I have recieved some stamps in the mail. You see, one cannot buy US postage in Japan. (Military folks can, but I am not among that populous). As I age, stamps excite me more and more. Nayr now professes to be chotto geekish. One might say why do you need American stamps in Japan? Well the one-penny onesmake great, and undeniably cheap, prizes at school. The higher values will end up on envelopes containing my hopeful future bounty of query letters, manuscripts, and perhaps, even screenplays.

Now that I mentioned movies, last night a few of us native speakers watched a film festival in Osaka.
One of the features was about a middle aged chemist who flucks shute up when he releases nylon bombs upon the helpess Iowans. Now, while not as shiny, being turned into nylon is a fate so far removed from that old James Bond flick, Goldfinger, whom spray-painted his victims gold.

The nylon bomb film was part of the Osaka PressPlay Film Festival. Another entrant was Keisha versus Geishia, imagining that fraternal twins were brought up in the parallel worlds of south central Los Angeles and Tokyo. I put their production costs at a sum not exceeding three digits. All the entries were naturally good fun.

I have to return to my usual blob of urgent business.

News from the archives

I had these old, yellowing clips of newsprint and thought that I would share them with you.

#1. From a 2003 Reuters wire found in the Korea Herald:

"Chubby suspect outpaces police"

SYDNEY- A chubby, barefoot Australian man outran police on Wednesday when he bolted through security gates left open at the back of a court he was being led into, officials said.
Security footage showed the overweight man dashing down a back lane in central Sydney pursued by at least four police and prison guards, two of whom tripped over while giving chase. Asked how an overweight, barefoot man had outrun police, inspector Peter Thorne said: "I don't know, I wasn't here."

# 2 from the Japan Times
"International Energy Agency: China 2nd largest CO2 emitter"

The article is very long. The headlines tells the gist. So now 1/7 of global pollution can be traced to China. Now that is the mark of modernization and progress!

Between 1990 and 2002 China's CO2 gas output increased 44.5%.

America, according to the IEA, lays claim to 23% of global carbon dioxide emissions, followed by Russia (6.2%, Japan 5%, India 4.2% Canada 2.2%, Britain 2.2%, Korea 1.9% and France 1.8%)

Troubling news for us, living next to China...

#3 from the China Post: "Malaysian volunteers to harass illegals"

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, AP

"More than half a million civilian volunteers will be given the power to arrest illegal immigrants next year, local media reported Friday, despite fears such a move would encourage vigilantism and undermine the law... The government has said illegal immigrants detained from the beginning of 2005 risk being whipped with a rattan cane, fined and jailed before being deported...Most of Malaysia's illegal immigrants are employed in the construction, plantation and domestic service sectors."

Well the article goes on to say that an amnesty program to let illegal workers become legitimate employees only reigned in "about 109,000 of the estimated 1.2 million illegal workers in Malaysia" So, now the price is upped, via a rattan cane. This plan is definitely a shout out to the globe to the friendliness Malaysia shows to its at-risk working poor labor force!

Formosan Notes and Anecdotes cleaning out my desk I stumbled across all the things I wrote down on my 8 days there. Things I ate in Taiwan Bean and shrimp cake. Not a big hit in my book Guava Juice: packaged and fresh. Bubble tea: Pearl tea with tapioca balls. One of the coolest drinks, huge amount that lasted for three servings, all for 25 NT$ or about 80 cents. Egg and rice paper omelet: yumms President Papaya Milk: neon orange but a frothy texture that tickled me tongue. Fun notes from a trip to the Museum Of Contemporary Art in Taipei: A room called "foam space" which, was indeed, a room with an obvious void and foam flooring. 3-D butterflies that really made me lose my balance. A stroll on bundles of newspapers set on end. There must have been a few year's worth of newsprint. A room where everything was made of sculpted wire. It made me feel fat. The best part about the MOCA is that it is housed in a brick building which sports a clock tower and some commendable shrubbery. I took a bus and that was fun because in the seatback there was old school Nintendo, and as the bus droned northward from Puli to Taipei I enjoyed a good stint of Mario Bros and 1942. In almost every town there were roast duck restaurants, and inevitably the head cook was an old man smoking a lazy-ashed ciggie while preparing people's dinners. In Puri I went to this noodle shop the hotel's concierge recommended and ended up being the culture ambassador. They even let me sign the wall of the place. It specialized in ginger tofu and beef spareribs, which were fabulous. The owner's granny had lived in Japan before WW2 so he played me Sakura on his guitar and I talked to his son in English. In the Taipei train station, I went to Mos Burger, which was at the early hour of 6:45 a.m. open and ready for business. Nothing like a rice and beef burger to get the juices flowing! At this place called "Let's tasty. Let's Enjoy!" in Tainan, I had a good asparagus thing topped off with a triangle of this lemon stuff. A mix between a popsicle and cheesecake. then I went to a bar and they were playing Anne Murray. Then a Heiniken-clad girl bugged me. But that I have already written about. More than a few times I noticed Taiwanese fighter jets screaming overhead. Usually, they timed it so when I was having a zen moment inside a temple the place began to shake and tremble as the jets (sans mufflers) did low-altitude sweeps across the island. at this one temple in Tainan, Fahuah Temple, the guard dog was rather menacing, at least until I left the temple grounds. The site itself is cool, and a long time ago the sea lapped at the temple's periphery, but in modern times creative development and canal-making have sent the sea back several kilometers to the west. Warner cinemas are all over Taiwan and many are 24-hours. I have never seen such hours being kept. Well, at legit and all-ages theatres, anyway... One of the many joys, I found, on my inaugural venture into business class travel, is the lounge which offers clean toilets, all the bear you can guzzle, free international phone calls, and a nice window to watch the planes get clean, stocked and all prettied up. And the experience of being served steak on real plates, oh the service. I get teary thinking about my inevitable return to economy class. All over Taiwan one can find Japanese chains such as Kohiken, Yoshinoya and Mos Burger. Even the bakeries are Japanese. But I am a Starbucks fan if for nothing else, their policy of no smoking seems to be worldwide, Taiwan being no exception. I got to see a wicked taxi-moped collision and actually no blood was spilled and they really didn't get that angry. I was impressed. Also, I had a deaf taxi driver once, or at least he had those tubes in his ears like many deaf people did. But to his credit he was the the safest and slowest taxi driver I hired the whole week. For anyone going to Taiwan I recommend the performing arts center called Taipei Eye hands-down. It is like 880NT$ but so cool and the performers are soo adorable and skilled. note transcription complete. ---------------- This is an ad I found in the Taipei Times newspaper: "Erotic sensual transvestite. Business English translation. Personal painting design!" then, in the same ad it states: Gentle oil smoothing theyapy." Then, a number for Nina/Mark. I guess it depends on the time of day as to what you get, either Nina or Mark. That is one diversified Portfolio! ----------------

Urban Legends Several below that I had not heard of. This is a great site. www.snopes.com/ Also, Q-Bert is back, and he still speaks alien nonsense! http://games.yahoo.com/games/downloads/qb.html

A good day for Thai Sea Gypsies: In amongst all the dispair in SEA there was some good news from Thailand. Some coworkers were down there but they are home safe on Port Island, Kobe's initial venture into bay reclaimation. The dirt comes courtesy of the mountain formerly known as Seishinchuoyama. http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/01/sea.gypsies.ap/index.html Yarr!!!