Category: Uncategorized

gyoza ginza gozer

I went to the Mitsuwa Japanese market today and bought the things that are cheap there: rice, green tea, Pocky, crackers, soup base, noodles. I love that place. It was packed, and so was the parking lot.

I had to come home a bit later so I couldn’t get any frozen stuff, but there’s so much great stuff in the freezer case too.

Outside there was a cheerful man selling baked yams or sweet potatoes. The smell was so delicious. Wasn’t time for me to eat a yam, but I may go back tomorrow and get one. What a great winter food idea! I assume that it happens in Japan too.

while Nat King Cole sang “Welcome to my world’…

Udon soup for dinner two nights in a row. Last night with a few frozen langoustines tossed in, tonight with a cut-up chicken breast. Both times with a sweet red pepper and a few mushrooms. The udon-in-a-bag stuff I got has unusually sparky spices in it; I was coughing and my eyes were watering a few times. I didn’t think Japanese people used a lot of pepper in soups! It’s just the thing in this drudgy weather though. Lunch today was a BELT (bacon egg lettuce & tomato sandwich) which was also a fine, fine thing.

Trying to focus through attention problems to get some reading done. I’ve read most of Stephen Batchelor’s Buddhism Without Beliefs and I like it so far. I like Buddhist thought and practice, but the 79 heavens and hells and saints and devils and flying things were too much for me.

They didn’t listen to me at the dealership last time when I told them the car was slipping a bit between 2nd and 3rd. Now it’s really slipping, and in fact has gone completely off at least twice and spun up near redline. Argh. Must now get car fixed again next week.

I’m looking forward to seeing The Predicate at Din Din tomorrow night. Who else wanna go?

Credit Card Chaos update

I did as bigraoul suggested and put the fraud watch on my account with one of the big three credit agencies. Now if someone wants to open a credit account with my info the merchant has to verify it more carefully. For anyone else interested, the info for US people is at http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft/con_steps.htm

Special note to douglain: One of the charges I accidentally listed as fraudulent was the Amazon charge for ordering your book. This may lead to literary/financial/bureaucratic yucks later on as I try to rectify this. Watch out for black helicopters; there’s no telling how far They will go investigating these things.

In related news I recently got a credit card from Robinsons-May, one of our local department store chains. The information that came with the card listed two possible interest rates that might apply to it, without specifying which was currently mine. There was also no credit limit listed. Hey, I think I’ll go buy a suit that I may not be allowed to buy, and in doing so take out a loan at an unknown rate! I LIKE SHOPPING!

via Strange New Products: H2OM

So, you know, bottled water. Most of it is somewhat-filtered tap water. Gotta have a gimmick to sell it. Sometimes they put vitamins or electrolytes in it, not a bad idea. Sometimes they put caffeine or a little bit of fruit in it, okay. Sometimes they claim they’ve put oxygen in it to make you more oxygen-y, which is pathetic. Or they just want you to like them, so they put a picture of someone nice on it.

And then there’s water that’s been… …liked. The good folks at H2OM Water sell “Water with Intention”.

You all may remember an insane Japanese man who says that water changes when you think nice thoughts. “The Hidden Messages in Water”, etc. He was in that movie “Do You Fucking Expect Me to Believe This Shit” or whatever it was called. He’s an affable lunatic. Mix affable lunacy with marketing and you have our next Dr. Bronner.

Inspired by these studies, H2Om was created. A crystal clear natural spring water brand infused with the power of intention through words, music and thought. We gratefully offer you an interactive invitation to drink in and resonate with the vibrational frequencies of Love and Perfect Health.

Now absolute purity comes in Five Fantastic Infusions

NOW AVAILABLE:
LOVE
PERFECT HEALTH

COMING SOON:
WILL POWER
PROSPERITY
and
GRATITUDE

I’m glad they’re coming out with the gratitude one, because after I’ve got love and perfect health I’ll be needing to feel more grateful.

Reading their infusion process, it seems to consist of 1) picking out a label color and 2) playing music at the water in a warehouse.

Science was cool, wasn’t it? Man I’m nostalgic already.