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I’m off to catch the train to the Tokyo Game Show. I shall return with epic tales of awesomeness and playing games that aren’t out yet. WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In honour of my favourite blogs that have rocketed into popularity, I am providing a form letter that should streamline the whole nuffing process. The time saved by commenters by using this form letter should allow one to nuff on 3-4 times the number of blogs in a day than they would have previously. Feel free to post the form letter for the convenience of your own readership.

Dear ________,

Lately I’ve noticed that your posts have become less _________. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as when your posts were ________. No offense, but I don’t come here for ________. I really expect more ________ in a site that I visit for free while you pay for the massive bandwidth and disk space. I really think you should think about what your readers want and why they come here. I, for one, won’t be back.

Sincerely,

Self-important Jackass

What. The. Hell.

News coverage on TV showed him chasing people down the street, threatening to throw rocks at them and wielding a metal barricade pole.

Police were taking him back to the station to find out what his intention was.

Does this sound like the behaviour of someone who has any intention whatsoever? Does it sound like the behaviour of someone who has any idea where he is or what is going on? People, he went diving for his marbles, okay? They sank right to the bottom and he couldn’t reach them. There you go. Motivation.

I wish there was a decent copy of the footage they showed on Japanese TV; the shots of a large naked white man chasing police down the sidewalk was pure comedy.

This is Hiroshi Katsuno. He is the Director of Business for the Tokyo Art Printing Company. He begins his day at 7am, going into the office and taking care of faxes and emails for the day. At 9:00, he leaves for an hour to care for a colony of cats that live on the grounds of the Hotel New Otani in the middle of Tokyo.



When he first encountered the cats, he had just finished meeting with a customer at the Hotel New Otani. The cats had been without food since the woman who had been caring for them became pregnant. Several cats were run over by maintenance vehicles as they chased after them, trying to find food. Instead of keeping to himself and letting the problem belong to someone else, Katsuno dropped everything and went to the store to buy cat food.



That was 2 years ago. Every day he visits the cats, who wait expectantly for his arrival. The colony of 14 or so cats gathers at 9:00, stretching and rubbing up against the tires of his parked car. He comes bearing a huge amount of food, some wet food, some dry food, even some fish that had been cooked for the cats. He lays out newspaper around the area and piles up food for the cats to come and eat. Each one has a name and a story. The oldest is 7 years old, others were born in April of this year.



He checks the general health of the cats, and arranges to have each one fixed when they are old enough. The overall care of the cats costs him $400-500 each month, all of which comes out of his own pocket. Many did not understand his dedication, as stray cats are plentiful in Japan, and are often disregarded or maligned. Even so, he has persevered and earned the respect of the staff of the hotel.

He receives no recognition or reward, except knowing that his "children" are safe and cared for. He is an absolute gem of a human being.

His kindness and dedication moved me to tears, having seen many stray cats going hungry in the streets of Japan. Many are skittish and fearful, unsure of whether the next person will be someone who is kind, or someone who will shoo them away like vermin. Sadly, I am just a tourist, and I am limited in what I can do. But here was a man who was doing exactly what I wished I could do, and doing so quietly and inconspicuously. He makes the world a better place every day.

Click here for more pictures.
Please do not republish pictures without my consent.

The clock says 8pm. My body says 5am. The dissonance between the two kind of makes me want to throw up. More later.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

I am attempting to complete two statistics assignments and an essay a week before they are actually due, in preparation for my trip to Japan. I should be really excited about this. At the moment, I’m not. I have an excruciating headache that has enveloped my head and crawled down into my neck and shoulders.

This is my first essay for this English class. I keep trying to tell myself that it’s not a big deal, but there is still a substantial portion of my brain that keeps freaking out about whether or not I have the capacity to perform at this level.

I’ve spent 45 minutes trying to find a single reference which allows me to discuss the symbolism of the title of Wide Sargasso Sea. I’ve barely touched Things Fall Apart, except to find the poem that inspired the title. At this rate, I’ll be done in about six months.

We’re live again. Good god, that took almost two weeks. My apologies, I think the kinks have been worked out.

“How is the epigraph of the novel significant?”

The professor watches the bewildered students, and his heart sinks.

I am mortified. English is my first language, and here I am in a second-year English course, grasping for the meaning of basic words. You’d think I had never picked up a book in my life. My professor, the worldly polyglot who has lived all over the world and learned English as a second or third language, has a better vocabulary than any of us. He tosses out words, examining their etymology as they float in the air. Macabre. Maqbara. Arabic for graveyard. Capricious. Caprice. French for whim.

We stare blankly, only displaying a glimmer of recognition when something has some overlap with popular culture. We are Canadian, and none of us have more than a cursory knowledge of Native culture. Some of us have travelled, some of us consider ourselves worldly, and yet we seem to know nothing of the real world.

I suppose we deserve credit for being interested in the perspectives in post-colonial literature. I suppose we are displaying an openness for other cultures and ethnicities by taking the course, but how did we all manage to get this far in life and know so little?

I need to do a lot more reading.

So I was Freecycling up a storm yesterday, and my box of beauty products had people pretty excited. One person I asked said that she and some other people put together gifts for people in need. Although the box was already gone, I thought that sounded so nice that I’d ask whether they had a website.

She replied that they didn’t have a website, and that they were a pro-life organization that gives gifts to women in crisis pregnancies.

I was a little stuck on what to say for a while. Then I figured that was not the time and place to get into any heavy debates, and just complimented her on their kindness. I had to dig deep for that one, but I figure people should be encouraged to be kind and generous, even if I don’t agree with their motives.

No more denial, no more eating things that I don’t record. My Wii Fit knows exactly how much I weigh, and my BMI is in Chubbytown. It’s time to buckle down, get honest with myself and finally reach my goal weight.

So far, so good. The BMI hasn’t gone down yet, but I’ve been faithfully putting in my Wii Fit time every other day, and weighing in every day. Getting it to be the same time of day is a bit more difficult, but I give myself points for at least doing it everyday.

I was tempted to record my initial attempts at figuring out the exercises, because it was high comedy for anyone watching. I am, however, far too vain to turn myself into the next Star Wars boy. You’ll just have to wait until I can persuade someone else to let me record a video of them.

Here’s to future success!