Author: Heather Meadows

Avalon‘s back! o_o

(From yesterday’s Megatokyo. Yes, I did read it yesterday. Meant to comment on it, too, but here we are.)

When I read this comic I was sort of surprised. You see, for the longest time–I first remember commenting about it when I was working at Willis Music (horrible website here) in Lexington–I have had a thing where I cry when I sing along to music. I don’t remember it happening when I sang karaoke in Japan. Really, it seems to happen when I’m by myself and really enjoying the music. And it does happen when I just listen to music, too. I’ve cried to Battlecry songs.

Nikki, one of my co-workers at Willis, told me that it was probably the vibration of the sound in my nasal passages causing me to tear up.

I ran with this idea later in college in a story that blew chunks. It was never posted online because it was so horrible. I was reacting to the pressure to produce art by writing about different artists and their reactions to the pressure to produce art. I had a painter who killed himself, and his final work was his apartment, bathed in his own blood. I had his lover, who I think was a musician. I don’t remember what happened to him. There was a writer, too, and she became a journalist. And then there was the singer. She cried whenever she sang and became famous for it, but one day her nose was broken in an accident, and after the reconstructive surgery she didn’t cry when she sang anymore. The illusion was broken and she fell from favor.

The story doesn’t really sound all that bad in paraphrase, but trust me when I tell you that I wrote it horribly. It sucked. Stories are half about concept and half about execution. Whenever I have one, I seem to always half-ass the other.

Someday, when I get them both right, I might actually publish something.

Watching MacGyver on TV Land (“Legend of the Holy Rose”: “Help me find the Holy Grail!” “Indiana Jones already did that! I saw the movie!”). During the commercials they had a hilarious haiku:

Duct tape miracles
Sweet Swiss Army Knife escapes
Murdoc never dies

XD

(Someone else noticed this, um, last year. And from that site, I found this!)

I don’t feel like going to bellydance class today, so I’m going to be lame and not go.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Reflected sunset as seen from the golf course parking lot at the Greeneway yesterday. I actually saw an even better shot when I was riding along the river, but I forced myself not to stop and take it. It was gorgeous, too; the Augusta skyline bathed in a rich glow, framed by the similarly sun-washed brick of the 13th Street bridge. Will I regret not taking this picture forever? ;> (Actually no, because I’m glad I didn’t stop.)

Seoul Oriental Food Market on Belair Road. They sell Golden Curry!!! I went to an oriental market on Columbia Road the other day and they didn’t have any, but this one is even closer to Cheryl and Reid’s house and it has all kinds of good stuff :D Mostly Korean food, but hey! Also, they had the biggest bag of Nishiki rice I have ever seen.

The Marshmallow Fudge Bars I made today. Note that I let the icing cook too long (or something) and it got too hard to spread. Oh well. It tastes just fine.

And I’m making these! They promise to be pretty damn delicious…

Retailers will receive warnings or have their names publicized if they fail to reduce the number of plastic shopping bags through such measures as charging customers for the service, according to the government’s final draft report on the issue.

Under the government’s plan to revise the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, retailers, such as supermarket operators, will be required to submit a report on their efforts to reduce the number of shopping bags, which are increasingly becoming an environmental hazard, according to officials.

Companies will not be required to charge fees for the bags, but the measure will be included in guidelines for retailers on how to reduce the estimated 30 billion plastic bags circulating for free annually.

[…]

Municipal governments have been asking the central government to reduce their financial burden in sorting and collecting discarded containers and packaging materials, saying the total cost for such efforts reaches 300 billion yen a year.

Currently, business operators, including retail store operators and food makers, pay fees to recycle plastic materials they have used. Any money left over after the recycling process is paid back to the business operators.

But the draft report says that the half of the money now returned to business operators should go to the municipal governments, the officials said.

It’s interesting to see this problem tackled by a country with a decent recycling infrastructure.

You know, ones that can actually open.

Calling it a “renovation of unprecedented scale,” East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) has decided to switch from its slick, wide-view windows, which cannot be opened, to good old-fashioned retractable windows that allow natural ventilation.

[…]

The 209 series was touted as a “next-generation commuter train” when it debuted in 1993 and was the first train developed by JR East following privatization of JNR in 1987.

The windows were considered especially cutting-edge. Special heat-absorbing glass makes curtains unnecessary, while the window itself provides an excellent view, twice as wide as the traditional style. Automatic air conditioners control ventilation, and two small windows at the end of the carriages can be opened about 60 centimeters for natural ventilation.

The fixed windows lower the noise level inside the trains, and because of their simpler structure, they even cost about 100,000 yen less than the retractable type.

As a JR official said, the windows were supposedly “a two-birds-with-one-stone tech- nology that made both passengers and JR happy.”

Then it all came crashing down.

In March 2005, a 209-series train carrying about 1,000 passengers was hit with an electrical problem and stalled between Omori and Kamata stations on the Keihin Tohoku Line. The air conditioning cut out. Over the course of the next two and a half hours, the motionless train became a steaming sauna.

Sixteen passengers had to be taken away in ambulances.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport states that train windows “must allow for necessary ventilation.” So JR East decided to renovate.

It’s too bad they can’t figure out some way to open those wide windows. The view is rather nice.

Here you go.

A middle-aged Tokyo man found to be living with 10 younger women said he attracted them by reciting an incantation that came to him in a dream.

[…]

“I had a dream that told me I would become attractive to women if I recited a particular incantation,” it quoted the man as saying.

A rapid series of weddings and divorces left the man with a large group of ex-wives, mostly in their 20s and 30s, who shared his surname and continued to live with him.

Or should I say, Takitate!! Gohan 1…

Wow.

Just…wow.

I laughed so hard I almost cried :>

Today I got off work a little early (ran out of things to do), so when I got home I quickly planned dinner, then changed my shirt and carted my bike out to the car. The weather was beautiful–cool but not cold–and I had to ride.

I decided to go to the Greeneway. I don’t really know why, but I just wasn’t in a Canal mood. I parked at the golf course, taking the very last available space. (There would have been one more if some idiot hadn’t parked across two spots.) Then I headed up the old Greeneway, through the tunnel, and over the new bridge that looks out over the Hammond’s Ferry construction. Still no buildings (that I can see).

I kept up a good pace (well, about 10 mph) the whole way up to Pisgah Road. Better yet, I didn’t stop until I got there. Even better still, once I got to Pisgah Road, I lingered for maybe 15 seconds to stretch and take a drink of water, and then I turned right back around and headed back. On my way back I averaged 15 mph (it’s more downhill, so I was able to go into third gear).

And here’s the kicker: I didn’t stop all the way back!

The ride was 52 minutes total, for 10.5 miles. I didn’t realize how tired my legs were until I got into my car. The maneuver almost deposited me on the ground. ;>

I’m working in Robert’s office on my projects (the one I was working on yesterday is done, after a cool 96 hours). Today Robert was searching for check acceptance services on Google and found this. He was so shocked and awed that he emailed Seth Godin, and Seth blogged it.

Kinda nifty.

Damn, why am I so tired?

Ah well. Sean’s already asleep; I may as well join him :D

The sucky point of a project. The point where I’m So Tired of It but It’s Not Quite Done and Actually There Are Issues I Really Need To Resolve but I’m Just So Bored.

Joy.

Pushing through this and completing the project will prove that I am a mature adult who can function properly in the workplace!

Horiemon’s been arrested.

What with the email and everything else, it’s really looking like he’s guilty, which is a huge shame. When I first heard about Horie, I thought he was so cool. I was trying to explain who he was to Robert the other day, and finally Robert said, “So he’s Japan’s Michael Dell.” I guess that’s a pretty good description.

I sincerely hope he’s innocent, but it’s looking more and more like his company is successful solely due to unethical and illegal business practices :/

MSNBC has a good roundup of events.

And apparently they can make a lamp out of anything!

Customers frequently ask the store to make lamps from sentimental items such as jockey boots, football helmets and law or medical books.

One customer had a lamp made out of the antique cast iron water pump from the family farm.

Melanie Turner said she had David Shannon turn a piece of handblown purple glass into an electric lamp that resembles an old-style oil lamp.

“They provide good, old-fashioned service,” said Turner, who lives in Millersburg but works in Lexington. “Things are done one at a time, and in today’s world that means a good deal to me.”