Yes.

Overheard Everywhere | Think We Could Get That Classified As a Learning Disorder?:

"Guy #1: Sometimes it's hard being a guy.
Guy #2: Why is that?
Guy #1: Well, I try to stay focused and get shit done, but every time a female walks by I feel obligated to turn around and check out her tits and ass. I just want to get through a project without being distracted by tits and ass.
Guy #2: Yeah, but don't you worry you might miss the world's greatest tits and ass?
Guy #1: Exactly!

Denver, Colorado

Overheard by: sean"

Men, meet women. Women, men.

"Cat always is peace."

Wise words from one of my kid's English notebooks.

[Aaaaaaaallllll day grading workbooks and notebooks. Some of them twice because the JTE told me the wrong pages to cover.]

T2 - 14-16.

"Failing to plan is planning to fail."

I hate it when cliches are right.

3 day weekend in Japan. Saturday was no problem, free/rest day. Sunday was half assed. Monday was an abomination of procrastination, internet addiction and the general fuckedupedness of life... Tuesday was back on track.

It's easy when I've got work, I sit at the desk in my spare minutes and plot out my PT and diet for the day. Absent that, at home, cup of coffee and in front of the computer, it doesn't "naturally" get done. Which means I just need to kick myself in the ass a little harder.

14 - 20m cardio/shadowboxing, 3 meals, 1L of water
15 - missed workout, didn't track food, but didn't eat any junk
16 - doubled up on yesterday's missed wkout, and today's, despite the advice of tomes and more experienced resources that say just "move on and forget it." Unable, am I. Upper body wkout + 20m cardio/shadowboxing. 6meals, 3L water

"The most important thing in seeking richer travel experiences..."

I liked this. [And the interview, as well.]

Rolf Potts Q&A: The Art of Long-term World Travel… and Travel Writing - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss:

"The most important thing in seeking richer travel experiences is learning how to slow down. This can be hard to do, since as Americans we tend to micromanage everything to make things more efficient back home.

Travel isn’t about efficiency. It’s about leaving yourself open to new experiences. You can’t do this when you’re racing around on a strict itinerary. If you examine the truly life-affecting experiences I describe in my new book, you’ll find that they most all happened by accident. If you aren’t open to the unexpected — if you aren’t willing to get lost from time to time — you’ll be selling your travels short.

[Suggestion from Tim: reread the previous paragraph substituting 'travel' and 'travels' with 'life'.]"

Irony.

7 Tips for Money and Marriage ∞ Get Rich Slowly:

"Writing in last Wednesday’s New York Times, Tara Siegel Bernard says that the key to wedded bliss just might be marrying someone who shares your attitudes about money."

The view from Canada [and elsewhere.]

Via Mightygodking.com » Blog Archive » Hello There!

Sarah Palin Bingo.

Funnier because it's true. It's also sadder and more pathetic, but what can you do?

archives | You Are Dumb:

"Offered exclusively from your friends at You Are Dumb Dot Net, SARAH PALIN BINGO lets you play along with your favorite cable news broadcast. Just get some tokens, watch the reporting, and mark off every scandal or horrifying policy position that gets mentioned! Get five in a row and you win! Plus, as a special bonus, since she's his 'soul mate', John McCain is giving you the center square just for playing.

...NOTE: One game of SARAH PALIN BINGO should take one hour on MSNBC, three hours on CNN, and up to a month or more on FOX News."

Another successful Kokusai Spirit Event.

Saturday eve was yet another in a series of Kokusai Spirit events. This time, a BBQ at the beach on the other side of town. Good food, drink, people, etc...

I am, however, losing my touch, as both Rochelle [Fukutsu City's nice ALT] and Anton [Fukutsu City's other bald white gaijin] both had pics posted up to the Internets before me. Rochelle's are here, though you'll need a MySpace account to see them, and Anton's public album is here.

In the spirit of theft and the internet, I have gleefully appropriated a couple of their pics, in conjunction with mine, to go all blogspot on their ass.

Onwards.

Ready... Set... Cook!

From 2008-09-13

Japan draws first blood.

From 2008-09-13

Anton battles back American style, with the mega monster double cheeseburger. U-S-A! U-S-A!

From 2008-09-13

Japan will never be defeated. Tiny Japanese women will rule us all.

From 2008-09-13

Group shots.

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

Across the way was another party/BBQ with Japanese Cowboys. Awesome. I swear they were playing Hank Williams.

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

Westside Connection. [Maybe? White people, I swear. Wait. That's just me.]

From 2008-09-13

Mike. Straight gangsta.

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

Mike is totally racist. Wait, I think I'm using that word wrong.

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

The return of Aotani-san. I defended.

From 2008-09-13

Then was defeated.

From 2008-09-13

Other victims were claimed.

From 2008-09-13

Jumping for something or another.

From 2008-09-13

I am a large child. That is all.

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

End of the night pack-up. Yay beer.

From 2008-09-13

I sense I'm being mocked.

From 2008-09-13

The Day After. Leftover hot dog buns + turkey burgers = Frankenstein sandwich.

From 2008-09-13

Rest of my pics are in this album, click on over, etc -

BBQ Prep.

Getting ready for the onslaught of folks. Seagull Inn Restaurant, Fukuma Beach, Fukutsu.

From 2008-09-13

That is one lonely looking plane. Cool tho'.

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

This will be used later. Watch for it.

From 2008-09-13

Camera shenanigans.

World's a funny place, depending on how you look. I dig this, for no particular reason whatsoever.

From 2008-09-13

BBQ Pre-flight/Saturday was my day off.

It's so pretty.

From 2008-09-13

From 2008-09-13

Kahlua+Baileys.

Curmudgeonly Funny. [Politics]

"Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried."

~ Winston Churchill

Fred On Everything:

"...Just dragged my scrawny carcass in from Washington, the heart of darkness...

In the airports, the same obedience training—take off your shoes, belt, watch, fillings, prostate, so we can to learn to respect the authority of low-IQ federalized renta-cops with the psyches of school-yard bullies. God save us from the congenitally unimportant. From PA systems came the same pointless security-babble having nothing to do with security, in the same over elocuted I-wanna-lick-the-microphone female voices. Well, it’s not quite pointless. We must condition the rubes, give them an inspiriting sense of danger so they will do as they are told. It’s awful. I’m going to apply for a change of phylum.

It got worse. I discovered that America is about to have an election. Why? Every time they do that, no good comes of it. You’d think they’d learn.

Ass usual, the election is a popularity contest run for dimwits. And to elect a dimwit, which is worse. We’ve got this woman Palin, an angry Betty Crocker, absolutely unqualified for the presidency in case McCain goes tits up. She’s ignorant of foreign affairs, at best moderately bright, a whackjob Christian, and a “pit bull.” This is said admiringly.

Oh good. An aggressive ignorant dull-witted-pit bull. How is that better than a passive ignorant torpid pit bull?

Oh god, McCain. A senescent replica of Bush who says he wants to stay in Iraq a hundred years. Actually, the idea has its appeal. Why doesn’t he go there and get a start? A perfect match for Palin, another pugnacious dunce, bottom of his class in boat school—the Naval Academy, I mean. He says he plans to “confront Russia.” Now there’s a plan. It seems that American policy is to make enemies of everyone who has oil or nuclear weapons. Or doesn’t.

Meanwhile the Pentagon prepares for war with China. Is it something in the water?

Next we have Obama, whose only qualification is that he’s maybe a tad less bellicose than the rest of these Oprah Neanderthals. His veep, Biden, is a grey nonentity, a cipher with no characteristics. Well, that’s better than the other three. I mean, he’s as close to no candidate as we can come.

...Actually, I do understand it, barely. The undergirding of American politics is the seldom-stated but always audible cry of “You ain’t no gooder’n me!” We have government by inferiority complex. The last thing the great burger-chomping, reality-show-watching mental vacuum out there wants is anyone who might make reglar folks feel inferior. The cloth of the country is woven of resentment. The public wants a regular guy, comfortingly stupid, who watches NASCAR and in broken English as if recently concussed. Few would select a cardiac surgeon from a bus station, but it’s how we do presidents.

You probably can get elected holding a chain saw and a severed head, but not if you know words of three syllables..."

I need to copy this, memorize, then staple to my forehead.

Whole article is really good. Budgeting 101.

The Budget Toolbox: 13 Tools for Building a Better Budget ∞ Get Rich Slowly:

"...Andrew Tobias offers the following simple yet effective budget:

1. Destroy all your credit cards.
2. Invest 20% of all that you earn. Never touch it.
3. Live on the remaining 80%, no matter what.

Although Tobias is being glib, this is actually an excellent system. If you can develop the discipline to follow just these three steps, you can become rich."

This budget format works too. [Same article.]:"...you must keep three broad areas of your finances “in balance”. They say to divide your net income (after-tax income) as follows:

* Allocate 50% to Needs (which the authors call Must-Haves). Needs include housing, transportation, groceries, insurance, and clothes you really need.
* Spend 30% on Wants. Wants include cable television, clothing beyond the basics, restaurant meals, concert tickets, comic books, knitting supplies, etc.
* Set aside 20% for Savings, including debt repayment.

This budget is designed so that you can save a lot and have fun. To achieve this, the authors encourage you to reduce your Needs. In fact, reducing Needs is the cornerstone of their advice."

Rap Battle Translation.

Pretty damn funny.

Via The Joe Rogan Blog » Conduit to the Gaian Mind » Notes from the road in Boston, and some video to entertain you:

"I ran across this video the other day, it a fucking hilarious translation of a freestyle rap battle that Ben Hays and his friend Ryan of www.BenandRyan.com made."

Original vid below. Half the comedy, twice the ignorance.

Best financial analogy ever.

Funny, witty writing.

7:21pm: Boy, do I ever.:

"...I am aware that debt is boring and it's not worth talking about. I know. I made my bed, but now I cringe at the thought of laying in it. In my defense, I made the bed years ago when I was still an inexperienced bedmaker. I used mashed potatoes and burlap, because that's what I had laying around. This decision has proven regrettable."

The Asian American Mind.

Overheard in New York | But Enough About My Chest:

"Asian girl: Oh my god, we had a physics quiz and I totally failed.
White girl: Wait, you mean like an Asian fail, right?
Asian girl: Yeah, I think I still have an A, but barely!

--NJ Transit"

Limits.

Ya gotta have dreams.

Learn to say what you mean.

Overheard in New York | It Doesn't Count As "Sex" Til I Get My Period:

"12-year old girl: Just because we watch porn together doesn't mean we have sex together.
12-year old boy: Stop lying, you whore.

--Mulberry & Canal

Overheard by: Tara G"