On the way home from the office today (on call technical support), I spotted what looked like a vintage camera case in the window of a thrift shop. It turned out to be a Konica C35 Automatic, a compact rangefinder from the early seventies I'd been eyeing on Yahoo! Auctions for a while in Japan, and they only wanted six bucks for it. There's some minor deteriation of the foam seals, but other than that it's clean and feels solid. This will be the perfect take-anywhere camera to keep in my bag. I just need to buy some dirty cheap film to put through it.

Update: I shot a test roll today which came out quite well despite not enough battery power to operate the meter needle. I replaced the old 1.35v mercury battery with a Wein Cell MRB675, which is meant to replace any camera specifying PX675 mercury cells, and it's like new. And my request for the missus next hair cut to be like that of the Konica model above was respectfully declined.

On the way home after picking up Masako and Frankie, feeling hungry, I decided to make a pit stop at the maccas drive-thru. I ordered at the window and the girl asked me if that was "for here or to go". Seeing as we were already in our car with engine on, we decided on the 'to go' option. Masako started laughing, which in turn made me start to giggle, and Frankie, not wanting to be left out, let out a darn good fake laugh from the back seat. It's been a stressful week, for all of us apparently.

Is there a name for those moments where you feel you shouldn't laugh but can't stop yourself for whatever reason? I was always very prone to these episodes in school, and the angrier the teacher became the situation always seemed to get funnier.

Advertising/Design Goodness just posted an interesting layout of Canon logos since 1943 (above). From Canon, While I dig the whole "1,000 arms and flames" concept, you have to admit todays logo, while sterile in comparison, just feels better.

Going through some old photos and feeling very nostalgic, and do I dare say, homesick for Japan. Hopefully once the seas calm a bit we should be feeling better about life here, but I guess the grass is always greener.

Here we are three months after moving back to Canada, holding down employment with slim chance of contract renewal in two months, problems with Canada Post mysteriously bypassing the Vancouver customs office for reevaluation and shipping a box of our worldly possessions back to sender (read Japan), British Columbia's Medical Services Plan providing us with bum information back in May and the possibility of a $20,000 medical bill, and general run-of-the-mill suckyness all around. Other than that everything is peachy. The highlight of my week -- roasted pumpkin seeds. Toss your cleaned seeds in some olive oil and a generous amount of sea salt, and lay out on a baking sheet for about 30 minutes at 300 degrees.

So I was googling my name the other day (shut up, you do it to), and came across this article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Just for the record, like it needs to be said, this is not me. And if I'm ever in Vegas I'll be sure to keep my distance from the crank and homicidal fugitives.

Haven't decided on a sofa yet, but until then we still have our two precious rocking chairs.

I have fond memories of my first canned coffee shortly after arriving in Japan. My mother-in-law stocked the fridge with a few cans of Georgia Emerald Mountain Blend, and not long after she noticed I took a liking to it a case appeared above the laundry machine. Brewing a pot of coffee should not be on any sane persons to-do list during a hot Japanese summer afternoon, so those cold cans of Georgia, along with Mild Sevens, became close, close friends that summer. I had an on-again off-again relationship with the stuff. On when a newly designed can or brand showed up in stores and vending machines, and off when my body started sending me those little tell-tale signs that if I kept consuming the coffee-flavoured beverage bad stuff would follow.

By far the best, and only place to my knowledge for can coffee reviews can be found in Kuhaku and in the Chin Music Press blog Coffee Mondays. Now Chin Music Press brings us Canned Coffee. They've got posters, an e-book, and most importantly an all-in-one RSS feed.

I've finally been able to join the employed ranks of 93.2% of Canadians, and can now say the riskiest part of moving back to Canada is behind us. And what a relief it is. I was employed in under a week when we first moved to Japan, so it was rather stressful and a shock to have to wait out two full months to find a job here. Watching our savings slowly disappear, most of the couples we spoke to mentioned that three months is about the average it takes most to find a new job in this city. Victoria is starting to feel really small, but being able to walk to work downtown in under 10 minutes is unbelievably great.

No more Folgers and Busch for this guy. We can now afford to buy some proper living room furniture, which up until now has consisted of only two rocking chairs. And they're great as far as rocking chairs go, don't get me wrong. But it's still a rocking chair, and I have two of them. No matter how big your home, trust me you only need one, and I use the word need lightly.

My installation of Movable Type, recently upgraded to 3.2, has been a real pain in the ass the last few weeks, not allowing page rebuilds or allowing comments on posts. Everything is up and running now, thanks to the savy troubleshooting skills of my host, minus the offending SmartyPants plugin. If you've left a comment and it didn't show up feel free to post again, or just email me directly if you were asking a question.