• Back to School


    I’ve been dropping hints left and right that I quit my job, but nobody’s been taking the bait, so I guess I have to make an announcement or something. (I guess it’s pointless to even try to pretend there’s a distinction between professional and personal on here at this point. If any future employer wants…

  • First Person Maki


    Via BeaucoupKevin.com, here’s one of my new favorite video clips: It’s from a camera placed on the conveyor belt at a sushi bar in Tokyo. This is exactly the kind of video that they should’ve put on the Voyager probe. If they’d had video sharing back then. Or video. Or sushi. Or Japanese people. (Japanese…

  • What Polar Bear?


    “Best Week Ever” interviews Ben from “Lost”. Once again, the show proves that there’s no joke they can’t over-do, but Michael Emerson is pretty awesome in this clip:

  • Best Things to Eat


    I got pegged with one of those blog-meme things by my friend Humuhumu. I feel obliged to participate, only because GREAT MISFORTUNE will befall ME AND MY FAMILY if I don’t. A blogger from Rome, GA failed to answer and IMMEDIATELY was beseiged by FLESH-EATING BACTERIA. Also, I want to celebrate Humuhumu’s honorable mention almost-win…

  • Gaijin Story: A Cautionary Tale


    Although San Francisco has somehow become my home city, I haven’t been taking advantage of it as much as I could be. This place is supposedly known for its great restaurants, but when I got asked to name five of my favorites, I couldn’t name more than three. A few weeks ago, I resolved to…

  • House of Cat Litter and Fog


    Today I said goodbye for the last time to Burbank and Glendale, as well as my shirtless-and-red-shorts-wearing slavedriver*. I got on the plane in perfect, sunny but cool weather and after a short, uneventful ride, got dumped out into a cold, sharp wind and an impenetrable wall of fog and traffic. And it made me…

  • Spoiled


    Update: Yeah, ignore this post. At least, the bitchin’, if not the speculatin’. See comment 12. One of the consequences of working at home is that it can turn your standard garden-variety internet addiction into a full-blown compulsion. I’ve had more days than I’d like to admit where I’ve reached the end of the internet…

  • Wish You Weren’t Here


    I’m in the middle of another week-long stay in the glorious Burbank/Glendale area. It’s made slightly more pleasant by the fact that it’s almost certainly going to be my last. Barring any unforseen catastrophe, of course, and assuming that I’m not seriously mistaken in my belief that Hell is a concept and not an actual…