I needed to restock the pantry, so I made a late-night run to the local Safeway last night. I was passing through the canned-fruit section when something peculiar caught my eye:

These California peaches, canned by Kikkoman for a Japanese audience, somehow ended up on the shelves of a California grocery store that serves a largely Hispanic community.

Subject line:

First-level designers available for you

Personally, I want designers with more hit points.

And here’s the pitch, straight from “Doug” (Joerg Wempe of Bad Hersfeld)

Corporate image can say a lot of things about your company. Contemporary rhythm of life is too dynamic. Sometimes it takes only several seconds for your company to be remembered or to be Iost among competitors. Get your loqo, business stationery or website done right now!

I think anyone who buys a loqo from this man is crazy…

The jokes just write themselves when it comes to this support garment that I spotted a poster for in Vegas:

Woofers, tweeters, knobs, volume control, remote control, playlists, etc, etc. More fun, though, was finding out who else is using the name “ibra”:

• International Bible Reading Association
• International Barrel Racing Association
• International Bee Research Association
• and many more...

…how about this video that mixes equal parts Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, and nekomimi chibi joshigakusei.

For offline viewing, there’s a torrent available.

Update: Google video may be short on dancing chibis, but at least they’ve got Morning Musume making cat noises.

Last night I put my new quad-core G5 to sleep. This morning it didn’t wake up. The fans spun, the drive spun up, but nothing else. Power-cycling didn’t help. I don’t even get the infamous power-up chime noise, and it never gets to any of the boot screens, so it’s not only merely dead, it’s really most sincerely dead.

I’ll probably go into the office and swap the drive into another G5 PowerMac so I can back up the data, and then it’s time to exercise my AppleCare policy.

Drat.

…but I don’t think Christian manga has much of a chance in the current market.

Admittedly, putting a cute girl on the cover with the subtitle “bad girl in town” will pull in some eyeballs, and it’s a good time to release anything called “Serenity,” but the interior art is crap. Perhaps if you’d hired the person who drew the cover?

If it shows up at local bookstores, and it’s not shrink-wrapped, I suppose I’ll look inside to see if it’s done well, but I have a hunch the writing is heavy-handed and the art is weak, a sure way to sink this new venture.

PS: the redemptive power of high-school bible study groups is a more fantastic premise than either Eiken or Battle Vixens. Good luck with that.

12/7/2005

Oral final exam for Japanese 1. Get fitted for a tux.

12/9/2005

Fly to Las Vegas, to...

12/10/2005

Walk my sister down the aisle for her wedding.

12/11/2005

Turn 39, then fly home for...

12/12/2005

Written final for Japanese 1.

12/13/2005

Buy my first suit.

12/14/2005

Last class for Japanese 1, deliver small gifts to the teacher and her two assistants. While this could be interpreted as oseibo, in truth two of the gifts were an excuse for the third. I'm quite taken with the youngest one.

12/15/2005

Three-hour flight to Minneapolis, three-hour layover, two more hours to Dayton, Ohio, in order to be...

12/17/2005

Best man at my brother's wedding.

12/21/2005

Flying home to sleep it off.

I’m a bit fuzzy on just how many brothers and sisters I’ve acquired in the past week, a lively mix of Canadians and Ukrainians.

PS: my mother did not in fact die from the shock of seeing me dress formally twice in the same century.

Just keep clicking…

This recent entry explains why Playboy wanted Deborah Gibson naked. Not just because she’s got a great body, but because she shouldn’t be allowed to dress herself.

I think it must be a new kind of camouflage; she’s dressed to hide behind the Sixties.