a hole in my butt.

I need a new suit. Actually, I need lots of new things, but since the seat of the pants to my "good suit" have worn through, I don't think I can hold off on this one anymore. My suit had a good run of about 3 years of heavy use (both pieces were good to go separately), but sadly, the pants are sprouting holes at an alarming rate.
The old boy ran me about 8man, and I figure I should dedicate about the same amount to a new one, if I expect some reasonable combo of quality and durability. Fortunately/sadly, I have 9man set aside to be sent back home to get ahead of the game on my student loan repayments... I guess that idea will wait.

nate cooks for you (for himself)

hot water + konbu + katsuobushi = dashi
dashi + soy sauce + mirin = tsuyu
dashi + aburaage = kitsune aburaage
soba+ tsuyu + kitsune aburaage + naruto + negi = kitsune soba!

today was the first time I've ever made dashi from scratch. It wouldn't have been hard if I had actually had some space and more than 2 pots, 2 bowls, and 1 (100 yen) measuring cup.

If you saw kitsune and thought of your spirit animal, or if it's an amazing shock to you that there is a food called naruto, go away.

kokuhaku.

Well, today I made it official. If I make all my outstanding goals for 2k7 within the year, I'm gonna quit vegetarianism.

If you know me, you have probably already heard me say that I really don't feel attached to the lifestyle anymore. I've just kept doing it for the past few years, cheating only slightly on rare occasions. So, I've been waiting for a good enough reason to quit... at the same time I've had a growing sense that the good it does the world is nearly if not actually outweighed by the energy I lose to it. It's not that it's an enormous sap on my energy, but it certainly takes something out of my life when I have to tell my friends that restaurant X is no good for me, or when I have to turn down potato chips offered.

I want to turn that energy toward something more worthwhile than irritating others with my finickiness. But I have to have my herculean labors first. If you were around for my entry at the end of last year, you know what my labors are.

1. repay my folks by april. DONE
2. pass level 3 of the Kanji Kentei (may be done as of June 10, just passed 4 on the DS, but...)
3. run 10 k in 45min. (managed it in 50 mins last week... my third week of running)
4. bench press my own weight (currently 64kilos, and I'm pretty sure I can press about 45)
5. save 500,000 yen. (this one could be tough, as I'll be paying Japanese social security soon)
6. do a backflip (here I've yet to make any progress)

Each one feels quite within reach... though it's pretty unlikely that I'll manage the money one before at least November. So I'll be enjoying at least one more "meatless summer".

my blood pressure.

104/66

my father's: very much higher.

virtual pat on the back.

kanken DS
Treadmill
blog hits
paycheck

I wonder if this quantifiable success thing leads away from people. I mean, the treadmill and the DS can mark my progress and give me precise encouragement much better than anyone else I know. My paycheck is, in a sense, a much more direct encouragement than "thanks" or a pat on the back.

Something bad happened that makes me reflect on my childhood, and my life ahead from here. Are there many "thanks"s or pats on the back left, or is it just gonna be a number readout on an lcd screen?

I'm 28, I ate an ice cream confection, and I ran 10k in 59:58

do you imagine your suffering will be any less because...

Dude, Aronofsky is an asshole.

I just saw a movie that reminded me how good a visually awesome movie can be, and I'm just livid about having wasted my time on the fountain yesterday.

See the thin red line if you get a chance.

(that the mass of reviewers thinks the fountain worthy of a higher score is stunning. and deflates my hopes for a brighter world)

Nothing to say.

More than saying something right now, I feel like having something to say. I'm at a point in all of my plans where I just need to keep working, cuz results are a long way off yet. I study, I exercise, I clean, I read, I cook, I watch my budget...

It's all quite boring.

As was the Fountain.

I've said it before, I'll say it again.

meow meow meow.

rokkyuu.

I just passed level 6 of the kanji kentei. On the DS.

The game I bought is indeed pretty effective. I do have a big complaint though. Whereas on the real test, I'd have to have quite a large vocabulary, and be able to apply my knowledge over 1000s of different words, this game has roughly 100 questions per section per level.
I'm sure the 100 sample questions are a good representation of what the real level six offers, but this game can never be an effective study tool without a lot more questions.

It takes me about 30 minutes of solid workin to push through one level's worth of questions. Then a little more time to go over the ones I missed, and slowly get them all correct. Within an hour, I've supposedly accomplished a year's worth of kanji study. Shenanigans.

To wit: imagine I score about 40% on a given level. I study the 100 questions exhaustively, and get to the point where I can get 95% no problem, and I've got nothing left to study. What kind of score can I expect on the real test? By my figuring, about a 42%.

actually, a couple percent increase in score for just a couple hours study is phenomenal... but there's no easy way to take that couple of percent and extend it to 10 or 20%.
I'll probably be buying the other kanjikentei game pretty soon too, for exactly this reason.

twokayseven

Hey. This decade is actually wrapping itself up in a hurry. Momus has talked before about the character of a decade being defined mostly in it's closing years (though I tend to think of 84-86 and 91-93 as the defining years of their respective decades), but this is the first one I've really been able to countenance as an adult.
I was 10 coming into the nineties, and 0 for the beginning of the eighties, so this one is the first decade that really feels like I've been there to witness the whole thing.
So far, it hadn't been anything special to me. Maybe it takes two decades of awareness before you can really compare one decade to another.

Call me back in 2017.