There is one blog…one place…that consistently reassured me through the long, dark days of unemployment. No politics…but I know where to find political blogs, lol.
November 2008 archive
Nov 29 2008
Random Japan
Cowboy Bebop Metallic Rain
Strange days
A former scaffolding worker was arrested for robbing an apartment in Shibuya by climbing down a drainpipe from the roof of the four-story building. The 36-year-old man had been dubbed Heisei no Musasabi (“flying squirrel of the Heisei Era”) for an earlier string of robberies.
Panasonic’s recent merger with Sanyo was apparently foretold last year in a manga called Senmu Shima Kosaku, which chronicles the travails of a fictional businessman who works for a company based on Panasonic.
A Japanese lunar exploration satellite has discovered that volcanic eruptions on the far side of the moon lasted 500 million years longer than previously thought.
A judge in Hokkaido told a man who received five years’ worth of disability payments by falsely claiming he was blind to stop “hamming it up” in court. The man, a 51-year-old resident of Sapporo, was sentenced to four years in prison.
The Japan Business Federation announced that ¥5.85 trillion could be saved each year if the country was divided into ten large geographical blocks instead of the current 47 prefectures.
Nov 29 2008
Patterns
A series on patterns should obviously start with a shot including multiple patterns.
The first one has weathered wood patterns, & a tortoise shell pattern on the snail shell. (ironic)
The wood grain pattern on the knife handle, which has a serrated blade pattern upon which a snail with it`s unusual skin pattern glides, rounds out the first image.
The rest follow in random pattern.
Enjoy
Nov 29 2008
Funky Friday
Since Budhy has abdicated his responsibility to provide:
Friday Funk for His Friends
it looks like i’m going to have to start things off with Cat.
Nov 29 2008
Pony Party: Leftovers
Cold Turkey – Plastic Ono Band
Yoko doing her best turkey impression — a little scary.
Mashed Potato Time – Dee Dee Sharp
and what are mashed potatoes without the ….
Gravy – Dee Dee Sharp
for dessert …
Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie – Jay and the Techniques
Nov 29 2008
Friday Night at 8: Backalley Blogging
The irony of backalley blogging on the FP has already been noted. As has this:
Sometimes while prowling back alleys you find things that don’t bear the light of day, brass ritual cymbal turns out to be a trashcan cover, exotic seafood dinner is really rotten fish guts.
Yet perhaps there’s some truth to these lies.
Here in NYC the sun has gone down. That’s the time to prowl.
With no apparent purpose, I will say that from an artistic view I’ve been frustrated by folks characterizing the far left as a given known group. Ever since I started hearing the stories of the hippies from the 60s and their adventures, I don’t see how they are ever truly portrayed in our political discourse and yet I would maintain they are the true left who inherited the real mantle from the same folks who worked for social justice in the 30s and 40s, those who came from Eastern Europe for good or ill who had a real revolutionary vision of equality and human rights which was passed through the wild American filter culminating in a generation of visionaries who to this day have not received their true (and well deserved) portrait in our album of history. I’ve also, in recent years, come to both meet and read about some of the fierce young people who have that same spirit but in a far more difficult environment, they hop trains and live on the street and protest from sheer howling passion, and these kids have not had their portrait included either. Anyway, just had to get that off my chest.
Nov 29 2008
Occasional Bike Blogging: Cargo Hauling
I saw the silliest thing on the Intertubes today. In the commentary thread to a Matthew Yglesias being silly and putting up this bit of silliness (I assume the makers are dead serious … after all, if true, it only makes it all the sillier) … I read (emphases added):
{name deleted to protect the likely non-innocent} Says:
November 28th, 2008 at 11:22 am… has been substantive, so let’s add:
It offers a way to increase the caloric demands of exercise without a concomitant increase of the stress on your joints and skeleton. A 130-lb woman running at 5 mph for 30 minutes burns only 263 calories. If she wants to burn more, her options are limited: increase time, increase slope, increase weight (with a weight belt). All those will increase her muscle output, but also increase the burden on her body. With this thing, she could attach weights and do more work without changing the burden on her joints. Could you add fifty-pound sandbags to a bicycle? Not without changing the balance a lot.
Entirely to one side of the vehicle in question … and in the context, what’s silly about the comment is that if you want a harder cardio work-out on a bike, you just seek out those hills that commuters are normally seeking to avoid … in what world is there any question of whether or not you could add fifty pound sandbags to a bicycle? Of course you could.
Mind you, how many fifty pound soundbags will determine exactly what provision you have to make.
Nov 29 2008
Friday Philosophy: dreams
The collective consciousness of the WeaveMothers sensed the impending change of gears of the Celestial Steam Locomotive.
The train approached a long uphill grade of the current happentrack. The Engineer engaged the lever of night. The passenger continued sleeping. The listener fell into a trance. And the storyteller dreamed for them all.
It was a tale of life on the borderland, of the place which was on neither this side nor the other side of the rainbow.
The WeaveMothers have appeared before. In what passes for chronological order, they are here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
Having ready Michael Greatrex Coney’s, Song of Earth is also helpful. Or you could just relax and accept the possibility of the Celestial Steam Locomotive passing through the Greataway.
Nov 28 2008
Tales From The Larder: Reading Labels Can Save Your Life
Being born into a family of hoteliers had some advantages, to be sure. As a kid I used to spend most of my winter time reading in the hotel larder because it was quiet, the overhead lighting was good and the smells were reassuring. And it was also a place where I could sneak in a few slices of bread and hack a bit of hard cheese, sit on my chair and dream about the origins of all the products we managed to store between bouts of reading. René Descartes liked to do his thinking in bed, I did mine in the larder. It was my domain throughout the winters and certainly not the place to be in the summertime as the hotel was taken over from April to October by a brigade of noisy, fellow loons.
So it was in that larder that I became seriously interested in food and I made a point of scrutinizing and itemizing every tin, bottle, bag, boxed spices, jars, blocks of cheese, preserves and all the hanging charcuterie; the country hams from various regions, the army of salamis, the rings of smoked sausages…I became an expert in label reading and developed a nose for sniffing out rancidity and spoiled goods.
Nov 28 2008
Four at Four
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The NY Times reports 5 Hostages Die as Mumbai Siege Persists.
As the crisis in Mumbai approached its third day, Indian commandos fought running battles with militants on Friday, still struggling to end the murderous assault on India’s financial capital that has shaken the nation and raised perilous regional tensions with neighboring Pakistan.
Two Americans were confirmed killed, among a total of at least eight foreigners who the Indian authorities said had died during the attacks. In addition, five bodies of Israeli citizens were removed from a Jewish center, Chabad House, after Indian commando units stormed the attackers inside the building, Israeli officials said. The terrorists had executed the hostages during the commando raid, the Indian military said.
Shortly before night settled over the stricken city, the police said the death toll had reached 143 with the discovery of 24 bodies in the luxury Oberoi hotel, where the police had finally taken control and many guests were set free on Friday.
Spiegel contributes with Struggling for control in the Mumbai war zone. Mumbai is India’s most progressive city. “Just days ago, Colaba, [a part of the city,] was still a relaxed café and restaurant quarter, a favorite in Mumbai, India’s most progressive city. Now, it is a war zone.” The “ongoing violence has the population wary and afraid. And nobody knows how it will end.”
A few people in my circles are asking what if this happened in the United States?
Below the fold is a smorgasbord of five more Four at Four stories.
Nov 28 2008
Help APA Anti-Torture Candidate Win Election
Monday, December 1, will be the last day members of the American Psychological Association can vote for president of the organization. Members can vote online at this link. They should cast their vote for the only progressive candidate standing for election, Steven J. Reisner, Ph.D.
According to the ranked nature of the APA ballot, members must mark Dr. Reisner #1 on the ballot. In a letter to his supporters, Steven describes his opponents’ tactics: