Category: general

That phrase probably isn’t very clever to the Japanese…in fact, if a Japanese person reads it, she’ll probably say, “What a dork.” (Maybe she’ll assume I’m a military otaku.)

Regardless, the Christmas cards are out. They may actually arrive on time. It depends on our illustrious postal service.

The international cards probably won’t be on time, but you never know.

I do know, however, that the card going to my host family in Japan will be on time…because it’s a New Year’s Card. Yay Japan! It’s actually supposed to be a postcard, but I didn’t have any that were fitting. Also, I was going to take a picture of it to share, but I forgot before I sealed the envelope. Doy.

This is what I wrote:

あけましておめでとうございます
皆様の御健康をお祈り申し上げます

平成十六年　元旦　<– see this? I messed up and wrote Heisei 16 instead of Heisei 17…;P
ヘザー・メドズ

For those of you who can’t decipher it from the About.com article, I’ll romanize and translate:

I’d told Sam yesterday that I was going to write an actual letter, but time constraints got the better of me…plus, after finding the standard style for the postcard, I wanted to follow it as best as I could.

Hopefully my host family won’t hold my mistake against me…that’s what I get for copying the kanji from the About.com article instead of figuring out what it would be on my own ;P

(I also don’t know if “medozu” is the best way to represent “Meadows”…meh. And I forgot to draw a rooster on the card!)

I met a woman today who was featured in the March issue of Shape Magazine for losing 266 pounds. She’s the daughter of one of my coworkers, and she used to work for Smoak’s Bakery back when they were still open. By watching her fat intake and portion sizes, she has kept the weight off for 7 years. When my coworker made fudge the other night, this lady came in, leaned over it, inhaled deeply, and said, “Ah, that’s good.” She never ate any of it.

She said today that she works out 5-6 days a week.

Obviously, diet and exercise are the keys. I just need to get back on the horse. These past couple of weeks have been bad. Parties at work, cookie-baking at home…I’ve started to just snack and snack and snack, and since it’s been cold, I haven’t been biking. Here’s the graph of my weight for the duration of my diet, since it started on October 3:

As you can see, I’ve sort of stalled. I need to start working out more, and not wussing out when it’s cold. There’s a workout room over at the apartment office; I can go there.

And I need to stop snacking :P My coworker’s daughter said in Shape that TV was causing her to overeat out of boredom, so she stopped watching it and started reading instead. I need to cut down on the habits that cause me to eat out of boredom, too.

Today at work was really bad…I had nothing to do after finishing up my work (I got done in like an hour and a half), and I had to sit there smelling the gingerbread house. When my coworkers all brought in food for another party, I just kept nibbling and nibbling. I even drank punch instead of water. I don’t know how much pumpernickel bread and spinach dip I ate; I know I ate way too many sugar cookies.

I’ve tried to put it all in DietPower. Hopefully I was close. If I am, I ate something like 1300 calories. (Eeep.)

I want to say that it’ll be good when the holidays are over, because then I won’t have all the temptation…but to be honest, I can’t just count on that. I have to make a permanent change within myself. After all, Christmas happens every year. ;P

Kitagawa Keiko is good. I thought she played Rei very well in the live action series, and her looks aren’t bad either.

But look at this girl.

Absolutely gorgeous, sultry, mysterious, with a hint of sadness, surrounded by red.

It’s Rei.

Via BoingBoing, some photos about the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Ginza, Tokyo. I should try to visit that building the next time I go.

The New York Times has an article about bloggers who become novelists.

I need to start writing more interesting things so that thousands of people tune in daily, and a publisher will write me and say, “Hey, want to do a book?”

Yes. That would be awesome.

Canada has a marijuana board game. Now you too can experience the thrills and pitfalls of growing your very own pot!

I was going through my nightly rituals, and when I got to the part where I go potty I found that my period has started. I just took the last progesterone dose for the month this morning (they always stop on the 20th).

When I first started on these hormone treatments, in October, the period started on the 23rd. The second month, it started on the 21st. And now it’s starting before even a day has passed.

I wonder if this is a good thing, a bad thing, or if it means anything at all.

Lisa Marie Presley is keeping Graceland but selling the bulk of the Elvis estate, including rights to her father’s name and image, in a deal worth approximately $100 million.

Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. announced an agreement Thursday to sell 85 percent of its assets to businessman Robert F.X. Sillerman, founder of music and sports promoter SFX Entertainment.

[…]

Sillerman founded SFX Entertainment in 1977 and ran the company until it was bought by Clear Channel Communications in 2000.

Scary!

It looks to be a sweet deal for Lisa Marie, and hopefully Sillerman will have similar success. The question is what will happen when Sillerman moves on to another venture…

Imagine Clear Channel, even bigger than it already is.

The world is ending, isn’t it?

As promised, here’s the umeee pan.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a picture of a goat in this one. But rest assured, goat’s milk was used in the making of the bread! So it’s okay, see?

[Edit: I added an mp3! Umeee!! Here’s a link to the file, if you can’t see it under the picture above.]

Sometimes Tycho’s going for something when he writes, and I can kind of see where he’s going, but he doesn’t quite make it. Other times, he’s dead on. Today’s rantlet* on file sharing fits the latter category.

This sentence, and many others like it, brings joy to the depths of my language-loving soul.

This would have happened anyway of course, but just as the injudicious use of antibiotics creates devastating and unstoppable pathogens these applications will reach a true apex of distributed power, jamming a spigot into the very heart of pay media.

Check it out. First post, item II.

Oh wow, if I’d been drinking milk it would have spewed out my nose.

Last panel of today’s Questionable Content. O. M. G.

Today’s Ctrl-Alt-Del slays me.

Yes, I am still reading that.

Baughb is finally back on center stage. And he’s reminding me why I originally started reading. It’s because he’s kooky, a little deranged…and a lot smart.

I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Check these out, they’re good for a chuckle. (And written in what seems to be British slang, but all of my readers who aren’t David, don’t despair! You can guess the meaning by context.)

Japan’s dim crims go bananas in Year of the Monkey by Ryann Connell (How’s that for a headline?)

Skool’s out for Japan’s terrible teechas in 2004 also by Ryann Connell (Another winning title! The pattern seems to be “Goofy joke, followed by reference to the year”.)

Just in case you have several hundred bucks to spend on me for Christmas.

Valdesta Classico 750 Digital Piano New B Stock

(Thanks to AJ for finding something else I want that costs way too much money. ;>)