miracles part 2

This morning, three (count 'em!) repairmen showed up. One guy fixed the moldy wallpaper, another replaced the old parts on the closet doors, and the third sealed up the cracks in the bathroom.

yatta

The crazy folks at Very Low Sodium made a brilliant animation for the Happatai Yatta song. I can't tell if they understood the Japanese lyrics and purposefuly used slightly-to-totally wrong words and images, or if they just did their best with what it sounds like in English. Probably the latter. Either way it's brilliant in that way the only goofy flash animation can be.
Hundreds of years from now, no matter what happens to Macromedia, it will be known as the company that brought to the web Flash animations, and all the insanity implied therein.
The revolution will be animated.

hero

Saw Hero with Hiroko and Kev and Z and Z's friend Belinda.
Stupendously good. Visually stunning, along the lines of Croutching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Lots of cool flying-fighting, great slow-motion effects, wonderful music, excellent use of color. Basically impossible for a U.S. studio to make such a movie, and I'm glad that in Tokyo we get a chance to see these types of films, because I know that back in the states it would be tough.

nice try

I love drugstore.com for the simple fact that I need to buy stuff; eyedrops, q-tips, etc. and it's really easy and reasonably priced.
Alas, drugstore.com doesn't ship internationally...but then they partnered with douwantit.com, which allows for international shipping and even billing in native currencies! Oh happy days!
So I filled my shopping cart: listerine, claritin, eyedrops...hit checkout, forwarded to douwantit and..."We're sorry, but some items in your shopping cart are restricted from export to Japan."
And what was restricted? The formerly prescription-only allergy medication Claritin? Nope, the eyedrops. EYEDROPS. Otherwise known as artificial tears, for combatting dry eyes. Basically, really really really clean WATER, in little plastic tubes.

Huh? Oh well, looks like I'll be asking the parentals to send the package to me in Japan. Nice try drugstore.com and douwantit.com. A for effort, F+ for execution.

stuffy nose

A magical discovery: nose stuffed all day, dripping steadily like a broken faucet. But for the three hours of practice, my nasal passages were as clear as glass.
And as soon as practice ended, stuff city.
Is there some physiological explanation? Or did the allergy medicine and Claritin speedball I did this afternoon finally kick in?
All I know is, last week someone flipped the season switch and we went from summer to fall in one weekend. The temperature dropped ten degrees centigrade, the humidity dropped 50%, the wind kicked up, and my nose faucet spewed what I can only imagine is my liquified brain, dripping at an unstoppable pace down to my upper lip.

last

Taught what will most likely be my last regular student's class as official instructor. Starting from October, the Tuesday Shibuya practice will be completely up to the students themselves to run as they see fit. If they want, we can send instructors on a regular basis, so I imagine I'll be teaching about once a month, but the students have to motivate and organize to make it happen.
I teach so much on Mondays and Wednesdays now anyway, and I always have a conference call on Tuesday night, so maybe I'll skip Tuesdays and go to practice on Thursdays from now on. That means I'll also swith my wear-a-suit day from Thursday to Tuesday...we'll see what happens next week.

miracles never cease

Now I'm truly dumbfounded. Different repairguy shows up, fiddles with and fixes the closet doors, and says he'll come back next week to replace the broken and worn out parts. Actual service: I could get used to this.