Interesting Article: Roots of Human Family Tree Are Shallow

Here's an interesting article I found a while ago. It basically looks at human ancestry ... I wanna do the DNA test thing from National Geographic, but is it really worth like two hundred bucks? Maybe not, but it would be cool to find out.

I was on vacation!

Ok, it looks like I took the summer off from blogging. But, I am back, albeit not with daily posts. Have a backlog of stuff to post about, so will do it as I have time... including some pics of my trip to Kyoto.

I found the Log Driver's Waltz

While surfing the net, I found my favourite Canadian content animation commericial thing. I'm sure all you Canadians will remember the Log Driver's Waltz well. Can't get that song out of my mind :)

I also found another site containing Canadian animation shorts. Enjoy!

George Carlin's View on Aging

My mom sent me this by e-mail, so if you are on her mailing list you may have got it already, but I thought it held a lot of truth. Enjoy.


George Carlin's Views on Aging

Do you realize that the only time in our lives when we like to get old is when we're kids? If you're less than 10 years old, you're so excited about aging that you think in fractions. "How old are you?" "I'm four and a half!" You're never thirty-six and a half. You're four and a half, going on five! That's the key.

You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead. "How old are you?" "I'm gonna be 16!" You could be 13, but hey, you're gonna be 16! And then the greatest day of your life . . you become 21. Even the words sound like a ceremony . . YOU BECOME 21. YESSSS!!!

But then you turn 30. Oooohh, what happened there? Makes you sound like bad milk! He TURNED; we had to throw him out. There's no fun now, you're just a sour-dumpling. What's wrong? What's changed?

You BECOME 21, you TURN 30, then you're PUSHING 40. Whoa! Put on the brakes, it's all slipping away. Before you know it, you REACH 50 and your dreams are gone. But wait!!! You MAKE it to 60. You didn't think you would! So you BECOME 21, TURN 30, PUSH 40, REACH 50 and MAKE it to 60.

You've built up so much speed that you HIT 70! After that it's a day-by-day thing; you HIT Wednesday! You get into your 80s and every day is a complete cycle; you HIT lunch; you TURN 4:30; you REACH bedtime. And it doesn't end there. Into the 90s, you start going backwards; "I Was JUST 92."

Then a strange thing happens. If you make it over 100, you become a little kid again. "I'm 100 and a half!" May you all make it to a healthy 100 and a half!!

Crappy DaVinci Code Exhibit

In my big update, I forgot to mention the DaVinci Code Museum thing I went to. Cal mentioned that it was on and it sounded interesting, so decided to go with him. We hit it on the last day of the event... with a fair number of other people as well.

That is one thing that drives me nuts about museums and exhibits in Japan. There is no such thing as crowd control. If they limited the number of people it would make the experience so much better. Personally, I am not good with crowds and in museums I want to just go from display to display as they catch my eye. Well, that is pretty much impossible here because you have to wait ten minutes until you can get close enough to see anything over everybody's heads. And what kills me is that poeple will crowd around stupid things (as in only worth a minute.. 30 seconds?... of viewing time) and spend 10 minutes looking at them. Drives me nuts.

Anyway, this was no different in terms of people. The exhibit basically showed some of the scenes from the movie (in the Louvre and the chateau's living room) and the famous paintings on giant televisions. Now, would it surprise you to know that Sony sponsored the exhibit? In other words I think I paid 1500 yen to see Sony's new televisions. Nice TVs but I could have gone to Bic Camera and seen them for free.

So, my overall review is that it sucked. I think even if there were no other people, it would have merited some interest, but not 1500 yen worth. I think Cal found it much more interesting than I did, however, he has not read the book yet so got a bit of a storyline from going.

Oh, by the way, the movie sucks too... read the book. It is a quick and entertaining read. Don't expect brilliance - it is entertainment, which is exactly what I want from a book. The book gets a thumbs up from me, but the movie and the DaVinci Code exhibit get definite thumbs down.

update

So, I have finally gotten around to putting up some entries. I had been holding off because I have an entry about the new IKEA that opened back in April... only I haven't gotten around to actually writing it. So I haven't written anything on the blog. I figured I had better get back into it, and I can post the IKEA thing later.

I suppose the big news is that I have moved into my office part-time. This was supposed to make my schedule less hectic, however, I seem to as busy as I ever was. Something about having a couple free mornings or afternoons a week which seem to be taken up with other work projects at the moment. I am surprised at how little energy it takes to work in the office compared to teaching. I had no idea I used so much energy during my lessons. It is nice to have a bit of both worlds actually because I still like teaching... but the regular hours of working in the office are also great.

Japanese lessons are coming along slowly. I am actually studying between lessons (as opposed to doing my homework just before class) and it is helping a lot with remembering words and speaking a bit more fluently. Things are starting to click a bit better, so that is good. I still can't have anything more than simple conversations, but that's ok.

I had to renew my alien registration card this week. Five years have gone by since I moved into this apartment. WOW! I was surprised at how easy it was. I stopped into the city office, filled out a form and was out of there in 15 minutes. I was wondering what was wrong, because I was expecting to spend the whole afternoon there... then I remembered it was just the city office and not immigration. Immigration being hell on earth because there is only one office for all of Tokyo area now. The city office is a dream in comparison. So that was a relief - I hate bureaucracy.

World Cup is in full swing and everyone is walking zombie in Tokyo. Well, a lot of people are, myself included. The games are on in the middle of the night here so staying up to watch certain teams play is a killer. Everyone is sad that Japan is out of it now, but no one really expected them to make it anyway because of the strong competition in that group (Brazil for one).

So that is the update. Will try to write more often ... and get the IKEA entry up!

moving 3D picture that I can't see

You know those 3D pictures that were popular about 10 years ago... the ones that are a bunch of colours with a random design that when you make your eyes go out of focus turn into a 3D picture? Well, I could never see them. When they had them in the comic section in the Saturday paper, I would sit for hours with the picture close up to my nose and slowly move it back, and I might have been lucky one in ten times and seen the actual thing... after trying forever. Well, apparently there are moving 3D pictures now. You will either jump up and down at how cool it is, or want to scream because you can't see a darn thing (like me).

Happy Birthday to me

Well, I am 33 today. I feel old. Well, only when I think about it. Normailly I feel like I am still in my 20s. Time is flying by! In Japan, 33 for women is a bad luck year. Although apparently it isn't just 33 like I though, but the year preceeding and after it as well... so if I were superstitious, I could say, that that explained a lot of things.

This is the first birthday where I didn't really care that much though. At least I wasn't totally depressed about it - turning 30 took a couple years to get over you know LOL Hiroshi got me a necklace (he's learning!) and we had cake and that was pretty much it. Fine with me. As I have been telling everyone, I am turning 29 again... and the 5th time round at that.

addicting pictures in pictures in pictures

You can zoom in on this picture (pictures?) forever... be careful beacuse it is addicting.

pigs are flying and hell has frozen over

Yes, prepare yourself for the shock... I ironed tonight! For those of you who don't know, I despise ironing and it usually sits in a pile for months on end (like 6 or more). I have taken to pullling shirts out of the dryer immediately and shaking them out as a (pretty crappy) alternative. Actually, in the seven years that I have lived in Japan, I think I have ironed twice. Yes, you read that right.

Well, my new 1200 yen ironing board from IKEA is a great incentive to actually do it. Before we literally had an ironing board. A square piece of wood that has the heat resistance padding, but no legs. Most Japanese boards, if they do have legs, are meant to be used while sitting on the floor, hence the legs are about 3" in height (ie useless). My new ironing board folds up to the correct height of right around my waist.

Of course I might just iron my own shirts from now on - I showed Hiroshi one of his cotton shirts that I ironed... and I must point out spent quite a long time ironing because cotton is a pain compared to blends... and he couldn't even tell that there was a difference between it and the shirts that were just pulled out of the dryer. Geesh.

The scariest part of this whole exercise was that I actually found ironing relaxing. Next thing you know, I'll be ironing pillow cases like my mother!

20 years ago today...

For all the terrible things that came out of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, one good thing has happened. Wildlife is thriving. Apparently by evacuating all the people, animals have been able to run free in a natural, albeit contaminated habitat.

Inside Chernobyl @ National Geographic Magazine

Here is an interesting set of photos from Chernobyl.

20 years since Chernobyl

April 26 marks the 20th anniversary of the nuclear accident in Chernobyl. It is really sad how the radiation has affected a whole generation with birth defects, cancer and the like. CNN has outlinesd some of these health issues in this article.

The placenta mask

Holy cats! My student gave me a box of placenta masks a couple months ago as omiyage (souvenirs) from Hong Kong. I haven't been too much in the mood to do beauty treatments the last couple months, so I just used one for the first time today. I was skeptical.

The translated description on the package says: "Placenta Collagen Mask can dissolve the dark pigment and balance the water and oil production within the skin, nourishes the underlying tissue and accelerates cell effectively. Frequent use of this mask can improve skin texture elasticity and strength in aging."

Well, it really does dissolve the dark pigment... all the red blotchiness across my cheeks is gone! My skin pretty much has even colour across my face. I was shocked when I took the mask off. It really is amazing.

So of course I tried to find where I can buy it online... and the only place seems to be some dodgy unknown sites. And let me tell you, I'm glad I got this as a present because it is 600 yen (6 bucks) PER mask! So 3000 yen for a package of 5. Yikes! It really does make a difference though. I am going to try it for the rest of the week (the pacakge says to start with doing it every day for 5 days) and see if it makes a difference, and if so I will try to order some more for maintenance purposes. Who knew placenta would work so well???

Haircut and a party

I went to get my haircut this afternoon. I decided to go even shorter this time round. Hiroshi wants me to cut it really short - ie 1 cm sides and curly on top. That is a bit too drastic I think! Last time I cut it from midback to shoulder-length. This time I went from below the shoulders to bob lenghth. Just by my jawline.

It is a lot lighter, let me tell you! I liked it - I even got my bangs sweeping across my forhead to oneside instead of straight across standard. When I went to the birthday party event tonight everyone said how great I looked. Hiroshi's comment - it makes your face look round. So now I don't like it. It isn't supposed to make me look fatter! :( I told him he was mean, and he insists that he is just being honest. I think he should lie when it comes to new haircuts.

Anyway, the party. Two of my coworkers had birthdays in the last few days, so a bunch of us headed out to TGI Friday's for dinner and drinks, and then on to karaoke afterwards. I actually did pretty good with the food. They had a party menu set thing. I had one fried mozerella piece, 2 chicken wings, 1/4 of a club sandwich and a ton of salad with hardly any dressing on it. i was pretty impressed with myself - there are so many yummy things to eat there that are bad for me! I also limited myself to two drinks for the entire evening (rum and diet).

Karaoke was fun as always, but there were 13 of us in one room. That's too many. If there are any more than about 8 you really need to get a second room. The party room is a great concept, but you can't sing! If you are there for an hour, basically everyone can sing just one song when there are 13 of you. It was still fun though. Everyone got to joke around and socialize, so it was good. It was nice to go out and do something... and I even got home before 12 midnight! Living in central Tokyo definitely has its benefits - you don't have to leave the party early (as several others did) in order to catch their last trains home.

Happy anniversary mom and dad!

Today is my mom and dad's anniversary. I'm pretty sure it is their 29th one. Not that it matters if I am wrong, because as the rest of the family will attest to, the actual date of the anniversary changes every year. In fact, every year it changes because they have checked the wedding certificate, "remembered" from last year, or whatever. All I know, is it is pretty darn confusing on my calendar where I mark birthdays and the like! Of course whether it is the 20th or the 22nd (two of the most common date choices) 29 years is still pretty impressive.... congratulations mom and dad on still being able to put up with each other ;D

Queen's 80th Birthday

April 21sst is the Queen's (of England) eightieth birthday. You can learn some interesting facts about the Queen here .... 80 of them actually in celebration of her birthday.

Running feels great!

I went for a run tonight for the first time in ages. Let me tell you, it is a heck of a lot more pleasurable when it isn't near freezing outside! I haven't been recently because the pollen count was too high (I normally wear masks this time of year to cut down on sneezing and sniffling). Of coures it felt so good, I totally pushed myself and I can already feel my musscles starting to seize up - love that feeling :) Of course when I try to get out of bed tomorrow morning I might not be so enamoured with it LOL

The azeleas are out

Suddenly all the azeleas are in bloom. They are really pretty - the seasons first big splash of colour. I was surprised to suddenly see them out. If I can remember, I will take a photo to post here. In the meantime, here are some cherry blossom photos courtesy of Hiroshi because I was too lazy to get my own camera out to take pics this year.

Being productive

Wow, today I am being super productive. I did a huge bathroom cleaning job, including scrubbing mold and soap scum away. Ick. Then I attacked the appliances - cleaned the crumbs out of the toaster, the splatters out of the microwave and the spills and finger prints on the fridge. Then I wiped down all the counters and cleaned the sink as well. This is more cleaning than I have done all year (Hiroshi is usually happy to do it, so I let him go crazy - why clean if someone else is willing to do it for you!).

I've also got some chicken and meat defrosting so I can cook up some meals ahead of time for next week. I eat properly when it is just a matter of grabbing something out of the fridge. Hiroshi will probably die of shock too, because not only have I cleaned, but I also pulled some salmon out of the freezer to cook for dinner. I haven't cooked dinner in eons either. Can you tell that I am not the world's best homemaker? Good thing I work LOL

I guess this will qualify as my spring cleaning. I just need to dust in the bedroom and air out the futon... but it is raining today, so that will have to wait until later in the week.