Once, only once, The Maternal Unit took me to see the fireworks in Houston. I think I was seven. It was fantastic, but I recall that it took hours for us to make it out of there. For a number of years after that, every year, I asked her to take me, and we never went. The traffic was always terrible, there were crowds, it was hot, there were mosquitoes, etc. Eventually, I bought into the logic that, nice as the fireworks were, they weren't worth the frustration.

I was greatly surprised, as you may imagine, to hear The Maternal Unit suggest that we should go see the fireworks this year. And, having bought into her logic, I was initially rather negative on the idea. I warmed up to it a little more when she told me that she suggested it because she thought I might enjoy it.

We were both rather exhausted, though, and so we took what she called the chickenshit approach: She'd drive me around the highways around the downtown, and I'd watch.

This would have worked better had it not been for the fact that a great many people, having perceived that the Katy Freeway around Heights Boulevard afforded an excellent vantage point, decided to stop, and get out of their cars, completely obstructing three lanes of traffic. This is about as sensible as it sounds. There were people walking around on a highway with moving traffic. I mean, we expected a fair amount of weirdness on the road, but not that much. I was too scared at the prospect of other drivers to really enjoy what I could see around the SUVs with privacy glass.

After we cleared out of there and headed home, a frightening thought came to me: we share our gene pool with these people.

There's a fireworks stand less than a block away from our apartment, the Déjà Vu. When we came home, people were setting off what they bought from three different places visible from The Maternal Unit's bedroom window. We watched from there and got a pretty good show. It's surprising just how good fireworks you can get these days.

We considered going down there and buying some of our own. Then some guy nearly blew himself up about twenty meters away from our window. We decided we were fine to watch. And that we were grateful we had garages.

Apparently, Summit Media did receive a great number of complaints about Jasper's fugly hairdo in New Moon that they changed it again. Amusingly, his new style is remarkably similar to how I wear mine now, only his is a little longer. And I had decided about two weeks ago to grow mine out.

Jasper is actually from Houston, and in Eclipse, we get to see some of his backstory. In theory I like this, but they made it a little boring. You'd think that the Mexican Vampire Wars could be at least half as interesting as they sound, right? Also, what rocky hills are there in Houston? What cliffs are there in Galveston?! For those of you not familiar with the geography of eastern Texas, Houston in the early 1860s would have been a small town nestled among magnolia forests and swamps filled with pine, cypress, and alligators. Galveston Island is so flat that most of the island was submerged in the Hurricane of 1900. The cliffside scene was amazingly distracting. You Fail Geography Forever.

30 Questions about 1 person. ( Cut for your sanity )

I am a child of the '80s, and in large part as a consequence, I really love synthpop. (If you're unfamiliar with the genre, the Eurythmics' song "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" is the archetypal example.) I don't actually own much of it, though. It hasn't been all that popular in the US since, well, the '80s. Complicating the matter is that unlike, say, mediocre rock music, mediocre synthpop is fairly annoying, and often not worth listening to. It makes it harder to want to invest in.

The other day, though, I got it into my head that I needed to find some. Enter Wikipedia and You Tube. The first song I found is actually fairly enjoyable:



...if really tacky. But still good fun! Something about the woman, "Exo-Chika", suggests to me that she could be a transvestite, though. I think the bulk of the reason is that, if you've ever seen a man trying to pass as a woman, and trying to evoke gracefulness, and just slightly failing? Yeah.

Was that too harsh?

Also, YOU DO NOT EAT A POMEGRANATE THAT WAY.

Also also, it seems I missed a concert they gave in Houston. I am disappointed.

Matrix > Matrices;
Vertex > Vertices;
Index > Indices;
Vortex > Vortices;
Kleenex > Kleenices?

Earlier this evening, The Maternal Unit was looking over my shoulder as I was reading User Friendly, and was astonished to see an ad for a geek dating network.

Her shock surprised me, as 1: The Maternal Unit is usually not behind the times in pop culture, and 2: a geek dating network is totally not the weirdest idea I've heard of, not by a long shot. She asked what else might be out there. Not wanting this in my Google search profile, I plugged "niche dating sites" into Alta Vista and looked for what came up. The most helpful thing was an article on Mental Floss rather prosaically titled "Niche Dating Sites".

A couple of thoughts:

On one hand, We Neither sounds like a bit of a bad idea, as it's a site where you match based on what irritates you, and that strikes me as a bad foundation to build on. The first thing that came to mind was Calvin's list: A Million Things that Bug Me. If you aspire to be the cranky old couple yelling at the kids who come into your yard, then this is the site for you. On further reflection, though, I think it might actually be a better concept than a normal dating service: I believe people will be a lot more honest about what they don't like than what they actually do ("long walks on the beach"*, anyone?). And honesty is always preferable to deceit.

Irritated Being Single sounds terribly useful, in that bowel diseases are not something that people typically talk about freely (although a coworker of mine who has Crohn's has shown me photos of her colon), and it is easy to get self-conscious about the matter; it must be a great relief to know upfront that you're meeting someone who understands, who can really empathize. The same could just as easily be said of Meet People with Herpes, but somehow, the name of that site... just... lacks, oh, a certain je ne sais quoi.

*I actually do enjoy long walks on the beach, but I would never actually say that because it's become the stock "I'm trying to make a good impression without relying on my own personality" statement.

Because 「有利化」 is totally not the word I'm looking for.

Went to Central Market today. Dinner was rosemary bread, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, and a glass of chardonnay. Can I count the wine as a serving of fruit?

I saw an article on the Daily Yomiuri today: Kan Selects New Cabinet; 11 Keep Posts. (Some background info: Japan has just designated her sixth prime minister in as many years.)

After reading most of the first sentence, "Prime Minister-elect Naoto Kan has tapped Koichiro Gemba to be state minister in charge of civil service reform and the declining birthrate," I had to pause and ask: Is this a problem he intends to address personally?

Unf.

(The title of this post is from a French and Saunders skit.)

Yes, dear Ian, I am blogging during my own birthday party. I am currently drunk (a little) in Minoo, at Haesung's apartment. In attendance, aside from Haesung and Ian, are Mitsu, his girlfriend, and Haesung's boyfriend. Haesung and her man have made me a coffee cheesecake, and it is delicious.

Lauren, I'll get back with you as soon as I know my plans for tomorrow.

Haesung has a MacBook Air, and it's a hundred times sexier than my MacBook.

Also, Mitsu's ass is right in front of my face right now.

Happy Birthday to me!

Mamachari Bōsōzoku would be an awesome name for a Japanese indie band.

I came up with this after I was nearly run over this morning by a group of unrelated Mamas on their chariots on the way to Musashi-Kosugi Station.

I went to lunch today with Amii in Machida. After lunch, we did a bit of shopping, and in the elevator up to Tōkyū Hands, an older woman with plum-colored hair whispered something to her friend. I didn't hear much of it, but she said the word gaijin loud enough for everyone to hear, her voice dripping with derision. I stared at her. She said in response, 「分かったね？」 "Oh, you understood?" I simply nodded. She tried to play it off after that, and I will say that she was pretty smooth, but still. I have got so very many "Piss off, foreigner" stares, simply for being there. Did I always get this many, and I'm just not used to it anymore?

Had dinner with Tan. Felt bad; I was on the verge of passing out the whole time. I wasn't much of a conversationalist, sadly. Pulled a Japanese while on the train; found a seat and slept part of the way, waking up just in time for my stop.