Cars have been on my mind a lot recently. So far in the decade I’ve been licensed, I’ve owned three. My parents gave me an Eagle Vision when I was in college, and I bought a Saturn LS2 from them a few years later after returning from Japan. Both were sensible, practical, well-maintained sedans firmly [...]
One of the more common reactions I get from people newly learning that I’ve lived in Japan is “I wish I could do something like that.” It’s actually not all that hard; all you need is a bachelor’s degree, some patience during the application process, a few thousand dollars to get you over there and [...]
My father emailed me last night–we live in the same house right now, but we’re both nerds, so he emailed me–and I thought the contents of his email were cool, so I’m copying them here with his permission. Big silverback Having a snack Out in the woods Where life is good What was that shout? [...]
For those interested, I’ve uploaded some of the more memorable photos I’ve taken so far in Japan. I promise that once the server is online (I disclaim responsibility for the fact that it currently isn’t, as it’s now in the hands of the ISP) I’ll upload everything and there will be total access to every [...]
Today marked my third attempt at getting a bank account. It ran into the same snag as at the previous two banks–the process was rolling along fine (where ‘fine’ is defined as the original teller calling over whatever colleagues speak a little English, and having me write everything down, and hurried conferences with the floor [...]
What with the upcoming move to Japan, I am selling my car. I’ve been asking $1000 for it, as this seems a fair price, and I want it sold before I go. I finally got around to checking the blue book value: $1760. Oops. It’s a 1993 Eagle Vision ESI, 119300 miles, good condition (as [...]
I am listening to loud and angry music right now because I just saw a pamphlet pinned up that really annoys me. The title: protest against the imf and world bank, because of the following points: their voting system is based on “one dollar, one vote”; standard policy calls for cutting government spending, privatization, and [...]