badmigraine

I don't remember posting that twice.

Slightly off topic, but last night at the bar Mogs and I saw the following liqueur on the menu: "Noily Prat" I can recommend this drink to a few of my company colleagues. One of them could even be the official Prat spokesman.

Do I prefer crows? Of caws!

I can never remember my blackouts. I had a good one about four years ago when it snowed almost a meter in Michigan, and according to my sister after the usual beers and cocktails runup, I had a bottle and a half of red and then some tequila on the rocks. I sang along to the entire Pink Floyd-The Wall album, then ran around the snowdrifts barefoot and in my boxer shorts, and finally slipped and fell in front of the garage door biting a deep gash in my tongue. I remember waking up, relatively hangover-free, and everyone kind of smirking and shaking their heads when I aske

I can never remember my blackouts. I had a good one about four years ago when it snowed almost a meter in Michigan, and according to my sister after the usual beers and cocktails runup, I had a bottle and a half of red and then some tequila on the rocks. I sang along to the entire Pink Floyd-The Wall album, then ran around the snowdrifts barefoot and in my boxer shorts, and finally slipped and fell in front of the garage door biting a deep gash in my tongue. I remember waking up, relatively hangover-free, and everyone kind of smirking and shaking their heads when I asked wh

"Evermore," quoth the raven... "Evermore"..!

As promised--all about YahooBB, in English!! Eikaiwa Net YahooBB English Forums

There's some eikawa-site that coincidentally also hosts a BBS with English technical, FAQ and other forums about YahooBB. I wish I'd gone there before getting my own YahooBB, not because of any language issue but because of the anecdotal accounts of various issues that also came up for me, and the accumulated user wisdom of the ages on how best to handle them. I don't have the URL here at work, but if I remember this later, I'll post it from home!

10 man yen doesn't sound like a "brush", more like a wallop.

A lot of it has to do with how long your hair is, and what type you have. When I was in my teens, I had long curly hair, and in most showers it took me over 5 minutes just to get it properly wet, let alone wash and rinse it. Not to mention all the other stuff you have to do in a shower. Flash forward to my shaved-head style from '98 to '02... I was in and out of the shower in less than 3 minutes, and that included full body soaping and scrubbing. Great on workdays, at the beach and wearing helmets. Sometimes having a hairstyle is a tragic loss of time. Then again, for men anyway

I used to follow this stuff and I have an anti-gun bias, but in this case, sadly, the NRA is right. Clinton's ban was typical hot-air politics. It didn't really do any of the things avid supporters like Ms. Brady would have us believe. The analogy would be banning a kind of sliced pickle at some Buger King outlets. After the ban, you could get the same pickles at other restaurants, and even Burger King was offering similar pickles that taste and look pretty much the same as the ones they are now forbidden to serve. The real gun issue in the US isn't banning this or that type

Here's my take on Macs...I've always admired them, but even when I've had plenty of money and needed a new computer, I never bought a Mac. I guess I just don't want one. I can't picture myself using and enjoying a Mac. Just like I can't picture myself riding a Harley, wearing three-button suits, or being attracted to blonde women. It's just not me. Unless somebody gives me one for free of course.

I like this Po Bronson. I myself have retired twice already, and I'm only 41. Even better--if work continues like it is now, then I think I'll soon feel another retirement coming on.

For me the holy grail of personal computing is an OS where you can switch the user interface into any language you want. All menus, dialogue boxes, system and error messages, etc. would be in the language you select. Right now, this is Apple OSX, which I can't use because I don't have an Apple computer...and it's MS Windows 2000 Pro or XP Pro combined with the MS MUI ("Multilanguage User Interface"...not available to single or retail users, only for volume licenses of 5 seats or more). People like me are left out in the cold. I can't buy a PC at Bic Camera, secure in the knowledge th

42 inch plasma Wow! Makes me want to rent sci fi DVDs..! I can smell the popcorn now... Maybe I'm revealing too much about my age here, but here goes... "TV party tonight! TV party tonight Got nothin better to do Than watch TV, and have a couple of brews.."

Maybe I didn't say it right... I like TV enough to spend about 2 man for a 28+ inch model. I did that a few years back here in Tokyo, and I did it a couple years ago in the US The trend used to be, every year they got cheaper and loaded with more and more features. Now there's a new trend...the TVs all got "better"...in fact, they are too good for me. I just can't see spending more than 2-3 man on this. With the tedious crap on TV, I don't watch much. A DVD is nice once in awhile, esp. now that we have a new baby and don't go out evenings anymore. But if I have to make it

Not bad! But I miss "conventional" TVs like 27" (about 2 man) or this 36" (about 4 man)

It used to be that you could get a fairly large TV (28-31 inches say) for about 3-4 man. You still can, in the US...made by Japanese companies no less. But in Japan, these standard non-flat TVs have been taken off the market to force you into paying at least triple the price for the dubious pleasure of watching television. "Mooo..." Let's pretend there was never anything cheaper...we're too good for it now. The screen had--good heavens!!--a slight curvature!! Terrible. Who could ever want one of THOSE. 200,000 might get you a tiny 23-inch LCD or plasma screen...or you can dro

It's not really a question of the camera technology, because the camera puts out the same kind of DVD as you get when you rent Harry Potter or Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS...minus the copy protection of course! The problem is that DVDs are in a weird .vob and .inf file format...and each DVD has a few of them sprinkled around. I'm not clear on how they all make up one DVD, but I'm sure I'll be learning this soon. The PC editing software I've tried so far requires transcoding or recoding of this .vob file into another format such as avi, dvx, wav, mpeg2, etc., before it can edit it.

Same as when you put it in your DVD player. Chapters with thumbnails showing how each chapter starts. The problem I'm now having is with the cruddy movie editing software (ULEAD Movie Factory) that shipped with the new DVD burning drive I just put into my PC. The damn thing is so buggy and doesn't even do what it says it will. I can easily burn a straight copy of the DVDs I made in my new videocam, but I have yet to be able to edit them. Sure I can use the Sony editing software that came with the camera, but it is clunky and nothing special. I need a Mac and iMovie I guess. This

Sorry, by "other countries" I meant other countries than Oz (didn't mention NZ, as Mogs told me it's not necessary). If I lived in Oz,I'd be at Niseko every season for sure.

I don't think the DVD cameras are a great leap over the tape ones either. I think I would have been thrilled with each one. This DVD one is my first, so I can't really say what the practical differences are. Yes, you can just pop the DVD into your puter and start editing away--you don't have to "capture" the data from the camera or tape/disc onto your hard drive. I have two drive bays, one with a DVD ROM and the other with a DVD R/RW that I just put in this afternoon. So I can make rapid DVD copies of the miniDVDs, to mail to my family. It's also quick to jump around and edit, no fa

I think this is all overblown. The Aussies come to ski in Japan and now make investments because they have such limited skiing in Oz. Japan isn't a jet lag destination, and they can ski during their summer. A nice hook. I can't think of many other countries that would view Japan as a ski holiday destination. It's tough to imagine what a foreign ski operator could do to a Japanese resort to make this an attractive destination for ski holidays. Expensive, inconvenient, lack of advanced terrain and the language issue. Anybody with enough cash for a weeklong hotel ski stay will be off to

In terms of new stuff for the season, how about a new right medial meniscus cartilage to replace the one I trashed while showing Naeba how moguls are done at high speed on a snowboard.

OK, now I've been playing with it for a few more days and I can tell you it's the Real Deal. It is a really nice machine, works in low light, simple to use, if you buy the J version here you can download the E manual for the same model off Sony's US site...a total breeze. As for copying the DVDs, you can download the data to your computer, then use the camera itself to burn additional copies of the mini DVD. That's easy but the DVD-Rs cost about 850 yen each, so they're expensive copies. I haven't priced the regular size DVD-R or RW blanks, but I doubt they are 850 yen each. I don't