Remember Me

A couple of years ago, a young man named Joe Murphy died from a rare and nasty form of cancer. I didn’t know Joe. Rather, I knew him only from the podcasts he co-hosted and I was a fan. During his illness and after his death, fans of his work made a [...]

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 [...]

Resting Places

Trying another post from the iPhone, this time with photos.
Yesterday, my wife and I went to put flowers on her dad’s grave. He’s interred at a beautiful temple / cemetary near our house. We took a quiet walk around the grounds and I took a few photos, keeping others privacy foremost in mind [...]

Testin Y’all Testin

Nevermind this post. Seriously. This is just a quick test of the WordPress application for the iPhone. We’ll have to see what this looks like and take it from there.

A Blessing, Some BBQ, Cricket

For a bank holiday, today ended up being a long day if a fun one. We started this morning by having the Shinto priest come around and bless the building site, us, the chief construction worker, and our joint effort. He had my wife and myself hold a wooden pick and smack it [...]

D&D Geek

Quick post: My friends and I have recently been playing D&D. All of us played back in the day, and were quite surprised to learn we were all D&D geeks. Well, life being what it is, getting everyone together for extended campaigns is hard to swing.
To try to make things a bit [...]

Return of the Kitsch

Sometime recently, when I had my head turned, Kitsch came back in a big way. Something about the goofy, weird, vaguely obscene, plasticky junk that was turned out by the truckload in the beginnings of the modern era just appeals to…well, people today.
The reason I say people is there seems to be no easily [...]

Sculpey

Several weeks (months?) ago I picked up a brick of Sculpey at the art supply store. I had no real ideas for using it in mind, it just seemed like something fun to play with. (Yeah, I know, I can justify expensive polymer clay, but not Legos. It just…well, it makes sense [...]

Searching for Reasons

Several people seem to have followed the move to Tumblr as a single place in which to read all my collected postings and doings around the internet.  However, there have been some complaints as to the dual nature of the posts:  the actual posts and essays vs. the one line tweets and links.  So, I [...]

Keep Up

Just a quick note:  I have a new site up at smiley.tumblr.com.  This new site is a Tumble Log, which means, basically, that almost everything I do on the web, whether it is photos, an essay, random links, whatever, is sent to and re-posted on my tumble log.
The site is hosted by Tumblr.com; from the [...]

Apologies

Well, after having managed to post almost daily for 2006, I think I’m at a record low for the number of posts on this blog so far this year.
The only thing I can offer by way of explanation is that I have been doing a lot of writing, just not on this project.  I have [...]

The Place had Picture Frames but No Pictures in Them

Did I say essays? I mean stories. Of course I meant stories. And by stories I mean that these are mostly true with some events slightly shifted in time and two or three minor characters shuffled into one, or vice versa. The conversations recorded in this story are not word for [...]

Setting the Pace

Over the past few months I’ve been feeling a bit, well, blogged out.  Maintiaining a post a day blog takes a toll and I just feel like I have more important things to do.  However, as we move into the third year of this blog, I kind of feel like this has some momentum and [...]

Flash Post 12

Apparently, I am neither rude nor unkind, neither acerbic nor pointed, only that I am, perhaps, on occasion, a little too honest.  It is not that I said anything that was not already known to everyone in the group, merely that I said it at all.
Naturally, I consider this a step up from previous indiscretions.
Life [...]

Flash Post 10

A Christmas Eve post:
We had dinner at Mom-in-law’s tonight.  We bought a whole roasted chicken that I managed to carve, without inflicting damage on anything save the bird.  MIL made mashed potatoes and M made gravy, so that was good.
Presents were exchanged.  I gave MIL a DVD player and the Japanese version of “Shall We [...]

Flash Post 9

Happy Emperor’s Birthday!
I often think that we Americans should declare a moveable holiday based on whomever the current president is.  However, for that to be effective, we would have to prove that the current president is a) the legitimate president, and, b) was actually born instead of being spawned from the deep receces of Hell [...]

Flash Post 8

I have been in need of a mission of late.  Something to clear my mind.  Something completely inconsequential to focus on.  To that end, I have begun collecting these.  Are they cheap?  Yes.  Are they stupid, little, painted pieces of plastic?  Yes.  Will I be ebaying these very same collectibles someday?  Yes.  Are they driving [...]

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 [...]

Flash Post 4

For the record:  Bah fucking humbug.  I think I manage to detest this season a little more every year.

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 [...]

‘Tis the Season

Warning:  In this post, I do very little, save bitch about my job.
Ah.  December.  The air is cold, but dry and sunny; things are winding down for the year.  Project deadlines are up and everyone is rushing to get all their business taken care of before the end of the calendar year.  Parties are being [...]

600

Kinda hard to believe, but it’s true.  This post, this post right heah, that you is now perusing, is number 600 on Left From Seattle.
I should get some kind of award for that, right?  I mean, do you have 600 posts on your blog?  Are they as pointless as mine?  Full of a lack of [...]

Grown

To say that I have a green thumb would be an excellent example of either irony, or outright lying.  M isn’t much better.
However, we decided a couple of months ago that we really needed some greenery in our home.  We were just tired of plain brown and off-white, the colors of any new apartment, and [...]

Turning Off the TV

This morning I deleted several hours worth of programming that I hadn’t gotten around to watching yet.  A lot of other things got deleted as well.  A lot of projects got taken off the back burner and just filed away to be dealt with or not dealt with well at some other date.
I had been [...]

Archived

Still no energy after the simultaneous high and low of the test, so I have just been taking a bit of time to work on some of the projects I have lying aroung – projects that take some time anda few resources, but very little brain power.
In this case, I’ve been working on the archives [...]

Test Day

Well, the test is done with for another year or four.  I think I did ok, but I don’t know if I actually passed or not and won’t find out until February.  The first section of the test kicked my ass, so it remains to be seen if the second and third portions, where I [...]

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 [...]

Spinning

Things I remember fondly from high school:

driving around with my friends, listening to rap music and speaking gangsta even though we were hopelessly white
the girl in my freshman history class that would kiss me at lunch if I gave her the answers during tests
being on the chess team because it was so damned punk
knowing that [...]

Oatmeal Raisin

I’ve been in three different grocery stores this week, all of which have import sections, and yet, none stock oatmeal raisin cookies, damnit.
You know, if someone were to, I dunno, bake and send me some oatmeal raisin cookies, it would be, well, a good thing.  I’m just saying, is all.

Baby Silvertooth, Grins and Grins

Remember a few years ago when Madonna and countless others on the very forefront of the pop culture wars chose to have gold or silver caps put on a single front tooth?  It was one of those things that came out of ghetto pride and was quickly adapted and controlled by the “edgy” pop elite?
Well, [...]

FEMA, Money, Politics

The more I think about it, the more it seems Big Pun was a harbinger of necessary change when the word “money” was used as an explicitive in one of his lyrical missives.
Please allow me to back up and elucidate.  In the song “It’s So Hard“, Pun plaintively uses the line “Money, not you again.  [...]

Today

…I have nothing to say.

More Classics

Picked up Shane and Fort Apache today.
I’m really looking forward to making M watch these, as she is really fond of yelling “Shane, come back!” whenever I’m leaving to go meet my friends.  Which is really annoying.  Especially as she’s never seen the film.
Hmph.

Intimate vs. Private

JPG is a good magazine.  It’s a good place for aspiring photographers to submit to; it’s a good place for fans of photography to see some of the best, newest, freshest, non-commercial work around; it’s a good place for supporters of internet freedoms like expression and community to gather and communicate their ideas.  It’s a [...]

Freakin’ Kanji Game

I bought a game for the Nintendo DS the other day.  It’s a kanji game, where the player needs to read a word in katakana or hiragana and then write it in kanji.  In the correct stroke order.  In the time alloted.
I set it up at the lowest level and still got my ass [...]

Travels with Charley

I have been meaning to write more about Travels With Charley ever since I finished reading it.
It has been a very long time since I have found a book so quotable, or so beautiful. Steinbeck’s descriptions are poignant and real without being over-the-top or cliche. More than that, however, are his observations on [...]

Finally

A full three weeks after our anniversary, my wife finally got her present!  And, oh yea gods and small fishes, it was worth the wait.
You may remember that a while back, I asked for recommendations of chocalate shops and whatnot that you lot out there in the wide world may know of, and or think [...]

Decoder Ring Theater’s Black Jack Justice

Just a quick plug today as I have far too many things to do, like prepping for my classes starting again, to be taking up too much time with blog posts.
Right, uh, so…
Decoder Ring Theater’s Black Jack Justice is just a hell of a lot of fun. The actors involved put on a show [...]

Classics

I came home and found my wife watching Casablanca today.
It may not sound like much, but it made me pretty happy. I’ve been picking up a lot of the classics recently, as a company here in Japan has been producing good quality DVDs of a lot of the old black and whites for about [...]

eBay, Baby

I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to get into eBay.  Maybe because the site is actually fairly hard to navigate and browse through, although, if you’re looking for something specific it’s pretty nice; maybe it’s because to get stuff shipped over here usually isn’t worth the price…ah that seems to be it.  [...]

Whale Shark

Fish
Originally uploaded by SunToad.

Ok, last Okinawa photo. Maybe. I took this at the Churaumi Aquarium; they have three whale sharks in this massive tank, along with sharks and stingrays and multitudes of little fishes.
Disclosure: The quality on this photo is not quite what I would have wanted, but I have [...]

Siisa

Last Wednesday, we took our sunburt selves out of the hotel area via a rented car and off to Shurijo-koen, a castle left from the Edo period, and later to Ryukyu-mura, or Ryukyu Village.
The castle was nice and a good walk-around, but nothing too exceptional; not to sound like a snob, but most Japanese castles [...]

The Hotel

The main reason we chose this hotel was these artificial islands and walkways that pen in the swimming area, and they were pretty nice.  Unfortunately, even though we managed to get to the very ends of the islands, we were still in Japan which meant that there were all kinds of rules designed to protect [...]

Back in Town

We’re back.
It was a pretty good vacation; some bad things, but mainly good.  Although, my absolute favorite part was the look on my wife’s face as she tried a root beer float for the first time at the Naha City A&W.  Let’s just say that she wasn’t impressed.
Anyway, expect lots of photos this week.  Enjoy.

technorati [...]

Vacation Time

Finally.  M and I are going to get a real vacation.  As in, we won’t know anyone else in the location we’re going.  It’ll be just us.  With nothing to do but lay on the beach and imitate lobsters.  Including the claw-gestures.  And probably some shopping.
Naturally, a typhoon is in the area.
But, for tonight, now [...]

Keeping Secrets

Hmm. I’m feeling like this blog is losing its…potency? Focus? I’m not sure what word I mean. The main problem is, and I mean absolutely no offense by this, but this blog is no longer anonymous. It was never absolutely, 100%, anonymous to begin with, but, recently, it has become [...]

Beatdown

Thank all the small gods for their gifts of fire and television.
The former is letting me eat my popcorn and the latter is letting me rot my brain in lieu of actually using it, because, let’s face it, that hurts.
If anyone needs me, I’ll be on my couch.

technorati tags:tv, popcorn

Blogged with Flock

Damnit.

We were never close, Rob and I. We got along well enough, but we had vastly different interests and personalities. We had the same extended group of friends and were often at the same parties, basketball games, and volleyball games. We played in the same fantasy football league and we were often on [...]

Current Reads

I haven’t done a reading post in a while and I still have to go put in today’s studying, so here is a quick list of what is presently on my radar:

Getting Stoned with Savages by J. Maraten Troost – Troost’s first book, The Sex Lives of Cannibals was enormously funny and easy and entertaining [...]

Grr.

Got an Amazon box today containing two books I want to read, just not the book that I want to read RIGHT NOW.  So, I’m sulking and have nothing to write.  Plus I have to go study.  Maybe there will be interesting content here tomorrow.  In the meantime, did you catch the season premiers of [...]