Category: general

An anonymous reader points to this article at the Augusta Chronicle concerning my beloved North Augusta Pink House.

Peggy Simons loves being near the water.

She and her husband, Dr. James Simons, a semiretired dentist and developer, already owned a beach home at Fripp Island. S.C., when they decided to build a home on the Savannah River and move from the historic Ambrose Clark house in Aiken to North Augusta.

Mrs. Simons oversaw the construction.

“I picked out everything down to the doorknobs,” she said.

We can assume this also includes the color of the house.

The following is listed in one of the informational boxes at the end of the article:

THE HOME: The three-story home, known as “The Pink House,” has 8,000 square feet, five bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. It has two kitchens and a pool.

Damn straight it’s known as “The Pink House”. I named it that!!!!

(Really, “The Pink House” is not a hard name to come up with for a huge, highly visible pink house. But I can dream, can’t I?!)

I’ve been watching Kyou Kara Maou without subtitles. I’m up through episode 64. I watched 60 and 61 twice, and I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to translate Yuuri’s Maou speech from 60. (I mean, hey, it was important! Once again the KKM “whoever thought we’d see that character again” factor comes into play.) For the most part, though, I’ve just been watching them straight, marveling at how much I actually understand and occasionally pausing to breen an unfamiliar word. (“WWWJDIC” doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. ;>)

In any case, a lot of my comprehension comes from knowing the characters and the situations they’re likely to encounter, and a lot of it comes from having some general “anime vocabulary”, but still, I’m kind of pleased that I know what’s going on. I am looking forward to seeing the episodes subbed, to see if my understanding is correct, and to fill in the gaps. But it appears that I can watch the episodes this way without too many problems, which is pretty damn cool.

Because there are 76 episodes out so far, so that means I have plenty to watch!

I don’t know if it’s just because it’s Monday or what, but I feel crappy.

I do know I ate too much last night. I got to go to Brooke’s family’s Sunday dinner with her and David. Her brother Blake and his wife Dorothy and their cute little two week old baby Allison were there, as well as Brooke’s parents, Blair and Elaine. (They have a cute female dog named Edward[?] that Brooke’s dad calls Pete. I don’t get it!)

Anyway, my favorite part of the visit was getting to hold that baby. I held her for a very long time, rocking her and humming to her as she slept. She reached out with her tiny little hand and clung to my shirt, and I could feel her soft breathing on my face. Every now and then she’d blearily open her eyes, blinking sightlessly before falling back into her slumber. (And sometimes she’d fuss a little, then poot.)

That may have been my favorite part, but it was bittersweet. There were several times while I was gazing into that beautiful little face that I had to force myself not to cry. It was nice to think that I was over all that for awhile…oh well.

Brooke’s dad (I can’t think of her parents by their names!) brought up the apartment fire, which had the unfortunate effect of keeping me awake last night, my mind racing as I thought back to all the stuff I “could have saved” if I’d had my head together. Honestly, it really is best that we just got the hell out of there, but I keep thinking that I could have run back to the office and yanked my computer out, and picked up my purse and camera, and then snagged the tray with my tea set on it on my way out…and that I could have yelled up to the fireman I saw in the apartment the day after the fire and asked him if he could throw anything down. I tried to content myself with the thought of replacing our wedding memorabilia: the goblets and cake server with our names and the date engraved on them. But finally I had to just distract myself into sleep.

I am really happy that I went to dinner. I had a great time. Brooke’s family is a trip and a half. They’re awesome and really fun to hang out with.

But I did eat too much, and I felt nauseated for the rest of the evening, which sucked. That, plus the baby-envy, plus the futile apartment “if onlys” probably account for how I feel this morning.

I let myself sleep in a little, but I don’t think that helped.

Right now I’m mildly nauseous, and my neck hurts. (I think I need a new pillow or something, because my neck always hurts.) I feel braindead and tired and cold.

Bleh.

This is a neat idea.

Allergy-suffering guests checking in at the Tokyu Inn in the business district of Shinbashi, will step into a phone booth-style box to have the pollen blown off their clothes by a high-powered air shower before going to their rooms, the Mainichi Shimbun said on Sunday.

Windows on the allergy-sufferers’ floor will be kept closed to keep the pollen out and peppermint tea, said to alleviate the symptoms, will be provided in each room, along with a special spray to prevent pollen sticking to clothing.

I don’t recall Sean or myself suffering from allergies while we were in Japan. I’m not sure if our honeymoon is a good example, though, because we were there in March, which was probably too early for pollen. I may have had some allergies when I was in Kyushu in 2001, because I did fall under the weather with a “summer cold”, but that could have been due to exhaustion from the trip just as easily as allergies.

I guess we’ll have to find out in a future trip if the massive cedar tree reforestation mentioned in that article has an affect on us. (Joy!)

I had a bizarre dream last night about my teeth. They were really hurting, and then all of a sudden they started breaking apart. When I reached in to pull out the broken ones, the entire shelf of my teeth broke and came out in five parts. I discovered that my teeth were actually dentures.

I tugged out the broken dentures (the sensation was similar to what it felt like to take out my retainer, which I wore back in elementary school) and found that my real teeth were still there underneath. Some of them were horribly discolored–green–and others were covered up to the top by bizarre gum formations. My canines were long, splintery, and yellow, with strings of pink-red running through them. Still, I knew that these were my real teeth, and I hoped that if I brushed them regularly they’d go back to normal and be better than the dentures had been.

I wondered in the dream how long I’d had dentures and why they’d been glued in over my real teeth. This mystery was never solved.

I’m getting impatient. Today I went looking for raws. And I found them…but that’s not what’s important. I also found a couple of other things.

First, a reference to something called Kyou Kara Maou Taizen Shuu, which seems to have 9 episodes. I have no idea what it is! Actually, from what I can tell they are recap episodes, but they might have other information…if it’s 大全集 then it means something like “encyclopedia collection” or “compendium”.

Second, I discovered the homepage to the Kyou Kara Maou manga. The page has the title 新魔国王立広報室 (しんまこくおうりつこうほうしつ, or Shin Makoku Ouritsu Kouhou Shitsu) which seems to mean something like “Shin Makoku Royal PR Room”. I don’t know if that’s the name of the manga or just the website, but it’s cute either way :> Silly rhyme! I also like the manga art. It’s purdy. I now have a new LiveJournal icon:

Here’s the first manga collection at Amazon.com. The title seems to be 今日からマのつく自由業! (Kyou Kara Ma no Tsuku Jiyuugyuu, which I can’t translate–here’s a guess, though: “From today forward, [I’ve] entered demonic self-employment!”).

Third, maru-ma.com (what does “maru-ma” stand for, anyway?) links to a Kyou Kara Maou videogame for the PS2. Not that I play videogames, but it’s neat to know it exists…

I found fanfiction!

[Edit 4:15 pm:] Well, that was a total cheesefest.

It’s totally silly. But, I mean…it’s Tony and Tia!

(To be honest, I would not have recognized Kim Richards on the street. Ike/Iake Eisenmann/Eissinmann [dude, pick a spelling] has the exact same voice, though.)

It stopped raining, but I don’t feel like biking anymore. Going around on the verge of tears all day is pretty exhausting.

I watched the second half of Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) and all of Return from Witch Mountain (1978) on the Hallmark Channel today. Of the latter movie, I have but one question: why can’t they just drive cars like normal people? “Uncle Bene, I want to go see a movie.” “Okay, Tony, have the spaceship back by five.”

Of the former, I just want to say that every time I see Donald Pleasance, I think, “Hey, it’s Deranian!” (And not “Hey, it’s SEN 5241!”, as would theoretically be more characteristic of me. Hey, I saw Escape to Witch Mountain many many years before I ever saw THX 1138.)

I feel like I’m stranded. Sean’s asleep in bed, so I can’t be in there. It’s Saturday, so I can’t take over the living room (no one’s told me that, but it’s not my house and I wouldn’t feel right doing it). I’m in Sean’s old bedroom with my laptop sitting on the treadmill. It’s uncomfortable and I feel alone.

I’ve finished reading news and webcomics, so I’m bored. And I’m full of nervous energy, because the thing I was mad about last night hasn’t been resolved. I want to be doing something.

I’d go biking if it wasn’t raining.

Discussion’s for pansies! Just lay down the law. Your way or the highway! Actually, not even that. Your way, or your way!

I love you sweetie ;)

Gah!

SENBOKU, Akita — Two women were seriously injured and some others were slightly hurt when they were hit by an avalanche while bathing in an open-air hot spring bath here Friday morning, police said.

At around 11:20 a.m., an avalanche hit an open-air hot spring bath at the famous Tsurunoyu Onsen inn in the Nyuto hot spring district of Senboku, burying more than 10 women, prefectural police said. They later managed to free themselves.

Two of them suffered serious wounds while several others were slightly injured.

Reuters: New York mayor fires man for playing computer game

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has fired a city employee after seeing the man play solitaire on his computer at work.

“The workplace is not an appropriate place for games,” Bloomberg told reporters on Thursday when asked about firing a clerical worker in the city’s lobbying office in Albany. “I expect all city workers, including myself, to work hard.”

The man was fired last Tuesday after six years on the job with no warning or severance pay.

And that is why it sucks to have a day job!

Seriously. Did Bloomberg see this guy playing Solitaire for hours? Maybe the guy was taking one of his fifteen minute breaks, and, rather than leave his desk, was keeping himself available in case something came up! (Does New York not have fifteen minute breaks?) Maybe, like any normal person, he just needed a few minutes to rest his brain.

This sort of thing freaks me out. I would hope that Bloomberg investigated the man’s work history and productivity before making such a decision, but the article reads as if it was a snap judgment.

Update: it was a snap decision. From the AP:

Greenwood, who earned $27,000 a year and had worked in the office for six years, said in a telephone interview that he limited his play time to his one-hour lunch or during quick breaks when he needed a moment of distraction.

“It wasn’t like I spent hours and hours a day playing, because I had plenty to do,” Greenwood said. “If I had been working at something exhaustively for two hours, I might get a cup of coffee and play for a minute but then go right back to my work.”

The mayor’s office said its records show that in 2004 Greenwood reviewed the policy that prohibits “inappropriate” use of city computers.

Greenwood said he doesn’t recall doing so but probably did. He suggested that other workers in the office play solitaire and similarly stretch the rules.

“It’s not like I’m the only one that ever did this,” said the 39-year-old father of a toddler.

Greenwood said he wasn’t angry with the mayor but wished he had been warned or reprimanded for what he called a first offense.

“I admire the guy – he’s a great financial success, and he has a definite management style,” Greenwood said. “I just think he could have seen my situation and weighed the harshness of his final decision.”

Bleh!