How does one explain it?

A while ago, a few months before I was supposed to leave Japan, maybe, a thought occurred to me. Something about preparing to go, preparing to end the business of the second (third?) life I had tried to put together was not dissimilar to preparing to end that life, or at least that way of life. All the things that were supposed to be important, and the things that truly had become important to me, were not actually important enough to maintain. I would leave and everything around my old life would continue. just without me.

I did leave, and everything did continue without me.

It was kind of like getting dumped twice at once, but I was getting dumped from my own life, by my own life, as a result of my own choices.

Oh goddammit what the hell is wrong with you people?

Is it really so hard to come up with good ideas for comic books? C'mon, military accident, miraculous circumstances of birth, space accident, oath of vengeance, school trip accident, theological inquiry, there's all sorts of things to do.

So why oh why would someone go out of their way to produce what looks like a woodenly staged comic book recreation of Pride and Prejudice?

Besides, there's only one person who should be making Jane Austen comics anyway.

Kate Beaton is awesome, by the way.

This trying to work with humans, what does it feel like?

Things left behind

Since leaving university, each time I've moved into a new house there has been a greater or lesser amount of stuff I've had to leave behind. But there's also been a greater or lesser amount of stuff left in the places I've moved into by the former occupants. Among other things abandoned in my then-new lodgings, I've found cinder blocks, unopened roach traps, stacks of scrap lumber, wicker ornaments, eyeglasses, Canadian pornography, healthy houseplants, frozen breast milk, mildewed futon cushions, dying houseplants, spy novels, dead houseplants and a 5 gallon (22 liter) glass water cooler bottle. Why would people take some things and leave others? What is judged as being valuable?

Did I tell you about the time I was forced to exchange my first driver's license for one from California? As the guy behind the counter took my old license, I asked him if it would be possible to mark it void or clip the corner or punch a hole in it or something so I could keep it as a memento. Without even looking up he jammed it into a shredder and said, "You got to let go of the past, baby."

I am so sick of lazy hamsters

Seriously, is there anything worse than a hamster just ignoring its potential and not providing anything worthwhile? No, nothing. But at long last, those fuzzy little wastes of space can finally start giving something back: very small amounts of electricity.

No, they're not hooking the treadmills up to little generators. Someone has developed a collection of "nanowires" that can be woven into a hamster-jacket, and the wires collect energy from their movements.

Sometimes I can't decide whether to be amazed or baffled by this modern world.

Photo by Zhong Lin Wang, shown on Discovery Channel.com

Coming attractions

I must see this.
End of story.

Science marches onward!

What has Discovery Channel news got for us today?

...One such researcher is Hans Laarson of McGill University in Montreal. Laarson and his team are analyzing the genes involved in tail development and researching ways of manipulating chicken embryos in order to "awaken the dinosaur within."

I see. Altering the development of chicken embryos to re-activate genes that express dinosaur-like characteristics. Like tails. Or hands. Or teeth.

How exactly does one spell, "AUUGGGH"?

Disturbing video interview here. What disturbs me most is the idea that the Discovery Channel's reporter is quite literally sitting slack-jawed in the dirt as he's told that the saying "rare as hen's teeth" is a suitable proof that chickens once had teeth.

Friday night?

Let's see, I'm drinking beer and reading comics. It could just as easily be 2009 as 1999. Ten year timewarp? Do your worst.

Two Great Tastes...

I like old books. Old comic books, old reference books, and particularly old paperback books. There's something especially appealing about those old paperbacks that, for one reason or another, had really striking cover art.

Which is why, I suppose, I'm so happy to see this: a collection of great video games in the style of classic book covers.

Given how crappy some video game box illustrations have been, it seems like this would be most welcome.

Of course, given how many people say digital distribution is the only way forward for any sort of media, I guess it's sorta like getting excited about, uh, making rumble-seat covers that are totally evocative of the greatest Conestoga wagon seats.

The more you know...

Soviet cosmonauts were trained with, and carried into space, three-barrelled firearms.
If George Washington was called "the father of the country", then it seems his wife, Martha, was a bit of a MILF.
Japanese companies have developed a robot that looks like the hall monitor robot from the Death Star, but shoots nets to catch criminals.
As a species, we're not done with evolution yet.