Now We’re Cooking

cook |koŏk|
verb
1 [ trans. ] prepare (food, a dish, or a meal) by combining and heating the ingredients in various ways.  • [ intrans. ] I told you I could cook | [as adj. ] ( cooked) a cooked breakfast.  • [ intrans. ] (of food) be heated so that the condition required for eating [...]

Essential iPhone Apps (‘Cause Everyone Else is Doing It)

It’s June. That means I’ve had my iPhone for about four months and it has already become extremely hard to live without. In fact, I have no intention of trying to live without it. Not only does it sit in my pocket for most of the day, it recharges right next to [...]

Wolfram Alpha

Wolfram Alpha has been around for a few weeks now, having debuted to a squawking chorus of voices. The initial reports from Mashable and Lifehacker sounded intriguing and promising but the talk on podcasts like TWiT and the virtual water cooler that is Twitter was more confused than relevatory. The single most coherent [...]

Docile Whale

Here’s one of those little things that amuses me far more than it should: my wife gave me this notebook to use at work. She said, “It’s friendly. The children will like it.” And it is and they do.
But I like it because of its friendly and charming little poem. Across the top it says: [...]

LOLing

During episode 105 of Californication, the protagonist, Hank Moody as played by David Duchovny, sets off on a beautiful diatribe about the decline of the English language through blogspeak while appearing on the Henry Rollins show.
It’s a great speech in a great episode of a great show. So, great, right?
The trouble is, it’s based [...]

Legos

Last weekend, my friend’s little boy came around for an afternoon while my friend played rugby. The boy and I played Nintendo for a while (Super Mario Galaxy, MarioKart 64, and Pokemon Snap for those who care) and then we started in on the Legos.
We were soon joined by my friend and the three [...]

Life in the Big Wide World

A friend recently asked how living in Japan was going.  I answered that it was good and I gave him the same answer I give everyone.  I said that life was good.  Mayumi and I are doing well; we’re planning a vacation soon and house hunting on the weekends.  I’m pondering career options.  We’re semi-seriously [...]

Flash Post 11

X-mas was good.  Nothing to complain about.  I was wrong to be such a grump.  My bad.
Now.  Go away.

Flash Post 7

The thing about a wardrobe based around black T-shirts and jeans is that it is good all year ’round; it is suitable for any occasion; it makes dressing a no-stress event.  I had forgotten that.  I even went so far as to experiment with [shuddder] pastels.  But that is finished now.  The black T-shirts are [...]

The Rookie

Great Robot Overlords, but I love teh interwebnets.
At the moment, I’m listening to a couple of podiobooks (free audio books in podcast form),  Brave Men Run, by Matthew Wayne Selznick and The Rookie, by Scott Sigler.   They’re both excellent so far and I highly recommend them.
But that’s not what I’m writing about tonight.
What I wanted [...]

Window Shopping

Spent all day revising my notes.  Test is tomorrow.  Currently feeling like I might actually pass the damn thing.  Feeling will pass, I’m sure.
In the meantime, window shopping for toys on the internet.  Credit card safely tucked away in wife’s purse, under wife’s pillow, under wife’s sleeping head.  Cannot get to credit card without waking [...]

Throw Away Lines

I stayed up late last night, re-reading an old favorite: Glen Cook’s The Black Company. It is a military fantasy, telling the story through the eyes of the company physician and annalist. The world is bleak, harsh, and gritty; the story is primarily action and military campaigning with a dash of romanticism [...]

Stress Relief, No Really

I woke up early this morning and met some of the lads for a few holes of golf before classes this evening.  I was quite pleased with myself.  I am getting ever closer to shooting par; not that I am actually close yet.  Even more importantly, I remembered to take sunscreen this time, thus saving [...]

Learned

Have you ever tried to learn a foreign language through a foreign language? I ask because that was my afternoon.
On Tuesdays, between afternoon and evening classes, I usually go to the pool and get my swim on. Today, however, and unbeknownst to me, the pool was closed. So I went back to [...]

Self-conciousness Died on the Internet

I don’t know if this is true or only seems true but there seems to be a level of comfort with media and public spectacle at the moment that is leading to the death of all kinds of self-conciousness – body-conciousness, social-conciousness, lifestyle-conciousness, via the internet.
Think about it – how many people are more than [...]

The Last Final Frontier, Finally

The One Man has an interesting post (titled “Faustian Gore” in case the link breaks) on the nature of science up on his blog.  He points out what he feels are some of the problems with today’s science and highlights what he thinks science should be focusing on.  His list includes medicines and alternative fuels [...]

Things Have Changed

Yesterday, I read through a copy of Roald Dahl’s “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More” as it had been loaned to me by a good friend and it seemed like it would be a good, light read after having slogged through “Hawaii” previously.
The stories are light and fun and written in the [...]

Blogging from Work

At my job, I have free reign to use the guest cubicles as a place to log on to the internet for a bit of e-mail and newsreading.
While I appreciate the facilities being placed at my disposal, they have gone a long way towards reminding me why I hate working in cube farms.
The guest cubes [...]

From a Student Today

Me:  Hi, (name) what’s new?
55 Year Old Grandmother Student:  My son bought present for me.  He bought washlet.
Me:  Like the toilet?
Student:  Yes!  It is wonderful!  It has hot seating and very comfort!  It has two bidets…for two holes!

Student cackles and puts her head down on the desk in embarrassment, giggling madly.
Me:  So, uh, [...]

Yo' Mama

I just spent my evening translating “yo mama” jokes into Japanese.  Go ahead and take a second or two to wrap your little mind around that.
Can’t quite do it, can you? No, me neither.
It’s a strange little life but I do enjoy it at times.

technorati tags:jokes, japanese, japan, english, yomama

Blogged with Flock

CSS

I’m thinking about building my own website again, just so I can have a little more control (yes, it’s all about control) over the layout and design. However, to do this, I need to learn CSS and Javascript. That’s a serious investment of time on my part with no real payout other than [...]

Hotel Kitchen Late Night

Ezio opened the door, a scowl on his weathered face. He pointed to the sign on the door that said the hotel closed and locked the front doors at 11 pm. Even for students.
I shrugged and said “per favore?” Ezio’s scowl deepened, until he saw Patricia standing behind me, looking as sheepish [...]

Godspeed

Hey Kitten, you wanted my advice, here it is:
Spend all your money.  Go to every party.  Take every opportunity you can get your hands and never blow off a chance to do anything.
Soon enough you’ll find that you’re married with two kids, a house in the suburbs, a cat and a dog and you’ll wonder [...]

eBible.com Invitation

My invitation to join eBible.com was in my gmail when I got home from soccer tonight, so I went over to check it out.
My first impression, after about five minutes of playing is that this is a great service for scholars and devotees alike. I ran my first search on "Moses" and spent a [...]

Have You Seen Me Lately?

The Counting Crows' song "Have You Seen Me Lately?" has been in pretty heavy rotation on my system of late.  It's another of those that just seems to be able to say everything I ever wanted to, and in just a few words.  The verse that's getting to me:
I remember me and all the little [...]

As Long As I Can See the Light

As Long As I Can See the Light
Originally uploaded by SunToad.
Put a Candle in the Window
So, with regard to Saturday's post, I set out to find a story I could illustrate. In this case, I'm using the Credence Clearwater Revival song "Long as I Can See the Light".
Back in the day, when I was [...]

Stories and the Illustration Of

Every picture should tell a story. 
That was one of my photojournalism teacher's favorite things to say whenever we'd present our work.  Sometimes he'd ask us "What's the story here?" or "Did you know the story before you took this?"  If we didn't have a good answer, back out into the field we went.
Naturally enough, we [...]

Rules

Heinlein's 5 Rules:

Write
Finish What You Write
Refrain from Re-Writing
Place it on the Market
Keep it on the Market until Sold

Got it boss.  Doing it boss. 

The Tipping Point

Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, was an incredibly fascinating read. Gladwell proposes that fads and trends are epidemic in nature and can be identified, launched, and even prevented.
The book is organized in classic style – section one deals with defining the Tipping Point and it’s [...]

Blogging the Bible

Occasionally, an internet meme will come around and catch me completely off-guard.
I have been reading Will Shetterly's re-write of the Bible at fatbible.blogspot.com since he began writing it in October of last year.  I have found it to be a very interesting way to look at the Good Book; a book I haven't sat down [...]

Bzzz Agenting

Another something from the world wide weirdness that I find interesting:  BzzAgent.com.
I came across it after doing some research on word-of-mouth marketing campaigns for an MBA studies course that I teach.  The site, essentially, is a marketing company focusing on using street teams to lead new product launches.
The company sends each Agent a product kit [...]

The Best Class I Have Ever Taught

Tonight’s class was the easiest class I have ever taught. It was also one of the more fun. I had only two students and none of us felt like doing much in the way of proper study. So we watched Superman cartoons.
Yeah, Superman.
Along with all the podcasts I subscribe to are a few [...]

The Experimental University

One of the best things about Seattle is the ASUW Experimental College.
The EC is a collection of classes, offered very cheaply, and taught by professionals, usually, just for kicks. As a concrete example, when I was living in Seattle, I took two classes, one in creative writing, taught by a professional author, another [...]

Blech

I had another class with Mr. Condescending tonight.  Well.  He’s not really, at least, I don’t think he’s trying to be, but he comes across that way.  He’s a guy who’s never been married, has no hobbies but his job, works from seven am to about nine pm and is not really interested in anything [...]

Somedays, I Love My Job II

Tonight’s lesson was giving advice, using a basic sentence, but vocusing on verb patterns.  For example: “You should go sightseeing in Kyoto.” vs. “You should go see Kinkaku-ji Temple in Kyoto.”I had five students in the class, all guys, who are pretty laid back and very willing to joke around and tease each other.  If [...]

Slang

Tonight’s impossible-to-answer-easily question from a student:  When watching or listening to English media, how can one identify slang usages?
My too-difficult-to-understand-easily answer:  The best way to identify slang usages in English is to listen for adjectives used out of context, e.g. “That’s a really cool movie.”  Of course, the movie is not physically cool, hence the [...]