badmigraine
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Posts posted by badmigraine
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That's funny db...thye top of my Microsoft computer mouse also says "this side faces enemy".
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50,000 yen from my suit pocket in my (unlocked) locker at work; a locked bicycle; a motorcycle cover; motorcycle winkers; motorcycle mirrors; motorcycle saddlebags; bicycle lights (twice); a shirt; a Microsoft Word 2000 CD from my (locked) locker at work; and some cheap sunglasses.
More was stolen from me in 8 years in Japan than 30 years in the US (including long spells in Detroit and L.A.).
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Breck is terribly crowded these days, on weekends. Better to work on Sat-Sun and spend the weekdays at the mountain.
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I have actually lived this thread! After 8 years in Japan, I returned to the US last October. Here's what I miss the most:
--Mogski, the greatest ambassador and International Rep for NZ that ever lived
--my J surfing pals, the sweetest bunch of alcoholic, happy-go-lucky surfing lifestylers you ever did meet...thank god I met them before believing my J company acquaintances were the only kind of people in Japan
--real Japanese food
--eating great food and drinking heavily, then taking a train, taxi or even bicycle back home...no worries about a-hole cops and drunk driving
--Female watching (average weight of Michigan women is around 140kg...no kidding...think about it guys)
--the food at konbinis...I'd kill for that 24-hour selection of onigiri, o-den, seaweed salads and cheaply delicious bentos...even if they do actually contain hormone disruptors
--the polite service at restaurants and shops (here, every clerk and waiter has a giant ugly puerile attitude that you must practically fellate before getting any service...no thanks, foist your issues about work, authority and service on your family, loved ones and therapist, but please don't ask me to pay for the painful experience, you minimum-wage insecure juvenile rude prat...I never behaved that way when I was a minimum-wage clerk or bartender)
--being mistaken for a person who is moderately good-looking and being surprised to find out that incredibly beautiful, sexy women had a crush on me from way back (!)...whereas here I am basically reviled, or merely ignored and totally irrelevant at best
--being considered an unusually gifted genius for making simple typographical and grammatical corrections to standard, boilerplate contracts and business letters
I'll go back one day. I got the most amazing wife from Japan, and thank god she and her family want to see us back there.
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Cool!
Your legs and feet are what hold you up, so it's good to make sure they are working right and getting all you need. Hope the arches work out.
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One of the Wachowski brothers (directors of the Matrix series) has allegedly been leading a secret life as a submissive transvestite at the dungeon of Mistress Ilsa Strix in L.A.
It got so far along that his wife is divorcing him, and successfully filed a restraining order with the L.A. county courts to freeze his assets pending the breakup.
According to this week's National Enquirer, Wachowski is already taking female hormone pills and will eventually have a sex change operation to become a female.
In an even more bizarre twist, it seems his current wife used to be married to a woman who'd become a man through a sex-change operation.
Hey, that's Hollywood for you.
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Jared, thanks for that clarification... I am almost totally ignorant of the differences among the various sects of Christianity. Is it only the Catholics then who believe in transubstantiation?
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Try the game. It took me 2:02 to finish it...
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I dated a Japanese hairdresser who was a couple years away from being a "stylist". You would not believe how seriously hard she and all her friends worked. They are there from around 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. almost every day, then they have "renshuu" (practice) for a couple hours after that.
EVERY NIGHT.
During the renshuu, they cut hair for free, to practice. How do they find these people, these willing guinea pig subjects?
They hang around stations on Tuesdays--their only days off--asking a thousand strangers a thousand times "Excuse me, I'm a hairdresser, want a free cut and style?" and a few people agree, even fewer actually show up.
The salary is peanuts, they work all Golden Week, and few of them actually ever make Stylist, which can be like making Partner at a law firm...but only at the posh shops...elsewhere, it means nothing especially financial.
The level of cutting technique is very high in Japan. Even I, a non-expert, feel scared and skeptical of the slovenly, casual and unskilled approach seen in many salons here. Even people with good training fall far short of the Japanese skill level...as an experienced sushi chef would blow away one of those grocery-store California Roll making part-timers.
In retrospect it was probably an insult to her that I bought a 3000-yen National hair clipper and gave myself a buzz cut every week...saved on time, shampoo and style crises.
But I made it up to her a million times over by giving her a foot massage most days...gosh did her legs ache after a day of standing around in the shop. And what fine legs they were...tasted great too but that is another thread.
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I recently learned that an acquaintance is a Volkl-sponsored ski race instructor. She can get me any Volkl products at pro-form or even lower prices.
I've never been on a Volkl board, but understand the rep is good for both the boards and the skis. Anyone here have experience with Volkl snowboards?
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There's plenty of cults in most developed societies... I think human nature, not Japanese social structure, is the main culprit.
And when you start focusing in on what differentiates a cult from more widespread beliefs, including those of the major organized religions, it's hard to come up with anything more specific than "stubborn, dogged holders of unprovable beliefs that most of the rest of us find stupid and unbelievable".
The stubborn, dogged belief part is, in and of itself, not a feature of cultish behavior. No cult has a monopoly on that. Rather, it appears to be an essential virtue in almost any religion. It is usually called "faith".
At one time in history, the Christian and Jewish religions were once small, ridiculed and persecuted cults.
As for beliefs that are "unprovable, stupid and unbelievable", what if I told you there was a cannibalistic cult of people who ate the flesh and drank the blood of a re-animated corpse, who expressly believe in spirits all around but when presented with the story of a ghost or spirit, snicker in disbelief and even once tortured, mutilated and burned to death the people who repeated them? If you haven't already guessed, the cult is called "Christianity".
If it hadn't existed until a few years ago, had suddenly sprung up with robes, censers, Jesus nailed to the cross icons and the miracle of transubstantiation, and only had a couple of hundred adherents, then imagine the laughter, derision and sneering to which we would subject it today.
I don't mean to belittle or sneer at Christianity or organized religion. Similar sarcastic comments could be made about Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, etc. No disrespect is intended.
I am just pointing out how some of the tenets of even the most widespread religions can be disingenuously characterized as foolish, bizarre and ridiculous, and how difficult it would be to explain to an alien why most cults are laughable while other systems of belief are not.
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Mr Matthews, you'll never have to explain that to Mogski. He's from New Zealand and he told me they invented gum boots and velcro gloves...
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Enderzero, ouch!
Zooks, you may not want to ride this coaster, but you can snowboard down the damn thing in the winter.
Miteyak, your drink and vomit pouch await!
I am dreading the coaster, but the boat ride out should be a blast.
There are also plenty of young (18-25) well-proportioned wigglers in bikinis to look at too.
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For those of you that had trouble believing that I dated Lucy Liu in the late 80's, you may find this even harder to swallow...
I live close enough to Sandusky, Ohio to go there on a day trip. In fact I've been to Cedar Point many times...
But I won't drive there.
Why?
Because my rich stepbrother has a 12-meter boat with four beds and two showers in it, and 5-10 times every summer he takes it and a load of fun gals and guys down the Detroit River into Lake Erie (15 minutes), across Lake Erie (a couple of hours of drinking and sunbathing with assorted stops for tomfoolery like trying to wakeboard and water-ski off that giant boat, and nude drunken bathing etc.), and we dock at Cedar Point or Put-In-Bay on South Bass Island (a sort of Gas Panic island) and have a blast.
We sleep on the boat (or drink all night), then make our way home the next day.
It sure is a blast!
He recently found that a female friend's sister is a stripper, and went down to see her dance. She and her friends are now HIS friends and we are planning a stripper tour to Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay!
You can't bring booze into Cedar Point, but we just mix giant rum cokes in sports bottle coolers and carry them round as if they are soft drinks, getting more and more potted the whole time.
Sure wish you all could be there to share it with me!
Anyone care to organize a SJG trip to Ohio?
Heh.
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I thought Trinity looked like Snuffy Smith...
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Hey _freak, I forgot to mention:
Weearing an orthotic didn't adversely affect my riding. In fact it helped it.
My problem was one leg slightly shorter than the other, so the orthotic actually slightly improved my balance and smoothness because it corrected my body position.
I think your orthotics won't change your overall body position, but they may shift the pressure points inside your boots a bit.
I think this won't bug you at all, in fact it might give you a better ride feeling.
Just don't worry if it feels a bit strange on the first run, kind of like the first runs of the season feel weird.
After a couple runs, you'll forget you even have the damn things in there.
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I once had cork ones when I was running a lot and they were great, kind of gentle on the feet. Also, they never smelled but my feet aren't stinky anyway. Not like Mogski's.
Now the inserts I use in my right shoe/boot are a variety of materials. I have a leather one, a rubbery sports one, and a cork one.
Plastic doesn't sound great but who knows? There are so many miracle plastics around, it may be better than anything else.
Let us know how it works out!
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According to this link...
http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/news/mai...16/ixworld.html
it looks like Pana**Wave has postponed the end of the world until May 22...er...um...hey, that's TODAY in Japan!
You guys still there?!
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Yeah, weren't we all supposed to die on May 15?
What are these clowns saying now to excuse their innacurate prediction of the end of the world?
Did they refund the money to those who paid the $10,000 or whatever to hide in their specially-shielded outbuildings?
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Hey _freak, I board with an orthotic insert in my right boot...it works fine.
I don't notice any difference from the other foot in terms of fatigue, blood flow when the laces are really tight, cold/hot, impact absorption, slippage or heel lift, etc.
I'd say the only thing to be careful about is discomfort possibly caused by full orthotics that cramp or distort your foot position inside the boot.
A thicker orthotic might raise your entire foot or ankle up so that your ankle is uncomfortably positioned right in the middle of the part of the liner that is supposed to be above your ankle to hold it in place.. You should also beware of orthotics that increase foot slippage or heel lift inside your boot. It's going to be hit-or-miss with most boots, so you're better off taking your orthotics to the boot shop if you are buying new boots.
If you have no plans to buy new boots, you could attempt to lessen undesirable side-effects by removing any thinnish comfort or odor-absorption liner, or heat-moldable liner, that came with your boots. This would give your orthotics a bit more room to exist comfortably in the boot without raising up your foot position too much.
My right leg is about 1/4 inch shorter than the left and this caused knee and hip problems when I was in high school track & cross-country. Now I have a collection of 1/4" inserts that go into my right-side shoes and boots all the time.
I'm a big fan of podiatriac attempts to resolve leg and back problems. Definitely worth a try in my experience! Good luck and let us know what you end up doing.
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Yeh...the gestapo, Pol Pot and Saddam's elite national guard were patriots too.
The US prides itself on its freedom of speech and the "marketplace of ideas".
But in the current climate, it's hard to see where rational debate and the freedom to disagree stop, and blind acceptance of anything and everything without examination or debate begins.
I guess maybe I spent too long in school and abroad. Around my town, any discussion is modeled after what people know best: TV shows like Jerry Springer, Ricky Lake, etc. where you can only talk for 2 seconds before getting interrupted and shouted down by a meaningless, emotional slogan.
They said I wasn't patriotic because I lived in Japan and Europe for a number of years and speak a couple other languages.
They said I was a "liberal" even though I voted Republican in every election since high school, including for Bush.
I said, Let's get Arabs to assassinate and murder the terrorists in their own countries", and they called me an Arab Lover...
There's not much point in engaging Patriots in discussion around here.
Why now we even have the "Patriot Act", the worst attack on the US Constitution, Bill of Rights and personal freedoms ever...there's an even worse Patriot Act II under congressional review right now, ready to turn the US into a "show me your papers" kind of country with a national ID card, people being arrested and held indefinitely without being charged or access to legal representation...the National Criminal Information Center will no longer have to make "reasonable efforts" to verify information so their database will be corrupt and you can be picked up as a terrorist or criminal just because somebody once said you were and that info got into the computer...
Nobody around here has even heard of this stuff. They are too busy watching CNN, where everything is still hunky-dory. It may be that these lazy, smug, manipulated, ignorant do-nothing happy fools will continue to squander their hard-won civil rights and get what they deserve in the end, while proudly driving around with their "I support Freedom", "Proud to be an American", and "I Stand for Liberty" bumper stickers...
I better stop now. I am getting upset again! Maybe I should move to a different town or something.
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What about Japanese Marital Arts?
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Hey, powwwers, sorry, I didn't mean it like that!
I enjoyed your post and input, and always do. Why I even used your post on the moguls thread awhile ago (something like "mogul practice keeps snowboarders' turns honest and committed, so when you go into the trees, you can scoot around them with polish and style") to explain to some skiers at the bar why a boarder needs to go into the moguls from time to time.
I certainly don't want to make personal attacks and I apologize if my last post came across that way. I'm just cultivating the image of a stubborn crank and sometimes don't phrase things to fully convey that.
Apple G5
in General off-topic discussions
Posted
Great news... Clearly, this blazing speed is going to help me type my e-mails faster and save me a nanosecond when I hit "save" in Word. Worth the thousands-of-dollars upgrade I'm sure.
Then when the Wintel world comes out with the next of the endless one-up products, I'd better get that too. Surely my typing and reading will get much faster.
I'm pretty sure these blazing processors and giant RAM chips are creating a vacuum, sucking information faster than ever off the Net, in spite of my lowly 600kb connection speed.