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Back to current entries
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April 29, 2002
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Oooohhh... so sick: some strain of flu bug has been
ravaging me since Friday...
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April 26, 2002
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Yes, yes, the carrots. Some may wonder, what's with the
carrots? They are in fact my breakfast, at least on working
days -- a couple years back, I solved two problems with
one change, by bringing a Tupperware container into work
loaded with the mini-carrots, and munching them through
the morning -- adopting this habit reversed my weight gain,
I lost thirty pounds; plus by no longer going out for lunch,
I eliminated what's become a crippling early-afternoon drowsiness,
even of the lunch meal's not that big. But now, I do
occasionaly augment the fruit and carrots with a lunchbreak
pause at the
Seto Deli, nearby,
in Sunnyvale. Usually I just get a $1.50 chunk of grilled
mackeral (which I also like raw -- remembering when sushi
bars were new, how I read that a fisherman was amazed
they served saba, which he'd always considered
merely a bait fish). This
review takes issue with calling a Japanaese restaurant
of any stripe a "deli," but really, what else to call it,
if they want to draw in a wide audience? (Outside New York,
"deli" has come to mean any lunchtime sandwich shop,
not necessarily one with pastrami, bagels & etc. on
the menu.) What intrigues me is their cute "Fox Pocket"
logo, which relates to the vegan inari
sushi they serve; I've come across that word in a
very different context because various Shinto shrines
invoke this diety, which has some relationship
to foxes. Searching uncovered
this
Inari explanation. (Scroll down, there's more informative
links at the bottom).
Socio-Political
Themes in The Smurfs explains the Smurfette's lack of bosum,
and how Comrade Brainy -- er, Brainy Smurf, represents Trotsky!
Richard Cohen, who is (like me) a Crusader for Silence,
writes
about confronting "Cell Yell."
The latest
Zompist rant concerns Editorial Cartoons. Elsewhere, among
his "How To Tell if You're"s, he's just posted the
Canadian --
I've wanted to read that one for quite some time.
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April 24, 2002
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This is my first-ever entry edited and
uploaded via a command line ftp in an
xterm window, on my Linux laptop.
Long time comin'
-- I can finally display it:
This update was -- really.
(Getting on is so tedious, however, the method will
probably remain a backup novelty.)
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April 22
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Realtors have decided their smiling faces should
adorn advertising signage. The shopping carts at the
supermarkets here replicate these happy heads (none
of whom I'd trust); many more examples of that stuff at
the
celebrities of real estate.
Linguists call "um" and "er" dummy words.
This
article is all about how they're used to hold
the floor in conversation, and which sounds
are used for dummies in different cultures.
(On the other hand, aren't "Y'know" and "Basically"
called filler words?)
Another
article,
scary -- observations from the Arctic,
where the ice caps are melting.
The
Industrious Women of Pottsylvania!
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April 19, 2002
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Been using the Mozilla
browser for a while now -- there's
superior technical reasons to favor this software,
but I like it for the way it loads up a busy
page -- the text appears first, then
the page is dynamically restructured as
each image finishes loading, contrary to the
annoying, business-friendly way the more popular
browsers do, where the banner ads get priority.
(Mozilla's only better, not perfect).
RIP Thor Heyerdahl
(CNN
obit) -- he wrote the first 'real' book
I evr read, Kon-Tiki, when I was 8 or 9 years
old. The story of his crew crossing the South Pacific
on a raft was an early trigger of my interest in things
beachy and Polynesian, though truth be told I couldn't
handle that Nordic name -- in the way that people
assign a pronounciation they've never heard by equating
the new string with a familiar sound, I read it as "Thor
Hydrofoil." Foolishly, I'd forgotten all about this by
1984, when I was in Oslo, so I haven't yet visited the
Kon-Tiki Museum.
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April 18, 2002
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That class alluded to previously was
my last needed -- today was the final session,
so after I turn in my project I've completed the
requisite courses to be a minimally certified
Teacher -- given a crisis, I now
have a backup ESL career option.
(That's English as a Second Language)
New products: are you familiar with
Plyboo?
It's plywood made from bamboo. How about the
RGB LED pleasures of the
Sauce
Light Wand? (A guy had one at
that
party, the exposure triggered an
immediate need). Their web site's colorful,
but enough already with the aggresive "fun,
hip, it's the rage" advertising copy. Finally,
(the not very old at all replacement! of) my
trusty Sony WM-D3 stereo recording Walkman has
died prematurely, apparently zapped by a spike
in a RealAudio stream I was taping -- thanks a lot,
Ira! I'm
using this event as catalyst to loosen my 35-year
dependence on magnetic tape as archival musical
medium; it's way past time to go digital; so I'm
looking into the optimal portable MiniDisc. Already
obsolete? Doesn't seem so, although this media
hasn't caught on stateside the way it has
overseas -- still, these units seem amazing, the
new ones can even transcribe .mp3 files in a
rapid mode. They're so small, I feel like Doc
Brown confronting the VideoCam: "An entire digital
recording studio in that tiny unit?"
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April 15, 2002
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Busy, busy -- in a class
that's winding down, and haven't
felt very 'posty' of late; but a
different perspective is
available, at theGirl's online
journal. More details for the curious
than I've provided here, in quite some
time -- sometime she even posts pictures
I snapped, with her digital camera.
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April 11, 2002
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I've been pondering the 'berserker' concept,
as described in a "This American Life" program
from last September. (To hear it in
RealAudio,
advance to about T+22 minutes.) The segment's from Lee Sandlin's
Losing
The War, a 1997 article originally printed in the Chicago
Reader. It relates the Vikings' berserker rage to the
firebombing of Dresden, Hamburg and Tokyo, and the atomic bombing
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; with details of Wagner and the
Battles of Midway and the Bulge. Long, but quite readable
and worthwhile.
Trashcanistan -- an
aricle in The National Review, another long, depressing
read, is a trip through the former Soviet republics, via
recent books about same.
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April 8, 2002
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Cute Inc.
is a Wired article from Dec'99 about the Japanese
phenomenon of kawaii, or cute -- it
traces this fascination back to the early 1970s, and has
interviews with the creators of Hello Kitty, plus mentions of
Totoro, Miffy and Pokéman; but not
Afro Ken.
Odaiba --
all about that new district in Tokyo discussed
previously, with the Ferris Wheel.
Chinese
Propaganda Posters.
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April 7, 2002
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This
pointer to eye-wtness accounts was received in
reaction to my previous entry's
query -- just what I wanted, thanks Mar!
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April 1, 2002
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Last week Jon Carroll had
a
column which covered territory similar to my own
At the Gym. Myself, on
the treadmill, I probably shift between Marathon and
Dutiful, with the rare flash of Ecstatic. We're in
agreement about the Grunters in the weight room.
While we were in
Portland recently, on some stray channel on the
motel room television, a short travel video appeared,
like one of those things I've seen during the wee
hours, in Japan -- scenic views, classical
music, location sound effects -- but no narration. This
one was a small city in Europe (Gmunden) where I
spotted the peculiar be-fezed suplicant of the
Julius Meinl
logo -- it marks a shop like maybe the Austrian
equivalent to Trader Joes. Or perhaps not. I got
to know them during my Viennesse sojurn of early '96.
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April 3, 2002
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The Urban Legends crew holds forth on
Sept 11
at the Pentagon -- apparently there's some justifiable
scepticism about what really happened. They link to a site I
saw a couple weeks ago, which raises point-by-point evidence
(with pictures) that yes, there was an explosion, but perhaps
caused by a truck bomb (as was reported initially), rather
than a crashing airliner. They also link to the CNN story
showing the moment-of view from some security cam, but
that image just shows the fireball, so it's not convincing
proof the explosion was caused by AA77's impact. Aren't
there any eye-witness reports -- doesn't anybody know someone
who knows someone who saw it happen? No late commuters
crossing the 14th St bridge on I-395 who saw the plane
fly around the capitol first? That last bit's what interests
me; only heard about then, thereafter, nevermore. Anyone with
a story or a link, please
send
it along.
Speaking of fireballs, check this DOE index to
photos
of American atomic bomb tests
(found at the
ever-excellent bOINGbOING --
the next link came from there, too.)
The illustration at the
Hokey Spokes
site makes it look like a bike's wheels can be configured to
resemble the light show of that Ferris
Wheel, on the new reclaimed island out in Tokyo Bay,
but with only six of their LED modules? At $25 per, I'm not quite
intrigued enough to buy.
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March 29, late
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The
Art of Pen Spinning -- I do a bogus
version, really more pen twirling
(like a baton). Somehwere I read someone
say only a real -- Japanese? Some flavor
of Asian -- could do this, but the ethnic
of the first person I ever knew who could
was Cuban.
Auto:
All is well once more, although I did end up
replacing the battery as well. (This task performed
by myself, out in the Sears parking lot, just as
in late '96. But different Sears.)
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March 27, Wednesday evening
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Aging Car Woes
My battery warning light's been flickering on
for a while, but since the seat belt light came
on also I thought, 'maybe the idiot light system's
just screwed up?' and motored on. Turns out that's
the way Toyota wires it. The result: a dead
battery, of course happening at the worst time, but
since it was parked at home I could easily shift into
public-transport mode. Currently, my closest access
point is the VTA light rail stop maybe a half mile away.
So I got a new alternator, but as I drove away
from the shop I noticed a louder-than-normal
engine tone, which I attribuited to the new
(well, rebuilt) module. Things got worse, until
four days later the savage vibrartions and
mufflerless roar drove me back to the mechanic,
who discovered a cracked header pipe. Of course, a
replacement's like $200, however they're able to weld
it back, no charge. But! Mid-job, the welding rig
broke down, its replacement part now due tomorrow.
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March 23, 2002
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As you can see, the promised new look is
practically no change at all -- started
the updates before anything realistic was
developed, reading this
recent
Zeldman makes me think I should migrate
entirely to style sheets, now. Hate to shut
out old browsers, though.
Scrunchy
Love!
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March 21, 2002
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I've been enjoying perusing the
Nonverbal
Dictionary as well as
Common
Errors in English -- wish the latter was all one
document rather than being alphabetically
hyperlink-fragmented. Also, the
Y-Forum has
many interesting discussion threads, but no summing-up,
which is what I want -- guess their book (Why Do White
People Smell Like Wet Dogs When They Come Out Of
The Rain?) is the place to find that. As it is,
accessing the forum's like some really awkward Usenet
group (which is where it should live, rather than on
the web).
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March 20, 2002
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Latest
word from Noam.
Since Sept. 11, Chomsky has been deluged with
requests to speak at universities, fund-raisers and public
forums. He published a best-selling book, 9-11, which
explains -- in a series of interviews with journalists -- his
view that the United States is "a leading terrorist state"
that circumvents international law and wrongfully
supports murderous conditions around the world... "It's not
just me, incidentally," Chomsky said. "It's everybody. There's
probably been more openness and dissent now than at any time in
modern history."
More progressive enlightenment is available at the
Chicken
Hawk Database -- it lists the multitude of
political weasels who favor military action, but
avoided it personally. For a good discussion of
this, find today's entries in
Tom
Tomorrow's weblog.
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March 10, 2002, 1215
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Thinking about Saturday mornings past, when I'd
drive around LA listening to that Alter-Deutscher
on KPCC. What
was his show, anyway? The ocassional
bit of band muzik between long ramblings by said
DJ, in German. I couldn't understand him; didn't try
very hard, probably something really innocuous. He's
gone now; lots of NPR homogenization's been happening
since I moved away from SoCal -- a quick scan of their
current schedule confirms that
Ian's
missing, also; but I knew he only
lasted a couple years there. Of course, "Car
Talk" is available (as if).
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March 9, 2002, 0957
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IMDb trivia from
"Moulin Rouge!"
A scene establishing the "Gothic Tower" as a bordello
was cut. It involved dancers in S&M gear performing
Grace Jones' "Slave to the Rhythm".
That song I hear in the gym was apparently
not in the movie. ("Paradise" by Kaci
Battaglia -- why do I think it was? Just sounds
like it.) It was great when they were singing
"Heroes" -- if I'd known Grace Jones was in the mix
I might've stayed till the end of the film.
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March 7, 2002
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Still with me? Wow, I'm surprised you keep
checking -- thanks, it's flattering! Sorry for
the interval, promise I won't stay silent forever;
still contemplating a change in page appearance; or
even a way-different type of update -- a little
story for each, maybe; instead of the slew of links
you've maybe gotten used to (and can easily acquire
at other weblogs). Since there's nothing here like
that yet, please accept apologies for my
laziness.
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