Check this. You can put http://gabbly.com/ in front of any URL and it will pull up a chat box so you can chat with others who are on the same site. For instance, click here to chat with anyone here visiting takoyaki.org. Like anyone every visits… 🙁 (is that too emo) Oh, apparently it only works in Windows.
link via Rice Bowl Journals Forums
Thomas Arthur, originator of the Dodger Dog, has died. Ryan sent me L.A. Times article
KTLA article
We just got a sprinkler system put in our yard, and I must say, it is awesome. I can’t believe I lived for five years in our old house, and didn’t have a sprinkler system. I am so *not* going to miss dragging that frickin hose around, trying to water each part of the yard. Especially in the Texas heat with the mosquitos and other critters. Our sprinkler man, who was recommended by our neighbors, said, “What the sprinkler system does is give you back your time, that’s all.” And he is right. But that’s not all. Now the lawn and garden will be nice and healthy, and not suffer from my lapses in watering. I have the timer set to water the vegetable garden each morning for a few minutes. And when I want to water the lawn, I just push a single button, and can go about my business. It’s so great! A little expensive, but totally worth it.
At my work, we just launched a new logo. Along with that, we got new goodies, one of them being a nice new coffee mug. The only problem is that they are white, which means I can’t spend a month between cleanings like I am used to doing with my black mug… dang. I’d take a photo of it to show you all, but it’s already kinda gross-looking.
I already have the Japanese DVD release of Betty Blue, but the US release is the “Unrated Director’s Cut”, which is supposed to have some restored and extra scenes. It’s less than $10, so I ordered it. I remember seeing this movie at the Bijou Theater in Hermosa Beach when it came out. I was really looking forward to Jean-Jacques Beineix’s follow-up film to Diva, which is my all-time favorite movie. Betty Blue is definitely up there in my list of favorite movies as well, and has much of the same style as Diva, but the story is completely different. It’s got a lot more mature scenes (the opening scene is a pretty graphic love scene), and the story has a lot of situations that aren’t appropriate for kids. Nothing violent, but just things that kids wouldn’t understand. Anyway, the film is shot beautifully, with excellent use of color and dreamy locations. The acting is great, there are good comic situations as well as serious ones, and to top it off, the soundtrack is fantastic.
A short video of the kids enjoying the hot Texas sun. (QuickTime mp4, 23.7MB)
I had a great Father’s Day yesterday! It started out early, with Bay nudging me awake at about 7:00, whispering, “Papa, Papa!”. I looked over and asked him what was the matter. He said, “Happy Father’s Day” and then went back to sleep. It was pretty darned cool. A half hour or so later, I heard them all go downstairs and they left me to sleep an extra hour. What a bonus! When I finally made my was downstairs, Bay gave me a card and my gift, which was a great cookbook of donburi dishes. Mariko knows I love donburi, and now I can’t wait to try making some of the dishes in the cookbook. Next, I had my morning coffee and relaxed in front of the tv.
Mariko told me earlier that she would be making brisket, corn on the cob, potato salad, and sausage for dinner, so I was looking forward to that all day. We went to the supermarket to buy all the food, then came home and the boys and I played and watched tv while Mariko prepared the food. I even was able to watch an episode of Trick on my laptop! Around 6pm we had the big bbq feast. The bbq brisket was excellent, and I ate it on homemade rolls, with bbq sauce, pickle slices, and onions. The corn on the cob was sweet, and the potato salad was perfect. I was stuffed!!! That evening, the kids fell asleep early because they didn’t have their naps, and I got to play computer games until midnight. That’s pretty much a perfect Father’s Day!
I love this… thank you Chris, for sending me this. It is a wonderful phone conversation with an AOL rep. I love it.
I have watched all the Gokusen episodes I have that are subbed, so I started on another drama which stars Nakama Yukie (仲間由紀恵) and Namase Katsuhisa (生瀬勝久) of Gokusen fame. This show is called “Trick”, and it is also highly addictive. I was up until 4:30AM *again* on Sunday night watching. This drama has been called “a Japanese X-Files”, and there are some similarities, but it is definitely not a copy.
The general storyline is that Naoko Yamada (Nakama), a magician by trade, teams up with a physicist Jiro Ueda (Abe Hiroshi 阿部寛) to expose fake spiritualists and psychic mediums. Yamada knows all about magic tricks and is a true skeptic, while Ueda is science focused, and had some martial arts training. Along the way, they meet up with police detective Kenzo Yabe (Namase), who is hilarious as the silly, toupe-wearing lawman. The stories (I have watched the first two already) span three episodes each, and are kind of serious, but have their funny parts, mostly in the dialogue between the main characters. It’s interesting to see how Nakama and Uedo figure out the hoaxes and tricks to solve the mysteries. There is an overarching storyline as well, with a foretelling of Nakama’s confrontation with a genuine spiritualist, who killed her skeptic father, and is foretold to also kill her.
I can’t wait to watch more of this drama (there are a total of three seasons), and I hear that a movie is being made based on the TV show. That would be awesome!
It will probably only last one day, so I got to celebrate while I can.