Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Haragei & Gyotaku

The last time I had visited Japan I had gone there to chase a girl. We had spent an incredible 2 weeks getting to know one another while she was here on a tour. She ended up ditching the tour and crashed with me for the remainder of her trip meeting up again with her tour group for the flight home from San Francisco.

I drove her to San Fran instead of her having to bus hop and fly around the U.S. to all of the touristy spots. I was determined for her to see what this country was all about by sharing a piece of apple pie at a truck stop in Nebraska around 4 am instead of all the bullshit I'm sure her guide would have shown her. She agreed and off we went.

Not having any clue how to get to Nebraska I headed out of town on whatever road was lined with signs that said "west" on them. I had twelve more days to make it to San Francisco to say goodbye to someone sitting next to me whom I had only met the day before. We drove through the night most of the time with her occasionally goofing up by turning into traffic as if she was back home.

Some firsts were custard, football jerseys, and John Cougar Mellencamp. That fucking radio never stopped playing his songs I swear. By the time the neon brilliance that was Shoemaker's Truck Station we had had enough of pink houses. We walked inside and got the normal looks one would expect to get if you were a yankee walking into a midwestern truck station at 4 am with a young Japanese woman by your side wearing a Philadelphia Eagles hoodie.

Two cups of tea, a slice of apple pie, an order of fries and a cheese burger were the order. It came with a 1,001 stories thanks to the cook who was entertaining the diners while flipping pancakes and burger patties. There were some crude jokes about Mexicans but nothing too offensive. She mentioned something about mayonaisse and the next thing I knew we were being delivered a dissertation on the differences of regular mayo and Miracle Whip and their effects on your grilled cheese sandwich.

We stepped outside, breathed in the diesel fumes, wiped our hands and walked towards the truck. With five days to San Francisco we hadn't seen the Grand Canyon yet and had to get a move on if we were going to.

Oh yeah, the last time I was in Japan...

shit

wait a second here...

this was post number

500

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Blang!

Once upon a time in the kingdom of Philadelphia lived a young man who went to the market in search of soup, milk, and hotdogs. Running up and down the aisles avoiding the other peasants he went about his business gathering what he had come to the market for. With all of the items in his basket he proceeded to the counter where a tube caught his eye. This was no ordinary tube. Green and white and only about 4 inches long it stared back at him daring him silently to pick it up. The young man fought the temptation with all of his might. Looking at the tube he knew it's contents would be bad and thus avoided it. When his items had reached the merchants register the young man turned around and without hesitation picked up one of the tubes and placed it on the conveyor belt.

And he lived happily ever after...





very happily...

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Monday, November 06, 2006

The Tallest Post Ever

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Saturday, November 04, 2006

Top 10 Reasons Why...

Via an email so don't shoot the messenger....

Top 10 Reasons Why Men Won't Get Married

Young men want to get married. They really do. They want a wife, children and the house with the picket fence. They just don't want it right now. Instead, men ages 25 to 33 prefer to have fun, unencumbered by commitment and responsibility.That's the word from a new study called "The State of Our Unions" that concludes that young, educated, professional men don't want to commit to marriage, reports Ladies Home Journal. They place great value in the institution of marriage, but the single life beckons. Since today's men -- unlike their fathers and grandfathers -- don't have pressure from church, employers or society to get married, they aren't

The researchers interviewed 60 heterosexual men in Chicago, parts of New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Houston. For the most part they were employed full-time and earned between $21,000 to $35,000 annually. Most had either attended some college or graduated. None of them were married, although three of the men were fathers.The top 10 reasons young men don't want to get married now:
1. They can have casual sex without marriage, something that is far more common today and accepted than in generations past.
2. By living with a girlfriend, they can enjoy all the benefits of a wife without having to say, "I do." This is a no-risk way to test the idea of marriage.
3. Men want to avoid the financial risks of divorce. What better way to do that than to not get married in the first place?
4. Since they don't have to worry about their biological clocks, men say they want to wait until they are older to have children. They really do not want to be pressured into marriage by a woman whose primary goal is to have kids.

5. Their greatest fear is that marriage will require too many changes, compromises and responsibilities. After all, it's a lot more fun to play poker with the boys all night long.
6. Men are romantics at heart. They believe in a soul mate, and they're willing to wait for her. What is a soul mate? Men define her as someone who accepts them just the way they are and does not want to change them. These men don't want to settle for second-best.
7. There are very few social pressures to marry. While their dads were pressured by religion, employers or society to settle down and say "I do," men today are free from that.
8. Men are reluctant to marry a woman who already has children, primarily to avoid competition and conflict with the children's biological father.
9. They want to become a homeowner before they become a husband. Being established financially is an important goal many men want to achieve before they marry.
10. Men want to enjoy the single life as long as possible, especially as they become accustomed to having their own space and routines and not being responsible to anyone else.