Let's Enjoy Looking At "ONLINE RAIBU JOURNARU"

...on the continuing political unrest in Pakistan, which you may read here. Alas, I had to ( go take the piss out of it. )

I've only been out of bed two hours, and already, I am for the win.

That will be all.

This has got to be the most beautiful, most breathtaking, must utterly WRONG vidmanip I have ever seen:




Alternately, you can view it here:
::CLICKY::

Once again, the Internets wins the Internets.

That will be all.

...goes to whoever pasted this bumper sticker:



in my new neighborhood. (In all seriousness, the photo leaves me with some questions: 1) I thought Cheney was Satan; and 2) if he isn't, is this a typically cut throat reaction to his ousting in favor of the Bush・Zombie Reagan ticket of '04?)

In other news, you read right. I have a neighborhood because I have an apartment now. \(^_^)/ No word yet on move-in dates, though.

That will be all.

( Does President Bush have it in for the press corps? Touring a Caterpillar factory in Peoria, Ill., the Commander in Chief got behind the wheel of a giant tractor and played chicken with a few wayward reporters. )

And in case you think this is just a clever Onion article, well, I found it on the Newsweek Magazine website.

Good lord, we are an embarrassment.

That will be all.

At least according to this WaPo article. I'd been wondering when McGruder was returning from his sabbatical; the answer is apparently, probably never.

Oh well. With Boondocks going the way of Calvin & Hobbes, I no longer have any reason to pay attention to comics.

That will be all.

Click ::here:: to wet yourself.

Seriously, this sort of thing is what makes me think there may yet be hope for America.

That will be all.

ETA: Now fortified with wettage producing link!

So, driving lessons. Fifty minutes a go at the rate of 1 USD/minute.

Monday, my driver actually had me stop the car for about five minutes while he went to go chat with his friends who were fixing a traffic signal on the course. "Crows ate through the wires," he told me when he got back into the car. Needless to say, we stopped the lesson at exactly 50 minutes, which means I was out $5.00.I think he was also a little rattled by having Whitey in the vehicle with him. He never spoke except to give me a few directions, or once to joke about the fact that his behavior hadn't progressed to 'sexual harrassment' yet.

Today I went back for another two hours, which stretched into three by the time I was finished. This time, however, I lucked out. My driver was a darling grandfatherly Japanese dude who was really helpful; he was extremely tuned in to what I was doing for every minute of the three hours, gave constant advice and pointers, and more importantly explained the reasoning behind the ridiculously arbitrary testing procedures, which makes them worlds easier to remember.

He was also really relaxed around me - a foreigner - which is extraordinarily uncommon for guys his age out here in the boondocks. "Neesan, neesan, don't do that!" he kept laughing every time I reverted to my wicked foreign driving habits to do something silly like hit the wipers instead of the turn signal.

He was extremely patient throughout the three hours of my driving class. Basically, the Japanese driving test doesn't measure driving aptitude so much as measure one's ability to memorize rote sets of actions when driving a closed course. Which sucks precisely because it's no measure of of aptitude, but OTOH, I can see Japanese people thinking it's more fair than a test on the actual roads.

I feel much more confident on the whole about being able to pass this test. That was the first best thing about today's classes.

The second best thing ( was this )
On some days, I passionately love this country.

That will be all.