cat /proc/claus

So when whe got to okayama station, leandro, whose house I was going to stay in, asked us to wait for him in the east exit. Okay, but which one is it? I decided to ask a girl in a nearby shop:

Claus (in japanese): Is this the east exit?

Girl: …

Claus: The east exit, is it here?

Girl: … Y-YES (like, in english)

So me and my friends decided to wait there. Of course, it turned out that we were waiting in the WEST exit. It might be possible that I spoke something wrong, but I thing the most probable is that the girl got scared by a gaijin asking her something at all.

This completely meaningless post was brought to you by asdfjkl;asdfjkl;

Google has made a game. It pairs you with someone else on the net, and show you both images. Then you have 90 seconds to label the images, and if you and your partner give the same name to the image, you get points.

You have some fun, and google gets some idiot to add keywords to their images - everyone win! (except for your work to be done, of course)

Google Image Labeler

Try it, if you have some minutes to spare. My record so far is 1200 points.

“Love is not something that makes you leave the ground, ant takes you to far away places you’ve never seen before. We call that an airplane. Love is something else.”

“Love is not something that you hide inside yourself and do not show anyone else. That is a 3-speed setting Thai vibrator. Love is something else.”

“Love is not something that makes you lose your breath and your speech. That is actually bronquitis. Love is something else.”

“Love is not something that comes suddenly and turns you hostage. That is called a kidnapper. Love is something else.”

“Love is not something that flies high in the sky, leaving its mark wherever it goes. That is a pigeon. Love is something else.”

“Love is not something to hold inside, or put outside whenever you want. We call that a dog. Love is something else.”

“Love is not something grayish which shines its lights upon you, taking you to the starts, and leaving something of it within you after it brings you back. That is actually an alien. Love is something else.”

“Love is not something which disappeared and, if found, could change the world before your eyes. That is the TV remote. Love is something else.”

One red paperclip.

Found out about this site today on slashdot. The story is already over. Basically, the guy wanted to trade his red paperclip up and up until he got a house. And a house he did get!

Well, many of those trades were more of publicity stunts from people trying to ride on his wave, so the “barter value” of the history is not as high as it could be. But still is an impressive feat.

The interned is full of wonders.

So I’m reading this book, called “TsurezureGusa”, translated as “Essays on Idleness” (the translation of the title comes from the first verse of the book, which means roughly “while I have nothing better to do”).

This book was written by a buddhist priest around 1100, called kenkou. It is composed of a series of short essays, from two or three sentences to two or three pages. The topics of the essays range from the best way to close a wooden box, to opinions about the nobility and that time, and lots of buddhist philosophy.

Well, this one got my attention today. I’ll just copy the relevant bit:

92
(…)
A man studying some branch of learning thinks at night that he has the next day before him, and in the morning that he will have time that night; he plans in this way always to study more diligently at some future time. How much harder it is to perceive the laziness of mind that arises in an instant! Why should it be so difficult to do something now, in the present moment?

I didn’t know there were grad students in pre-medieval Japan!