Monday, 26 October 2009

Sunday, 18 October 2009

  • Currently
    The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns
    By David McCullough, Sam Waterston, Jason Robards, Morgan Freeman, Garrison Keillor
    see related

    Sports Day 2009

    I'm way behind blogging the events of the past few weeks.  I'll try and spread them out over the next several days and get caught up.





    Kai had his second elementary school sports day.  At first, the weather didn't want to cooperate.  It started to rain during the first event, so the children were called inside and we parents waited in the storm for an hour while the school's staff deliberated and decided to resume in the afternoon.  By about 1:00 the weather cleared up enough for the kids to complete most of the events.  Kai's team won, allowing him to maintain his undefeated record.

    I couldn't really get a good spot from which to take pictures, but here are the shots I got.



     



     
    Big, red ball race



    Cheering



    Relay race

    As you can see, Kai was really excited and had a great time the whole day, despite the weather.

Monday, 05 October 2009

  • Currently
    Glory (Special Edition)
    By Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, Jihmi Kennedy
    see related

    British Hip Hop

    Dylan, a friend of mine from the U.K. who used to teach English with me here in Japan, has his own Hip Hop group now.  They have a really "underground" kind of sound.
    I think it's pretty cool that someone I know is cutting albums and doing tour dates.  Who knows?  Maybe one day I'll see him on VH1 and say, "I used to entertain Japanese 1st graders with that guy!"

    Check them out and tell me what you think:
    Delusionists

    Also try:
    Delusionists.U.K.

Tuesday, 29 September 2009

Monday, 28 September 2009

  • Currently
    A Brave Black Regiment
    By Captain Luis F. Emilio
    see related

    The Experiment

    A while back, I noticed that Xanga places ads on a blog based on the contents of the posts.  I'm sure there's some kind of automated software that allows them to do this and this isn't exactly a profound discovery, but sometimes these ads are a bit of a miss.
    It all started when I wrote a post about working out at the gym.  The next thing I knew, there were ads all over my blog for a gay gym .  I thought this was hilarious!  Since then, I've been paying attention to the ads on my site as well as those on my friend/subscription sites.  Just today, for example, I read the blog of a friend who mentioned "Gucci purses" and what were the ads in the borders for?  You guessed it:  handbags!  The ads do rotate, however, so you won't see handbags every time you go to that particular page.  Sometimes you get the oh-so-common ads like "imvu" cyber-dating or, more recently, "Evony" online role-playing game (those two companies must be paying massive ad fees).
    I must admit, the concept is pure genius and I would like to get a look at the software they use, but more than this, I want to know what word combinations yield the best ads.

    So let's try a little experiment.  From time to time, I will post a random phrase to see what kind of ad I get (this is one of the advanges of not going "premium").  Hopefully we will see some interesting stuff, although the gay gym has inexplicably disappeared from my workout posts (perhaps they've stopped paying their ad fees).  I will mark these posts with the heading "Random Phrase Ad Test".  Any suggestions for phrases will be greatly appreciated (as long as they're completely INSANE ).

Tuesday, 08 September 2009

Wednesday, 02 September 2009

  • Currently
    The Civil War (American Heritage Books)
    By Bruce Catton
    see related

    Owww...

    Another workout, another pair of leg cramps.  These were more severe than the last.

    As I was walking from the gym to the train station, my legs suddenly stopped working properly.  The pain that seized them was unbelievable!  I nearly collapsed on the sidewalk as my legs involuntarily writhed, twitched and kicked.  No matter what position I put my legs in, the pain wouldn't go away.  Eventually, I forced myself to "walk-it-off" and began to feel a little better.

    This is getting ridiculous.  This sort of thing has never happened to me before.  Sure, I've had cramps, but never like this.  Watching my legs jerk around like that, despite having done 15 minutes of stretches, was surreal.  Last week it was understandable because of the time I took off during the summer, but today's episode has me baffled.  All I know is that I never want to feel that kind of pain ever again.

Ice_Cocoa

  • Visit Ice_Cocoa's Xanga Site
    • Name: Ice
    • Country: United States
    • State: South Carolina
    • Metro: Columbia
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 7/9/2005

Chatboard (3)

  • Ice_Cocoa
    Featured in Mancouch.Baby Got (S+C) x (B+F) / (T-V) !andDoes a Man's "Size" Really Matter?
  • Ice_Cocoa
    Yes, I speak SOME Japanese. I hope that you get the chance to visit (or live in) this country someday.
  • babyglyniss
    thanks for your comments in my blog i see that you work in japan...that's really lucky because i love japan! unfortunately i've not been there yet. i will one day...it's my dream country, a country i must visit before i die. hehe. so do you speak japanese? i learnt before but sigh! i can't talk.