my second home

Koyasan got a nice write-up on a Kiwi website earlier this month. I have slacked off on my New Zealand newsfeed reading, so it was only this afternoon that I got caught up on it.

The little lotus blossom of a town, surrounded by the famed eight peaks of the Koya mountains, is where I lived for three peaceful years. Whatever part of my nature that is peaceful, I owe to those years. My neighbors were mostly monks. I was known on a first-name basis by most of the 5,000 people of the little town. Or they at least knew of me as "Sensei."

I really miss taking the tram up to the town from Osaka. It used to add 10 minutes to the already 90 minute train ride. I used to be able to fall asleep for exactly 10 minutes and wake up just in time to get off the tram -- even while totally drunk. The station managers must've seen me each time and thought, "Oh great -- him again!"

I also miss the rock garden at the main temple.... I would sit and contemplate life for hours on end! This view was gorgeous when there was a light snow flurry.

While checking for more pictures, I ran across a new reason to be nostalgic. Finally, somebody's creating a web presence for the town, blog-wise. Now I can keep track of all the Koya-fun I'm missing on a recent blog-find. I'm glad they're finally getting that. I just wish *I* had been the one to do it!

ample parking day or night

Here's my South Park character - the crazy 4th grader who reads a lot and likes art class too much. I had to laugh out loud at the season premiere the other night...

There's a terrible beaver dam accident and the entire city of beavertown is flooded. And everyone else is in a total panic. They really take good snapshots of this country, saying, "Look, people! This is how ridiculous you've been acting lately, you idiots!" Nicely done. Good job, Stone & Parker!

autumn

autumn7
Originally uploaded by cobaltika.

How I wish the leaves looked like this! The dry spell didn't do any favors for the trees around DC this year.

So autumn won't be full of the usual natural fireworks. It's a shame -- I usually love to watch the leaves change.

Maybe next year!

final beam out

10/15/2005

The following message will be placed on board a NASA spacecraft currently scheduled for launch in mid December, 2005:

Thank you for inspiring me with your character Scotty. You taught me to pad my work timelines carefully to manage supervisory expectations... thus producing many "miracles" and impressing everyone. That's an important lesson! Seriously though, thank you for your warmth to fans. I grew up on reruns of the show and I always loved your funny accent."

- Jblend, DC, United States

feeling left out

I, for one, feel left out. I mean, every religious person I know gets the chance to enter a kind of holy lottery. The winning prize is this: they can hear God speak to them. The words of the Divine are whispered in their ears.

Well, here's the honest-to-God-darned truth. You heard it here first, folks.

Jesus Christ himself, while He wandered through the Holy Ground of the World Trade Center wreckage, must have smiled upon the workers and handed a certain president a certain megaphone.



And as he handed G.W. that megaphone, He whispered in his ear.

"What did he say?" You might ask.

Was it a great brocolli cassarole recipe? (Heavenly!) The location of physical evidence that will prove the "theory" of intelligent design? (Like that scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark!) Or maybe, just maybe, God told him go to war and slaughter hundreds of thousands of heathens.

But wait -- if God told you that last one, wouldn't you ask for a sign? Maybe the classic burning bush? Or perhaps all it would take to believe Him would be a close call with a pretzel?

Well, God has spoketh (or is that "spaketh"?) to George. And He exhorted him to "Go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan" and "Go and end the tyranny in Iraq." God also said, "Get peace in the Middle East."

(Is it just me, or in that last one, does it sound like God might need a refresher course in good old 'merican English? God might need to brush up on some of those SAT vocabulary words -- "Get peace?!?" Come on!)

Shortly after the messages from On High became public, the White House denied the Jesus Briefings. The folks at BBC maintained their story, which is more than I can say for the Bush administration. (How many revisions have we had on the justifications behind invading Iraq, anyway? I lost count somewhere between "evil man" and "painting their fingers purple," you know?)

All of this leads me to ask: How many times does Our Glorious Leader get to indulge his Holy War fantasies before somebody calls him on it? I hope this was the only time. Otherwise, we're in for a very bumpy ride during these next few years.

OK. Go back to reading about Nick and Jessica breaking up and forget all that I said here. (You know you're going to, anyway, so just do it.)

*** \\\ This just in: I have found the actual movie file of a God's-Eye-View of the White House when He came in for a landing on the Jesus landing pad. /// ***

freaky Florida

Is this actually real?!? I'm not sure, but it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility.

This week has kept me very busy in training for the army 10-miler. So I haven't really read the newspaper much this week. If it's true, it makes me glad that Henry's not in Sarasota on business like he was last year. Of course, this may have an up side to it... I wonder if this means I could shoot people that are bashing me?



Go, Brady campaign! Glad that Florence Henderson is keeping busy after the show. Or maybe it's mature hottie Christopher Knight?