Learning Japanese. First lesson
Konichiwa! Yesterday I had my first formal Japanese lesson. In fact, it was my first official class in anything I've had in quite a while. I've always considered myself a "good student", but man, I gotta tell you, I felt totally awkward yesterday, but I didn't beat myself up over it.
Hipster PDA 2.0
Having given up on Palm Pilots, Pocket PC's and all other electronic organizers a year or so ago I have gone back to paper and pen. And because I'm always attracted to the pragmatically classic and the cool I have been using various Moleskine notebooks for different purposes (daily journal, project management, date book, etc.). I like the Moleskines because they're the perfect size and I dig the extra folder pocket in all of them where I keep a few extra index cards, some postage stamps, etc. and I have a binder clip holding the whole thing together. I manage all my day-to-day notes and whatnot with it just fine. But I'm always on the lookout for alternatives. So I found myself at the Swap Meat at Coudal Partners and saw these nifty small notebooks from some new operation calling itself Field Notes I had to order a set to check them out.
Stupid Is As Stupid Does
I hate Tom Friedman. He is an absolute prick.
How he writes for the NY Times and is considered a professional pundit is beyond me. For the last 6 years I've read this numbskull make case after case for the a-rabs to "suck on this" after 9/11 and to support Bush for just "six more months", etc...and NOW all of a sudden in the above linked article he's all like - "Gee, this whole 9/11 mentality made us stupid.." and then somehow justifies some haughty knowingly pontification about all of it.
No, dickwad, it made YOU stupid. YOU. There are roughly 60% of Americans who never fell for the Stupid. You did. You fell hard. You rolled in the Stupid. You embraced the Stupid. The Stupid paid your bills in fact, Tom. And you continued to be Stupid for a long period of time. Yet, amazingly, you can be stupid and still get paid to do your job, which makes you barely the equivalent of a fast food worker.
And now, NOW, you think you're all smart and insightful and can string big sentences together by calling it all Stupid about, what, six years after the cow has left the barn?
Die.
Joey Socks On His Arms
I was just reminded of a guy I haven't seen in a long time, who we affectionately used to call "Joey Socks On His Arms". But not to his face of course.
In a bitter breakup with an ex-girlfriend I got him in the settlement, not quite sure how. One time the poor guy apparently got a bad sunburn and then showed up to one of then weekly softball games with tube socks on his arms from his wrists to his shoulders (with the stripey-end up top). We stared at him trying to figure out why he had socks on his arms, and he said "I got a bad sunburn so now I have socks on my arms."
Of course. Makes sense.
He also used to bring a small amplifier and a guitar to each soft ball game to play Van Halen's "Eruption" on before he would bat. Good old Joey Socks On His Arms was a strange dude...
Restaurant Review: Japonais
Well as part of my birthday weekend celebration, we trekked over to the newly opened Japonais New York restaurant and Lounge at 111 E 18th St. in the Union Square area of Manhattan.
I had walked by the restaurant a number of times while the space was under construction and was intrigued enough to make a mental note to return when it opened.
