dateURLjapan stuffother
11.03.99 stomachface
good ol' stomach face.

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pigsleys.com
i think these might be the only guinea pigs with their own domain.

we've been following their progress closely. very closely.

[from Pete, Esq.]



11.02.99 voting rights for foreigners
file under 'Japan, xenophobia in'.

from the Daily Yomiuri: "A bill that would give foreign permanent residents the right to vote in local government elections is being considered by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party, Jiyuto (Liberal Party) and New Komeito."

really the best parts are the arguments against the bill, like House of Councillors member Kaname Kamada's slippery slope argument: if foreign residents can vote, then next they'll want to actually run for election, "which will have a detrimental effect on the country." of course.

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"Fur flies after principal releases school rabbits"
more from the Yomiuri:
"'I (abandoned the rabbits) for the benefit of the children,' the principal said. 'However, I realize that it was inappropriate to abandon animals maintained and cared for by the students,' he added."


missing scissors: an office drama, starring me
i swear i had some scissors in my desk. someone stole my scissors. there are like three more pairs in the supply cabinet. that makes it more annoying--not less.

what's up with that? who's the big scissor stealer? who's going into my desk, looking for scissors....or were they looking for something else and then just decided to take my scissors?

what the hell?

[goes to supply cabinet. eyes co-workers suspiciously and mumbles all the way there and back to his desk.]
11.01.99 japanlyrics.com
here you can find lyrics to j-pop songs, written in roman letters instead of hiragana/katakana. this is really useful if you are me. otherwise, maybe less useful.

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chairs from the future
specifically from the 1960s/1970s future. chairs in the future will be very expensive. [from chisato]

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we are not alone!
not only do you get wacked out UFO conspiracy babble, but you also get one FREE weird ass dancing robot!

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why americans are sheeples: flouride
someone should win some kind of typo award for 'sheeples'.

finally a web page with the guts to blow the cover off the whole manhattan project/flouride thing. remember the anti-flouridation rant in Dr. Strangelove? it's all true. we all knew it, but we're too sheeples to do anything about it.



10.30.99 the I Didn't See Titanic support group: 12 questions only you can answer
"1.Have you ever decided to stop seeing Titanic for a week or so, but only lasted for a couple of days?

2.Do you wish people would mind their own business about you seeing Titanic-- stop telling you what to do? ..."

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Purple Unicorn
renaissance clothing catalog. too easy to make fun of. i'll pass.

renaissance weddings. ditto.



10.28.99 slurry.org: what is slurry?
when that guy at the party introduces himself as "Jones, Daryl Jones. I'm in Slurry," now you can say, "oh slurry. isn't that an aggregate, asphalt emulsion, water, and filler mixture where the asphalt emulsion serves as a binder, holding the crushed aggregate together so the new slurry surface can adhere to the old surface over which it is applied."

please also let the record show that their logo is obscene.

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ampersand pita
this is another pita i enjoy.

because of the time difference, when i check recently updated pitas, i usually only find pitas whose authors update them at night. i think that's how i found this one.

i was hooked when he wrote something about "$ilicon valley", saying that "Someday the media will report on how fucked up the San Francisco Bay Area is now."

Richard Winchell who does this pita is also one of the founders of givequick.org which, that's very cool.

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Rosco P. Coltrane dot com
James Best played Rosco P. Coltrane on the Dukes of Hazzard. He has his own website because it's 1999 and everyone, including Rosco P. Coltrane has to have their own website.

He also paints.

And he also says they're going to start shooting the next Dukes reunion next month. Sadly, this one will be done without Uncle Jesse, may he rest in peace.

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the asphalt institute
includes Hot Mix Asphalt Construction which i think would be a great title for one of those dance mix CDs that are always at the listening stations but that no one ever buys, I don't think. like "Hot Traxx 99" or "Dance Explosion Party" or "Rumpshaker Fever Blister Mixtacular 2000". and there might even be a couple good songs that you would want to own but they're in there with a couple others that are so god-awful that you know better than to hand over your $14.95. anyway, i would probably buy "Hot Mix Asphalt Construction" no matter how bad it was.

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Kita He
weird japanese "dating simulation" game for Dreamcast, reviewed by gamespot.com.

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Rosco Acquires New Self-Propelled Broom
"MADISON, S.D. -- To further enhance its road maintenance product offering, Rosco Manufacturing Company has acquired the Challenger II self-propelled broom..."

you know what--don't even click that link. i have a soft spot for press releases about "road maintenance product offerings" but i really don't expect anyone else to have even one-tenth of my fascination with those things.

it's enough for me to just share my love of self-propelled brooms with you. thank you.

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volumeone - autumn 99
is pretty good.



10.27.99 Monoke Hime / Princess Mononoke
i'm wondering if there's a bunch of hype about this film in the US yet.

if not, there should be because it's really great. it's the most expensive animated film ever made in japan. and it was the number 2 highest grossing film ever here, right after Titanic.

It's so good that hopefully not even Disney will be able to ruin it. (as part of the deal for Miramax to release it in the US, Miyazaki, the director, wouldn't let them edit it, but fans are a little worried about their English dub--especially because there were rumors that they were trying to get Madonna to do a song for it. Madonna's fine and all, but she doesn't really match the tone of the film.)

Stefan showed me both this site and the film. In fact, he showed me both the Japanese version and the bootleg English-subtitled version of the film. But you should see it in the theater because the animation is so lush.

it's traveling around to different cities in the US and Canada, starting on October 29th. Here's a schedule.

and this is the official US site. the official site looks kind of cool, but if you actually want info about the movie, you have to go to the above unofficial fan site. fans will build a good database, whereas an ad agency will just build a handsome flyer, y'know.

oh, and Mike's Mononoke site has some nice big stills from the movie.

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world's biggest barbra fan (after richard simmmons) writes about doing a bumper for the rosie o'donnell show
"Hi, I'm Joseph Hayden from good 'ole Brooklyn New York....In this household we celebrate April 24 like a national holiday!... Happy Birthday Barbra! [I lift one of my Barbra mugs.]"

this is his barbra fan magazine, "just like buttah".

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The Samchillian Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee Home Page
computer + music + weird = Tip Tip Tip Cheeepeeeee.

see also samchillian.com. and mp3.com/legslurp.

i didn't manage to download any of the music, though.

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Bad Radio Dog Massacre
umm. okay, i'm with you. nobody likes to see puppies killed, sure.

umm. this is insane.

whoa!



10.25.99 avi of kid peeing on his dad's head
Japanese television at its finest.

go right now to r33t.org to download this. go on. git.

this clip was on the Japanese equivalent of America's Funniest Home Videos or some such a month or so ago. (sadly, it was before i bought a vcr.)

i appreciate that someone (mom?) was there videotaping the whole thing and decided to record the incident for posterity (and future family counseling sessions) rather than intervene.

you probably already know this, but r33t.org can be pretty entertaining. Word up to comrade immortal for finding this clip.

ha. word up. no one says word up anymore. look at me kickin' it with the archaic rap slang. i'm a dork.

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DJ J
"I STARTED WHOOPING ASS WHEN I WAS FIVE AND BEEN INTO IT EVER SINCE . I'M NOT A PORN ADDICT LIKE MOST PEOPLE..."

not much else there, but you have to respect someone who started whooping ass so early in life.



10.24.99 ghost photos
turns out ghosts and ectoplasm look a lot like double-exposures and photos taken by cameras with a light leak.

here's "A Vortex and A Dog".



10.23.9980s videogame ads
oh man oh man.

Megamania, Ms. Pac-Man. Etc.

there are other ads you can get from the commercial archive. but why bother. 80s video games! come on!

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about being a pizza delivery driver
"Please dont come to the door in your underwear,or with a big beer belly hanging out- I DONT WANT YOUR BODY"

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tip your pizza driver
yeah you people in north america! tip em. sheesh.

ordering pizza
i don't order pizza very often. the language barrier and the economic barrier keep me from placing the call. (it's about $25 for a medium pizza--a medium which would be considered a small in the US.) the closest delivery place, Pizza-La, delivers pizza by scooter. So does Pizza Hut. And pretty much every delivery place, i think.

there are special suspended noodle-holders on the back of scooters to keep ramen, etc from spilling when the scooter goes around turns.

show me the oxen
where have all the oxen gone? admittedly, it's been three months since i was in the US of A. but way back when i was there, i don't recall seeing a lot of oxen. and i do remember seeing a fair number of cows and horses. there was a time when there were a lot of oxen in America. What did they do to become so unpopular?

Mechanization of farm labor is my guess.

Having an irregular plural probably contributed.

let's bring back the oxen.

wouldn't that be a great bumper sticker?

"Bring back the oxen."

or "Where are the oxen?"

or "Show me the oxen."

That's my favorite.

"Show me the oxen."
10.22.99 yup. Mole day's a-comin'.
Mole Day. Don't forget Mole Day on October 23rd. Mark your calendars for Mole Day, the first holiday invented by science teachers.

[old mole day listings.]