someone who’s–shall we say–violently camera shy.

I have to re-record the hostess bar episode. I’ve been doing more research, and I have a friend (a singer, not a hostess) I might be able to interview. I also have a shiny new desktop mic and mixer, courtesy of work.

Cripes, I fall asleep for about six hours and not only do I miss the earthquake of the century, but Barak Obama declares his candidacy!

Does anyone out there know what I can do here in Tokyo to help him run for president? Whatever it is, I’m there!

For starters, I’ve subscribed all of you to his mailing list. No need to thank me…

…because I’m tired of looking at the stupid post about Pauly what’s his name. I should have just kept that to myself, really.

Tony, Andy & I spent about two weeks in the US visiting my family in Pennsylvania. I’m proud to report that Andy (the six year old) now speaks English. You would not believe what a difference just a few days in an all-English environment made on both of them. I did speak more Japanese with them just to make them feel more comfortable, but they both held their own in English the entire time. My sister has two daughters of the same ages, and the four of them got along far, far better than my sister and I did growing up. My mother loved playing host to four grandchildren, although she was looking pretty wilted towards the end there.

The end result of the trip is that the three of us are closer than ever now. The number of unsolicited daily hugs I get from both of them is up about 1200%. And since my wife stayed home because she had to work, we came back to an absolutely spotlessly clean house. It looked like the interior home photos you see in Better Homes & Gardens.

As soon as I figure out where I left my iRiver MP3 player & recorder, I’ll record a podcast. I have a sinking feeling thought that I might have forgotten it in my sister’s minivan…