Viewing Category: Miscellaneous
2008 Dec 02
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!
2008 Nov 08
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!
2008 Nov 05
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!
2008 Oct 19
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.
2008 Sep 12
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.
2008 Aug 14
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.
2008 Jul 10
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...!
2008 Jun 13
I finally finished covering my Honda C70 with red paint! I didn’t do the entire bike (underneath the legshield and a couple other hidden places), but unless you look really closely, you wouldn’t know that it was originally blue. Next, I need to route the wiring to the rear turn signals more cleanly. This means drilling a hole in the fender to drop the wires down. I bought a little black rubber grommet to make the hold look a little nicer, and I don’t foresee any trouble. While I have the rear wheel off, I think I am going to replace the tire/tube. The front one was a pain to replace. It just took a lot of elbow grease to do it, but I’m still not looking forward to it. After that, the things I want to do are to straighten out the footpegs, then shave to seat foam down a little. Also I bought a little switch cover for the hi-beam switch, since it had broken off.
Just this week I also got my new license plate and registration sticker. The title should be in my hands in a couple weeks as well. Then the only thing from keeping the bike from being fully legal is the inspection. Hopefully she passes without any problems.
2008 Jun 11
Yay for the Honda Supercub! Still going strong at 60.
