I got a notice in the mail from Japanese Immigration telling me that my Permanent Residency Visa application was approved. Yippee! Now I don't have to pay for re-entry permits when I come home from vacation. That's one step away from becoming a full blown Japanese citizen, but don't hold your breath on that one. Come on Canada, don't be jealous. I still love you too.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm currently enjoying these Italian potato chips made with extra virgin olive oil and they're not half bad.

If you were to walk a mile in my shoes, you'd then have stinky socks. Hey, gimme back my shoes.

A couple times a week I try to eat an ultra-healthy dinner to make up for all the fatty foods I eat during the rush-rush Monday through Friday work week. Last night we made a really nice green salad - lettuce, cherry tomatoes, spinach, carrots, avocado, green peppers and baby cucumbers with a Japanese soy based (wafu) onion dressing topped with tuna. Sounds good doesn't it? Now wipe that drool from your chin.

While taking in large mouthfuls of salad and keeping up an interesting conversation with my one year old daughter regarding some mysterious thing only she could see on the ceiling and the baby picture on her Gerber brand jar of pureed prunes, I took a big bite out of my tongue.

I've never experienced that type of pain in that region of my face, or body for that matter. It would be the equivalent on a pain scale to being kicked in the privates. Yet on top of that you only have your self to blame where as it would be an incredible feat to bag oneself in the cojones.

I doubled over in pain, and out poured a mouthful of half chewed lettuce, cherry tomatoes, spinach, carrots, avocado, green peppers and baby cucumbers with a Japanese soy based onion dressing and a little bit of tuna. I rushed over to the kitchen sink and spit out blood, and for the rest of dinner I kept a wad of paper towel to the tip of my wounded tongue.

Speaking only in vowels I never did get a chance to ask Fran what she was talking about on the kitchen ceiling or if she recognized the Gerber baby from the hospital.

Pearl Jam's latest live acoustic offering "Live At Benaroya Hall" recorded at the home of the Seattle Symphony October 22, 2003 is set to be in stores today. The double CD features most of their classics unplugged and a few extras like an acoustic version of the Ramones' I Believe In Miracles', Bob Dylan's classic protest song 'Masters of War' and the Johnny Cash track '25 Minutes To Go'. Preview the album on iTunes and read customer reviews at amazon.com. I know where I'm heading after work today.

Update: Well maybe not today for Japan. The import will be released tomorrow and the domestic Japanese version won't be out for another month.

Late last night I saw what might have been the first televised commercial for a blogging service in Japan. Currently you have to sign up for a free account with Livedoor to view the streaming ads on their site.

Hmmn... I guess Livedoor is trying to court the late night nonsensical variety show types.

Ever since birth Frankie has been developing her own unique language, and last weekend she decided it was time to take it out of beta testing and release it to the public (Masako and I). I can't quite put my finger on it, sometimes I hear a hint of German then Chinese and a touch of Elvish and Punjabi with a thick Irish accent. Now imagine all these languages mashed together, spoken backwards with a mouthful of marbles and you don't even come close to her little linguistic creation.

Only on a handful of occasions either I or her mother have been the target of Frankie's unique verbal tongue-lashing, as most of her conversations are between her stuffed animals, the cat and a bag of potatoes.

Last night I really did a number on my MT configuration, accidentally stripping my main user account of editing permissions on all but one weblog. Fortuantly I found a neat little tool called MT-Medic. A slick CGI application that allows emergency tasks on MT such as my issue. Defiantly one to bookmark.

Flipping through the channels I landed on lala (ch. 44 for J-COM subscribers) and episode #004 of Jamie's Kitchen. Once every few months or so I stumble across Jamie Oliver's other show "Oliver's Twist" and make a mental note to watch or tape the next episodes, which of course I rarely do.

From the Food Network

From watching Oliver's Twist I came to believe that Jamie was this cool, easy going guy. Au contraire, as the shit-hits-the-fan in Jamie's Kitchen Oliver turns into a real hard ass with his crew of trainees. Mind you he's the kind you learn to respect as a teacher, and when complements come they mean that much more. I've never been a fan of "reality" TV shows but I�m patiently waiting for Japanese cable to air the next season of this one - Return to Jamie's Kitchen. Here�s a commercial (stunt double?).

A segment by CNN's Atika Shubert on the Fahrenheit 9/11 private screening in Tokyo has been airing all day on CNN World News. If you look closely at the first few seconds you can see my back as I walk into the theater (still shot of my backside). Watch the video. (8MB quicktime required)

No Need to Click Here - I'm just claiming my feed at Feedster

For them that is. I'm my usualy darling self. My sister came across this photograph of us while visiting her good friend (also in photo) in Toronto, who looked after me quite a bit during my years living there. Many days spent taking me to swimming lessons and dressing me up as a girl then sending me to the store for Archie comics. And to answer that burning question, Yes. I did get a free bowl of soup with my haircut, as was the style at the time.

Mr. P. Diddy, formally known as Puff Daddy, sometimes known as Puffy, never formally known as any symbol but formally before that know by his mother as Sean Combs now wants to be known as politically aware. Diddy had this to say on CNN yesterday.
Good for Mr. Diddy Puff. I'm truly happy for his new found passion and don't mean to criticize but does anyone else have a growing suspicion that P Daddy simply "borrowed" that message from some other established speaker then rearranged a few words then changed the timing a little?

Last night I was one of a hundred or so lucky people to be the first to see Fahrenheit 9/11 in Japan. It was a private screening set up at Toho Cinema in Roppongi Hills for members of a group called Democrats Abroad Japan and the press. I'm neither a Democrat (I'm Canadian) nor a member of the press, so how did I get a ticket? A nice lady from the DAJ by the name of Lauren Shannon happen to check my site and asked me to take pictures during the evening. Felt cool being asked "Who you with?" while checking in at the press table. "The Times", or "The Post" I wanted to say.

The film was exactly what I expected it to be, excellent. No big surprises or changes of heart for me as my despise of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq was well established already. Some photos I took during the evening can be found here. Unfortunately I could not attend the post screening party as the last train forced me to run out of the theater while the credits were rolling. Sticking around and taking more photos would have been great but killing time in a coffee shop till the trains start running at 5 am is not my idea of fun.

I've been invited to a special shindig tomorrow evening, and so today I celebrated by exchanging cash for goods and or services, otherwise called shopping. I picked up a much needed, and procrastinated about Speedlight flash for my Nikon SLR. What's the soiree you ask? I could tell you but then I would have to, well you know how it goes. Since killing someone via weblog or even RSS reader is not yet within the capability of current technology it'll just have to wait.

I'm not one to poke fun at others metal disorders, but a guy we meet in the elevator today is worth mentioning. From the ground floor to the 5th he assumed responsibility of elevator-man taking charge of the all important open close door buttons. He was what you could call a train geek or "aficionados" as the media calls them here. In a high pitched voice he imitated the train announcements from Shin-Yurigaoka station to Hon Atsugi on the Odakyu line. At the first floor he announced that the train was now leaving Shin-Yurigaoka Sta. bound for Odawara. When we arrived at the third floor he announced we were now pulling into Machida Sta. and politely added that we could transfer to the Yokohama line from here. Immediately as we departed the third floor he announced that the next station would be Hon Atsugi. Now this is where it all went wrong. See, the next station after Machida is Sagamiono, which was the station we were actually at, and following Sagamiono and before you get to Hon Atsugi you have to go through Ebina as well. The fact that he completely omitted two major express stations made me question really how "obsessive" this guy was. Maybe it's just plain old compulsive disorder, who am I to judge.

Maybe my expectations were set to high by hollywood, but to me it's like Rainman asking his brother to drive him to K-Mart for boxer shorts with the name Linda on them. Though in his defense he was very polite as he held the doors open and thanked us for flying Odakyu train lines.

Wow, that was a big one. Rocked the one floor house pretty good out here in Odawara, and for the first time I'm not complaining about being out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by rice fields. Not as big as as the quake last year but at 5.5 on the richter scale it was still a doozie.

If anyone ever says earthquakes get easier to deal with over time, they're absolutely full of it. Somehow I don't think anyone would ever say this, but if someone might say this that person would therefore be full of it. And by it I'm referring to dirty lies.

Luis has a few more details on the quake.

Is it just me or is anyone else frightened by the name "Department of Homeland Security"? I don't think they could they have picked a more orwellian name. Well, short of the Soviet Union's "Motherland" or Nazi Germany's "Fatherland" that is.

Seymour Hersh speaking at the ACLU 2004 America At A Crossroads conference last week regarding war crimes commited at Abu Ghraib. Watch for yourself, he speaks at 1:07.



link and transcript from Daily Kos. What's even more disgusting than this story, if that's possible, is that none of the big media outlets ever made a peep about Hersh's comments, and this is many days later.

Update: the story's been picked up by the blogsphere, boingboing, joi ito, metafilter to name a few, and in Salon's war room coverage.

On Monday Masako took Frankie to a small park very close to our apartment. Later that evening during dinner she told me how she had to pick out all the cigarette butts and trash from the sandbox before she could let Frankie play. I could feel a rant coming on, you know something about those dirty, dirty parks in Japan. But immediately after Masako when into how her good friend, that spent many years in Vancouver, told her about how children are educated about used needles in the parks and taught not to touch them. With the newer needle exchange programs I don't know whether or not this problem still exists in Vancouver but it sure put me back in my place.

I criticize things I observe in Japan often, yet I seldom do the same for Canada. I guess I should, though it�s always easier to hold the society that you live in under the microscope.

It probably would come as no surprise that I voted for the Victoria Green Party candidate Ariel Lade. The Greens failed to will a single seat in Ottawa, but because of changes under the Elections Finances Act, parties that are able to get 2% of the popular vote will receive $1.75 per vote in federal funding. Even though I knew it would be a close call for the Greens to simply win one seat in parliament I didn't feel my vote was going to be for nothing and that I had to vote for the "lesser of two evils."

The Green Party received some 580,000 votes, an increase of 458% since the 2000 federal election resulting in more than a million dollars in public funds each year. Now you can see why Jim Harris released a "Victory Speech" without winning a single seat. In his speech Harris thanked supporters and criticized the current electoral system. Below are a few quotes which really resonated with me.

I'm a real picky eater, even when it comes to desert. I'm not a big fan of maple walnut ice cream so it would be safe to say that raw horseflesh ice cream with "real raw chunks of meat inside" would be off my list. Or how about Oyster, Garlic, Whale, Ox Tongue, or Sesame Soybean and Dried Kelp ice cream? Tempting, but no thanks.

These and 16 other "mouth watering" exotic ice cream flavors are for sale at Ice Cream City in Namco Nanja Town in the Sunshine 60 building in Tokyo's Toshima-ku. But don't all go at once, as they might sell out of their famous Lettuce and Potato Ice Cream and then you'll just have to settle for plain old chicken flavor.

My rss reader tells me I'm not the first to post this. Oh fish sticks, thought I had a scoop.

I've walked by it thousands of times on the newsstands, yet never picked up a copy. Aera magazine, from what I gather, is a weekly Japanese current events magazine but what makes it different is the cover design. The cover portrait is usually some current newsmaker, politician, business person or celebrity but the style is very simple yet unique and really sticks out on the newsstand magazine rack.

Most current event magazines seem to rely on flashy graphic photos and big bold headlines to attract the eye but Aera Magazine goes in the opposite direction. Not much more then the magazine name, portrait photo, and issue date with a solid colour background. Sometimes the photo lighting looks quite harsh and most of the portraits seem to be shot without any makeup, (with exception to the Lisa Marie cover, they must have come to an understanding during that shoot) or professional hairstyling creating a very simple, clean and realistic look and feel. I don't intend on actually buying a copy any time soon because I would hate to open it up and be disappointed. Rather I'll choose to believe the content is as good as the cover.

Looked everywhere for audio from the Howard Dean Ralph Nader debate today, Dean's site, Ralph's site, C-Span (which had it but didn't work), a search on feedster, and finally found it on NPR of all places (yeah now I know they sponsored it).

I have the utmost respect for both men and IMHO neither came out battered and bruised like many in the blogsphere seem to be saying. Personally I agree 100% with what Nader says, I just don't believe that kind of change can be brought in at the presidential level, that is with the current system that is in place. I believe radical change works best at the local level and works it's way up the political ladder. The fact that the Green Party snubbed Nader this year and nominated David Cobb speaks volumes about Nader's candidacy this year. Why he feels the need to break out on his own instead of working for real change within in a growing progressive movement like the Green Party is beyond me, yet at the same time I really hope this doesn't tarnish Nader's incredible career. Dean did his job and got his point across clearly and diplomatically saying,

"I believe that in the end the people that I care about are served better with a John Kerry presidency than they are with a George Bush presidency."

"We can not let the perfect become the enemy of the good. The stakes are too high."

A food-marketing slogan adapted from the south pacific cannibal's own "You eat what you are". Marketing analysts dismissed trying to adapt other cannibal catch phrases such as "Mmmm… man-flesh!" , "My neighbour, it's what's for dinner." and, “Caucasian, the other white meat. ”

As a side note the Atkins marketing people declined our request for an interview. ;-)

How do you politely ask to see the legend diagram in the bottom of the box mapping the chocolate shape to the filling type, that is without offending the person making the offering of chocolate?

Well, I froze under pressure and now stuck with a chocolate with some sort of creamy lemon filling. I think I’ll leave it on my desk for someone to steal along with a small but growing pile of senbei, manjyu and individually wrapped soy based treats.

Just finished watching a 29 minute documentary critiquing the American mainstream media's "march to war" and war coverage called Independent Media in a Time of War.

A speech by Democracy Now's Amy Goodman spliced with independent images of civilian casualties and flashy CNN, MSNBC and FOX graphics touting "Operation Iraqi Freedom" and "Target Iraq". Most interesting for me was the comparison between CNN and CNN International when the statue of Saddam was pulled down. For American consumption on CNN video and images of Saddam's statue being toppled was shown over and over again all day, while over at CNN International a spilt screen was showing the scene from Baghdad on one side and photos of Iraqi civilian casualties and injuries on the other half. Personally I was watching CNNj and didn't see any split screen during coverage on that day.


I highly, highly recommend you take the time to watch this. (requires Real Player)

From: "BBC Breaking News Alert"
Subject: Iraq WMD 'may never be found'

Tony Blair tells MPs Iraq's weapons of mass destruction "may never be found".��

I'm shocked! Shocked I say. I wonder if they checked behind Saddam's sofa. When ever I'm missing something it's usually behind some ousted dictator's sofa, or as we say in Canada "Chesterfeild."

Yes and she's ugly. Some might even say she's really, really ugly. As someone somewhere might have said, "She may be evil, but she's still ugly." or that might have been stupid and ugly, but the point to get across here is the thing about her being ugly, can't stress that enough.

Frankie, I can't believe it's already been a year since you first came into our lives. I remember the details of that day well but what sticks in my mind most was the walk from the hospital and the train ride home.

You were the second last of eight babies born that day so I was able to work out a deal with the nursing staff to let me stay with you a bit after visiting hours finished. An hour later a nurse came and took you away, took you mother to her bed and brought her a well deserved meal as I led myself out into the darkened hospital hallway and out the back door. During the walk from the hospital to the train station I felt something change inside of me and it wasn't just the proud glow of being a father. In the narrow (non existent) side walk I saw a greater threat from on coming cars, in the smokers around the station I saw something I needed to protect you from, and in the teenage girl waiting on the platform I no longer saw just a person but as someone's daughter. From that point on the the way I thought about the world changed. A quote from U2's Bono best describes the way I feel.



So I guess what I'm trying to say is thanks for the wake up call. Happy Birthday, love Papa.

You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train is a new documentary film from Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller on historian, teacher, activist and author of A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn, which is currently on my growing reading list. Due out July 23 in limited release it should work as a good one two punch following Fahrenheit 9/11.

The Boston Phoenex's Matt Ashare had this to say; Update: Here's the official site plus a trailer featuring a song by non other than Pearl Jam (Down from Lost Dogs).