I’m not sure how I missed this dorama when it first aired, but I’m happy to have found it and watched the whole series in a couple days. (A couple long nights, actually) I’m a fan of Miho Kanno and thought she did a great job as Kiina, a detective who handles the odd cases that the regular detectives find either too goofy to take. Each episode is about a single case, usually involving some kind of supernatural angle, but ultimately is solved by some kind of scientific explanation. It’s pretty easy to figure out who the culprit is but the interesting part is how they explain how the crime was done. What makes Kiina (the character) special is that she has a photographic memory, and picks up on obscure clues throughout the investigation. She’s also very idealistic, and her partner serves as a counterbalance to her personality. It’s a pretty good dorama, and I recommend watching it. My only complaint was that the subplot involving the chief wasn’t very interesting, or the resolution of that subplot wasn’t as fulfilling as it could have been. But still, each episode is pretty fun to watch. Also, each episode features a different guest star who will be familiar to regular dorama viewers.

This year we celebrated Chinese New Years at the Hsiang Yun Buddhist Temple. Koa performed with his Kung Fu class, and there was an amazing Lion Dance. In the evening we ate a great vegetarian Chinese dinner, then went to the Lantern Dharma service. It was a long day, but lots of fun!

There are three Japanese doramas I am watching right now. Ryuusei No Kizuna is the one that both Mariko and I are both interested in, so we watch more or less at the same time. (I have to wait a little longer for the subtitles to be released, but that’s just a few days) This story is about three siblings whose parents were murdered when they were youngsters. Now in their twenties, they try to find the solution to the mystery that has eluded both them and the police for all those years. The story has a bunch of interesting sub-plots, and what looked like a simple motive to the crime has become complicated and there are a couple of good twists. The acting is pretty good, with the main three roles being acted out convincingly. It’s a little hard to identify and fully sympathize with them, however, since they aren’t the most likable bunch. They part-time as swindlers, and the oldest brother is the mastermind, but he’s also kind of weak and pitiful. Then there’s a couple romances starting to happen, and one of them just seems too kimochi warui (bad feeling). Apart from those small things, I am finding this dorama to be fun to watch, and I look forward to each episode, wondering how they are going to resolve all the small subplots as well as the main story. I’m also a big Toda Erika fan, so it’s nice to watch her every week. She’s actually a pretty good actress!

I’ve really been enjoying my new phone’s multimedia features, especially the video player. It really is easy to watch Japanese dorama on it. I just need to prepare the episodes using the excellent xvid4psp converter beforehand. That converter has a batch feature which makes converting an entire series a breeze. I have found that the iPhone/iPodTouch preset works well for the G1, and the beautiful screen in the phone makes reading the subtitles super easy.

Right now I am catching up with “Mop Girl”, which isn’t so great after two episodes, but I’ll stick with it for at least a couple more to see if it picks up. At least the main character is a cutie!

This morning while driving Bay to his school, I noticed one of the houses that had a McCain/Palin yard sign had an American flag displayed. Except it was at half-staff. In contrast to this, when I arrived at Bay’s school, a school bus pulled up, and the kids were all chanting “O-Ba-Ma!”. It was really something!

Powell also said he was troubled that some Republicans ― he excluded McCain ― continue to say or allow others to say that Obama is a Muslim, when he is a Christian. Such rhetoric is polarizing, he said.“He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America,” Powell said. “Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?"”

[from an AP story on Yahoo! News]

Whenever I hear people saying “Obama is a muslim” or “Obama is an Arab” part of me thinks, “So what if he is? Isn’t our country founded on All Men are Created Equal?” The other part of me thinks that this country has become a scary place to live in.

I watched the Sarah Palin interview last night, and my first reaction was that her’s and Charlie Gibson’s feet were too close to one another. It made me feel uncomfortable. Have you ever been in a meeting and your foot and the foot of the person sitting across from you are almost touching? And you realize that and then kind of pull back a little, and for the next few minutes are bending your ankle awkwardly so as to not make contact? That’s what I was thinking about.

Mariko goes into the garage this morning and then comes to get me. “It smells like gas in the garage!”. So I rush in there, knowing that it must be from the supercub since I just filled it up yesterday. I said, “Oh, my supercub must be leaking.” And she says, “Oh good, I thought it was one of our cars.” To which I replied, “What?! The supercub is my baby!” Anyways, I guess it is time to order a new fuel petcock as the old one wasn’t completely sealing off the fuel flow. And I need to take apart the carb and make sure the fuel cutoff inside the bowl is working correctly. Either one of those would have prevented the leak.

I really like the look of this helmet. Right now I have a full-face HJC similar to this, but like the open-face look better. I know it’s safer to have the DOT/Snell approved helmet I use now, but still...!