AHHHH! Get that taint outta my face!

People thought I was being irrational when I said I was nervous about trying fugu (potentionally fatal blowfish) BUT here it is in black and white and read all over:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090127/wl_asia_afp/japanhealthpoisonfish_20090127103708

"Blowfish poison scare returns to Japan"

I will admit that I'm not afraid to eat most things: bugs, alligator, turtle, snake, elk, bison (mmm, bison), but I have a caveat to this: I won't eat things that are (or almost are) endangered (whale meat and shark fin soup). Also, I won't eat something that might KILL ME!

Okay, rant over.


I saw an interesting article posted about how various photos of W over the past eight years have cast various shades of him. It also goes on to discuss how the photos may or may not have shaped certain aspects of his presidency among supporters and detractors:

http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall/

This leads me to a weird conclusion: in retrospect, now that Obama has been safely elected and inaugurated, will Little Shrub become a somewhat tragic figure in the future? I ask only because it seems like his persona has a lot of hubris, yes, but he still doesn't carry the uber-shitbaggery of attitude that I despise in his VP DICK... or even in Rumsfeld, and especially Karl Satan Rove.
But I do take issue with his frat boyish outlook and the way he seemed to have tried to coast by like he has throughout the rest of his life.


Anyway, this week of work is going to be interesting for me as all of my kids' classes were cancelled so that we could have a make up week. I hate to say it, as I've only been here less than a month, but I was ready for a break. I guess I'm getting old. I still have my adult students, though, and I'm getting used to my routine and rather liking it. It seems reassuring to have pretty steady work and pay as everything seems to crumble around the world. I don't know if this means I have absolute job security, but it feels safe for now.

And this week marks two weeks since I applied for my official Alien registration card or gaijin card as it seems more fondly referred to here. And, per usual ce moi, I'm already planning my vacations for the year. I'm trying to reconcile the fact that I don't have too much time, but because many cool Asian cities are well within my fingertips I can probably take a lot of mini-vacations this year and then one or two MEGA-vacations. I'm pretty sure one of the mega-vacations will be to FINALLY visit Kelly in Africa. It's been a long time coming, folks, and it's time to see my soul sista because we just keep missing each other. I'm just trying to make sure it's a visit to Kelly in Cameroon and NOT a visit to Kelly in Congo. Yep! THAT Congo...

The other mega-vacation will probably take place around Christmas time because I get about a full week and I could probably save up a couple more days for good measure. I really want to spend New Year's in DC for 2010 and also because I'm dying to see what post-W DC looks like. There's a big part of me that feels like I didn't give DC enough of a chance, frankly, but again it mostly came down to money. That place is fucking expensive! And I was getting paid shit there. Also, it just seemed so dismal to live there while W was in office. BUT my friend Chad said he lived in Dcduring the Clinton years and that it was SO much different from when W took over. So maybe DC's now full of hot, young Dem's? I need updates people...

And one for the road:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Pop-up-Photograph