tonari no shibafu

Amtrak is going to start randomly screening passengers. Here's what Bruce Schneier thinks.

One way to keep students' attention

...make one thing that you say in every lecture a lie.

via Kottke

The (information) Age of the Gods

So, apparently, there is a podcast of the Kojiki for free download. I haven't listened to it yet, it's still downloading, but might be a useful resource.

via Ancient Japan

Star Trek TOS

Streamed on the web for free.

via Get Rich Slowly

Esquire picks...

...the best sandwiches in America. While it's cool that the first one listed -- though they're unranked -- is a reuben, I find it hard to swallow believe that any reuben could match the ones I used to get at Rein's Deli. it was a must stop whenever we were traveling through Connecticut (although it seems that there's a location in W. Springfield I never knew about).

American Yakitori

Is yakitori to be the next Japanese boom on the US food scene?

I guess our dreams of opening a restaurant called 鳥敢えず are over.

ゴルデン街

Steven Pinker at Google

A talk that I think all you wordsmiths out there will find interesting.

Gyoza, Todd Style

Who You Should Vote For Barack Obama: 80%
Hillary Clinton: 60%
Ron Paul: 33%
John McCain: 27%
Mike Huckabee: 13%

Who you agree with on the war in Iraq: Ron Paul

Who you agree with on the economy: Hillary Clinton

Who you agree with on health care: Barack Obama

Who you agree with on taxes: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton

Who you agree with on abortion: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

Who you agree with on gay rights: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama

Who Should You Vote For?

via Ollie

Skype

Forgot to mention. I signed up for Skype recently. I don't use it very much, but I log in occasionally so that I can chat with Bri Lack. Well...look for him at least.

The burden of knowing too much

So I'm watching Prison Break today, and the latest implausible plan from Mssr. Scofield hinges on him calling an electrical generator manufacturer. He gets someone on the outside to read him the manufacturer's number off of the generator. It's an 800 number. Scofield then calls from the inside of the Mexican prison. Unfortunately, 800 numbers don't work outside of the US.

It's those kinds of details that all too often ruin tv for me.

New Week's resolution

1. Track my spending
2. Be good about contact

This means that I'm going to reply promptly to emails, phone calls and such and check my email, my newsreader and log onto IM every day.

I'm no economist but...

...I'd think twice before calling out a guy like Krugman.

I you haven't been reading Why We Write

You should.

excerpts from Michael Oates Palmer's entry will give you a clue

I write because when I was six years old, my grandfather would take me to his favorite hang-out, the Stop Inn, a dive bar on the corner of a row house street in Northeast Philadelphia. He’d let me sit on a stool and drink a Roy Rogers, while he and his cronies told stories for hours. Then we’d stop at 7-Eleven on the way home, and he’d buy me comic books.

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Because in college, I learned that music journalists got to go backstage. Because I loved rock and roll, but was a lousy guitarist, and realized at around 21 that all of the rock critics I worshipped were having a tough time paying their health insurance.

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Because when the writing’s going well, there’s a high. Because when it’s going poorly, you call another friend up, and then you can talk for fifteen minutes about how it’s going poorly, and then you talk about food.

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Because it was one of only three things I was ever good at, I couldn’t figure out how to earn a living make mix tapes, and the third thing is illegal.

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Because no matter how many times you see them, Duck Soup is still funny, The Manchurian Candidate is still jolting, Rosemary’s Baby is still scary, and, when you’ve had a lousy day, Donald O’Connor’s “Make ‘Em Laugh” bit in Singin’ in the Rain can still put you in a good mood. Every time.

Because it’s therapy, and because it’s church. Because it’s community, and because it’s solitary confinement. Because it’s blood.

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And because, like the song goes, we did it for the stories we could tell.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes

A documentary on Alan Moore

via Boing Boing

Rock me Amadeus

Why New Kid on the Hallway Enjoys Teaching (when she does)

This is a very nice and insightful meditation -- if that's not too strong a word -- on teaching and what some get out of it.

Explains also why teaching corporate English doesn't usually blow my dress up as well.

Technorati Tags: history, teaching

My scooter, which I love beyond words, and which has saved me thousands of dollars in train fees over the years has been giving me fits. First, the electric start became unreliable. It has stranded me a few times and my only recourse was to wait 20 mins. or so and try it again. That strategy worked for a while, but lately I haven't even been able to count on that. Today, I finally had both the money and the time to take it to the shop. Turns out that a simple change of spark plug remedied the problem and now it's as good as <s>new</s> old.

Back in business just in time for the weather to warm up.

I think the TSA folks have gone too far

In an inconsistent manner of course. It seems that at some airports they are now requiring people to remove all electronics AND cables from their bag(s).

A separate bin for cables? Huh? To what end?

TSA blog

via Boing Boing

I may as well join everyone else...

... and display my unbridled admiration for The Wire with a post about this (or any other) season. Or I could do it in geekier fashion with this t-shirt.

You call this...

...work?

You heard it here first

One of the cool things about living in Tokyo is watching fashion trends develop. They develop virally and usually are in full swing before they enter your consciousness.
However, I've noticed during the past week more than a few young women wearing purple, and, like the camouflage clothing or Ugg boots, I have come to realize that one instance is a nascent trend, two is an outbreak, three is a full-blown fad. Look for purple to be THE color this Spring.

Occupational hazard

Had a few drinks after work with Kozak. Made the last train, but promptly fell asleep and stayed that way until I woke up in Saginuma. East B.F. Now in a taxi on my way back after finding out that it's cheaper than a hotel.