badmigraine

Mine would be getting to 39 without marrying.

Wouldn't you know it...even the oppressive banality of Japanese TV requires 6 hours of prep for only 1 hour of "payoff". Reminds me of where I used to work. Never have so many idle hands expended so much time and energy pretending to do lord knows what and failing at even that. Notice I didn't even say "pretending to be busy", because they couldn't even imagine what "busy" really is, and so couldn't pretend to be it.

Mogs and I belong to the "Commonpoorth". This is an international society devoted to trading beers and used girlfriends on a poor man's budget. The only pre-requisite is that your body have been colonized by bacteria at some point.

Mogs, it would have to be the cheapo wine knife I got at the 100 yen shop. Even though I have better ones, I've used that one over 30 times already this year! I should note that the wines I'm drinking these days are in the same price range as the opener.

Q: Know what happens when you play a country music song backwards? A: You get back your dog, your woman and your pickup truck. Haw haw haw haw haw!!

Yeah...and if you learn Japanese exactly as Busy People would have you, even after a couple years in Japan you will still be saying stuff like "Kinou wa nani o tabemashita ka?" and "Anata wa genki desu ka?"...the special coded brand-me-forever-as-an-outsider circus monkey style of Japanese that might be perfectly correct and neutral, but that no Japanese person would ever use. Take a look at some of the many badly-done ESL texts to see the corresponding English version of this rarified travesty. In high school we had a Finnish exchange student. She was really cute and tried hard to f

Ocean-thanks. Let me know when you have time! Enderzero, thanks! I'll take a look at those. Does the series stop at intermediate level I wonder? I'll probably finish the "beginning" book in about one week, since I did spend over 7 years in Japan and can almost read the newspaper etc. It's kind of weird, when I look at other languages there are tons of programmed/sequential A to Z coursebooks and user-friendly reference grammar books that progress you through virtually everything you could ever need. But Japanese textbooks--even though there are tons of them--are almost all alo

Now that I'm back in the US for a year or so at least, I wanted to make a point of going through a series of college-level Japanese language textbooks, from beginning through advanced, to try to clean and fix my spotty Japanese. After 7 years in Japan without formally studying the language, I achieved a level of Japanese that is fine for getting by, having conversations about most anything, and doing some business. However, my Japanese is riddled with errors and gaping holes...to a native speaker, it probably sounds like the English of the cook Hop Sing on Bonanza. Any recommend

Once you get in the trees, it is hard to hold a course or line, and not so much fun to stick right behind somebody. Last week Mogski and I were at Snowbird in Utah during a big dump and what with his white puffy jacket and my silver spacesuit, it only took a couple of turns before we were invisible to each other...

I wouldn't mind a bit of this before grilling my burger and opening another cold beer. www.cheeseracing.org

I sometimes wonder what is the best "powder board" and frankly speaking it is the gentem or the Burton Fish type of thing. But really. How often do you have a 100% powder day? Not often I would guess. You need a board that can do other things well, too. Your other alternative is a "big mountain board". I used a Supermodel for years, and rode 2 other Burton boards. They are great boards, but they lose their snap over time and become floppy floaty surfboards rather than responsive, quick and edge-biting tools. Lately, I've enjoyed the top-of-the-line Salomon boards. They are

Here's an article from the Mainichi. It was on the Mainichi site hours before the Japan Today put a shorter [edited?] version on their webpage. The Mainichi version insinuates that alcohol was involved. The boarder was allegedly drinking free beers at a party, then rode the 5-story spiral rail at 3 a.m. "US snowboarder slides to death down hotel handrail NAGANO -- An American pro snowboarder fell 15 meters to his death early Sunday morning after sliding down the handrail of a fourth-floor staircase at a hotel he was staying, police said. Jeffrey Lin Anderson, 23, was immed

db, it's all thanks to you...I found the Skwal doing a search after seeing your post in the "hard boards" thread saying something about some people rocking an "ultra-narrow board"...I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I Googled it. Credit where credit is due! It was all you. Now, your next job is to actually get riding on one, then give us a full review!

As a boy, I'd steal my brother's Playboy mags and look at all the pictures and read the blurbs about the girls. They were all about 20 years old. I thought: "When I reach 20, I'll have one of those girls..." Next month, I'll reach 40. Assuming my math is correct, I'll have two of those girls...

I am boring. Goodnight.

The guys on this page make the "Helmets-Yes or No?" threads irrelevant... Speed! Click on the link to "Carving" and read about the Skwal, which is essentially an ultra-narrow carving snowboard... Now THIS would be worth a try on a boring weather day.

Do you mean, Mogs' "S&M" Resort BBQ?

I'm with Mogs on this one. I started going with him and some Japanese friends last year (age 38). I've already got the wetsuit and put in an order for a board. The great thing about surfing is that it seems you could do it for a lifetime with a minimum of fuss and equipment. I'm still a beginner, but I can see that even as I get better there will always be so much more to learn. What a great sport! I can't believe I waited this long to start. Give a man a fish, and he can eat for one night. Teach a man to fish, and he can eat for a lifetime.

Tatu? Yappari tatanai.

Yep that's one good thing about being back in the US...I see (then drink) microbrews all over the place and not much more money than Budweiser, the McDonalds of beers. The etiology of your respective enjoyments of ASD in the place called "back home" is the blandly foisted spoilment/staling of the brew on the long ocean voyage to your country. This unexpected transformation of the ASD brewers' mechanical art imparts to the specimen some added flavor and brack, and is justly recognized as an improvement over the original. Hence your disappointment with the genuine article as laid on by

In response to Enderzero's inquiry in the Pension Refund thread, here is an explanation of the difference between a JET and and Expat, as seen through the lens of a Penthouse Forum letter: THE JET "Dear Penthouse Forum I am a student at a large, midwestern university, and until now, I never believed that the letters to Penthouse Forum were true...that is, until last Friday night. I was studying late in the virtually-deserted library stacks, cursing the fate that had me writing yet another paper while all my roommates were out drinking, when I noticed a beautiful blonde studying just t

I was wondering about that...but with my luck I'll probably be an even worse skier than I was before I quit!

Hey Snapper Check out custom- and hand-made Donek boards at www.donek.com . They are better than mass-produced boards and will ship internationally for only $25. Their all-mountain board (the "Incline") is only $330. If you are wondering about quality, durability and performance, just do a Google search for Donek snowboards and check out the online reviews. It seems that well-made custom boards blow away most mass-produced ones. Just like a specialty shop can make a better burger than Ronald McDonald.

Where'd you get the info on the change, Zwelgen? I wonder whether the change is retroactive starting April '03, or is it forward-looking? I did one of these pension refunds years ago, and am doing another right now. Thanks to your post, I'll mail it off tomorrow and hope I beat the April change date. I wonder if unpaid ward taxes are deducted from the lump-sum refund and/or the refund of the 20% tax? I also wonder whether a "tax representative" I appoint to claim the refund of the 20% tax is purely an administrator, or does s/he assume legal responsibility for any unpaid [w

A long time ago...the planet Hoth had a considerable amount.