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2004 May 31
We are taking it easy today, having some good friends over for dinner. I am making some burgers on the grill, with a new recipe I got from a burger cookbook. Some of the ingredients are dijon mustard, shallots, and sake. It should be delicious. 2004 May 27
2004 May 22
I finally have a laptop of my very own! It’s actually Mariko’s old laptop that, with some help from friends, has been brought back from the dead. It’s got a nice 12GB HD, 32 MB of memory, a Pentium II processor running at 266mhz, and a beautiful 800x600 display. Not only that, but it’s running the latest and greatest OS, Windows98. It’s actually not that bad...really. My main motivation for getting this running is just to have a laptop that sits on my bedside table that I can use to connect to MLB Audio games, so I can listen to the Dodgers lose while I fall asleep. I couldn’t get my PocketPC to connect succesfully to the MLB streams, otherwise I would be using that. Besides the audio streaming, I guess I will use it for IM’ing, email, and web browsing. For the IM I will use Trillian/Yahoo!/ICQ, and I might use Opera to connect to my IMAP mail server. I really like the interface. I think that’s all I will load on it. Right now it boots up really fast, and I don’t want to slow it down by adding all the junk like RealAudio, Quicktime, etc. I don’t think this computer can handle all the good stuff anyways. 2004 May 21
A mosquito bit me on the top of my right ear. I hate mosquitos. I wonder if that mosquito magnet” works. I saw it at Costco the other day for something like $250. One of our friends had a little electronic/ultrasonic device that is supposed to repel mosquitos. She got it from Japan. It’s small, about the size of a garage door opener. I need that. I’m willing to try anything because I hate mosquitos so much! Even more than fire ants. Arrrgh! 2004 May 17
This cd is so great. I recommend picking it up if you can. I remember listening to K*I*S*S on the Toyoko line going back home. The Tokyo FM jingles are pretty cool too. My two favorite songs are キャット・ウォーク (Catwalk) (St. Etienne Remix) and Friend & Lover. (click on the title to take a listen) In October of 96 I traveled a few times from Tokyo to Osaka to see Mariko. I would always take a late shinkansen from Tokyo station to Osaka station and Umeda. Catwalk was always the perfect soundtrack for speeding out of Tokyo on the shinkansen and cruising through the night, the lights outside a blur. Lyrics and translations to both follow… “キャット・ウォーク (St. Etienne Remix)” koko kara no hajimari wa
ki ni suru yo na koto
kyo wa
gogo wa
yoru wa
tarot card no uranai ni yoreba
asa wa
itsuka
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i’ll begin by talking
about something that puzzles me
today i’m just
in the afternoon
at night
according to the tarot cards
in the morning
someday
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
okashina hanashi
neboke manako
itsudemo naka ga ii
kino datte isshoni
honto ni totsuzen
okashi na hanashi
jikan wo kakete
omoikiri
honto wa
anna ni
fushigi na kimochi
maho kakete
it’s strange but
i told myself
we’ve always been
take yesterday for instance
as i was
it’s strange but
i’ll take my time
i’ll be thorough
you must
we’ve been
it feels strange
i’ll cast a spell
~Lyrics and translations found at Lyred.com~ 2004 May 14
This morning I stayed at home to take care of Koa. I got to watch a little morning TV, which I never get a chance to do. I decided to watch a show on ESPN2 called Cold Pizza. It was ok. But then I started thinking about actual cold pizza. I am not sure what is so good about cold pizza. I hear people say, “I love cold pizza in the morning.” I don’t know about you, but isn’t hot pizza better than cold pizza? And how often do you not have a microwave near your fridge? I mean, nuke it for 30 seconds, for goodness sake. And even if you’d rather not do that, doesn’t the thought of eating all that oil and grease while it’s in its solid form make you kind of ill? For some reason, this reminds me of something Adam Sandler once said. I think it was on SNL, and he had a commentary on the Weekend Update segment. He started rambling about how a sandwich is always better with lettuce on it. I totally agree! It adds so much: color, texture, moisture… And if you have an avocado handy, that is even better! 2004 May 13
They seem to have the best winning percentage in the Majors right now. (.688) That is so bizarre… Go Blue! The other day I bought a DVD writer for my computer. It was only $59, so I figured I’d just get it. It is a Lite-On 411s model, and while not the fastest (4X), it is popular, which means that should I ever run into trouble, I would probably be able to find plenty of help. At any rate, it installed with ease and I have not had any problems so far. It is compatible with all four standards, can play any region DVD (using a hack) and burns CD-R’s at some ridiculously fast speed. It also rips CD’s much quicker than my old drive. Plus, it replaced my internal DVD-RAM drive and my external CD-RW drive. Last night I converted one of our Mini-DV tapes to a DVD-R disc. It works great in our DVD player. I was just using the program that came bundled with the drive: Sonic MyDVD 4.5. It seems to do a great job of painlessly converting the tape to disc, and can build the title menu automatically, insert chapter stops every X minutes, or you can insert chapter stops manually.
The DVD I made last night was of Bay’s birth. I was planning on just starting the recording process, and then going to bed, but I ended up watching the entire tape. Bay gives a riveting performance in his reality-show debut. 2004 May 11
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The only problem is that it is in the high 90’s outside, so bbq’ing will be a little uncomfortable.
