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Archive for the ‘Musings’ CategoryThis is circulating around the net from Douglas Adams, the last part of “Life, The Universe and Everything”. I thought I would preserve its greatness here also. 16 things it takes most of us 50 years to learn 1. The badness of a movie is directly proportional to the number of helicopters in it. 2. You will never find anybody who can give you a clear and compelling reason why we observe daylight-saving time. 3. You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she’s pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment. 4. The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers. 5. There comes a time when you should stop expecting other people to make a big deal about your birthday. That time is: age 11. 6. There is a very fine line between “hobby” and “mental illness.” 7. People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them. 8. If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be “meetings.” 9. The main accomplishment of almost all organized protests is to annoy people who are not in them. 10. If there really is a God who created the entire universe with all of its glories, and he decides to deliver a message to humanity, he will NOT use as his messenger a person on cable TV with a bad hairstyle or in some cases, really bad make-up too. 11. You should not confuse your career with your life. 12. A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter/janitor, is not a nice person. 13. No matter what happens, somebody will find a way to take it too seriously. 14. When trouble arises and things look bad, there is always one individual who perceives a solution and is willing to take command. Very often, that individual is crazy. 15. Your true friends love you, anyway. 16. Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance. I just wrote a long response to Sharon Stone’s comments made at Cannes but had to delete the article for fear of being hunted down. So instead I would like to make this comment: China, I am very sorry for you and your people. I hope one day you will understand the choices you make and that your people will one day have the fortune of being able to make choices. For the 1.3999999 billion people who are being told what to say and do, and being lead by men who cause harm to more, I can only say I am sorry. I cannot speak my mind on this blog because your government has put enough fear in me to help. May I say these words in humble respect…please…oh please stop sending that [deleted] yellow sand over here. Here’s one for ya. Since I’m falling deep into this 3D world stuff I thought I’d share this nice video of a new world coming out in Japan called Daletto. Just so you can see where I’m spending my waking ours these days…sorry…gotta get another project off the ground that will hopefully bring some food to the table (again). I’m working on what’s called a holodeck. The technology is already a year old and probably everyone but us knows about it, so I thought I’d show you. The video below shows how a holodeck can be used to create almost any environment within a single box. The possibilities for this in English teaching are obvious. This next video is something I just found today when looking for a video to post about the holodeck. I’m not quite sure what to think of this one. I have seen avatars wearing an object on their head that displays real time video from the user’s web cam, but the voice to text thing….hmmm. Sounds pretty good though, don’t you think? From RedOrbit BERLIN - A man nearly died from alcohol poisoning after quaffing a liter (two pints) of vodka at an airport security check instead of handing it over to comply with new carry-on rules, police said Wednesday. ————— It’s not Japan, but it rings true here on a stupid Saturday night out with the co-workers. It’s called “IKI IKI!!” Now most chain izakayas have signs posted saying “Don’t be a baka, save Taka.” Just kidding. They say to drink carefully; almost as worse. Maybe Japan will combat such irresponsible behavior in 2009 according to this article:
For those who are on a budget and want to know how to be a cowboy, roll your own cigarettes. Here, I’ll show you how. Japan has a ton of tobacco shops selling Cuban cigars and a huge variety of various roll tobacco. |
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Anki - Studying Japanese - Motivation:
What's goin' on....:
16 things it takes most of us 50 years to learn:
Is it worth it to go to Japan?:
Podcast Episode #87:
Podcast Episode #86:
Staying focused in Japan:
I'm my wife's guarantor:
Podcast Episode #85: