Ambitious Spider

Opened the door to the balcony this morning to hang out some laundry and found this guy with a web spread across the doorway. He almost got me, but I was too nimble.

Dreams of old

Today Miku had a bit of a fever so I laid down with her for a nap. Of course I fell asleep too. I dreamt of the Cataldo Post Office. In the dream, I was walking by as they were unloading/loading the truck. I just stood by and watched it, thinking about how magical and mysterious the truck was. I used to ride my BigWheel™ around the loading dock and broke one once jumping it off the loading dock. I got a CHiPs branded one as a replacement. I remember dragging my broken one home in tears, crying at my friends (Aaron Wilson and one other boy I don't remember offhand) about how I could never play with them again, ever, because it had broken. Not that I was going to be in trouble, but that it was broken beyond repair.

Somehow in the dream I was also suddenly unloading a few personal items from the truck (a jar of pickles, what?) I finished taking my items out, stacking them on the sidewalk next to the post office, and the driver (always faceless and mysterious) came out, got in the truck and drove away.

Here's how Miku feels about me being gone:

Off to DC

I'm leaving for a week in DC tomorrow so there might not be so much content updated during that time. Here are a couple videos to amuse you until I get back, at least.

Part 1


Part 2

Me and Emma

There are so many problems with this photo but I really like it. One of the best parts of our last trip home was befriending Emma.

Movie Recommendations

I've recently watched Cloverfield and Michael Clayton and recommend both of them. Clovefield is a monster movie but its very well done, kind of like Godzilla from the street. It's filmed with a home camera and it can be kind of shaky at times; I've heard some people complain about motion sickness. But its a lot of fun.

Michael Clayton is a much slower paced drama but its very good. I enjoyed it, but there isn't any action and I'd advise against it if you are feeling sleepy

A week without posts!!

What's going on with everyone?!?!

I've got a few videos incoming. I think I've become addicted to Call of Duty on the XBox: I don't really want to keep playing it but I keep doing so, just trying to improve. THat's how I'm spending my days off, mostly. Take Miku to school, drop Yuzuru off at work, then I've got a few hours of open time till school's out. Lame, I know.

We haven't locked in our travel but it will fall sometime in the window of March 20-April 6. It might be just me and Miku depending on a few things over here. Yuzuru is almost done with her dissertation draft: I've got to read it for her as she finishes it up over the next month and submits it to her advisor. Assuming it is g good enough, she'll defend in July.

That's the update for now. Peas!

The absurd reversal associated with a consistent stance

I realized today the source of a point of confusion for me. You see, I was against the war in Iraq but now I'm against the withdrawal of US troops. But I realize that these apparently contradictory positions are entirely consistent with a single moral premise: The state of Iraqi society and the life of its citizens.

I was against the war because I thought it would make them worse off (and sadly I was correct). However I firmly believe, based on the same sort of evidence and consideration I used to be against the war in the beginning, that a withdrawal would make them worse off, again. So by considering the effect of our national decisions on the people who actually pay the price for them, I've gone from peacenik to hawk.

Funny world we live in.

(PS: I'm sorry if anyone thinks I'm spoiling the blog by bringing up this kind of topic. I hope that we all feel free to talk about anything here, but you are also free to ignore me.

Big League Cheese

I was watching Napolean Dynamite with the Director Commentary last night and the rest of the family settled into the couch with me as well. At the dance, Napolean gets ditched by Trisha and goes to the bathroom where he puts in a big mouthful of Big League Chew (which he later swallows). The director mentioned that when he was a kid, his parents had outlawed chewing gum so he never got have Big League Chew, but he'd wanted it so bad he use to grate cheese and stick it in his lip.

This brought back memories to me and I pointed out to Yuzuru what he was talking about it. She thought the idea of a dip of grated cheese funny enough, but when I told her that I used to do it too, she broke up. I'm sure I remember Josh also sticking a pinch of grated cheddar in his lip too.

Followup to the glasses incident

Quick update. I ordered new lenses but they'll take a couple days. I don't mind the public shame of wearing cracked lenses so much but the crack went right across my field of vision. I stopped by this gimmicky "$30 frames!" shop near school that one of my colleagues had used before. He said it's not as good as a "real" vision clinic but it isn't all that bad either. As a backup pair, I think these will do just fine.

And of course, Miku noticed the change in less time than it takes to say "Hi Daddy!". Literally she stopped midway through the word "Daddy" to exclaim "Ah! Your glasses! You changed your glasses! I noticed that the middle part was darker than before!"

So that's why they call them glasses

So my glasses fell off the short shelf in the shower yesterday. They landed in a way that made me wince, but they looked fine. I finished my shower, dried off my glasses, got dressed, brushed my teeth, shut down the house, and then crawled into bed to read for a bit. Just as I settled in, I heard the crinkle-crackle of a crack edging across the lens, like a high pitched ice crack out of a movie. Sunuvabich!