The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    オープンスレッド木曜日

    By Verified Atheist on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 6:15am |

    As my Thursday is wrapping up and most of y'all's Thursdays are starting, it's time for another open thread Thursday.

    I missed it last Thursday due to having a very sick cat - we ended up taking her to a cardiologist and getting a brain MRI, but they couldn't really figure out what was wrong with her. The good news is that she's mostly recovered now.

    As some of y'all may have picked up, I'm in Japan now, and it's really causing my brain to stretch which is a good thing. I'm in a small city now where almost no one speaks English, which is especially challenging because I speak almost no Japanese. Luckily, my client has enough employees with good enough English that I can get done what I came here to do. Meanwhile my charade skills are drastically improving. Maybe eventually (I'll be here for 3 weeks in all), my Japanese will improve as well.

    Comments

     

    I spent quite a bit of time there in the Navy and later. Climbed Mt. Fuji. Loved to travel solo, get lost, figure it out. But did have one or two panic attacks. I was cooped up in an extremely small hotel room, watching T.V. English reruns, going nuts when I looked up and saw a college room mate of mine, actor, doing a Grecian Formula ad. I laughed like hell, collected myself and went down to the bar. Scarlett was not there, but I imagine Lost in Translation paints a pretty good picture of what Tokyo is like today.


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 3:20pm

    I enjoyed Lost in Translation, but I wish the people in the small city I'm in had even 10% the English skills you see displayed by the locals there. Other than a couple of other gaijin I've met (no one else from the States, yet), the only people I've met with more than 5-10 English words are the people I've been working with. Of course, I can't complain too much as I only have 5-10 Japanese words, and I'm on their turf!

    I wanted to climb Mt. Fuji, but they close it up (for climbing) sometime in September due to snow. Also, I have not seen any re-runs in English on the TV yet, but after flipping through all of the channels and determining that I didn't understand a @#$% word, I really haven't given it another try. Also, the services I use at home, such as Hulu, don't want to work for me here. They redirect me to Hulu.jp, where everything is in Japanese.


    by Verified Atheist on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 4:31pm

    I spent a couple weeks in Japan in 1970 ... I remember how hysterical it was to see episodes of Bonanza on TV dubbed into Japanese.
     


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 5:47pm

    I spent some of the afternoon looking at You tube video's for Open Office and Open source digital art programs.  I also received the battery and cable needed to get the window's 7 Lap top computer working.  Now it is up and working after a restore.  I did my family Christmas shopping yesterday and bought a inexpensive lap top that the big kids said had a good processor and such in it for Mine Craft Game and for the middle school child's home work. They will still argue over the computers but not as much now. I am not going to wait for Christmas to give it to the one in middle school because he really needs it now.  The two younger ones can share the old lap top.  The big kids and I pooled our money together to get the new computer. 

    I bet Japan is an interesting place. Just the food alone would fascinate me. 

     

     


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 3:32pm

    Open Office is great, and if you want a reasonably full-featured, but somewhat difficult to understand digital art program, check out Gimp. I'm afraid I'm one of the few computer nerds who knows almost nothing about Minecraft, other than it's now owned by Micro$oft.

    The food has been quite fascinating, but last night (Thursday night) I decided I was a little tired of fascinating and opted for something I recognize, so I ordered a pizza. This pizza had corn on it and the sauce seemed to have honey mustard included in it. But … it was tasty!

    Edit to add that Gimp is free and open source, in case that wasn't clear from context.


    by Verified Atheist on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 5:51pm

    I am familiar with gimp.  His older brother used in high school.  I did find one that had good reviews called Artweaver.  It looks like it would be easier for the 11 yr old to use.  It also has some photo touch up tools. I should learn to use it for my food photos I use on my food blog. 

    Mine Craft  shell and pass word is loaded in this computer and the kids love it.  They have been playing it for a couple of years. It is always good for at least one argument a night. 


    by trkingmomoe on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 6:28pm

    Oh thank THE GOOD LORD.

    I thought you were having probs with your font!


    by Richard Day on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 4:18pm

    I take my font very seriously. Very seriously. Nobody talks about my font. Nobody. You've been warned.


    by Verified Atheist on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 4:35pm

    hahahhaahahah

    Okay, so Athiest gets the Dayly Line of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site given to all of Athiest from all of me. 

    hahahahaha

    Do not fuck with my font!

    Message received.

    hahahahaha


    by Richard Day on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 5:50pm

    a


    by Richard Day on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 5:49pm

     Be safe.

    Someday I'd like to visit there myself. 

    Ive heard Mt Fuji is beautiful. 


    by Resistance on Thu, 11/06/2014 - 8:20pm

    Thanks, R. I have not yet seen Mt. Fuji, but I hope to next weekend.


    by Verified Atheist on Fri, 11/07/2014 - 5:17am