【GPS情報】 http://walk.eznavi.jp/map/?datum=0&unit=0&lat=+36.10.21.32&lon=+139.42.37.22&fm=0
Just testing to see what happens if I send this to the blog.
Look at the legs on that kid. He’s going to be tall like his old man.
Category: General
At the dentist
Tony unfortunately inhereted his mother’s teeth and gets cavities all the time. I, on the other hand, have never had one.
Our dentist is high-tech. X-rays show up instantly on a laptop and get stored on a server instead of a file cabinet.
[tags]moblog, photo, Tony[/tags]
Texting
Today I realized that it’s been a long time since I’ve moblogged. Here’s the scene on the train I’m on. 5 out of 6 people are texting on their keitai.
Regaining my youth is killing me.
There’s a definite pattern to events when Oliver and I meet up.
- We eat till it hurts.
- We drink till we’re about to burst at the seams.
- I fall asleep outside of Koga station.
Oliver has a superpower I wish I had: the ability to strike up a conversation with anyone, and optionally get them to buy him free drinks if he’s thirsty. Perhaps you can guess by the fact that I haven’t put out a podcast since it was -10 degrees outside, but in real life I’m a very quiet person; the diametrical opposite of gregarious when there’s more than two other people around. It’s been almost 40 years and I still can’t decide whether to embrace my neuroses or take up some kind of heavy addiction to counterbalance them. (It would have to be something inexpensive. That’s what makes choosing one so difficult.)
We ended last night in a crowded basement bar that had a touch screen MP3 jukebox, on which we took turns trying to play the worst song ever. I actually broke the machine with my selection. It would play Barry Manilow’s Copacabana all the way through, crash, reboot and play it again. And again. And again. It was the sound of victory.
Obon and other stuff
This week is Obon, the yearly holiday season similar to Dia de los muertos in Mexico, when people go back to their hometowns to visit living relatives and spruce up the graves of dead ones. It’s believed that the spirits of your dead relatives come back to visit, which is a nice thing to believe–you never feel too distant from the ones you’ve lost. There are many local “bon odori” festivals that involve dancing, taiko drumming, eating, drinking, etc. People take off work en masse, and many banks, city halls, supermarkets and small stores are closed. This is also the time of year when traffic jams miles and miles long make the news.
I don’t have off today, but my wife does, and she’s is taking our kids to see the new Harry Potter movie, which means I’ll have to download watch it by myself later.
Last Friday Oliver dragged took me to a live house to listen to a singer/songwriter he met during his travels. Let me say this–although I do like some music loud, to which my father will attest, there’s a point where “loud” becomes “way too loud.” When the venue is in the basement of a building behind two sets of vacuum-sealed soundproof doors, it’s a good sign that your eardrums are in for some serious punishment. I used my sound isolating earbuds for earplugs and it was still too loud. It was sparking my “fight or flight” response, and I spent half the time in retreat on the opposite, quiet side of the double doors and the other half wanting to pick a fight with an innocent bystander. On the bright side, I took full advantage of the “all you can drink” deal that was included in the entrance fee and spend the night curled up in a dumpster outside Koga station. (I nicknamed one rat “Fifi” and the other one “Cuddles.”)
So here I am at work today, having no luck finding a function in JavaScript for converting HTML entities like & and ” back into their proper characters. It looks like you have to roll your own. Stupid language.
Oliver and I almost recorded a podcast, but I was too inebriated and in a pretty foul mood. We started one before the gig, but it wasn’t turning out all that well so I’ll throw it in the chumbucket later.
[tags]music, Oliver, anecdote, podcasting, geek stuff, work, family, holidays[/tags]
Crazy Japanese podcast
Tell me what you think of this idea.
Last weekend when Oliver was visiting, Tony and I started playing a new game. I’d say something totally insane in English like, “May I please poke your eyes out with my chopsticks?” or “I made you a bracelet from my nosehair. I hope you like it,” and he’d translate it into Japanese. Or he’d say something equally strange in Japanese (usually having to do with poop, because he’s nine years old) and I’d say it in English.
Would this work as a podcast with audience participation? I think it would be a fun way to learn English/Japanese. Of course we’d keep it clean. Believe it or not, Tony still doesn’t know bad words in English, and I want to keep it that way. Although he did say to my mother once when he was about two years old, “You’re a FIRE BITCH!” He was just putting sounds together, and that’s what came out. You should have seen the look on her face. Priceless.
A very interesting question
Cameraman: “If abortions should be illegal, then what should the penalty be?”
Abortion Activists: “…I don’t know. I never thought of it.”
Cameraman: “Can you think of any other crime for which there isn’t a punishment?”
Watch the video. It’s fascinating. There’s a an interesting and well-written post on DailyKos about it too.
I turned off commenting. I don’t want things to get ugly here. Do it on YouTube.
Andy, Oliver, Tony
Oliver, a 19 year old podcast listener from the UK who’s trekking around Japan for a few months, stayed over at our house last night. Our boys were really, really excited to meet him. All three slept on the living room floor, but not before spending at least an hour in the dark making all sorts of noises that only little boys can make. (armpit farts, pig snorts, unexplainable very loud banging, etc.) I’m assuming it was Andy and Tony entertaining their guest. Tony woke up this morning looking very hung over. As long as the walls weren’t splattered with blood and nobody woke up in a pool of their own vomit (or somebody else’s), I’m just glad they enjoyed themselves.
In fact, you’re all invited to visit, just as long as all 4,000 or so of you don’t visit all at the same time.
P.S. My site was down earlier because the database server’s hard drive died and had to be rebuilt from a backup. I’m very surprised they’re not using RAID. Very bad sign. If I weren’t so lazy I’d ditch Dreamhost for a more reliable operation.
Tokyo is safe.
The epicenter of yesterday’s quake was 150 miles northwest of Tokyo, so we weren’t affected. We only felt a mildly strong and long tremor.
A YouTube Experiment
Most of the videos I’ve posted on YouTube (same as the ones I post here) have been viewed hundreds or thousands of times, except for the “Koga Lantern Festival” video, which to date has been watched by a paltry 78 people.
I don’t get YouTube. The shaky, nausea-inducing video I made by sprinting through a supermarket has been watched over 3,000 times, while the video I spent hours and hours trying to get “just right” is passed over.
So I decided to conduct an experiment by renaming the Koga Lantern Festival video to something that might appeal more to the YouTube demographic. I have a feeling it’ll work.