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[HiFranc]

At least you recognise that it's your inner dialogue.

[Barmymoo]

My inner dialogue is usually angry, either at me or at someone else (often tourists who don't understand the concept of "road" and "pavement" and "I am going to kill you if I hit you so please move or I will be forced to slow down and I'm already late").

Nothing to tell about this boy! He's a friend of a friend of a friend, we bumped into them in a pub and we chatted about pirates for a bit. I'll never see him again, I imagine.

I got a text this morning at 8.30am asking if I was already in the art room papier macheing. I was not even out of bed. It made me feel a little ashamed for a minute but then I remembered that sleep is good for you and that the person who sent me the text went to bed at 5.30pm last night so is probably not as tired as I was! But I am going to go and join her later.

[Zingoleb]

Dear blog thread,

Got some cheap, high quality chocolate today. Yay! Then it turns out it has toffee in it. Boo. Toffee is so 1800's.

In other news my ex has been kind of stalking me for three days! I also found out that my phone company will not block a number for you. Even after insulting her, telling her to go die, she was telling me how much she loved me, wanted to be with me, etc. etc....we had gone out for a few days about two years ago. I finally got ahold of her father and now he's made her stop.

[Boro_Bandito]

Managed to grab a few more hours of work this week, which will translate into a little extra spending cash when I'm livin' it up in NYC, which as of right now keeps staying at a pretty shitty amount due to unexpectedness of terribleness. Had to buy a new headlight and windshield wiper motor today, poo.

On the awesome note my friend's cat just gave birth to four little balls of mewling fuzz this morning at around 9, so I was over there at ten giving some advice on cleanup and what to do with them (I have been through several litters of kittens from a friend's cat back when I lived in Texas), the majority of it being "leave them alone for a bit, let mama do her thang and then you can touch them if she seems comfortable about it."

The cat got unexpectedly preggers when she went missing for two weeks and he hadn't spayed her yet, though thank goodness he's already found homes for all but one and he's set aside money for her to get the fix. Which means that all that's left is the enjoyment of kittens! It always amazes me at just how small they are, there's a black one, and an orange tabby (leaning towards brown, but at this point that could be some dried blood that the mama may not have gotten good enough), and a grey tabby with really pronounced stripes, and the other grey tabby which is a bit more muddled but has a big ol' splotch of black on top of his head that reminds me of a pompadour and he squeaks louder than the others and is already moving more and is strong and healthy and dammit I wish I could adopt him, since he's the only one not spoken for.

[A Wet Helmet]

So I very nearly ran over a drunk midget riding a skateboard this evening. Had a beer in his hand and everything.

No lie.  My life is turning into an episode of twin peaks.

[Lines]

Zing, what are you talking about, toffee is delicious.

[Inlander]

No lie.  My life is turning into an episode of twin peaks.

Hey, that means you can expect Kyle MacLachlan to turn up any day now!

[Zingoleb]

Zing, what are you talking about, toffee is delicious.

Caramel > toffee, the end.

[BeoPuppy]

So I very nearly ran over a drunk midget riding a skateboard this evening. Had a beer in his hand and everything.

No lie.  My life is turning into an episode of twin peaks.

The owls are not what they seem.

In the past weekend I have:

Trained, kata and technique, ran around a lake, hung curtain rails and curtains, put together a play pen for impending junior, finished the room of the aforementiond impending junior, did shopping, cooked, washed, cleaned, finished four paintings ... and still I feel like I did nothing. Very unsatisfying.

[JD]

Dear Blarg thread

My grandmother has officially has Alzheimer's. We all saw it coming though, so no biggie, I guess.

Love JD

[allison]

Man JD, even if you knew it was bound to happen - it's still tough. I'm sorry you have to go through that. Hold on to the good memories!

[pwhodges]

Yes, it is still a biggie, and I have every sympathy.  Knowing about it in advance is no preparation for watching a person lose their personality, their identity and finally even their sense of self.  It's hardest while it's happening, but if they are healthy enough to live for a substantial time afterwards, remaining responsible for them (even though in a care home at that point) is a draining experience.

[JD]

Good news though, my free Chrome shoes finally came.

[David_Dovey]

I sent this e-mail to my folks so excuse the out-of-context stuff and the overabundance of stating the obvious but danged if I'm gonna try to summarise my Tokyo experience again.

Tokyo is amazing, Sam is in love and says she wants to move here. I think she'll say that about every city we visit. I also think she just loves Tokyo so much because we're taller than everyone.

Got into Narita as expected at 0900hrs. First experience of Japanese culture was- of course- the Japanese toilets in the airport. Decided I didn't have to go bad enough to squat over a hole in the ground, seriously worried about losing my balance and falling over.

Breezed right through customs, everyone was super polite and helpful and spoke serviceable English. Downstairs to the train station and got the first major crisis of the trip, and one that would bother us right through our time in Tokyo: Attempting to navigate the train system. Even though almost everything is in English, the tickets are not, which makes it hard to work out which platform you are supposed to be on, or even which train. Another "interesting" episode came when we found out some way into the trip that at some points in the journey, the first four cars on a train separate and go in a different direction to the rest of the train. Much consternation trying to work out which cars we were actually in, and which ones we wanted to be in, culminating in a mad dash down the platform at a stop to get in the right car.

Luckily there were train announcements in English as well. In fact, damn near everything in Tokyo is English, and a lot of the time, without the Japanese to go with it. Sam remarked that we the only really "Japanese" things we saw were outside of the city. Everything in Tokyo proper is so Westernised.

We are staying in Kinshichou, which is three stops away from Tokyo station. Nothing crazy interesting here, aside from some pretty nice restaurants and a beautiful park. Also a 5-storey tall karaoke place, although I was to find out later that they are common as muck. Also; pachinko parlours. Pachinko is kind of a cross between slot machines and video games, and they are EXTREMELY loud. The glass sliding doors leading into the parlour keep all of the noise out but when we went in it was instant and overwhelming, about as loud as any concert I've ever been to. And just like slots, people (of all ages) lined up in front of the machines, who based on how full their ashtrays were, had been there a long time indeed.

First day there, after checking in at our hotel (which we found thanks to an incredibly helpful barber down the street) we grabbed lunch at the Burger King across the road from the hotel. Yes, we ate at a Burger King in Japan. A recent fad (condemned by doctors) in Japan & Korea is "mega-burgers", and Burger King's version is the Rodeo Whopper. Four whopper patties, fried onion rings, lettuce tomato and mayo. Being a moron and unable to turn down the challenge I of course ordered one. With a grape Fanta. I was only able to finish two of the four patties, mostly because I made the fatal mistake of looking at the "beef". It wasn't pretty.

We spent the rest of the day in central Tokyo, Ginza and Maranouchi which are the central business and government districts and recently revived as a center for luxe and couture brands. Gucci and Bulgari mingling with tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurants, sake bars, multi-storey video game arcades and pachinko parlours. There was a section of three or four city blocks which were owned entirely by Mitsubishi. After that was the incredible looking convention center in Maranouchi which makes our tin shed look... well, like a tin shed.

I'll be including some photos from our travels, if they don't attach properly, let me know.

By far I think my favourite thing in Tokyo was the architecture, particularly in Ginza. Every building looked simultaneously modern and cutting edge, and timeless and classic. Not a dud among them. Dominating the skyline near where we were staying was a gigantic digital television tower. It was still being built yet it was already the largest thing in the city. On top of what has already been built there will be another observation deck and a huge broadcast antennae. It'll be done in 2012 and vying for spot of tallest structure in the world.

We also visited Hibiya park in the middle of the city, just down the road from the Imperial palace. Gorgeous place, combining Western and traditional Japanese gardens. Most peculiarly, the place was full of stray cats, reclining on the benches, acting- as cats do everywhere- like they own the place. As it turns out we were there on "ocean day" and there was a festival in the park with bands and lots of young people strolling around and drinking beer and snacking on the Yakitori (meat on a stick) that the street vendors sold.

We were exhausted and got back to the hotel at about 2130hrs. Being a capsule hotel, the bathing experience was communal and I almost  went without but the humidity was too much to bear and the idea of a hot sauna and cold shower was too tempting, even if it did mean looking at some old Japanese dongs.

Finding stuff for Sam to eat in Tokyo was hell. Most of the restaurants have injected-moulded plastic versions of the meals in the window, but it was still impossible in most instances to tell if they had, say, fish stock in them or something. In the end we found a place in Kinshichou that did the job, and for cheap. On the Sunday night we found a Yakitori place, which was amazing, although we made sure to steer clear of the many, many varieties of organ meat on the menu and stuck with plain old boring duck and pork.

We spent Sunday checking out the Shibuya and Harajuku districts during the day. These are the cool, young districts and once again chock full of cool little boutiques (more Shibuya) and up-market department stores and couture brands (Harajuku). Over this weekend the Laforet Grand Bazar was being held, which is when all of the stores in Harajuku take their end-of-season stock and discount it ridiculously at a massive street market. Accordingly, Harajuku was literally flooded with people. After we were done with shopping we hoofed it down to  Shinjuku, which as it turns out was much further than we thought it would be. I'm not sure how far exactly it was but we definitely earned our Yakitori that night.

Shinjuku is the nightlife centre and really the stereotypical place people think of when they think of Tokyo. This is where there is neon stretching as far as the eye can see in every direction and the outrageously-dressed pretty-young-things parade up and down the main square. It really is beyond describing in words so I'll let the pictures do it for me.

We headed back home at the incredibly late hour of 2230hrs (to be fair, we'd been on our feet for about 12 hours at this point and criss-crossed the better part of three city districts) for a long spa to unwind our knotty muscles and one final night in the capsules.

Up early-ish this morning and checked out of the hotel at midday, thinking we'd have all the time in the world before our 1800hrs flight, but by the time we'd had lunch, schlepped our bags across to the train station, waited for a train that would take us all the way to the airport (about half an hour), then took the hour-long train ride out to Narita and got ourselves checked in and through customs, it all worked out quite neatly. Just finishing typing this e-mail up as they're calling our flight, although there's no free wireless in the airport so I doubt I'll get to send it til we're in NYC, and I'll probably have a whole bunch of other tales to tell! I guess I'll get to that when I get to that.

TL:DR; My life is interesting now, and you all have to hear about it! I hope you don't get sick of that. I'll try to make shorter posts from now on as well. Yikes.

[Jimor]

... Also; pachinko parlours. Pachinko is kind of a cross between slot machines and video games, and they are EXTREMELY loud. The glass sliding doors leading into the parlour keep all of the noise out but when we went in it was instant and overwhelming, about as loud as any concert I've ever been to. And just like slots, people (of all ages) lined up in front of the machines, who based on how full their ashtrays were, had been there a long time indeed.

I just have to comment that it is impossible to put into words the assault on the senses that a pachinko parlor really is. Even when just walking near the street on the sidewalk when those sliding doors open is like being hit by a physical force that nearly knocks you into traffic. The dictionary.com definition of "cacophony" should simply be a self-playing .wav that seizes control of your computer volume, cranks it up to absolute maximum, and blares the sounds from within one of these places.

[Ladybug]

I could not agree more about the pachinko parlors, I had to leave quickly.

But I had the exact opposite experience with the train system, and I'm definitely not used to using one. But it was probably made simpler by the fact that we were told to get Pasmo cards, which could then be filled up using automats, and it was really simple to just walk in and out wherever and not having to use tickets. But the maps and which direction stuff went in and things like that weren't as complicated as I would have assumed considering the size of the city, I was only surprised once when suddenly the train didn't go any further than some place midway in the route, but I just followed the commuting people into a new train and it worked out okay (it could definitely have turned out "not okay", but the train pretty clearly stated it was heading to where I was going, the only slightly worrying thing was that it was late at night and the trains stop running pretty early, so if I was wrong, I'd have been fucked).

And I felt really lost with the amount of Japanese, even though a lot of things, like names of places and stations were in English. And it was way more confusing than other countries where I didn't speak the language either, simply because I couldn't really recognize words or letters either, so it was just super confusing all the time, but luckily I hung out with someone who's sort of in love with a lot of things Japanese, and she knew some of the signs and words. And some places do use English (or, well, the Latin alphabet), it was just really weird to not even be able to attempt reading or understanding words around me.

But then again, I don't think Japan and I mix very well. Definitely interesting to visit, though, and it sounds like you've had a great time!

[Jimor]

The only problem I had with the train system was going back to the airport. There was a set of exit turnstiles that went to the airport, and another that went into the other train company's system. I of course accidentally used the latter and thus was stuck in a system for which I didn't have a proper exit ticket.    Fortunately, I just went to a ticket agent, flashed the other company's ticket, and played the confused tourist (which I was).

[Ladybug]

We had a bus set up to get from the airport (because at that time we were like 50+ people) and caught a bus from a hotel a short walk from ours to get to the airport (reduced to 16 people), luckily, so we didn't have to deal with that. But I think we did it that way because they had heard that the trains could be a bit confusing. Sounds like a good decision!

[pwhodges]

When I was in Tokyo (around 1981), the trouble I had with the subway was that the maps gave the station names in Kanji, but the signs in the corridors gave them in Hiragana and the platform signs were in the Latin alphabet - so I had no way to relate one to the other.  I could find the right line by colour, but it was generally guesswork which direction I was going, and a matter of counting stations to identify the destination.

But I really loved being there, and would go again at the drop of a hat.

[A Wet Helmet]

I did not ride the trains while I was in Japan, but I did spend far more time than I cared for in a bus.   As a not-anything-close-to-small dude, it really kind of sucked.   I preferred to take cabs when I could, though they scared the crap out of me.   I've had better cab drivers in third world countries.

Another problem with being tall, is that the bar I would frequent with all my new found friends was in a very old building and as such, the doorway to the bathroom was only about six feet tall.   This didn't present a problem until I was about five drinks into the evening at which point I would forget to duck and it would catch me right about the eyebrows and knock me on my ass.  Then everyone would get a good laugh at the drunk gaijin on the floor.    I think I knocked myself over four times one night.

[Zingoleb]

I have come to realize that customer service includes the sucky parts of dealing with people (i.e. people are pooheads) and excludes the nice part (i.e. making friends out of former pooheads!).

Aw.

In other news, I am in the same state as Dovey. Wow!

[E. Spaceman]

This is now unhelpful but the last stall in the toilets is western style. Also, tokyo subway is awesome! it is incredibly easy to navigate even if you know no japanese because everything is colour coded and in english.

[Lines]

Went to a goodbye party for friends who are moving to Florida. (This is the couple who got married two Saturdays ago. She got a job w/ Disney, so they're leaving on Thursday.) Kind of sad, but fun was had. And it was a huge improvement for my day at work, which completely sucked, so friends + beer* make everything better.

*I don't really like beer, but beer was had and it made things better.

[Patrick]

My buddy is in town and we were gonna trip the fuck out on some salvia but we have no idea where the hell we can find any in this damn town

Damn it

[beat mouse]

i got totally rainchecked on my date with attractive human female today. current mood - frustrated.

[LittleKey]

Ohhhhh you guys are making me want to go to japan sooooooo badly. I can't see myself going for another few years though  . More time to practice my Japanese I guess; silver linings and all that!

[Patrick]

I really need to quit smoking cigarettes. It is interfering with my eating. Not liking this very muchhhhh.

On the other hand, Pizza Hut is hiring. Definitely down with making pizzas. And free pizza is a nifty little perk, and it apparently even comes with also-nifty things like getting paid so I can make rent, and getting insurance and other nice shit.

Good fuck, I'm a sarcastic and hateful young man. Thanks for picking your breeding partners well, parents!

[Barmymoo]

I really have to get over my issue with showering when there's someone else in the house. I mistimed my waking up this morning, and missed the window between the other lodging student showering and leaving, and the sons waking up. So now I'm bascially trapped in the house because for once the son has not gone out - in fact I think the grown-up daughter has arrived for a visit.

Blog thread, I am being such a child about this but I really hate walking round in my pyjamas or a towel when people I don't know are in the next room with the door open, and I don't want to sit awkwardly in the kitchen eating breakfast when they're chatting or watching TV. Am I weird in hating living with strangers? Surely not.

But I can't lurk in here much longer, my ASM flies home at 3.30 and I have to get to rehearsals before then to see her, plus I have far too much to do, I've already wasted three hours of the day that I could have spent making props. ARGH. Why can't they just go out?

[squawk]

This past week has been a bit hard for me, but maybe I'm just not used to having to deal with actual problems after two (or maybe three or four... senior year woo) months of DGAFing life in general. But I'm not as unhappy as my friends. I wish I could channel positive feelings towards them because bad feelings is bad situations is not a good combo.

In other news, I am one star away from beating Mario Galaxy 2, shooooooot. Also I'm going to the bay tomorrow! Woo! But my brother's not even coming so it's going to be way too lonely. :[
And August is almost here and I am dreading its arrival because I don't want to deal with pre-college freakouts. And everyone is leaving me because their classes start at a normal time and the UCs start fucktardedly late.  siiiiiiiigh

Other news still! One of my friends is spending a semester in Australia! Totes jealous.

[evilbobthebob]

Woohoo just got my residence application confirmed at Cardiff, I'm getting into exactly the residence I wanted. It's quiet, yet right in the centre of Cardiff, only two minutes walk from the physics department and part catered, so I can be lazy with cooking sometimes 

[Zingoleb]

Dear Mister and Missus Blaggy,

Throwing up is no fun.

[Graphite]

Barrymoo, you could always just bring your clothes into the bathroom with you and dress in there after you shower.

[Inlander]

Dear Mister and Missus Blaggy,

Throwing up is no fun.

But afterwards you feel so much better!

Yo Blogg,

In 8 days time I'll be signing the lease on this place:

[BeoPuppy]

That is one cute veranda. Congrats!

[öde]

Nice! It's a shame we don't really have any houses like that in the UK.

[Inlander]

Melbourne was really created by the gold rush in Victoria of the mid-19th century and then continued to flourish through to the beginning of the 20th century, when it was the capital of Australia, so the majority of the houses in inner Melbourne are from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. There are literally thousands and thousands of houses like that around here. I love them.

[E. Spaceman]

One of my favourite things in this world is that Melbourne was founded by John Batman, without whom Wikipedia would be without great lines such as:

When he found the current site of central Melbourne he noted in his diary, "This will be the place for a village."[1][2] and declared the land "Batmania".[3][4]

[StaedlerMars]

That's pretty amazing.

Blog thread,

I am, as of today, working three jobs. I'm already exhausted. For the Fringe I'm going to be essentially working four (one unpaid).

I am pretty much giving up social life. Also, my flatmate has a friend staying in his room for a bit, and my flatmate is out of town for a week, so this friend decided that it would be suitable to play music loudly at 4.30 in the morning. This probably contributed to me being absolutely brain dead now.

[McTaggart]

I wish we had houses that small here.

[Elizzybeth]

My tortoise ate a strawberry, and now she's got red goop all over her beak, so she looks like a zombie tortoise. It is adorable and/or horrifying.

[Inlander]

I wish we had houses that small here.

It's deceptive: all the old houses in Melbourne are really narrow and about half a block long. They all typically have minor variations on the same floorplan: a long corridor down one side of the house with bedrooms off it (usually two, sometimes three), then a sitting-room at the end of the corridor, and behind that a kitchen and bathroom and then a small courtyard out the back.

[BeoPuppy]

I'm not sure but I think I just survived an attempt at conversion ... ?

[Patrick]

Oh man I love when people start fights with you on AIM and then the next day they come over to chill, expecting shit to be all gravy, and when you talk to them about it they try to convince you that they didn't say what they said.

I also love chat logs

[scarred]

i also love being petty

[Spluff]

i also love being pretty

[Spluff]

or at least I assume I would

[scarred]

in the event of pretty i would love it

[David_Dovey]

This is now unhelpful but the last stall in the toilets is western style. Also, tokyo subway is awesome! it is incredibly easy to navigate even if you know no japanese because everything is colour coded and in english.

Yeah I saw that, it was occupied when I went to the airports one. By a Japanese guy! No fair!

The only problem I had with the train system was going back to the airport. There was a set of exit turnstiles that went to the airport, and another that went into the other train company's system. I of course accidentally used the latter and thus was stuck in a system for which I didn't have a proper exit ticket.    Fortunately, I just went to a ticket agent, flashed the other company's ticket, and played the confused tourist (which I was).

I came this close to doing exactly the same thing.

[MrBlu]

I haven't gone to bed...

No real reason...

So what's up?

[look out! Ninjas!]

I'm in bed. Pretty much I'm stressing because I need to stretch 3 subjects and my practice diploma over 4 semesters because I stupidly want to do honours.