Author: Heather Meadows

Watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Yes.

That’s right.

Envy me!!!!

From Reuters:

The “daikon” radish, shaped like a giant carrot, first made the news months ago when it was noticed poking up through asphalt along a roadside in the town of Aioi, population 33,289.

This week local residents, who had nicknamed the vegetable “Gutsy Radish,” were shocked — and in some cases moved to tears — when they found it had been decapitated.

TV talk shows seized on the attempted murder of the popular vegetable and a day later, the top half of the radish was found near the site where it had been growing.

[…]

Asked why the radish — more often found on Japanese dinner tables as a garnish, pickle or in “oden” stew — had so many fans, town spokesman Jiro Matsuo said: “People discouraged by tough times were cheered by its tenacity and strong will to live.”

Today Magazine Man hits on a topic that is highly relevant to me.

For most of the time that I’ve known her (and I have it from reliable sources that it goes back even further) my wife wrestled with enormous uncertainty about her choices in life. In college she majored in business, but couldn’t make up her mind about what type of business she wanted to focus on, and that led to her writing about different kinds of businesses and then wondering if business journalism might not be a good career choice. So she switched majors and got a job at a trade magazine and that’s when I came along. And a favorite subject for her then was “Am I in the right field?” Eventually, she decided she wasn’t and she made a switch to corporate communications, then became the manager of a communications office. Each time, though, she was more beset with uncertainty. If that’s possible.

“I’m not good at anything!” is a statement she has uttered so often, it’s eclipsed only by the number of times she has said, “Is this where I’m supposed to be?” which I have joked I would have carved on her tombstone, a joke she never found amusing.

She also never seemed to appreciate my efforts to show her all the other things in life she had to be grateful for. So what if she didn’t know what her purpose in life was? “Look on the bright side,” I’d say. “At least you have perfect 20/20 vision.” And then I’d have to take off my glasses. Not to show her how thick the lenses were, but to keep her from breaking them.

I know exactly how she felt.

It’s not that I’m not good at anything…it’s just that I can’t imagine focusing the rest of my life on any of the things I’ve had experience with. Everyone always says I’m a good writer. But will I do it every day for the rest of my life? Will I make a living at it? I’m really starting to think that the answer is no. I’m not interested in it. I keep saying I’m going to, and sometimes I even try a little, but then it just fizzles, like everything else.

Web design is what I “do” currently, freelance, but I already know for damn sure that I don’t want to do it forever. It’s boring and tedious. The best part of web design is when the project is done.

I can’t even think of anything else that I’ve done long-term. There are a zillion things I’ve tried and didn’t stick with, like piano and kung fu. I have been taking pictures for a few years now, and I am interested in learning more about photography (I think I’ve pretty much hit a plateau), so maybe that’s something I can stick with, but it’s really all I can think of. And I’m afraid that I’m not good enough at it to make it my profession, and I’m also afraid I don’t know enough about it to know if I would want to make it my profession.

Bleh.

You scored as Neo, the "One". Neo is the computer hacker-turned-Messiah of the Matrix. He leads a small group of human rebels against the technology that controls them. Neo doubts his ability to lead but doesn’t want to disappoint his friends. His goal is for a world where all men know the Truth and are free from the bonds of the Matrix. Neo, the "One" 79% Batman, the Dark Knight 75% Indiana Jones 67% The Amazing Spider-Man 63% Lara Croft 63% El Zorro 58% James Bond, Agent 007 50% Maximus 50% William Wallace 50% Captain Jack Sparrow 42% The Terminator 33% Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0 created with QuizFarm.com

Via Mari.

The Greeneway was featured in the Augusta Chronicle recently. Coincidentally, Brooke and I went there last night to walk.

We parked at Martintown Road, just like we did last week when we biked. While I was waiting for Brooke to get there, I took some pictures.

It got dark pretty quickly. As night fell, the setting sun cast beautiful light over the fallen leaves. It was difficult to get a good picture because my camera’s shutter tends to stay open awhile in low light, and since I’m not as stable as a tripod, this causes blurriness. This is the best shot I got:

It was a good walk. It was totally dark by the time we got back to our cars.

President Bush gave Koizumi a Segway!

Bush was riding the vehicle when he met Koizumi outside the Kyoto State Guest House in the ancient Japanese capital, a Japanese pool report said.

Urged by Bush to give it a whirl, Koizumi took a brief 1 metre (3 ft) ride, and cried out, “Oh, very good.”

Bush told the prime minister he’d given his father, former President George Bush, and mother, Barbara, Segways for their birthdays, adding he felt Koizumi was almost one of the family.

The close ties between the two allies were on public display later in the day when Bush told a news conference: “Prime Minister Koizumi is one of my best friends in the international community. I know the prime minister well.

“I trust his judgement. I admire his leadership.”

The scooters can be tricky to ride. Bush fell off one two years ago but managed to land on his feet. It is also illegal to ride them on public byways in Japan.

The transition to that last sentence wasn’t very good, was it? But the news story is cute nonetheless :)

In other news, Koizumi made an appearance in Yakitate!! Japan episode 44, which I watched last night. Cracked me up! “Oh, there’s a lion 5km ahead, Kazuma!” XD

Okay, so, Kyou Kara Maou 54 and 55.

(Wish I could screencap, but ever since Sean nuked ffdshow I haven’t even been able to watch avis in WMP or WinAmp, and the DivX Player isn’t cooperating…)

Anyway, a mysterious guy rises out of the dust on the top of a mountain and says, “The time has come.” He then turns a poor scavenging man into a monster, and the monster goes and terrorizes human villages (in a straight line along a highway) until Yuuri comes and stops him.

Well, actually, until Yuuri learns to overcome his fear and control Morgif.

At the end, the mysterious robed figure seems to be pleased, and Murata senses his presence.

Is it the Shinou, reborn (if only briefly)?

Was that carnage and death simply to train the Maou?

Why did Murata say, “Could that power possibly mean there is no more time left?”

What, exactly, is the horror that he’s expecting?

The plot, once again, thickens.

(Side note: the Shinou and the Great Sage are hot. I really, really wish I could screencap…)

It took me a lot longer to get home than usual.

I got up at around 9:30 yesterday. My aunts had already left; they hit the road at 6:30. I surfed the web to wake up a little, and my dad made me breakfast.

Then I hurried to take my shower so I could spend time with Connor before he went to school at 11:30.

When I rushed out of the shower, Dad told me that Connor would call me when I could come over, so I surfed the web a little more. Then Connor and AJ came over; apparently they had been waiting for me to call, and now there was hardly any time left. Connor and I spent the fifteen minutes before he had to leave playing putt putt golf (Connor has one of those SportsCenter things) and pool in the basement, and then he headed off to kindergarten.

I played with Logan while waiting for Faye to get back so she could decide which of a stack of pictures she wanted to keep (I was taking the rest).

Finally I packed up and headed out to see Grandma.

I found myself driving automatically up Nicholasville to Man-O-War to Tates Creek, even though it’s really faster to go straight up Harrodsburg, so I decided to stop in at Hibari Market, the Japanese grocery store I used to visit all the time. I once spent over $100 there on food, dishes, and a cookbook. This time I spent a more reasonable $21, on two rice bowls, two sets of chopsticks, four chopstick rests, and two soup spoons. I thought very seriously about getting a tea set, but ultimately decided against it. When I do get a new tea set, it’s going to be when I’m in Japan, and hopefully I’ll be able to go back to Hirashimizu Pottery outside Yamagata. It would be perfect if I could find a set like the one I had before (which I apparently don’t have a picture of–it was of course handmade, and a pink/purple color. You can barely see the creamer in this picture, and the box it all came in in this picture).

When I finished buying my new Japanese dishes (and waxing sentimental about my old pieces), I went over to Grandma’s. Uncle Steve was raking the yard. The big tree out front was gorgeous, covered in bright yellow leaves.

Grandma fixed me a roast beef sandwich and cut me up a tomato, and we sat and talked for a long time. She gave me a set of four glass dessert bowls and a few dinner napkins. Ultimately, I didn’t end up on the road until after 3.

The drive wasn’t bad. I only fell asleep at the wheel once, and I didn’t start hallucinating until I got to I-20.

You think I’m joking?

I was pretty tired. In Tennessee I was fighting to keep my eyes open, and I guess I lost that battle, because the next thing I knew, the wheel was slipping through the fingers of my left hand. This caused the weight of my other hand to turn the wheel and veer the car to the right.

That woke me right up, and I was quite alert as I pulled off onto Stinking Creek Road to find a place to park. I managed to nap for something like 20 minutes, and after that I was wide awake for the rest of the drive.

When I got on I-20 some four hours later, though, I started seeing weird stuff. The first thing I have no explanation for. I could swear something shadowy ran across the road right in front of me. Of course, I let up on the gas, prepared to swerve or brake, but there was nothing there, and no sign that there ever was anything. I still have no idea what I saw.

The second thing looked like something waiting at the side of the road, but when I focused on it I realized it was just the headlights of the car in front of me lighting the dead grass.

The third thing was real; it had to be. But it was eerily still. It was some kind of animal, tannish-brown–either a deer or a dog. It just sat there on the side of the road, staring, not moving. The lights from my headlamps didn’t even make its eyes glow. But it was definitely there.

I was very happy to get home…at 1:16 am. Ugh. Starting out late = no fun. (Plus I added to the drive by obsessively searching for an open Japanese restaurant in Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Atlanta, only to come up dry and end up eating McDonald’s.)

And that’s that. I stumbled in, put my stuff in its approximate places, and crawled thankfully into bed, and now here I am, about to go run some errands and get back into the swing of my normal life.

It was a nice weekend away. I kind of wish I was still in Kentucky ;>

From Penny Arcade:

Of course, there are some distinctions: there is a constrained but still ample track list for online play, as well as a four Kart limitation. Purists may be unhappy to find that items do not “drag” behind karts online. I hope they manage to survive.

NOES!!!

Still no permalinks on individual newsposts (curses!), but it’s a nice looking design. I imagine it was styled by whoever put together the Child’s Play site, as they look pretty much the same.

Note the white period in the upper left hand corner of the new PA design…immortalized here for all to see!

Ben and Manda had me over tonight, and as usual we watched a movie. This time it was Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Ben went all out, buying each of us a Wonka bar, plus several other Wonka candies to share (such as Sweet Tarts and a Nerds Rope).

I’d heard bad things about the movie, so I was interested to see how it was. And to be honest…

…I really liked it! It was totally different from the Gene Wilder classic (which I also love). I don’t know if it was closer to or further from the book than the original movie, because I (gasp) haven’t read the book (or if I have I don’t remember it). Regardless, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not worth retelling a story if you’re going to just do it all exactly the same. If it’s just a rehash, you may as well not bother and just let people watch/read the original.

This was definitely not a rehash.

Mike Teevee changed from a kid who stared at TV shows all day to a child hacker who played violent video games. (A little cliche and annoying, but realistic. If the kid hadn’t been such a brat I would have liked him. Gamers, as always, can do their part to combat the violent videogames stereotypes by donating to Child’s Play.) Towards the end of the movie, we see what happened to all the children; Mike comes out stretched very tall and very flat.

Veruca Salt was cast into the garbage chute not after an extended “I want it now” song and dance number in a room full of geese laying golden eggs, but instead after being judged a “bad nut” by a slew of trained squirrels (who then went on to knock her father in after her). This resulted in the most boring of the conclusions; they simply walked out of the factory covered with garbage and assailed by flies.

Violet Beauregarde turned into a driven competitor, egged on by her crazy mother. This change was a little scary, because there are plenty of children with mothers who actually act like that. Violet was still a gum smacker, refusing to stop her furious chewing even when ballooning to ridiculous proportions, but she ended up permanently purple and gifted(?) with rather remarkable flexibility.

Augustus Gloop’s story was essentially the same. His ending, with his mother admonishing him not to eat his fingers, was kind of surreal (was he actually turned, at least partially, into fudge?) and funny.

The Oompa Loompas were, of course, different. I have to say that I like the old orange skinned, green haired style best, but Deep Roy is pretty impressive nonetheless, and the songs are entertaining, assuming you can understand the lyrics. (And how could you not love a man named Deep Roy?)

In this version, Charlie has a father, and Grandpa Joe gets up and dances a jig–twice–giving you the impression that he’s been freeloading the whole time. The introductory factory sequence is CGI and ridiculous–but then, you know, candy doesn’t have to have a point. That’s why it’s candy. (Or so I understand.) One nice thing was that Charlie and Grandpa Joe did not steal Fizzy Lifting Drink, and the whole Slugworth subplot was nonexistent.

The most interesting change, though, was that of Willy Wonka’s personality and backstory. In this movie, he has an estranged father, and this lack of a relationship tempers Wonka’s reactions to everything. He’s also been alone (with his Oompa Loompas) in the factory for 15 years, and that has obviously seriously affected his social skills. I was virtually in solitary confinement for just nine months once, and let me tell you, a lack of contact with varied human beings will make you a little nutty and a lot timid. Wonka’s fumbling for what to say, his note cards, his refusal to listen to Mike Teevee (“Mutterer!”), his clumsiness, and his snide comments all fit. He hasn’t had to deal with people for fifteen years, and now all of a sudden he has to deal with ten.

The movie seemed to be coming to a close rather quickly, and that was because it went on well after the original movie ended. And the ending was totally different. I won’t spoil it, but suffice it to say that things ended up getting resolved in a rather unique way.

It was a cute, weird, sweet movie. At times it was slightly surreal, especially the bright blue of Veruca’s eyes against the general pasty tones of the film and the twisted look on her face as she tried to win someone over. The kids did not leave the factory restored exactly as they had been. And Willy Wonka was not perfect.

It was not better or worse than Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It was something else entirely.

And it was good.

I got here at around 8:30. There is a huge Lowe’s on the corner opposite the turn to my parents’ street. It lights up the night like a giant, brilliant castle. I was rather shocked.

I got settled in and then came over to AJ’s to spend time with Connor, and now I’m in AJ’s basement on AJ’s computer making this post. I didn’t even ask permission! But he very nicely let me disable cookies so I could log into Blogger.

Aunt Carol, Aunt Bev and Carl should be arriving soon, I assume…they are driving down from Illinois.

Important tip: if you’re going to be driving all day, do not have Burger King’s Angus burger, fries, and a chocolate shake right before you leave. Just trust me on this one.

I’m heading to Kentucky this weekend, to see not only Mom, Dad, AJ, Faye, Connor, Logan, Ben, Manda, and Grandma, but also to see Aunt Carol and Aunt Bev, two of Mom’s sisters who happen to be visiting this weekend. Should be cool!

I’ll be heading back on Monday. Short trip, I know, but worth it :)

The Neo-Narutards are out in force! They’re still commenting on that January post.

Pick your favorite of the hilarious comments and post it here! My favorite is this one:

Dude Stop taking/eating shits and focus on what might happen to Naruto u fuck heads!!!!!!!!!

Yes, because if we don’t focus on what might happen (side note: I already know what happened in that particular episode, but it’s understandable that the Neo-Narutards don’t, since they’re still way back on the Zabuza story ;P), he might die. Or like, lose a fight or something, and he can’t do that because HE IZ BADAZZ!!!!!11

Quick, everybody, let’s save Naruto! All together now: WE CARE. WE CARE. WE CARE!!!