Long Time Expat In Japan
On a completely separate note, I updated my Apple Podcast app recently. I really dislike the changes they made. OK, maybe I’m old and I resist change, but it seems like Apple sometimes just changes stuff, not for the better, just because. Nearly every time I manually download a podcast, the app mixes the title … Continue reading Podcasts
Slippage By Harlan Ellison Book review What’s making me happy today. I found a Harlan Ellison book I hadn’t read before. Back in the 80's and 90s, I was a Harlan Ellison fan. The kicker for me… well there were two of them, actually. One was The City on the Edge of Forever. A Star … Continue reading Slippage
Today is kind of a lonely day. It is the beginning of the rainy season. The skies are a uniform grey. The temperature is just a little too warm. It’s wet, because of the constant misting that starts just after Golden Week. It transports me, reminds me of the first time I lived here and … Continue reading What’s Making Me Nostalgic
I've been living in Japan, this time, since 2006. A time of change to say the least. I say "this time" because there was another time (duh), in the 1990's. But that’s another story. Being outside your home country means you miss a lot of things. In both senses of the word. I miss home. … Continue reading Late to the Party
里とほき八声の鳥の初声に花の香送る春の山風 satohotoki, yagoeno torino, hatsukoe ni, hananoka okuru, haruno yamakaze In my home town, everywhere you can hear, the first calls of birds, the fragrance of flowers, carried on the mountain winds. The imagery of this one hit me on the heartstrings. I don't live in mountains, admittedly. But I do, or did, live in … Continue reading carried on the mountain winds
I just watched It's Kind of a Funny Story, a movie from like ten years ago. I'd never seen it. That's part of living abroad sometimes, you just miss stuff. It was, if you've never seen it, a story about a teenager who is suicidal, but learns to deal with his problems. He learns to … Continue reading Epilogue
I once wrote a story that was published in an anthology. And in that anthology is a story by Seanan McGuire. And I am very proud of that. So I’m kind of dropping names. And that the name is Seanan McGuire, and that her fame is well deserved, so I have huge respect for her … Continue reading Review – Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
Not the real Bill Murray, it was a dream Bill Murray. So why the Arnie picture? Read on... I was fighting against terminators in what must have been a prequel to the movie (first one) because Arnie was a real human, a young one. He sacrificed himself to save a bunch of people, myself included. … Continue reading Bill Murray Rolled His Eyes at Me
Hello kitty is the epitome of marketing. As far as I can tell, Hello kitty has never been a comic book character, a TV show, a movie, or anything. It only exists as a marketing vehicle. According to wikipedia, "she is a perpetual 3rd-grade student who lives outside of London," has a twin sister, Mimi, … Continue reading Japan is Awesome – Hello Kitty
I went to Meiji shrine the other day, taking a guest from out of town. I paid some yen to pray. You choose how much to throw, like tossing coins into fountains. They say that it's better to throw a 5 yen coin because it’s better luck. So 5 yen is better than 1, 50 … Continue reading Japan is Awesome – Fortunes
