All Grown Up

My okcupid personality has changed... I've gone from RGLD (Random Gentle Love Dreamer -- The Boy Next Door) to RGLM (Random Gentle Love Master -- The Loverboy). I think that I'm okay with that change :)

FACT: You embody the German principle of Konstantzusammenschaft, which is best described in English (without using the obscure English word "sammenschaft") as "eternal togethermanship". The Loverboy Random Gentle Love Master (RGLM) Well-liked. Well-established. You are The Loverboy. Loverboys thrive in committed, steady relationships--as opposed to, say, Playboys, who want sex without too much attachment. You've had many relationships and nearly all of them have been successful. You're a nice guy, you know the ropes, and even if you can be a little hasty with decisions, most girls think of you as a total catch. Your hastiness comes off as spontaneity most of the time anyhow, making you especially popular in your circle of friends, too. Your exact male opposite: The Billy Goat Deliberate Brutal Sex Dreamer You know not to make the typical Loverboy mistake of choosing someone who appreciates your good humor and popularity, but who offers nothing in return. You belong with someone outgoing, independent, and creative. Otherwise, you'll get bored. And then instead of surprising him with flowers or a practical joke, you'll surprise him by leaving. ALWAYS AVOID: The Billy Goat (DBSD) CONSIDER: The Boy Next Door (RGLD), The Loverboy (RGLM) Link: The Online Dating Persona Test @ OkCupid - free online dating.

Gravity or IF?

ID's oft-forgotten little cousin.

Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory

TOPEKA, KS-Evangelical physicists are now asserting that objects fall because a higher power is pushing them down.

Kasper Shows Pride

Is Kasper batting for the other team now? Well, I'm sure that Pam would be devastated. Of course--he could just be hitting for both teams. Does that even count as cheating? I guess as long as you're only seeing your one wife and your one boyfriend (maybe even husband soon! Go NY Senate!) it's okay, right? Bisexual Mormons must get all the fun =)

Chaos and News

Well folks, something you've all been waiting for may just have come to pass! If you're thinking, "Did Sorted Chaos, the hot new news site add a News category?" --- you might actually be right! So now you can get your chaos in any variety from Entertainment, Technology, Programming, Design or even just plain, delicious, old-fashioned news!

Enjoy the Chaos - http://www.sortedchaos.com/

Edit Note: Updated the website URL to reflect the new sortedchaos domain.

My Supervillain Persona

I can live with my results:
You are Magneto

Magneto 75% Apocalypse 71% Lex Luthor 62% Dr. Doom 59% Green Goblin 53% Riddler 52% The Joker 51% Mystique 49% Mr. Freeze 47% Two-Face 45% Catwoman 40% Poison Ivy 38% Venom 34% Dark Phoenix 33% Juggernaut 33% Kingpin 29%

You fear the persecution of those that are different or underprivileged so much that you are willing to fight and hurt others for your cause.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain am I?" quiz...

My Superhero Personality

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 60% Iron Man 60% Spider-Man 55% Robin 52% Superman 45% Hulk 45% The Flash 45% Batman 45% Catwoman 30% Supergirl 30% Wonder Woman 20%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

New York Heldover

I've decided to stay in New York for a little longer than I originally planned. Once I have some stable work and I've been able to plan out my situation over the next few years move back, but I've decided not to go back right away--without any way to make money or any kind of proper visa status.

It was a really difficult decision as I've come to feel like Tokyo is home now. More and more I find it really difficult to have a life split across half the world.

Back to New York

Yesterday was my birthday and so I decided to come back to New York for the month. That way I'll be able to spend some time with Pam on her birthday as well. I'm very excited to spend some time with that Krazy Dane as well :-)

More to follow soon... yum!

Weekend Encounters

Well... after more than a year, I finally had an encounter with him. I'm sure anyone who knows me knows whom I'm talking about. Now, I've run into him from time to time around the neighborhood, but neither of us ever acknowledged each other with anything more than a passing nod.

This weekend, for whatever reason, he felt the need to talk to me. He did apologize, although it was a pretty weak apology given the circumstances. I guess it bothered me more than it should in some ways, especially since he acted so familiar with me (as if we just hadn't seen each other for a few weeks-maybe a month on the outside). However, after talking with a lot of my friends about it, I realized what a total asshole he really is. I've always pretty much known it, but I've always also defended him (at least to myself).

Now there's really nothing more to say or think about - I got involved with one of the biggest, most selfish assholes in Tokyo. And yep, he's still a whopper of one! I suppose he'd be slightly respectable if he'd followed-up with an email or something, anything more than a drunken half-apology where he demanded that I forgive him because (get this) when he disappeared, we weren't actually dating, so I really shouldn't be angry anyway.

Oh well, enough of him! At least now I won't be nervous when I see him around thinking that I'll actually do something to offend him. Anyway, I hope he's happy and can get over himself a little over the next few years. I suppose I do still love him - I'll probably never be able to truly say anything else - but I can honestly admit after this weekend that I don't like him at all - not even a little bit, and I'd never want to befriend him again in any way.

Why the Loss?

Republicans Blame Election Losses On Democrats

WASHINGTON, DC—Republican officials are blaming tonight's GOP losses on Democrats, who they claim have engaged in a wide variety of...

As we see in this informative story, the only reason that the Republicans lost control of the house this year was the vicious, slanderous, lying slander of the lying, slanderous, liberal, red-diaper-doper-baby liberals! And the Democrats too! There's just not enough blame to go around, in my humble opinion.

We should all do our part to ensure this never happens again! If you know a Democrat, or even suspect that your neighbour may be one (evidence isn't really important here, a suspicion is all that's really necessary when we're dealing with evil of this magnitude) please (in a very non-violent way, because--and I can't stress this enough--I don't encourage violence or illegal acts of any kind) grab that person and do--by any means necessary--get them to 1) pledge their undying support to the Republican Party; and 2) promise to force their disgusting, liberal peers to never act in this fashion again. Remind them that they may still hold their disgusting ideals in their hearts and minds, but, under no circumstances whatsoever, are they to vote for people who share those misguided and just-plain-wrong vision of this beautiful, Conservative, Christian, Republican, open-minded world!

Shiny New Things

Well... it may be best to say nothing rather than prattle on in a narcissistic fashion when you really don't have much to say... but I feel I've been quiet quite long enough recently and I should exercise my brain (and tax my waning readership's patience) by posting something tonight anyway. This, I'm told, is the hallmark of the True Blogger (not that I feel that I represent the quintessential blogger, but I figured I might as well emulate them a little while someone out there is giving me all this spiffy, free blogging space).

Before I really get into this entry (although, since there really won't be any important content contained within this entry, I don't know if it's proper to start the second paragraph with Before I really get into this entry, is it?), I just want to let all my avid readers know that I really enjoy riding scooters when I take an exotic vacation in the fall. I really don't have anything else to say in this paragraph, but I feel it would be somehow wrong to end a paragraph with just one sentence-even if that sentence is just way too long and this sentence doesn't have anything to do with the previous-so I didn't. I hope that stops all the grammar-patrols from commenting on this exciting post.

Now then, on to the Shiny New Things that you've all been just dying to hear about...
(Note: I wrote this as a bulleted list because I miss writing bulleted lists for mindless managers of large corporations. If you're a mindless manager, this should really impress you! If not, please ignore this format and click some ads on the right side of this page for goodness sake!)

• My Shiny New DVD Writer


• That's right folks! I finally did it! I went out and bought a DVD player. I just figured that it was time... I was so sick of writing large amounts of data to a million CD's, plus I wanted to be able to write movies and television files to DVD for playback on my little, portable player when I take trips and such. I think this was a great time to buy since there are so many really fast drives out there now, DVD media has come down in price so much, and everybody wants a way-too-stupid-expensive Blu-Ray drive (p.s., I want a way-too-stupid-expensive Blu-Ray drive too, but I'm not stupid enough to waste my own money on it, so if you want to buy me one, I'll gladly let you waste yours and I'll even send you an email every day telling you how much I'm enjoying my donated-way-too-stupid-expensive Blu-Ray drive; I won't promise, however, that the email won't be automated). As a bonus which has almost nothing to do with storage media, I recently recovered and washed Pam's bike (it's been living at 早稲田ハウス for the past few--maybe more than few--months), and it looks kinda like a Shiny New Thing.



• Taka's Shiny New Computer


• You heard it here first! Taka's getting a Shiny New Computer so we'll finally be able to play all those exciting games together over the Internet (in case you don't know, the Internet is an interconnected group of computers created by Al Gore and distributed around the world for the entertainment of the masses and the creation of large online worlds that destroy young people's minds as well as teach violence to virtual-gun-toting-bored-salarymen across the world--and maybe even out in space, but I don't think Al Gore invented space travel, so I'm not really sure--maybe someone has a blog about it). Just so you know, he'll be able to create DVD's too, so I can't really be called the "winner" there, but he won't have a Blu-Ray either, so I suppose that could qualify me as "winning" something.



• Joel's Shiny New Blog


• That's right Skype Fans! Now Joel will be able to push out all his exciting new information in one place, and we can all point our really-cool RSS readers to it and never be without the information we need. Now you can kill memory-leaking-sieve(a.k.a., Skype) without worrying about missing an important news story, piece of commentary, biology trivia, or just really cool clip from youtube that you forgot to watch last week. So, definitely check out Joel's new blog at http://astrometrics.blogspot.com/ - you won't be sorry, I promise you! By the way, if you need a shiny new RSS reader, Google has one at http://reader.google.com/, so check it out too! If you hate RSS and don't know how to use bookmarks, you can always find a link to Joel's blog on the right menu bar of my blog (you can find Pam's and Suman's there too, but they're not very shiny or new).

Well, that's pretty much everything that's Shiny and New this week. I promise that this won't become a weekly article or anything... but as a special bonus for those if you who read down this far: the new blogspot allows labels for your posts! Yay! What could be better than that!!

Happy Hunting!

(Note: I don't hunt nor do I endorse hunting but I like the sound of the phrase. So, please don't hunt, and if you do decide to hunt, please do it as miserably as you possibly can. If you need an image to hunt miserably, just before you go out hunting, think of Kathy Bates hobbling you as you lie helpless in bed... just like that poor little Bambi probably feels!)

Edit: Fixed a small spelling mistake, changed the line about the ads to describe where the ads now actually live on this page

Hokkaido

Well... this entry is probably long overdue but I've been pretty busy with other things recently. When I got back to Japan (yes--a month ago, but who's counting?) I went on a trip to Hokkaido which was really excellent.

It was a five day trip which started in Hakodate and finished in Sapporo. The first day we flew from Tokyo to Hakodate where we rented a car and stayed in a beautiful onsen resort spa on the beach. The only real problem that evening was that a Typhoon was rolling through so it was quite stormy outside - although that made the ocean pretty nice.

The first thing we did (of course) was drive around Hakodate looking for a little place called Penguin's Valley... it was a dot in the middle of this mountain/beach area on the map and it was extremely difficult to find (and not very satisfying after all, there were no penguin's and the restaurant was closed). So we headed back to the hotel to eat and then went out to take the rope-way up to the top of Hakodateyama.

Unfortunately, due to the typhoon, the rope-way was closed, so we ended up having a taxi driver take us up the tiny, little mountain road to the summit. When we got there, tho, it was most excellent! The view would change from clear to zero visibility in seconds and the wind was unbelievable as rainclouds zoomed past us. It was actually quite cold and wet but great fun nonetheless.

The next day we had to drive from Hakodate (which is on the south part of Hokkaido) to Asahikawa, basically up in the north-middle of the island. It was a horrible, seven-hour drive over tiny little mountain roads (even though we took the highway!!) with extreme wind. I was convinced that the car was going to be picked up and flung from the side of the mountain at any second. It didn't help that I was driving on the wrong side of the road either :)

We finally reached Asahikawa and stayed at another nice little onsen resort - although this one wasn't quite as nice (rooms) as the one in Hakodate, the buffet dinner and breakfast were much better. The next morning we set out again to see some giant waterfall in a nearby park and ended up climbing a 420 meter mountain. It's really deceiving as it starts out with nice stairs and everything going up (looks like you're going up to a temple or something) but then suddenly the stairs are gone and you're hiking up a muddy, tiny little path winding up the side of the mountain. After getting to the top, though, the view was definitely worth it!

When we were finished at the park we drove to Asahiyama and visited the zoo there which was really quite cool. I forgot my camera in the car so I was really bummed. The zoo is pretty famous and is designed with all kinds of up-close-and-personal thing, including a plastic bubble that lets you go into the polar bear's cage (we didn't actually do that because the line was stupid long and the bears were sleeping anyway). The Penguin Pit was the coolest, tho! Those birds had absolutely no fear of anyone and would walk right up to you and strut around (well, strut as best you can when the best you can manage on land is a slow, lopsided wobble I suppose).

Once we had finished with the zoo, we drove into Sapporo and the last two days there. Sapporo was a lot of fun, but it's mostly just a city. Some points of interest that we checked out were the Sapporo Beer Factory and the Milk Factory (although the Milk factory was closed when we got there, but don't worry, they gave us free milk and ice cream).

The last thing we did was a day trip to Otaru, which was known as the Genkan of Hokkaido and still has a very active import/export economy and fish market. We ended up having the "famous" kaitenzushi there which was quite delicious, actually. We also hiked around the historical area of the village and looked at all the old warehouses and building. The most exciting of which (I thought) was the Bank of Japan building and museum - which has free entry, by the way, making it even more exciting.

Although I didn't take many photos, here are some from the trip:

Hokkaido

Won't somebody buy me a Sundae?

My absolute favorite dessert place in NYC added a sundae to the menu last year that I haven't tried yet. Anybody wanna go with me and get this for me? I may even let you have a bite... :)

NewYorkFirst.com: Get the Star Treatment at Serendipity 3

Not So Cold & Rainy

Well... yesterday was a miserable day here, but today is absolutely beautiful! It's such an amazing Sunday! The L train is running, I had some brunch in the sun... plus this is the first time in over a week that the sun has even been shining!

Cold & Rainy

It's so cold and rainy here this weekend! What kind of Labor Day is this? A group of us had some plans to go to Six Flags, but that (for obvious reasons) has been cancelled. We're probably going to plan something for next week... hopefully that will work out. I'd really like to get out there before I get back to Tokyo :)

I also don't have any clothes for this weather... I only packed t-shirts and other light summer wear. I suppose I should probably buy a sweater or something. Sho is already sick of American food :)

Quick Update

Well... I know that I haven't updated this in a while and I do have some things to say, but I don't really have time to write them now. I'll have to organize my thoughts later today and put some things down.

I haven't been feeling well at all this past week... some kind of stomach bug that never really manifests itself, just makes me feel all-around miserable. It seems to be improving, however, so I hope it keeps on that road :)

Sho arrived safely and is now settled into his university. At first he grumbled a bit, but I'm sure it's just adjustment pangs :) I think we're probably going out this weekend... I am, at least, but I'm sure I'll hear from Sho sometime today.

Pam is going camping this weekend, so she's leaving tonight. She'll be back Monday, but then has to go straight out to Portland. At least I'll be able to use the car that week... I really have to get to my mom's place and sort out my taxes. It just hasn't been pressing because 1) sorting out taxes is time consuming, expensive, and wicked annoying; and 2) my mom isn't even there so it's hard to get up the motivation to get out there. I also desperately need my new credit cards and the keys to my storage unit, though, so...

I have some official Japanese study tomorrow... with textbooks and everything. Now that I feel I can't remember even basic vocabulary :) that should be interesting.

Finally, when I get back but before I really get started on my study, Taka and I are going to go to Hokkaido... which I've always wanted to do, so that should be really exciting!

That's enough for now... I'll try and write something interesting/serious later tonight. I have a lot of work to do on the computer so I'll be focusing my thoughts anyway :) as long as I'm not too exhausted from real stuff that needs to get done, I'll update again about what's actually going on in my head (as if anyone but the penguins cared, right...)

Long Weekend

Well, Pam was away this weekend camping at Gathering of the Vibes, but somehow it didn't end up boring at all. I was pretty busy and there was a lot going on.

Friday started out pretty slow... just breakfast with a friend and working on some writing.

I started my real day in the evening (finally) meeting my Japanese Language Exchange Partner for some exciting Japanese practice... at least, that was the original plan. He was very nice and polite and his "terrible" English (according to him, not me) was so much better than my "terrible" Japanese that I wanted to just shut up. And, unfortunately, I mostly did. I hate being shy! LOL... but he was very patient and interesting, although he seemed extremely exhausted by the end of the session. Too much brain work, all this language exchange, I think. He lives on the upper-east side so we took the 4 train together, although by then I'm not sure he could process English anymore :-)

I ended up going out to the bar pretty late to meet up with Bruce and got some interesting information! He's finally quitting his job there! I'll miss him in that position, that's for sure, but I'm happy for him and I had decided to quit going there on Friday's myself anyway, so it works out pretty well! I was also introduced to some kind of flaming shot (the name of which I can't remember) and ended up doing three of them in a row. The shot has Bacardi 151 so I was quite happy for all of five minutes, then (needless to write) had to get home... very quickly :-)

Saturday morning my father gave me a call and woke me, but it was okay... I didn't really have a hang-over or anything. I was supposed to have dinner with his wife and him, but I had forgotten. Not to worry, though, he came into the city before I went out for Bruce's last Saturday and I found out that one of my favorite 焼肉 chains, 牛角, had recently opened a store in Coopers Sq! So, we went out for (way too much) yakiniku Saturday night... but it was delicious and (as I said) reminded me of home!

Bruce's last night was pretty great... I was worried at first because my friend Sue wasn't coming out, but I met a lot of other friends who usually don't go out on Saturday night so we had a blast. I paced my drinking much better--and started drinking on a full stomach, which helps sooo much! I did some kind of whiskey shot which I was supposed to like very much, so don't tell anyone how much I hated it ;-) and, of course, more flaming drinks--which seem to be all the craze these days!

I stayed out pretty late and then watched a movie when I got home, but I wasn't sick today. I just had a lazy day waiting for Pam to get back from camping, then out to a later dinner at a Polish place and finally home for some 24-action and sleep (although it's already 01:30 and I'm not really tired at all).

This week should be pretty busy... my favorite DJ's are spinning at the bar tonight so I'll be going there... plus it'll be Bruce's last Monday for hanging out. Monday night is usually good fun, though, and I get to practice my Japanese, although I'm usually a little drunk by the time my Japanese friends arrive, so I don't really learn all that much ;-)

Tuesday I have lunch with Frank (it was so great last week, I'm really looking forward to it this week), maybe meeting with my Japanese language exchange partner for some actual un-drunken practice, and finally closing the night with some Lavinia Draper! If you haven't seen her, you definitely have to! She is an absolute riot! She does a show every Tuesday night at Therapy (http://www.therapy-nyc.com/) starting at 23:00.

Sho is arriving at the end of the week, and there's a big party on Saturday. Hopefully he sleeps a lot on the plane :-) Should be a good week!

P.S., if you don't have the new Google toolbar, get it, it's worth it!

Proud to be an American!

The following is taken from Angry Girl and can be found here:

[Note: Please follow the link to the original to see data which supports all the the claims. I have listed Angry Girl's facts but to save space haven't reproduced the entire page here.]

20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA

by Angry Girl
of Nightweed.com

Did you know....

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.

13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.

14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the

17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.

20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

Connecticut Sunday

To end this weekend, Pam and I drove up to Hartford to eat at Shady Glen--cheeseburgers and shakes. It's definitely one of the best places around to eat! So delicious and the cheese is fried over the edge of the burger.

I wish I had remembered to take some pictures, but it's a 50's-style restaurant with home-made ice cream, shakes, and softdrinks. They still do everything the old-fashioned way, too! For instance, if you buy a coke, they mix the syrup manually. A chocolate shake is made by adding real fudge to milk and vanilla ice cream and then blending.

After lunch, we headed over to meet Jodie and Kevin (Pam's best friend and her boyfriend) to hang out for the rest of the day. We all decided that it was far too nice outside to hang out inside, so we went out for a nice afternoon of golfing (of the miniature variety). Kevin won the day, but I'm pretty sure that I came in last :-)

Before dinner, Jodie, Pam and I went to the bridal shop to see some of the dresses she had tried on a couple of weeks ago. Well, there was one that I really liked on her because I thought it suited her personality, but then she showed us the one that was on the top of the list and it was just perfect! It even made Jodie cry :-) She looked amazing! Honestly, though, I definitely don't envy anyone wearing one of those in July :-)

We tried to make it home in time to watch Entourage, but we just missed it. This week should be nice... I'm going to the Bronx Zoo, which I haven't been to since I was a kid. I'm pretty excited about that. The second season of Weeds starts today on Shotime, plus Pam's building her machine with a pre-release copy of Vista so I'm really excited to see how that looks :-) We've been downloading it all weekend... hopefully we'll build it today!

As for Saturday, that was a lot of fun too. Pam and I went to the Web so she could sing some karaoke and she did an amazing job, as usual! All the boys came up to her crying and complemented her on her beautiful voice and told her how moved they were (I guess the flowing tears require further, vocal explanation in New York--just to be sure). Pam was exhausted and went home shortly afterwards, but I stayed with Sue for the party and generally enjoyed myself.

Lazy Week

This week has been a fairly lazy week, although a lot has been going on. I've been meaning to update this since last Saturday, during which I got a little bit... shall we say buzzed?

The night started out pretty well, and, in fact, was going really well--up until the point when I decided to order Champagne. In order to celebrate Pam and Kasper's engagement a group of us met up at the Web including Bill, Becky, and others. We were waiting for Pam & Kasper to arrive from a concert on Randall's Island which went way too late. I decided to order a bottle of Champagne for the celebration, but because everyone was tired and they arrived so late, there was a bit of Champagne left over. I ended up finishing it off and had a really great night... at first. Basically I don't remember much after drinking the champagne except finding myself over the toilet much later that night. Apparently I was quite amusing :-)

Other than the long recovery this week, it wasn't all that bad. I'm sure I have much more to relate, but it's already getting late and I'm hungry. Tonight Pam is going to sing some Karaoke as well as one of my other friends, and the DJ's girlfriend (who ended up having some of that champagne as well) insisted that I come to her party, so that's after. Also, I guess I gave my number to some strange woman who insists on text messaging me quite a lot... God, I hope I'm still gay! :-)