Muffin Man

Tue, 30 Jul 2002 13:16:04 GMT

A) Steve needs to get better quotes of the day, MUCH better.

B) He needs to go back to being good ol' Nifty McNiftage, and informal poll showed that Whimsy McNiftage is lame.

Wed, 05 Jun 2002 06:56:08 GMT

Why isn't Steve posting anymore, I mean, I know he has a new "job" but what the heck?

Sun, 02 Jun 2002 04:47:36 GMT

The two people that I hate most on this earth? Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis. Evander Holyfield because he is the biggest head butting boxer ever. (see any fight against Mike Tyson and the below fight. And absolutely everything about Lennox Lewis.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=577&e=1&cid=577&u=/nm/20020602/sp_nm/boxing_heavy_dc_3

Thu, 30 May 2002 02:51:28 GMT

#1 It is going to rain for two weeks
vs.
# 2 It will be raining for two weeks

Is there any instance where you _must_ use the #2 constuction above "will be - " as opposed to the #1?

Tue, 28 May 2002 03:08:05 GMT

I meant to do that.

Tue, 28 May 2002 03:07:22 GMT

I meant to do that.

Tue, 28 May 2002 03:06:49 GMT

I don't drink anymore, I don't know why. I keep meaning to start, but then I don't. I love booze, but only in the hypothetical sense. I might ask you to have a beer, but then I would say, "let's have cokes instead." when we get there, acting like, "usually I would have had a beer, but I'm not in the mood tonight. I'm still cool though."

Tue, 28 May 2002 03:06:11 GMT

Tue, 28 May 2002 03:05:26 GMT

Tue, 28 May 2002 03:04:47 GMT

Tue, 28 May 2002 03:04:45 GMT

Tue, 28 May 2002 03:04:06 GMT

Tue, 28 May 2002 03:03:27 GMT

Tue, 02 Apr 2002 16:39:27 GMT

The closest approximation I can make to descibring the flavor of that tea is hot briny fish vomit.

Tue, 02 Apr 2002 16:37:59 GMT

Today I drank the worst thing I've ever tasted times a billion. Konbu-cha, a kind of seaweed tea. Don't lie and tell me you've had it, because you haven't. And if you had, you definitely threw it up.

Mon, 01 Apr 2002 07:31:21 GMT

Ok, I just went to the Jesus statue links that BJennings called, "Padophillacly creepy" or something to that effect, and laughed so hard I almost wet my pants.

If anyone even mentions golf or hockey to me the rest of the day, I will be completely unable to recover.

Tue, 19 Mar 2002 01:30:53 GMT

A few things to think about:

A) Live Journal is basically a big glorified emailing list, and I don't really appreciate it. I don't see the point of all these people that I know writing these things online rather than just emailing them like they used to. This is all Steve's fault, because he wanted to meet new people, well ha Steve, your plan worked, are you happy now?

B) I expect that someday soon I will exceed my friends limit, that's unfortunate, but I've already decided who is going to be first to go.

C) I woke up at 8:43 today, and made it to work by 8:47, 17 minutes late, but only 2 minutes late for class.

Mon, 18 Mar 2002 02:20:06 GMT

A few things to think about:

A) Even though I don't like to admit it to myself, I have the feeling thatmy 60+ year old, 8th degree black belt Judo instructor could kick my ass. I mean, he doesn't look like it, but I think he might be able to.

B) I truly miss WCW. I miss Ric Flair, Scott Steiner, Luger, Hogan, Bischoff, the STINGER, the whole lot of them. The WWF has ruined wrestling, possibly forever. I think that my true goal in life is to buy WCW back from WWF and run it myself.

C) I really thought that Brad Pitt's character in Seven was annoying. I was not impressed.

Sat, 16 Mar 2002 09:15:48 GMT

A few things to think about:

A) There is nothing quite so essential as a good peeler when it comes to time to peel a large number of carrots. Some people might argue that hand dexterity is important, but I think the peeler is much more important.

B) Starship Troopers, "The classic novel that inspired the spectacular film" really has a tendency to stop and get preachy for long periods of time, especially for such a short book. I read most of it this morning on the way to get Sumo tickets for next thursday.

C) Josh Horowitz, I am personally taking issue with your interest in "Calpis." I can't even imagine a more disgusting drink to be interested in. Have you actually had it? It's horrid!!

Tue, 05 Mar 2002 14:04:34 GMT

Ok. I've been horrible about writing, time to make a concerted effort. This may also be a good time to note that I'm really annoyed how ever since Steve posts 50+ messages a day to livejournal, he no longer sends them to the list. I deserve better.

Anyway Japan is great, 6 months to go (less?) and time is just sliding by. I'll miss the 9th graders who are graduating next week.

I went to another funeral last weekend. Jacob probably would have smote me if he saw me pinching the incense and everything, but what can you do?

Tue, 05 Feb 2002 23:55:27 GMT

Today I'm bringing my judo uniform to junior high judo classes. There are a few misbehaving students that need to be taught a lesson.

Mon, 21 Jan 2002 04:47:45 GMT

---Nagasaki---

As you probably know, Nagasaki was the drop site of the second atomic bomb,
that is the cities claim to fame. Other things it is famous for are Champon,
which is basically ramen with a bunch of extra stuff in it. Castera, which
is some sort of cake that tastes exactly like the generic, non-Nagasaki
Castera that I used to buy in the supermarket last year sometimes. And
Chinese food, and MAN did we eat some good Chinese food there for our last
dinner.

Wait, that reminds me, they have a pretty cool China town in Nagasaki, it
was definitely nicer than the other China towns I've been to in Japan
(Yokohama and Kobe). Maybe it wasn't nicer, but the food was better. And
they had cooler "traditional" Chinese crap you could buy. This might be a
good time to mention that 100% of EVERYTHING in Japan was made in China.

We took a night bus there from Kyoto. Twelve hours, 7pm-7am. I slept pretty
well, and we stopped at convenience stores twice, I wasn't mad about it. And
I kept NO semblance of a diet whatsoever while on this vacation, just so you
know.

We stayed in a business hotel, and of course, stayed in a single room under
only Kay's name, and it was a small hotel, and they hassled us the whole
time, (two nights), and I ended up giving them an extra $25 for the second
night. Those idiots. I think the single room for one person was like 5,000
yen.

We saw Vanilla Sky and Harry Potter while we were there. I liked Vanilla
Sky, but Harry Potter was nothing special. This was by far the nicest
theater I've seen in Japan.

---Kumamoto---

Kumamoto is famous for a few different foods, raw horse included. Needless
to say, I didn't eat any, but Kay did, and she didn't feel real well the
next day either. (in Unzen).

I think the only thing we saw in Kumamoto was Kumamoto Castle, which was
pretty nice. I think the Japanese rank it as one of the 3 nicest castles,
and a lot of it is still original, I think. (Most Japanese castles have been
rebuilt)

We stayed in a Japanese style Ryokan here, which in this case, was some guy
who had a big ass house and gave people a room. You slept on the floor, he
made you tea and made your beds. It was 3,000 yen a person, it was stupidly
cold, and that was one of the best nights sleep I've had in years. He also
picked us up from the train station, which was really nice (he also dropped
us off there again at one point. And we ate in Mister Donut 3 times during
our two days and two night there, because Mister Donut is NOT a terrible
restaurant.

---Unzen---

This is an island in Nagasaki prefecture in between Nagasaki and Kumamoto.
We took a bus from Nagasaki to Kumamoto and then took a ferry back to Unzen.
I think the bus took the ferry once to get us across in the first place, but
I was asleep. Anyway, the ferry was like $5, and it was like a Ferry to the
Stars or something. Seriously, that was a nice boat. Although they were
selling these tiny cookies for $1.25, that almost made me pass out because
they were so small. That might be the secret. Then we took a long ass bus
ride up a huge hill and arrived in some place. We ate a really shitty Curry
Lunch which Kay almost threw up (note to self: Good job not eating the raw
horse) then we hiked around looking at these big pits of steaming sulfer
which stunk to high heck, as sulfer tends to do. Unzen is famous for those
sulfer pits and for Onsens, or natural hot water springs which are prevalent
throughout Japan. Kay and I paid a small fortune to use one in a hotel,
however, it was worth it, because it was gigantic, and we bathed like gods.
And outdoor hot springs are a very nice way to bathe, even though this one
had a view of absolutely nothing.

Kay was feeling a bit better after the bath. Although I doubt the long windy
bus up and down that stupid hill helped anything. And back we went, back on
the wonderful ferry, back on the bus, back to Kumamoto.

---Aso---

We took it easy our last day in Kumamoto, and ended up at the Aso Youth
Hostel around 9pm. I was really tired and very much confused when an elderly
lady at the station tried to pick us up. But she did, and she took us back
to the hostel. Apparently, she drove to the station for every train once it
got dark to look for people with reservations. We didn't know she was
coming, but it was good to find her there. This was my first time in a Youth
Hostel, and for $20 a night/person, it wasn't bad at all.

The next morning, we took another bus up another big mountain to Mt. Aso,
which is an active volcano. There was a lot of snow, it was VERY cold, and I
was freezing my butt off, and grossly overpaid for a crappy knit hat. But
had no gloves. We hiked around and did this and that, breaked for a snack
after an hour, with me, barely managing to cling to life. I felt much better
(and worse) after a $6 hot chocolate, and back to the trails we went.
However, this time, we played it smart (my shoes being 3 year old Vans with
no tread whatsoever) and hiked on a big street, narrowly being missed by the
many buses that would drive you up that same street for about forty cents if
you had any sense in your head at all. Anyway, at the end of that 30 minute
"hike" we were now able to take a cable car the rest of the way up the
mountain. We could have hiked (an actual hike), but it would have been
suicide for anyone but a truly winter-hardened Canadian. So we took the car,
ignored the warnings of poison gas and wandered around the rim of a very
large volcano. Comfortingly enough, there were actually concrete shelters
built around the rim because this volcano was prone to erupting
spontaneously, and now and then killed a bunch of tourists. However, signs
assured us that the shelters provided little defense against flowing lava,
and we would be better off running like hell.

All Aso is famous for is volcanos, (most of which we saw but didn't visit,
and the big volcano, which we went to. We went back to the Youth Hostel that
night, (9pm curfew!) and were up godforsakenly early the next morning to get
to Beppu.

---Beppu---

I think we took a train here, a city famous for hot springs and hells. The
hells are these naturally colored pits of super-heated water that boil and
smoke, and were used at one point to cook Christians in. Now, they boil
eggs, which I didn't eat. And the steam from them can be used to cook
various crap. But the steam is stinky sulfer, and I can't imagine that this
hell-food would taste very good, and I didn't eat it. Some people were
drinking cooled spring water, which almost made me throw up. There were
about 6 of these hells, each with it's own gimmicky crap, one had a bunch of
animals, one had 200 alligators and crocodiles (that was pretty cool). The
others were forgettable. But the path you followed to each one took you
through at least 3 different shops selling crap.

We also went to another cheaper hot spring in Beppu which wasn't nearly as
huge and luxurious as the hotel one. However, the private rooms were all
sitting next to each other, and when people talked it sounded like they were
in the room with you because they the walls were only several microns thick,
as is the Japanese custom.

---Fukuoka---

Fukuoka is the biggest city on the island of Kyushu (the island we were on),
and we spent the day and a half we were there wandering around a gigantic
shopping mall known as Canal City. We didn't do anything else. But we had
these mini-chocolate croissants in the train station that were incredibly
good, I ate a few. Basically, we were really relieved to be back in
Civilization. And we saw Spy Games, which was a lot better than I expected,
although not great. We ate at a good Indian restaurant for lunch, were
sickeningly full all day, and ate a small dinner at RAMEN STADIUM. Imagine,
the entire floor is taken up by different ramen shops, each specializing in
ramen of different areas of Japan, it was truly awe inspiring to be there.
And we liked it so much, we stayed an extra half day the next day so we
could eat lunch there. However, the best ramen I had on the trip was in
Nagasaki, and it was not Champon. And yes, Ramen Stadium did have
appropriate pictures of cooks doing battle with Ramen all over the place,
and it was probably the coolest place I've ever been, at least in concept.
There was a cellular type store which had some computers available for
demonstrating wireless internet, that was the first time I checked email on
the trip, and I didn't read any, just made sure it wasn't overflowing.

---Miyajima---

Miyajima is a little island off the coast of Hiroshima, home to one of the
three most beautiful places of Japan. The second I've visited, and while it
was nice, it wasn't nearly as cool as the first one. They had a lot of
temples and stuff on the island, and a lot of crap to buy. We had eaten
breakfast in Hiroshima, I think. But as we were heading toward the ropeway,
to take a cable car up the mile high mountain, we were told that being as it
was the 31st, the ropeway was being prepare for a special New Year's
celebration of some kind the next day. SOOOOO, we hiked up the damn hill.
Now I'll tell you, there are two ways up this hill, the actual path, and the
Amazon like emergency path that we took that is basically only for morons.
It was not an easy hike up that hill, but we made it. SO TAXING was this
hike, that we skipped going to a monkey park that was 3/4 of the way up the
mountain, because we didn't want to take one stupid step out of our way. We
reached the top, climbed up onto an observation deck a few stories up, had
something to drink, stood there frozen for a few minutes, took a lot of
pictures. (because you can bet this is the last mountain _I_ am ever hiking
up, so better immortalize the moment.) And we barely made it back down
before dark.

---Hiroshima---

We spent New Year's Day touring Hiroshima city, which I've decided I don't
like. The Nagasaki bomb stuff was done much much better. However, the day
was saved by us meeting some "Raliens" these people that believe life was
started by extraterrestrial life. I had heard of them, but I had never met
them. They were also passing out a petition for people to sign to have the
US government pay reparations to victims of the bomb. I asked him if the
Japanese government had cut any checks to China or Korean victims of Japan's
Imperialistic overtures, and he started going off about American
mistreatment of "Blacks, Brazillians, and Portugeuse." My Japanese was not
good enough to argue with someone who was as worked up as he was at this
point. in time (and he spoke no English), so we walked away, even though I
was really annoyed. My favorite part was when he tried to appeal to Kay for
sympathy for his cause, and Kay said she wasn't Japanese and he says, "Oh,
we got TWO foreigners here!" (to his friends nearby) I wasted a perfect
opportunity to practice my Japanese cursing. Sucks to be me.

End of Report

Mon, 17 Dec 2001 10:37:59 GMT

I have been so bad about posting lately, good lord man. Here's something moderately interesting:

Here is my Bonenkai report:

--- Dec 13 - Yakuba Ekiden Bonenkai ---
Event: City Hall Relay Team Holiday Party
Cost: $20 (subsidized!)
Food: Nabe and Peking Nabe - Nabe (Nah-Beh) is basically a big pot of broth
with all sorts of different meats and vegetables thrown in and boiled
together, and you keep adding stuff as it gets emptier. It's pretty good,
but everyone makes too big a deal of eating this shit in winter. Peking
Nabe, is the "Chinese" version, which means it basically a pan of chicken,
hakusai (no idea what that is in English, but it literally translates to
'stinky leaves' even though you're not supposed to read it that way), and
garlic. And the pan is not boiled, but sort of pan fried.

--- Dec 15 - Yagi-chu Wakaba Bonenkai ---
Event: Yagi Junior High Young Leaves Holiday Party (teachers/staff)
Cost: $50 (argh)
Food: Nabe - As is the lame custom, everybody loves eating this in the
winter, because it's hot and winter is cold. But $50 for a nabe dinner makes
me FURIOUS. I mean, yeah, so there was a little extra fish and pork in it,
but fuck that, FIFTY DOLLARS FOR BASICALLY A POT OF SOUP. Yeah, we got to
eat one little orange each for desert, and the place was really fancy, and I
stole an orange. The special ed class at Yagi junior high is named "Falling
Leaves Class" so I guess they borrowed that name for this party, but I don't
know why.

Several more to go

Mon, 03 Dec 2001 05:15:20 GMT

I haven't written for days, but my weight is too embarassingly low right now to put into print. Maybe I should get a cup of coffee. I'm going to try to start doing the stupid bike at the gym. Oh, how I hate cardio work.

Fri, 30 Nov 2001 12:35:49 GMT

I haven't written in hours! But let me just say that I had a great workout today. And let me go on the record by saying that Smashmouth is the worst band EVER.