Four Eight more posts just like this one and I will have covered the costs of “research” for the hostess bar episode WHICH I HAVEN’T PUT UP YET BECAUSE I’M A LITTLE ANXIOUS ABOUT IT. I will. It’ll probably take half a bottle of wine, but I will grow the balls to put it up. Soon.

Anyhow, as you may know, I’ve been wondering about how to make money off the blog, podcast and videocast without feeling like I’m whoring my family on one end and my listener/viewer friends on the other. (I really do think of you as friends, albeit imaginary ones who follow me around everwhere.)

There’s a site called PayPerPost that will pay bloggers to shill for companies. I signed up for it, but never participated. (“I did buy it, but I went home and flushed it down the toilet.”) Once I got to the place where they listed the advertisers, I was very turned off. Some will pay only for positive reviews. Even worse, some want positive reviews AND they DON’T want you to reveal that you’re shilling for them. That’s just plain evil, period. Not only that, if anyone ever found out that I was shilling unethically, my reputation would be ruined forever, and rightfully so.

So now there’s a new site called ReviewMe that REQUIRES bloggers to add a disclaimer to paid posts. AND, if the product you’re shilling for sucks, you can say so and still get paid. Will advertisers sign up? I think it’s a good idea, as long as they’re not selling useless crap. To me, it’s just the same as Howard Stern or Rush Windbag shilling for Bose or whatever a few times every hour. If I do jump on the bandwagon, I won’t do a paid post unless I’ve already put out a podcast or videocast. This way, I make money off ya’ll without ya’ll having to give it to me. It’s a win-win situation.

According to my rankng in Alexa, Technorati, etc., I get paid $30 $15 per post. (Edit: ReviewMe takes half.) The more popular I get, the more I make, which gives me an incentive to put out more stuff. And I PROMISE I will not give out any false praise. There’s only so much I’m willing to do for money.

Oh yeah, and if you sign up for ReviewMe today and blog about them, you’re eligible for a $25,000 prize.

You want subtitles, you make ’em. Create yourself a user account at Motiji.com and have a ball. There’s a short writeup about Mojiti on Lifehacker.

P.S. Please be nice. I don’t know if I can delete nefarious subtitles.

I recorded a podcast on Monday night but haven’t had time to clean it up and put it out. On it I talk about my visit to a hostess bar the night before. Ooooooooh. Bet you’re all curious…

“An al-Qaeda strategist has warned Canada to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan or face terrorist attacks similar to 9/11, Madrid and the London transit bombings.”

I wonder if this will prompt the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo to upgrade their security from the one or two rent-a-cops who bow to you as you breeze through the entrance. It’s quite a contrast to the fortress mentality of the US Embassy.

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I have a sinus infection. It’s like having Ebola in your nose, cavities in all the top molars of one side of your mouth, while someone squeezes your head in a vice. This too shall pass. By next week I will have forgotten all about it.

Thought your website was finally immune to all the quirks of the various browsers? Think again. Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0 were recently released, dammit. I recommend trying out Firefox Portable 2.0 Release Candidate 3 before abandoning version 1.5.7 for good–just in case one of the extensions you can’t live without isn’t compatible with 2.0 yet.

In my blog’s sidebar I updated the podcasts and videocasts I watch and listen to faithfully. I’m also subscribe to other feeds, but these are the ones I’d highly recommend. The “Other Gaijin Podcasters” category, however, is for courtesy. No offense, but aside from Trans-Pacific Radio, I don’t listen to gaijin shows, including my own.

I will definitely do more than just vote for him. Whatever he needs people in Japan to do to get out the vote, I’ll help.

Check out his podcast.

Here’s a little video Tony and I made with my Sony Clie back in May for my parents while we were eating at McDonald’s. It’s nothing special. I’m just testing my new VideoEgg user account.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.