Whine and Cheeze

Lame Frenchman

Ok, so I'm sure I'm just beating a deadhorse at this point, but I just wanted to say that Zinedane Zidane's headbutt of Materazzi was just plain lame. Here is this world reknowned, well-respected player at the end of his international career and this is how he chooses to end it. On top of all that, he is given the MVP for the tournament. Someone should slap him and the idiots who chose him as the MVP. A guy whom we expect knows the limits of sportsmanship has just marred his image.

Ipods and hearing loss

So one of the big things in the news is that people are suing Apple for losing their hearing due to Ipods. Umm...what planet are these people on?? If you turn your shit up too loud, you go deaf. It's not a revelation for the ages. It's not news. It's common sense, assholes. I see these dipshits all the time at the gym or on the train. I can stand 10 feet away from them and clearly listen to what they're listening to. If I can hear it from that far away, I can just imagine how freaking loud you have your shit turned up.

The sad thing is that Apple will likely be forced to settle out of court for something that is not their fault. We've been using headphones and earphones for decades and people have been going deaf as a result from day 1 because they are too stupid to realize that you can't have a one man disco.

Bottom line: Turn your shit down or you'll go deaf.

Superbowl XL

As I mentioned last week, SBXL is coming up this Sunday (or Monday if you're on this side of the planet). I've been reading numerous commentaries and articles about the game and the two teams that made it. The current prediction is that Pittsburgh will win by a small margin. I personally can only agree with that if Alexander gets hurt, which I doubt. He did get popped during the playoffs and ended up with a concussion but he came back the following week and had yet another monstrous game. No doubt that Pitt has a good defense led by Polamalu, but I think all that they'll do is slow Alexander down. And while they focus on Seattle's running game, Hasselbeck has enough of an arm and a decent receiving corps to exploit the Pitt D.

My prediction, Seattle by 10. Oh what the hell, I'll even say 24-14 final score.

NBA News

Interesting week thus far...

- Kobe scores 81 points all by himself. I stress "ALL BY HIMSELF". While this is an amazing feat, he's still a bastard guy. I'll never doubt his court skills, but have to question his decision-making and interpersonal abilities (or lack thereof).

- Ron Artest for Peja Stojakovic. This is a lose-lose situation in my book. Artest is definitely a great player, but his mental stability has to come into question. I should probably disavow this comment in the event he reads it and flys over to kick my a$$. Peja has some skills left, but he's getting old and those skills are quickly diminishing along with his health. That doesn't mean he's geriatric, but we all know that in NBA, you have to have stamina to keep up with the young bucks.

- Pistons are now 35-5. This is pretty awesome even though I don't really care for the team. Unlike MJ's Bulls, this team doesn't have one particular superstar, but rather a very balanced team that works well together. A lot of people used to attribute this balance to Larry Brown, but we now see that that wasn't true under current skipper Flip Saunders.

NFL Playoffs

Happy new year and oh how it is! For those keeping track of the NFL playoffs, it looks like it'll be a good Super Bowl this year! We've got the Seahawks vs. the Steelers battling out in Detroit on the 12th of February (13th for those of us on this side of the planet). I suppose the key factors in this matchup will be that the Seahawks have one of the best offenses (if not the best) in the NFL this year and the Steelers have their awesome defense led by Troy Polamalu. While these two things will play a huge role in the championship, there's also the fact that the Seattle D and Pittsburg offense are no slugs either. It'll be an exciting Super Bowl that I hope Seattle wins. I like both teams, but I simply think that it'd be great if Shaun Alexander could win a Super Bowl because I want to see if that'll encourage Seattle to re-sign him to a better deal for the remainder of his career. As I said, I do like both teams and it'd be impressive if Big Ben could land a SB ring in his sophomore year.

More Whining

Ok, I gotta whine about driving again.

Japan has a lot of small/narrow roads where its hard to see around corners. As far as I know there are stop signs on the roads coming out into traffic, but I guess I'm living in some sort of fantasy world, since people seem to think that they should wait to hit the brakes when half their front end is sticking out in the road. To make it worse, these ignorant fuckers sit and look at me like I'm on crack. I guess they don't realize that should I choose to swerve around them, I'd likely be involved in a head-on collision. I mean, am I supposed to assume that they'll come to a complete stop before they pull out?

Next are the other fools who see me coming but have no depth perception whatsoever so they just pull out in front of me anyway (without coming to a complete stop). I mean god forbid that they end up behind me. They pull out in front of me and continue to chug along at a whopping 30kph...pretty damn annoying when I'm cruising at 80.

Ok, that's all for my ranting until the next time someone pisses me off.

Baseball and other things

So I'm watching TV last night and annoyed as usual because a show I had planned to watch was cancelled due to the Japan Series (baseball). However, that feeling quickly dissipated as I remembered that the Hanshin Tigers were playing. The significance of this team is that the retard who lost my digicam recently loves them. All this meaning that I hate the Tigers and have been hoping that they lose this series. Well, I guess the gods love me or something because the Lotte Marines have been destroying the Tigers by scoring 10 runs in the first three games. One more and its all over. To make it worse, Hanshin has scored a total of 2 runs in 3 games making the overall PF/PA = 30/2 Marines. Wow. Anyway, I don't really care for baseball in general, except in October. Japanese baseball is even less appealing.

So moving on to more on the sport I don't care for, the World Series is now on Game 3 with the Chicago White Sox up 2-0 over the Houston Astros. I can only pray that the CWS win game 3. For those who aren't familiar with the sport, there has only been one team (last year's Red Sox) who have come back to take a 7-game series after being down 3-0.

NEXT! The NFL season is almost half way through and there's only one team that is 7-0, Indianapolis. The rest of the league could go either way and the Colts will probably choke in the playoffs anyway. Lots of surprises this year like Santana Moss, Edgerrin James, and Carson Palmer. There've also been a lot of disappointments like the return of Ricky Williams, poor play of teams like SF and Houston, and the problems over in Philly.

Lastly, the NBA season is starting up next week! It looks to be another exciting season with lots of talented rookies and of course the regular favorites.

Oh well, this post is getting boring.

Driving Tips for Stupid Drivers

Ok, so yeah, its another gripe with the world, but hey, that's just me.

I'm driving in to work this morning and although I notice it all the time, all of the worst driving habits of drivers in Japan are glaringly apparent. That being said, here are some driving tips for the idiots out there:

1. Use your freaking turn signals. They are there for a reason. When the guy behind you is blaring his horn, that's usually why. He's probably pissed off because you're stopping for no reason that is visible to him.

2. WHEN you use your turn signals, they're not attached to the steering wheel. Turn them on BEFORE you turn, not AS you turn. There's no point in turning them on as you turn because it is pretty freaking apparent that you're turning by that point.

3. You know those big red upside down triangles that say stop or "tomare" here in Japan? They mean STOP AT THE FREAKING LINE! It doesn't mean slow down, it doesn't mean stop with half your car sticking out in the road. Once you've stopped, CREEP out into the road. Don't freaking launch out and hope for the best. And make sure you lean forward, I see too many idiots out there who have their seat reclined all the way back as they pull out and can't seem to figure out why people give them nasty looks.

4. At four way intersections where one side has a flashing red and the other has a flashing yellow, if you've got the yellow, you have the right of way. The flashing yellow means to slow down and use caution, not come to a complete stop. The flashing red means to STOP! It doesn't mean slow down, look at it as a stop sign.

5. At narrow four way intersections where the side streets have stop signs and the main thoroughfare does not: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO FREAKING STOP IF YOU'RE ON THE MAIN ROAD. To the contrary, if you're on the side street, you DO HAVE TO STOP! See Tip #3 for clarification.

6. On a road where there is a car parallel parked in your lane. YOU HAVE TO STOP. ONCOMING TRAFFIC has the right of way. Same applies vice versa.

7. Last but not least, PAY ATTENTION to the road and other drivers! Don't put on make up, change clothes, focus on the stereo, whatever. I got stuck behind this idiot trying to dig some crap out of her bag as she drove at 30kph for about 3km. I was on my bike so to make it worse, she kept pulling to the left so that I couldn't pass. I about went over and slapped that biyotch. When I went back to Hawaii last week, this different idiot was on the H1 driving at 50mph trying to change his shirt and swerving all over the place in the process. To top it off, at one point, his driver side door went flying open. I was going to suggest to him that although he should pull over to do what he was doing, the least he could do is take off his seatbelt.

Whew...ok, I think that's it for now.

Oh yeah, can anyone tell me where some of these people buy their licenses?

Out of Town...again!

So as soon as I get back from my last trip, I'm asked if I want to go to Hawaii. Umm...duh? That being the case, that's where I am now, wishing I could find a job. You'd think that after all this time searching for work here, I'd find something, but no.

Anyway, my mission this time, as prescribed by a co-worker is to gain some freaking weight. In my best effort, I've been eating plate lunches and other good local food everyday. Lots of bbqs and lots of fatty food. I hope I gain at least a kilo or maybe 2. I posted a picture of one of da best plate lunches on island along with some other stuff I've been eating.


Rainbow's mix plate. Way too much to eat in one sitting, but da~mn good!


Rainbow's hamburger steak. So-so....


Yottekoya's kotteri ramen. Located at McCully Shopping Center...it used to be better, but still not bad.


Rainbow's BBQ beef plate. Still one of my favorites. Reminds me of the bbq beef my gramma used to make.


Side Street Inn - right off Kapiolani behind the building wiht Gyukaku. If they have it, I'd suggest getting the shoyu chicken. OOH!!


The view from my wife's place.

Back in Town

So I'm back in town after 2 weeks tooling around Asia for work. Given some of the locations I went to, I think I appreciate all I have even more. I can honestly say that I have no intention of returning to one of the places that I went to. Beggars and amputees everywhere. I suppose ignorance is bliss. Some of the trip was cool although the humidity in SE Asia feels much worse than Japan or Korea.