Category: general

So Jake Zigler went to Nara, and took some pictures.

And here is a pride of deer going for the ultimate kill; small asian child.

At first I thought the kid had a chance, he had strong legs. However, due to the wetness of the ground he slipped, and there the deer pounced on him, tearing him to shreds and goring him with their felt-like antlers.

Too bad he didn’t get a picture of that.

;>

Hokkaido master succeeds in creating a distinctly Japanese cheese

He calls it…Japacheese.

No, not really.

(Man, nothing can top “Ja-pan“…)

For Keisuke Yamada, the mountain cherry trees that rustle in the breeze on the Hokkaido farm where he works are more than just a beautiful sight. Back in the fall of 2002, they provided the answer he was looking for when he needed inspiration for producing a distinctively Japanese cheese.

“The idea was to spread the leaves on the ground and have the cheese ripen on top of them,” says the 28-year-old, whose cheese workshop occupies a corner of Kyodo Gakusha Shintoku Farm in Shintoku in the western part of Tokachi Plain. “That way, I thought, maybe some of the fragrance of cherry blossoms would seep into the cheese.”

He really called it–you’d better sit down for this one–Sakura.

Cliche naming conventions aside…I want to try it!

In the wake of this, we have this.

Eminent Domain Debate Comes to North Augusta

Several property owners learned for the first time Thursday that their land is in the way of progress. About fifty owners may have to give up parts of their land to make way for roads in and around the North Augusta Riverfront Project.

Johnny Williams is one of those people. He owns the North Augusta Carpet Shop on Georgia Avenue.

“I was talking to one of those Department of Transportation men and I asked them. I said I don’t want to sell my land and he just looks at me and said you know they’re gonna take it away one way or another,” said Williams.

This makes me very unhappy! I was so excited about the Riverfront Project :(

At least no one’s being kicked out of their house for it. (I don’t think, anyway.)

But what happened to South Carolina’s laws against eminent domain? Was this article in error, or will Mr. Williams be able to keep his parking lot?

Japanese Man Sets Record in Pi Recitation

A Japanese psychiatric counselor has recited pi to 83,431 decimal places from memory, breaking his own personal best of 54,000 digits and setting an unofficial world record, a media report said Saturday.

I mean, why does pi get all the glory? Yes, perfect circles (which don’t actually exist) are neat mathematical constructs, but that doesn’t mean pi is any cooler than other irrational numbers, like e.

When’s somebody going to show e some love?

Beijing clinic ministers to online addicts

Tao’s government-owned clinic, which began taking patients in March, occupies the top floor of a two-story building on a quiet, tree-lined street on the sprawling campus of the Beijing Military Region Central Hospital in the heart of the Chinese capital.

A dozen nurses and 11 doctors care for the patients, mostly youths aged 14 to 24 who have lost sleep, weight and friends after countless hours in front of the computer, often playing video games with others online.

Some come voluntarily, while others are checked in by their parents. Many say their online obsessions helped them escape day-to-day stress, especially pressure from parents to excel in school.

Some can’t stop playing games, while the older ones tend to be addicted to online chats with the opposite sex, Tao says. Others are fixated on designing violent games.

[…]

“I wasn’t normal,” said a 20-year-old man from Beijing who used to spend at least 10 hours a day in front of the screen playing hack-and-slash games like Diablo.

“In school I didn’t pay attention when teachers were talking,” he said. “All I could do was think about playing the next game. Playing made me happy, I forgot my problems.”

I’m not too sure about the therapy, though:

Tao’s team has put together a standard diagnostic test to determine whether someone is addicted, then uses a combination of therapy sessions, medication, acupuncture and sports like swimming and basketball to ease patients back into normal lives.

They usually stay 10 to 15 days, at $48 a day — a high price in China, where the average city dweller’s weekly income is just $20.

The routine begins around 6 a.m. and includes sessions on a machine that stimulates nerve impulses with 30-volt charges to pressure points.

Some patients receive a clear fluid through intravenous drips said to “adjust the unbalanced status of brain secretions,” according to one nurse. Officials would not give any other details about the medication.

Patients also nap, write diary entries or play cards. Their rooms are sunny, each decorated with artificial flowers, Winnie the Pooh comforters and a 17-inch television.

First: What is in that IV?

Second: A TV in the room? Isn’t that just fostering another addiction?

Third: I’m kind of scared of the whole “30-volt charges to pressure points” bit…

I’d be interested to hear more about that addiction diagnostic test, too.

Brian Clevinger has written a funny-yet-sad-because-it’s-true account of his trip to the DMV. (Scroll past the comic to see it.) It reminds me of going to get my Georgia license for the first time.

That bit about arriving early, thinking you’ll miss the line? I did that. Except I got there before the place opened, and there was already a line, from the parking lot up the stairs to the locked front door.

Sean and I discovered the truth on a later visit (you know, because I didn’t have the right paperwork the first time)–if you go in the early afternoon, there is like no one there.

Beat the crowds. Don’t try to be smart. ;P

(I’ll be glad when we move to Columbia County, because their government offices are much nicer. I don’t think the lines are necessarily shorter, but at least the overall ambience is pleasant.)

I just looked up the word Wolfram calls Yuuri, 埴猪口 (へなちょこ, henachoko), which I have seen translated as “wimp”. Jim Breen’s WWWJDIC says it means “novice; greenhorn”, though.

So essentially…Wolfram is calling Yuuri a n00b.

God, I love Kyou Kara Maou.

Via Miss Em.

Just read an article about how a Huddle House in Richmond County now has a no-smoking policy. Look at this:

“They were pretty good about it, we had only one made lady who was mad I don’t think she will be back,” said Ross.

This restaurant’s smoking section used to have seven tables but today out came the no smoking signs, the restaurant is totally smoke free, a breath of fresh air for some customers.

” When you find out about you’re health second hand smoke is just as bad as if you were smoking so I’m glad, said Gwen Coker of Augusta.

“I’m happy for the non-smokers because I can’t take smoke bit really just stifles me,” said her aunt Rogerlena Williams of Beech Island.

Other regular customers who smoke says the ban will hurt business in Georgia.

“Usually the tables here are fill a lot of Richmond County workers that are not here today went across the river to eat because they can’t smoke here,” says Rose Warner.

“But those here don’t expect a smoking ban to snuff out the breakfast business.

I think it’s going to pick up I really do,” said Ross.

I’m amazed by how terrible this article is. The quotations are horrendous. You could argue that they were transcribed as spoken, but that doesn’t account for the spelling errors and lack of punctuation. It also doesn’t account for the main text of the article, which is nearly as bad.

I mean it! Soooooooooooo funny. I laughed out loud many, many times.

However, the plot purpose of this episode seems to have been to confirm that Wolfram is actually falling for Yuuri.

(Not that that needed to be confirmed, I mean come on, we’ve all seen episode 34, right? Where he gives Yuuri his scabbard as he heads off into the duel? [The duel, by the way, in which he uses tsubame gaeshi…] And there was that one episode I can’t find right now where Yuuri asked Wolfram why he was putting his life on the line [or something to that effect], and Wolfram [echoing something ConradGwendal said to him earlier] says, essentially, “That’s something for you to figure out on your own.” In that episode, like this one, Wolfram is too proud to admit his feelings, even though they are blatantly obvious.

(And now I need to end this freaking huge parenthetical.)

Seeing Wolfram’s feelings confirmed once again is…well, sad. Because it doesn’t seem like Yuuri is going to fall for Wolfram anytime soon. While I’ve always enjoyed Wolfram as a character, I used to not like him very much–he’s just a little bratty. :> But he’s grown more and more sympathetic to me with each episode, and it’s going to suck to watch him get his heart broken.

In other news…what was up with Conrad knowing exactly what went on between Wolfram and Elizabeth, and yet not saying a word? His role lately seems to have been chopped down to “guy who stands around and smiles knowingly”.

Man who lived in Kenyan airport gets UK citizenship

A man who has lived for more than a year at Nairobi’s international airport to protest being denied entry to Britain has finally been granted U.K. citizenship and plans to fly there within days.

In a real-life African version of Tom Hanks’ 2004 Hollywood hit “The Terminal,” Sanjai Shah, 43, has been eating cafeteria food, sleeping on plastic transit lounge chairs, and showering in arrival hall toilets since May last year.

His morning alarm is the dawn announcement advising the safe landing of the first flight.

“It’s like a second home here. All the staff know me, they’re very friendly,” Shah told Reuters.

“But it hasn’t been easy. The chairs are uncomfortable to sleep on. And the food is bad.”

Crazy.

(By the way, when I originally watched The Terminal, I didn’t realize it was supposed to be a comedy. I took it at face value, and it was therefore unable to hold my suspension of disbelief. I simply could not believe in the antagonist; he was like a caricature, an embodiment of evil. Knowing that it was a comedy, I’d like to watch it again…maybe I’d enjoy it now. But at the time, all I could think was that it was an exaggerated, self-indulgent exhibition of the suffering of a man who had done nothing wrong. It was more upsetting than anything, even if it did have a happy ending. And because it was so unrealistic, I felt as if I was being preached at, like there was some sort of moral I was supposed to be gleaning from it. All in all, it was a very irritating experience.)

MSN Women/The Knot has an article about the most common newlywed mistakes. I noticed one glaring one that I’ve been making. Not going to point it out, but I am going to start working on it right now.

I’ve (obviously) had a lot on my mind in recent days. I’ve been thinking about my future, about how to get back to Japan someday, about possibly going back to school and how exactly that would even work (no good schools around here, no real prospect of moving), about where to start my business, about how I can get a freaking job so I can start saving to make at least some of the things I want a reality. Add to that the fact that something bad happened to one of my best friends recently, something I know next to nothing about other than it totally sucks, it’s not her fault (and is actually a serious invasion of her privacy), and it’s forced her to give up something she loved. All because some stupid people had to be assholes.

Also, I’m physically feeling like crap, all congested and headachey, and that never helps anything.

However, I do have things to do tomorrow (amazingly enough), so I think I’ll end this early-morning ramblefest here and slip into bed with the hubby.

Night all.

Yahoo! News: Government goes after smokers’ sex lives

LONDON (Reuters) – The government launched a series of tough anti-cigarette adverts on Friday with the message that smoking is bad for your sex life because it makes men impotent and women ugly.

Obviously, the British government hasn’t seen AJ and Faye!