Kaoru's first-ever Christmas in Canada is also her first-ever Christmas without snow. That just doesn't seem right, does it? But don't fret. That disappointment was offset by her first-ever Massive Gifting Event™, now with extra chocolate
We got a fake little tree and dressed it up in expensive ornaments. The nice thing about a small tree is it can't handle too many ornaments anyways, so you can buy just a few really nice ones without it costing too much.
If you look closely at the present photos, you'll see that there is even something for Eutychus. We were going to get her her own little juice cup, but she doesn't care (as long as she gets the juice) so we just use an old soy sauce cup from Ajisai. But she got a custom-made card from Kaoru. It says, "please stop biting me so much."
The family Christmas day was excellent. The food was fantastic but the company was better. It was also a nice opportunity for photos. I'd actually like to get quite a few more, but I don't like sticking that big lens in peoples faces too much.
Happy holidays, everyone, and have a great New Years!
RANDOM PHOTO VIEWER
Oct 4, 2005
Check out the funky new random photo browser that I just made! Note that on newer browsers, the little refresh button starts and stops the 5-second slideshow. On older browsers it reloads the whole page with a new photo.
See it in its own popup window!
I HAVE THIS MANY PHOTO GALLERIES: 66
Jul 04, 2008
You can view all my photo galleries from the
Photo Gallery listing page
(there is a button up at the top) or you can just go from
here to the lastest few I've made public.
Having troubles learning Hiragana? I did, too. But it's easier than Katakana.
And both are much easier than Kanji! Feel encouraged?
EUTYCHUS
The Infamous Video
2002 March
Back, by popular demand! (Actually, it was Larry who demanded it and he's bigger than me.)
A very young Eutychus gets trapped in a world he never made (no... that was Howard the Duck... anyways...)
and tries to get out. He wasn't really used to being put in the box and he seemed to think that
wedging his head in tight spaces was his best bet to find a way out. A few months later it
became his favourite thing to play in!
Damn it's good to be back in Japan. Good to hear cheesy music coming from the fish section of supermarkets. Good to hear "irasshaimase" in every store. Good to see all the tempting plastic food displays. Good to see Jason.
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On day one of our 2-day trip around western Hokkaido, we headed north out of Sapporo to the coast and over to Cape Shakotan, home of the quiet coves and forbidding cliffs, seagulls and hawks (who stayed out of camera range).
The first thing we saw that was photo-worthy (in our juvenile minds) was still in Sapporo. "ASS Promotion"! Strange English on signs ("Book Off!") is a common occurrence here, so if you have the same silly sense of humour and a camera, check your rear-view often and make sure your brakes are well-tuned. This one was a sports store, but it's more fun to think of it as a talent agency. Whether it's a personality type or body part I'll leave up to you to decide.
The seagulls in Japan look a little different, but sound a lot different. There were dozens of them in one place we went to and I swear they sound like comedians pretending to make bird noises. I kept looking around for Steve Martin doing his "caw! caw! lookuphere! lookuphere!" from 3 Amigos.
Jason, known as "the other guy" on a previous trip (thanks for the great nickname, Levi), also had his camera ready (with 10x zoom!) and not only drove me around but also took a photo of me taking a photo, which really helps picture what I was picturing. Which is a big cliff, covered with concrete, strange dangling fences and sandbags. You see them all over the place in Japan - I remember them from around Utsunomiya.
This coastal area has lots of those weathered rocks sticking out of the ocean, looking alarmingly phallic in some cases.The more alarming ones have been left out of the postcard, leaving just these two charming ones.
Our final destination along the coast was Cape Kamui, which was just too cold for us to go out to the tip of. We left Sapporo in sunshine and, as is far too usual for me, got covered by clouds as soon as the cameras came out.
They know I'm from Vancouver, I think.
MUSIC
Long Live Music!
For now...
About the songs...
Cowgirl This is a true story. It had a happy ending in that I wrote this song. It's Yamaha Guitalele with drums and bass. Thanks to Paul for the background vocals!
Shake Your Blood This is a cover of a heavy metal song done on ukulele and djembe. It's not quite finished. I need to re-record the djembe (where's the bottom end!?) and add bass.
My Island Sweetheart I wrote this song for an online music site's monthly contest. The theme was "Island Music". Iceland is an island! It's another Guitalele song, though it can also be done on ukulele. Interestingly enough, the lyrics also work for Japan (especially Hokkaido, where I met Kaoru) except for the Icelandic lyrics. Thanks to Mia McKay for those!
Just 'round the bend This instrumental uses a VST synth called Microrock (and some simple drums). It's pretty much a quick demo song for a product, but I think it has a nice relaxing feel to it.
the pough shuffle The theme song for someone named "pough". I think the drums in these are Paul's drums, which I sampled (poorly) and can now use at my leisure. The bass sound is a pitched-down mandolin note.
NOTES
Proof of something; I don't know what
2005 January 19
I now know who's been looking at my site, and what brought you to it. Ha!
Not only have a learned a lot about geography, I've learned that if you do
a search on MSN for "teenager ass photo galleries" you will find my site. That's right: this site.
And of course now that the phrase is here on the home page, too, it might move
up the list from the bottom of the first page! Woo hoo!
My limbs stiffened under the strain of violent cramp. They
examined the sea with the most careful attention! This worthy
animal may allow!!!
Got something to say to me?
Always
I don't know if you noticed, but on most of the pages in this site, there is a little
thing up at the top left. It looks like a small envelope and has the letters M S and G
beside it. That's not short for monosodium glutemate. It's short for message. As in,
send me a message. I don't have any kind of email link on my site (hello, spammers!)
but you can leave me a message and I'll likely read it. If I respond to it, it will
show up on the messages page. It's not very obvious, I know, but I'm assuming that
not very many people have anything much to say to me, anyways.