Saturday, June 04, 2005

Saturday June 4, 10:36 p.m.

Well, I did catch "Sky Captain" tonight. The short version would be that the movie was a nice way to spend a couple of hours at home but no classic despite its homage to the films of the 30s. I'm not really even sure if I missed anything by NOT seeing it at the movie theatre. The CG with the robots vs. Sky Captain battle in Manhattan (I've gotta be specific here since the entire movie rivals the Star Wars prequels for wall-to-wall effects) were nice but nothing earth-shatteringly original, the acting was suitably wooden for a movie that purports to emulate those ol' Saturday matinee serials...although Gwyneth Paltrow unfortunately goes above and beyond the call of duty; I don't think I've seen such a flat performance by an actress in a genre film since Carrie Fisher in the aforementioned Star Wars. Mind you, it must've been a very keen challenge for any of the actors to perform against greenscreen. I'm sure bosom buddies Jude Law and Ewan McGregor will commiserate over a pint at the local pub.

The story itself was also by-the-numbers plotting and not particularly fast-moving. It rather came across as a slower Indiana Jones piece. Rather surprising considering that those original serials often flew by at the expense of logic and plot development. However, I did enjoy the computer renditions of 30s New York since I'm a fan of the architecture of that era, and although I'd known about it previously, it was a nifty thing to have the late Sir Laurence Olivier do a cameo as the mad, mysterious Totenkopf. The revelation about his character did parallel that of the Wizard of Oz; the movie itself was featured in the earlier scenes. But I think when I see "Sky Captain", I'm reminded mostly of "Dick Tracy", that other Hollywood homage to all things 30s and comic. Heck, one scene in particular...the one in which the police dispatcher sends that SOS to Captain Joe Sullivan...apes a similar communication in "Dick Tracy" right down to the main character saying "I'm on my way." Like the earlier film, I liked some of the smaller touches in "Sky Captain" such as the antenna visibly throwing out the sound waves like the ol' RKO tower, and the newspaper headlines appearing in the huge windows behind Polly Perkins in her introduction scene.

I think things rather faltered as the movie got to the end, though, when the setting started shifting from the big city to Nepal and then finally to Totenkopf's island. That ol' 30s feeling seemed to evaporate, and especially when the leads entered the conveyor belt-strewn area on the island, it just reminded me of Anakin and Padme's trek through a similarly lit factory area in "Attack of the Clones", and even certain scenes in "The Incredibles". I probably would've preferred to have kept things close to New York with Joe back in his plane leading the charge once more instead of stumbling up a rocket approaching destruction.

I've only seen some of the extras on the DVD but there are a couple of laugh-out loud bloopers concerning the CG. You just have to see it to believe it!

I guess overall the movie is a noble try and a fine achievement for the computer geek who created it.
Saturday June 4, 7:20 p.m.

I guess Rainy Season is officially here. The skies gave us a major can of whup-ass late this afternoon just as I was wrapping things up with MK. The rains came down along with a goodly amount of thunder and lightning. I'd been thinking about making up some fried rice tonight but decided to abort the mission when I figured it was just gonna too much trouble lugging home a ton of ingredients in one hand while I used the other for my umbrella. The rain ought to be continuing well into tomorrow morning.

The elder sister was slightly under the weather so she was more lackadaiscal than usual. Rather tuckered me out on the subway down to Kiba. However, luckily, MK and JJ managed to get my spirits back up.

Since cooking in tonight was out, I ended up having dinner at the local Subway; hadn't been there in several weeks. I'll probably watch "Sky Captain" tonight and then call it an early night. I figure I'd like to get my first Sunday pancake breakfast in months out of the way early so I can get that rubdown in and then jot down the number for Accurate and see if I can eventually get an appointment.

Now with the Cool Biz corporate fashion movement in play, the Japanese Parliament sessions have been rather intriguing to say the least. PM Koizumi and his minions have taken to doing the country's business sans tie and blazer. Of course, the official Opposition won't have any of that and have continued to broil in their suits. But I think the ruling party looks like a bunch of old guys at a resort. Sometimes, formality is necessary to be taken seriously.

Friday, June 03, 2005

Friday June 3, 9:14 p.m.

Well, The Teacher and I had another discussion on one of the taboo topics that I don't talk about with any of the other students. The Teacher seems to be rather open with her elder son when it comes to the teenage rite of passage of collecting pornos.

Had my first Big Mac set in over a month. Y'know...I can live without the stuff for a good long while.

In another first in a while, I went on a rather large spending spree at Yamano Music and HMV in Ginza today. I bought no less than 4 CDs and 2 DVDs. The one DVD I got was "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow", the feature that came and went quickly here. I heard the story is not to talk about but then again, most movies fall into that category. The other DVD was a compilation of UA's greatest video clips. She is definitely one eclectic singer in the J-Pop canon; she started out as an R&B chanteuse but quickly shed off that image (and apparently most of her clothing in the last video...she went Bjork!) to tackle all sorts of other genres.

It was another long chat session with SR. We spoke about, among other things, religion and cults. Currently, the hot topic right now is Tom Cruise's slow decline into nutsville after that little outburst on Oprah. Well, apparently, I've been hearing that a lot of the local celebs are following Soka Gakkai, which some say is a corporatized religion, while others insist it's a cult. Among its membership is apparently the most popular comedienne in Japan and a former Morning Musume.

Got that package from Mom today. Man, I got more chocolate to eat and I have those three boxes of Aunt Jemima which should hold me til winter.

I'll be pretty busy tomorrow with JJ, MK and my usual morning. But I only have the one kid; the mother will be subbing so I'm gonna have to find some articles for her to peruse.

I found out that the hotels here are now touting Men's Plans for all those guys who need a refresher. It's about time...for some years now, women have been able to get a nice deal through Ladies' Plans at some of the ritzier establishments. The women usually travel in pairs; I couldn't imagine two men merrily skipping to the front desk for a similar deal without a frantic call for security. But now, a single dude can get stuff like a scalp massage, aromatherapy and a cigar for a relatively reasonable price with the one night's stay. I may just contact that old agent who helped arrange the Hokkaido and Yokohama trips last year.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Friday June 3, 8:14 a.m.

Still pretty cloudy out there and it will remain so for the rest of the day which means I'll have to keep the umbrella on tap.

I was rather surprised to find a rare 7 letters in my inbox only to find out a little less than half really didn't concern me. Anime King has started his usual blanket mailing for the first time in a long while on stuff that I'm not really interested in.

Well, I guess my earlier statement that the two sumo wrestling brothers, Wakanohana and Takanohana, have patched things up was premature. I first got the signal that I was wrong when their mother tearfully told the press that she regretted that her ex-husband didn't live long enough to see the two sons reconcile. Then this morning, I heard Takanohana emotionlessly respond to the big question that he has nothing ever to say to his brother. Wakanohana was more generous and stated that he would like to patch things up with his brother eventually.

Looks like the tremors have been continuing throughout the country. Kyushu got rocked by a Shindo 5 minus overnight.

I tried out that Godiva coffee that I'd received from The Class Act after their trip to Hawaii over Golden Week. It was Vanilla Hazelnut. I used that new coffeemaker that I'd gotten from Mr. Eccentric a few months ago for the very first time. No problems and the coffee was quite good, surprisingly, for decaf.
Thursday June 2, 11:06 p.m.

Earlier in the late afternoon, I watched Part I of a Biography on Bruce "Die Hard" Willis. During the retrospective, I was reminded that he actually had his humble hit beginnings on a little ABC show in the mid-80s called "Moonlighting". And it just so happens that I own the DVD of the pilot ep.

So after dinner, I threw the disc into the JVC and visually reminisced over the snappy banter and 80s stylings between Bruce and Cybill Shepherd. Bruce even back then had the charm, the wit...the hair. Can't believe it's been 2 decades since the show first aired. It was comical Bruce...not the grim-faced superhero Bruce of Hollywood, Inc. Even with the passing of the years and the fashions (big curly hair, Al Jarreau), the pilot episode still holds up very well thanks to the exchanges between the two protagonists.

A pity, then, that the show was really only good for 2 years though it lasted 5. There's always been the rumour that the two stars and the producer hated one another, and according to that Biography, the rumour mill did put a bit of tension onto the set. However, I got the feeling that, as usual, things were blown up somewhat although I could imagine the egos of both Willis and Shepherd going at it. But it seems like the years have mellowed them somewhat according to the interviews with the leads in the Bio, and the weak commentary on my DVD. As I've said, the show was fun for just the first couple of years. A lot of fans have said it jumped the shark when David and Maddie finally knocked boots; but I think the inexorable slide started much earlier when things started getting darker and not necessarily deeper from the 3rd season onwards, though I did enjoy the breaking down of the 4th wall from the late 2nd season. And once Willis got his huge hit from "Die Hard", it was pretty much game over.

I think the other reason I remember the show so fondly was because of the music. Yep, there was always the AOR-friendly theme tune but episodes often brought in songs from jazz, R&B and Motown.

As usual, my brother was the one who discovered the wonders of "Moonlighting" before I did. I only found about it late into its first semi-season, but since then I have managed to see all of the 1st season but it's been years since I've had a chance to look at them again. It's good to hear that those first 2 good seasons have finally been put onto DVD as a box set. I'll have to see if I can get actually get it in Japan since Bruce is very well known here.

Anyways, it's almost time to hit the hay. Back to "work" from tomorrow.
Thursday June 2, 7:49 p.m.

Took a walk today around the neighbourhood just to get some exercise since I was home all day. It was spitting a bit and cool but still rather humid. I walked up all the way to the old hairsalon. The new name is now ACCURATE, a very good name to have when you're giving yourself to a pair of sharp scissors. According to the price sign, it looks like the rates are still the same. I didn't see anyone in there so I figured that the new staff was probably having lunch in the back. I decided to hold on any greetings.

It's been pretty nice not to worry about planning anything since Fridays are just spent gabbing with The Teacher and SR. Again, The OL is a scratch so I'll probably be here this tomorrow night.

Found out some strange stuff on the news tonight. Apparently, a group of stupid teens was arrested for throwing eggs at taxis from the roof of their apartment building. They've had some sort of grudge against the cabbies for not showing too much respect to motorcyclists. The dopes couldn't come up with a decent name for their gang...they called themselves The Egg-Throwing Gang.

Then there is the somewhat more serious situation of some group or a bunch of copycats who've been sticking sharp metal wedges onto highway guardrails all over Japan. Some bike-riding kid managed to thresh his shins because he banged into one of them. When it comes to warped crimes, Japan is up there with the best of them.

And now, it looks like we have an infestation of giant rats everywhere in Japan...including the ritzy area of Ginza, no less. The pest exterminators have been trapping 50-cm long vermin in their traps.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Thursday June 2, 1:24 a.m.

Still posting at this hour...well, the reason is that I've just watched the very final episode of Star Trek in any of its incarnations for what could be a very long time. And as the rumours have it, the show just went out with a whimper...and a pretty strangulated one at that. The one big sign of this is that the finale was just one hour...instead of the two hours that each of the sequel series had gotten.

I was pretty disappointed by how the overall execution went. Two major gripes: 1) Riker and Troi and all that hand-wringing over the Pegasus shouldn't have been there in the first place; this was an "Enterprise" episode, not a TNG one. I don't blame the cast for being rather miffed. I only wonder what kind of treatment Frakes and Sirtis got from Bakula and the guys during filming. All those scenes back on the Enterprise-D only accomplished to squeeze the scenes back on the NX Enterprise into a poor Reader's Digest version. No proper death scene for Trip, not even a proper coda for his memory. However, it was nice to see Trip get his final due in the kitchen with Chef.

2) That whole plot with Archer trying to save Shran's daughter just smacked of lameness. It only existed just to give an excuse for one final episode to showcase the Andorian and an excuse to have Trip die.

It was too bad that the episode ended with probably the best ending to a Trek franchise: Archer majestically going up those stairs to address the masses and sign the charter and then the three starships Enterprise going off their ways with each captain contributing to the speech that every Trekkie knows by heart and with each of the theme songs playing in the background.

Star Trek won't die...too many fans (mind you, a lot of them turned off of "Enterprise" long ago) are out there and there's too much love for sci-fi. There'll be another Star Trek but I hope it won't be for a good long while. It'll probably be the same for Star Wars.
Wednesday June 1, 10:55 p.m.

Well, I guess perhaps my theory worked out on the minus side of things. It didn't really feel like 28 degrees today but then again, there was a pretty strong wind about. In any case, it felt more like it was in the low 20s.

The Japanese government started the new month off by launching their "No Necktie" campaign. It's also known as the "Cool Biz" campaign in which the salarymen of Japan were encouraged to go to work sans tie and blazer...and apparently about a third of the country did just that. The weather certainly encouraged the stripping. Of course, the long term goal is to have the working folks feel cooler so that the air conditioners won't have to blast the offices at low temps which will decrease the amount of global warming.

Let's see, we had some meterological changes, some sartorial ones, and June in Tokyo wouldn't be a June without some seismic activity. Tokyo got hit by no less than 4 tremors tonight, the strongest one hitting Shindo 3. I and Student 001 felt a couple of them at Speedy's.

I received that renewed tax statement from the city office a couple of weeks after that confusing phone call from that official. Well, now, I'm scratching my head some more. Apparently, the report told me about the error that I'd made...no surprise there since that was the reason for the call. However, now it looks like I may be getting considerably more according to the summary. Go fig. Well, I'll believe it when that money is in my account. Now, I'm really starting to consider taking that holiday off in Yokohama.

The OL has cancelled her lesson for the second straight week. Well, at least I'm back home for another round of cooking. I did offer to teach her on a Sunday.

Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Wednesday June 1, 9:17 a.m.

First day of June and the weather will actually reflect that fact. It's gonna be a scorcher...about 28 C and sunny. I wouldn't be surprised if expectations were exceeded and we go over 30. I've come to the realization that actual temps are off by 5 degrees either way.

Just watched the second-last episode of "Enterprise" However, Manny Coto the producer tried to spin it as the actual ending to the series whilst the much-vilified series finale is supposed to be a coda of sorts. Manny, remind me not to have my tires rotated by you. As it was, "Terra Prime" was a fun episode and in a way it did seem to be a compressed version of a finale. Captain Archer did get his inspirational speech about the future in, and all is well. I did get to check a Star Trek blog in which they posted the ratings by Trekkies about what they thought of recent episodes, so I decided to do a comparative study on the last two eps of the series. Not surprisingly, "Terra Prime" got the lion's share of the votes while "These Are The Voyages" got mere crumbs. I'm kinda dreading to see this 2-hour finale now.

Looks like the Star Wars engine is starting to slow down a bit....relatively speaking. It still made $55 million over the past week. Most movies would kill for that in the first week. And I couldn't hope to believe that even a Star Wars could keep up the kind of torrid pace it'd had in its first several days. But I'm pretty sure it'll hit the $300 million without breaking a sweat.

I'll be hitting the gym in half an hour. My arms are still a bit sore so I was debating the decision but I do have that key to return.
Tuesday May 31, 11:12 p.m.

Had my first outing at the gym in a couple of weeks and my muscles are aching in response to that fact. At least, I'm happy I was able to shed a pound.

Looks like my time at the juku was greatly truncated. Not only did The New Kid have his annual school trip but The Siberian canceled his class since the boss mistakenly thought he had gone over his quota of classes for the month...I've never been too clear on what this quota is about. In any case, she had forgotten that there was that holiday Tuesday during Golden Week. So I actually just had the two hours with The Beauty Pair and The Milds. Kei teared up a bit during the lesson because of the passing of her beloved dog a couple of weeks ago but no major damage. During the Milds' lesson, the juku boss threw out her brimstone and fury side to a couple of sassy boys which made things a bit hard to articulate during my lesson. However, knowing these brats, I couldn't blame my usually cheerful boss for yelling at them.

During the Beauty Pair's lesson, Kei actually informed me that the new management where my old stylist used to be has already gotten one of her friends as a customer. So I may just take a look-see at the old place to see if the stylist did indeed tell the new faces there about me. I really do need that haircut.

Well, well, well...look who came out of the woodwork after over a year's absence. The Madame decided to send an e-mail to Movie Buddy and myself about getting together for a movie. Yup, I'm gonna be vindictive...I won't answer her. I felt rather jilted the last time we met...and I've made some decisions over the past few months about myself so I'm not in any particular mood to mend fences. However, if MB decides to invite her to "Batman Begins", I won't veto the motion. Speaking of that movie, I kinda wonder how the world premiere at Roppongi Hills went.

Just the Hawaiian and Student 001 tomorrow. Depending on how I feel I may give the gym another shot in the morning. I may not have a choice since I accidentally took a key to one of the shoe lockers.

Monday, May 30, 2005

Tuesday May 31, 7:47 a.m.

Well, a certain sumo stable in Nakano Ward, Tokyo is the centre of sorrow today. A famed sumo wrestler-turned-stablemaster, Futagoyama, passed away last night at the relatively young age of 55 due to cancer. During his fighting career, he reached as high as the level of ozeki, the 2nd tier. Seeing some of the old footage on TV (and you gotta believe that there is full court press on this), Futagoyama didn't fit the typical image of sumo wrestlers, that of the humongous lump barely fitting into his loincloth. He was pretty lean and powerful as he fought his way to the top; that was due to his earlier high school life as a swimmer.

However, for all the respect he'd earned as a fighter, he was primarily known to the younger folks as the father of two yokozuna (Grand Champions), Wakanohana and Takanohana, during that renewed boom in sumo in the late 80s and early 90s. Waka-Taka were the scrapping brothers at the core of this boom which was further powered by Takanohana's erstwhile romance with the then-It girl, Rie Miyazawa. Futagoyama (which is his stablemaster's name on retirement...his fighting name was Takanohana as well) was quite the famous face on the TV as well...anyone with Grand Champions as sons will not be far from the spotlight.

But for the happy times, his final years were somewhat sad. He had to suffer stoically during a brief feud between the two brothers, and then his wife divorced him. His wife was a famous actress before becoming a stablemaster's spouse, a very tough job since by default she had to take care of the housekeeping duties in the stable which meant catering to several huge men daily. I'm not sure if those duties broke her back, so to speak, since she probably would have left him much earlier if that had been the case. I think her publicized wish to return to acting was a pretty big clue. Then came his bout with cancer a couple of years ago. It seems his final appearance was in January this year when, in his capacity as the stablemaster, he cut the topknot off of a retiring young charge. I'm sure a lot of middle-aged men are now thinking about their mortality this day.
Monday May 30, 9:48 p.m.

Well, some more inaccuracy in the weather forecast this morning. The weather girl said it would just be cloudy. Nah...it started raining steadily from the afternoon onwards. Mind you, it wasn't nearly as bad as last week's deluge.

The Matron wasn't at the house today so I figured that it would be another lunch at Wendy's before SIL's lesson. However, the housekeeper came by and invited me for a nice little lunch thanks to The Chef. I did have The Matron's sidekick, though, for her lesson.

The lesson at The Company had both students together for the first time in a few weeks. The guy who hadn't been here for a couple of them grabbed the ball and ran with it, so to speak whilst the guy who has been coming remained sloggy. But I think he's been really tired. As have I...I almost missed getting off at my station due to fatigue.

Gonna have to get some lesson planning done tonight before I hit the hay.

Sunday, May 29, 2005

Monday May 30, 7:55 a.m.

There was apparently a Shindo 3, M4.6 tremor at Narita about 15 minutes ago. I barely felt a ripple and I'm in the same prefecture. Go fig.

Went to bed a lot later than I'd expected. When I turned off the lights initially, my mind suddenly thought about the schedule for this week and then something hit my brain rather hard. I jumped out of bed and hooked onto the computer. Sure enough, the Force was and wasn't with me. I screwed up on my schedule with The New Yorker; I mistakenly slotted her into the same time that I have The Company for the next Monday. Well, I'm just lucky that it wasn't for today. Well, I had to come up with a business decision. And the judgement was that since I had already made the confirmation for the New Yorker, I decided to send off a message to The Prez and say that I'll have to cancel next week's lesson. No, more of a lesser-of-two-evils solution but frankly speaking, when I weigh the fact that I often wonder why I'm teaching a pair of guys (nice, though they are) who really don't need English for their jobs against someone who will be needing English in the next week for her vacation abroad, the decision was a bit easier to make. Still, having to make the quick correction left me a bit sleepless for an hour or so.

Apparently, within my relative neighbourhood in the NK Hall in Urayasu City, the 2005 MTV Music Awards in Asia was held. Imagine, I actually had Mariah Carey on my back doorstep...ooh, the goosebumps (yawn). She looked suitably like Roger Rabbit's wife in that scarlet red gift wrapping she wore. Then there was the Japanese equivalent in the form of local TV personality, MEGUMI, who, in an expression of extreme redundancy, wore a tight yellow strapless gown which seemed to push up her already enormous assets to anti-gravity heights. I'm sure jaws were down. I also saw "flavour-of-the-month" for 1996, Jamiroquai, in his trademark fuzzy hat (I guess it's true what they say about old pop acts: they don't die, they just head off for Japan and live forever) obsequiously pointing out a "gorgeous" girl on the TV monitors, who was just a very hirsute comedian dressed up as a very ugly cheerleader doing his/her rendition of Toni Basil's "Mickey" (man, talk about all the pop-cultural refererences in that sentence).

The serious news is still on that search for those two long-in-the-tooth WWII soldiers who don't realize it's time to go home now that the war is over. Apparently, the media and the negotiators there have lost contact with the intermediary who'd cried wolf in the first place. Plus, they have to contend with the MILF terrorist organization who control large swathes of the forest on Mindanao. I'm kinda wondering if this is all a big hoax.

Well, on more mundane matters, it may be a bit of a commute in Hell today. The news reported some sort of switch problem at one of my nearby stations on the JR. Looks like the Tozai might be packed this morning.
Monday May 30, 12:11 a.m.

Still have about 15 minutes before I hit the hay so I'll just doodle something down. It was a pleasant enough Sunday night. Just had my dinner, did my lesson plans, did some major ironing and listened to some jazz. Nothing complicated about that.

In my last entry, I spoke of that possible negligible gossip about a supposedly embittered Hayden Christensen stepping down as an actor to become a full-time architect. Well, looks like the rags over here are wiping up some dirty stuff as well. I was checking out the J-Pop forum and apparently there was a report that the Queen Idol, Seiko Matsuda, has had a major falling out with her daughter, Sayaka, concerning her (I mean, Sayaka...not Seiko) romantic life and career. According to this so-called report, Sayaka has been "fired" from her management company and basically thrown into the real world.

Sayaka, since her debut 4 years ago, never particularly has made it big in showbiz. She's only been in the spotlight because of her famous mother. Well, let's see, she's still a teen which means that there will be the typical mother-daughter issues of friction. However, a couple of things make me skeptical about the truth of this story. One is that it does come from a gossip magazine, never the greatest source of accurate journalism, and two, the report seemed a bit overdramatic. Most likely, it's just to keep the two names floating in the media swamp. I have no doubt that after nearly 30 years in the business, Seiko is a player to some extent and she could have easily started the rumour but then it could be one of the hacks looking to get that something extra in his bonus.

One thing about the parallels between US and Japanese TV. Over there, reality TV programming has been the big thing for about half a decade now, give or take a year. Here, it's been information TV. Whether it be a trivia quiz show or some show on how to remodel a house, it seems like the Japanese have been ravenous for info on so many things...most notably on health. I'm not sure if the aging demographics are a direct influence, but I've been seeing a lot of stuff pertaining to the old. NHK regularly broadcasts programs in which former city families have decided to move back to the countryside to take up a slower lifestyle, there's that "Before/After" show in which an architect remodels houses for mostly elderly folks (seems to be a lot of money to be spending considering that the folks won't be around that much longer...I know, I'm nasty), and tonight, I saw a regular Sunday night program which dealt with the ongoing bane of stiff shoulders. Frankly, I'll take any program which deals with that over "American Idol" or "The Apprentice" any day.

OK, got that out of my system.
Sunday May 29, 5:52 p.m.

Pretty darn cool today outside...unusual for a May in Tokyo. Not that I'm complaining...I'm sure we'll all be in for some very sweaty days in the months to come.

I was happy to sleep in for the first time in several days. Got up at the glorious time of 11 a.m. and leisurely watched some TV before finally popping in that newest tape of "Doctor Who" and "Enterprise". Gotta admit that the first two-parter of the good Doctor was a a corker of a comedy-adventure. And the characters certainly have a bit more depth in them...I think everyone in the episode had an axe to grind with someone. I certainly wished that the writers for the new show had written for "Star Wars".

Speaking of which...I just saw an article, which may or may not be true, in which Hayden Christensen reportedly said that he's thinking of hanging up his acting chops for good and going for a career in architecture instead. He also took a bit of a swipe at Orlando Bloom amongst other young actors for selling their integrity to get onto the A-list of Hollywood. Pretty balls-out thing for him to say considering that he's starring in a movie series notoriously known for atrocious acting...which makes me wonder about the article's veracity. If it is indeed true, then young Hayden is starting his architecture career by ironically burning a very big bridge. In fact, I don't think the soapbox he's standing on was ever all that stable to begin with.

Just did some shopping for clothes, cleaning stuff and food in that order at the nearby department store. I'm always trying to replenish my stock of socks since I wear them out pretty quickly due to the demands of my job. And over here, a holey sock is a holy terror.

Looks like my weekends in June seemed to be locked in now. My friend up in Karuizawa has given me the green light to visit her and her family up in the mountains in late June.