What a couple of weeks. Aside from being landed with a job at work recently which is not unlike trying to juggle chainsaws while wearing handcuffs, university has kicked in for realz. Not for me, the Sunday night spent curled up with a good book, a pipe and a glass of sherry. Oh no. I was designing a subtring search algorithm (which probably has more holes than the average The A-Team episode plot) and all but pogoing off the walls.
Last weekend was better. My darling adoptive mother and big sister took a trip up from Kitakyushu, so we had one night out in Shinjuku and a day in Yokohama.
J-nee likes to think she can outdrink me. She cannot, but she staggers in such a cute way I pretended to be more drunk than I really was to make her feel better.
Try to think about parasites without a feeling of fear, and take the time to learn about their wonderful world of the Parasites.
There was a photo there, now seared into the area that I used to keep my happy place in, of a man whose scrotum had swollen to the size and length of his leg.
Quiet. Calculating. Never the life of the party, but you can always depend on one in a pinch. Prone to occasionally violent mood swings. Their lucky number is eighteen, and their lucky colour is maroon.
Huh.
Update: Apart from the Tyre Gauge Day thing, I made it all up.
I only really started running during my last year of university. At the time, it was more a way of getting away from my dissertation and thus reducing the risk of hurling my various computers out of the 11th floor window in SHEER MANLY RAGE. That said, it was fun, in a kind of masochistic way, and while I went out maybe once every couple of months or so after I moved to Tokyo, I did miss the regular thrice-a-week schedule I’d once kept. Read the rest of this entry »
After months of noble service, striving valiantly against the Lovecraftian demons of UselessSoftwareUpdates-am Sharrathoth and LousyBatteryLife-Brahurgh, my Zune finally developed a headache, and despite shouting some of my finest obscenities at it for daring to die on me (it survived a drop on the road from my scooter, believe it or not), I was forced to retire it.
So there I was, Googling idly for a suitable replacement when Cam suggested the iPod Touch. Read the rest of this entry »
For a while now, I’ve been reading the Korea News Service. They’ve toned it down a lot over the last couple of years - when I first started reading it was a dollop of frothing-at-the-mouth batshit crazy - but it still has enough moments for me to keep reading the official voice of the Little Nation That Could (Starve Around A Million People To Death).
Today, I found out that an organisation called Koryo Tours can take you there.
A friend of a friend is doing training for her new job.
we started our ‘business manner seminar’ today and we learnt the 3 different types of bowing, 5 different types of keigo, and the 100 million ways you can present your business card.
laughing and learning at the same time is quite tricky…!
But as we all know, Japanese business is a highly ritualized affair, where the slightest gaffe in handing over your business card can sully the future working relationship and blah. Blah. BLAH.
Well, not actually. But I had my first traffic stop on my way to work today, and it was actually a relatively painless experience. Dialogue may not be 100% accurate.
Baby blue(from car): Oi, you on the bike!
Rog sighs inwardly and pushes bike over to meet him, while BB steps out of the patrol car to reveal himself in full jumpsuited glory.
BB: You know that scooters have to do a two step turn when turning right?
R: Yes, but this isn’t a crossroads. Plus, that’s a no entrance sign, so there’s nowhere to stop.
You see that jerkily-animated doodle of a green chicken up there? God only knows how much he cost. He was designed by a guy who used to work at au, and who presumably dashed the whole thing off perched atop the lavatory before shuffling over to his Mac, trous about ankles, to invoice the client for some unholy sum.
To make matters worse, though, Marketing presumably had a meeting powered by muffins, joss-sticks and whalesong to come up with a name.
In a moment of frenzied introspection - well, I say moment, but it’s been going on for the last month or so - I sat down and tried to work out what I’m doing and where I’m going. Read the rest of this entry »
After months of noble service, striving valiantly against the Lovecraftian demons of UselessSoftwareUpdates-am Sharrathoth and LousyBatteryLife-Brahurgh, my Zune finally developed a headache, and despite shouting some of my finest obscenities at it for daring to die on me (it survived a drop on the road from my scooter, believe it or not), I was forced to retire it.
For a while now, I’ve been reading the 