July, 2004

1. Failures use violence as a last resort, conquerors use violence as their first.

2. I'm not a particularly good driver. It's not really the driving part that I have trouble with, it's remembering all the rules.

3. Stick is a very odd word when you really think about it. When you use it as a noun, it's long slender object, but when you use it as a verb, it is to attach something to another with adhesive. Both ways are pronounced the same. If someone made a pad that looked like a stick, would you be able to call it a "Sticky Pad?" I wonder which word came first.

4. You really don't see bombs in their iconic format very much, that is, in the cast iron spheres. Supposedly, those is how they looked a long time ago, and that's because they could be rolled around like a bowling ball. As of recent, anime girls seem to wear them a lot.

5. Jumbo shrimp has always been one of my favorite oxymorons.

6. Is it possible for potatoes to rot before they sprout? If you have it spout for long enough, will it become a plant? If it grew extra baby potatoes, would it be okay to eat them before the big one?

7. I always wonder how some vegetables in the ground grow down instead of up.

8. I like carrots, once I saw this really big one that was as thick as my arm at a Chinese super market. I wanted to buy it just because it was so large.

9. I think Pocky in North America is too expensive given the amount of actual food in each package and labour required to produce. It would be reasonable if it was a direct import food, but it really is popular enough now for a western company to try making a cheap alternative. I really like it though, I just wish you could buy it in bulk. Oreos and Viva Puffs are also solid gold foods, especially when they are fresh..

10. Pocky has always been the otaku food of choice. It is pretty common to have a cute anime girl eating Pocky, perhaps it's because of it's possible suggestive nature and popularity... I think Goldfish crackers should have a culturally strong symbolism too, I hope that happens someday. I think a girl eating Goldfish crackers is pretty cute too. Of course, just about anything can be sexually suggestive if you think hard enough.

11. I always thought that it would be fun to toss a live jellyfish at someone.

12. Blowfish are actually much denser that you might think. I encountered one on the beaches of Thailand once, and testing to see if it was dead, I dropped a giant rock on top of it, it bounced off of it without a scratch. Those things are anything but the balloons that you might think they are. I think Xyni would like to eat one whole very much sometime, even though they are poison incarnate.

13. If you have a fan with a reflective blade, you can see some very cool strobe effects if you light if from different angles when it is spinning at different speeds in the dark. You can also distort your voice when you talk to it. So there you go, a one man rave, minus the drugs.

14. Someone should make a car alarm symphony, each alarm ringing at a different pitch in sequential order. I think someone did a cellphone symphony already, but having cars all over the streets working in musical harmony would be great instead of the usual annoying honking in the middle of the night. Add a nice beat and you got minimalist techno.

15. I think about Slurpees a lot these days... oddly, not about drinking them.

16. Whitening toothpaste doesn't work for me. This makes me sad, but I don't think I would look very good with really white teeth. Still, all those years of drinking instant ice tea have made my teeth a bit darker than I would like.

17. Those curvy flexible drawing things that help when you are trying to draw curves are hilarious. You can put one in an omega shape, around the back of your head, and it'll look like it's going right through you.

18. I was never good at using French Curves. I can't figure out for the life of me how people are able to regularly use those things, but you got to admit that for a really weird looking tool, it has a very sexy name.

19. I always wondered how the other side lives. Since most of my main characters are female, I tend to read things like Women's World and some girl teen magazines time to time. It takes a man to be confident enough to read that kind of stuff, and it's amazing what you'll see. Granted, I usually have to look around to make sure that no one is watching, that's what years of social inhibition does to you.

I like the layout of magazines for female readers, the colors are usually softer and the layout is curvy, which I find esthetically pleasing. Some of the ads are also very funny, I once saw an add showing a girl swimming in shark infested waters. The product was a brand of tampons. I thought it was hilarious. Lately, ads for Shoujo manga have been showing up in these magazines. I think this is terrific. A female fanbase seems to be less aggressive than a male one and equally if not more enthusiastic, so I would love for my work to have some female fans.

20. When you are young and a bit naive, you tend to not admit when something is sexually attractive and so on and so on. After a while, you run out of bushes to beat around, pardon the pun. Sometimes I wonder though, what exactly is the point where a compliment becomes a sexist comment. Men usually think the same thing, but their way of expressing it tends to vary greatly.

We could always compliment things like a girl's talent, intellect, personality and sense of fashion, but these things take time to precisely evaluate, and not all men are good at telling lies, so we tend to shoot at the most prominent assets first. It is the lowest common denominator, but it's hard to shoot without any bullets. If men didn't have inhibitions or fears of offending women by crossing the line of a sexist comment from a compliment, I think there would be a lot more praise and compliments for the opposite sex. It is strange. I compliment old ladies more than compliment youthful girls, but it feels more morally secure. I suppose many people feel guilty for shooting without bullets.

21. You know all those statistics on how long people can live without air, water, food and sleep? I wonder how they figured that out.

22. I wonder if anybody ever built a table that looked like a time table, that would be pretty neat. You write a different thing on it each day, and that way, you wouldn't forget what you have to do for the day. The markers should be water soluble of course.

23. I really don't like the fact that dishwashers can't wash chopsticks very well. Putting chopsticks into a dishwasher is really a recipe for disaster. I wonder if a chopstick washer utility exists. If it doesn't, I would like to design and invent it. It would look kinda' like a cheese grater.

24. I am deadly afraid of seaweed when I swim... maybe that's why I haven't swam in ten years.

25. I like skiing, but with snowboarders around, it makes you feel kind of old. The trick is to use the poles - to hit the snowboarders.

26. I have always been fascinated by the cascading ripple that boats make when they are going really fast. It is really fun to watch when you do a complete turn from the back seat.

27. I think gigantic or mini versions of anything are cute and interesting. There were these mini Japanese dish replica set, and it was really fascinating, even though I couldn't really figure out what each one was.

28. I love Japanese restaurants. Ones with eat all you can offers are very common in Vancouver, and most of them a good. They bring the food to you, unlike ordinary buffets. I like playing "Space Invader" at the eat all you cans. You order as much as you possibly can at once, and the goal is to eat fast enough that there is always room on the table. If the table fills up completely with dishes, and they can't fit any more on, you lose. It is very fun, but Japanese food in Vancouver almost always uses MSG, so you get thirsty very fast.

29. Some people are better at eating Sashimi than others. Usually, you need some wasabi to neutralize the fishiness and some soysauce to help, or you might get a stomach ache real easily. I personally have never reached my limit yet, and I don't use wasabi, just lots of soy sauce.

30. You would think that I like Japanese restaurants because I'm interested in Japanese culture, but that's not the case. I've loved Japanese food for as long as I can remember. Then again, I have been into anime and manga as long as I can remember too, but that is besides the point. My mother thinks it's because she ate a lot of Japanese food before I was born. I wonder though, they say for pregnant mothers to be not to eat raw fish, it can be bad for the baby.

31. I like any kind of food, especially Italian, Thai, Japanese and French cuisine. Of course, I also like the good old American and Canadian food too, but I'm not so much into fast food, so what is there left? Unfortunately, I have to admit that I don't have a preference for Vietnamese food, it is not a taste that I have acquired, although I have only tried a full course volley once.

32. Did I ever mention that I love Sharkfin soup? That's Thai food at it's best. A lot of people back in elementary school used to make puking gestures when I mentioned it. I came from a small town, and often, what happens in a small towns is that little people think they know everything about the big world. Most bad things about my childhood I remember fondly to a degree, but this is not one of them.

33. When I was a kid, I watched Aliens, and saw that part where the android gets split in half, and there's all that white gunk everywhere. A few minutes after the movie, I was eating fishsticks, and though about that scene. You know what the inside of fishsticks look like right? I didn't feel so good after that.

34. I dislike mowing the lawn. It is a waste of time. I know the weeds and the shrubs and the trees and everything else will take over, but I think nature realistically should have a way of handling itself. If I ever decide to build a house in a nice open area, I would like something in the front, anything except a lawn.

35. You know those porcelain fairy ornaments and stuff that double as wind chimes that you hang up on your porch? I really would like to see an anime style porcelain figure. Resin doesn't have the shininess of porcelain, which is better to accurately portray skin texture, but there is a certain classy appeal to porcelain figures. I would like to make a Xynthica porcelain figure when she becomes more famous. I'd learn how to work with porcelain just for that.

36. You know that classic cliche where two lovers run across a flower field to embrace each other? I wonder how the poor flowers feel about being stamped on all the time by lovers.

37. You know how frequently in anime, the main heroine is always late for school? I wonder if the universe would implode if they were actually on time.

This might seem to be a random though, but there is some truth to this. Usually the key moment of truth occurs because they were late, if they arrived on time, this moment would have never happened. As a result of this, the evil so and so might stand a significantly better chance at destroying the world

38. I wonder if anyone in human history ever really wanted to destroy the world. I could understand a guy wanting to rule the entire world, but I just don't see a particularly good motive to destroy the world unless you are really insane. Insanity is a good excuse for evil actions, but it makes a shallow character unless thoroughly explored. I'm sure that a lot of people who were considered insane in untold history really would have been acknowledged as geniuses if society knew back then what they do now.

39. I think a giant oyster with a shell that looks like a piano would be really cute.

40. I admire the brick. I think the brick is truly a brilliant invention, because you can do so much with it. Really, the wheel is designed for one purpose in mind, and that is to roll, but the brick can be used to build a house or used to break someone's face, that scores extra points in my book.

41. So what exactly was the best thing before sliced bread?

42. Now that low carb diets are all the rage, sliced bread wouldn't be so good anymore.

43. I have a fascination with toaster ovens. In my apartment, there is a very old toaster oven that is older than me, and it's still working perfectly. You just don't get reliability like that any more.

44. My dad was a very interesting person, he used to test the quality of an appliance by how much it weighed, the heavier the better. Needless to say, he didn't like the really, really small cellphones.

45. I have a tendency to over analyze my surroundings. In high school, I used to constantly think of what I could use in the room to kill people or cause excessive property damage. Ever tossed the string from a curtain into a spinning ceiling fan? It's a lot of fun if it isn't your house.

This might seem very evil, but some of my best story ideas came from thinking like this. I'm sure the guys who do crime solving shows do it on an even bigger scale.

46. I have always been interested in the game Clue, but I never understood how you could kill someone with a candle stick without setting the whole place on fire.

47. I don't eat very much normally, if I do, my body heat increases, and that makes it uncomfortable to work in the summer time. I seem to work better when I'm hungry than when I'm full. One meal a day, some nuts and dried fruit is usually enough for me, although it is a recipe for getting an ulcer.

48. Ever held a really dense metal object next to a television screen? I once held a knife sharpener next to my television, and it discolored and skewed the image, I thought it was pretty neat.

49. The human body seems to be capable of conducting television waves, in my apartment, the television reception is always bad, and the only way to make it better is to stick your hand out toward it from sitting a meter away. I never understood exactly how this worked, but it seems reliable enough that you can control the reception with your hand.

50. I have three pairs of glasses, but they are all broken in one way or another, so most of the time, I choose to go without my glasses. I'm near sighted, so it's not a big problem, but I often wonder how I lost my vision. On one hand, it could be because I played too many video games and used my computer all the time On the other hand, I read a lot too, quite often in moving vehicles. If asked, I'd like to say it was because I read too much, it sounds better in context, but it's probably really because of the computers and video games.

August, 2004

1. Now that I think about it, 50 thoughts for a month is a bit overkill. A little three head pigeon, with wings, told me that 20 should be the magic number, and maybe even ten if I get tired. Anyhow, I never really have to think very hard to come up with these. Getting people to read them, now that's the hard part.

2. I often wonder why the sky is blue. Oh, I know the scientific reason, but that is just is too boring, who cares about atmospheric prism filtering. I would like to think the sky is blue, because blue jays float upwards like fish when they die, and so, you got all these dead blue jays in the sky and everything.

3. Lately, I have been thinking about cloths hangers a lot. If you have a rubber band and a nice think plastic cloths hanger, you can make a pretty spiffy bow with a rubber band and a pencil. It'll be strong enough to at least poke someone's eye out.

4. I used to be fascinated with weapons when I was a kid. I used to make my own as a matter of fact. One was a very strong dart made out of a feather from a big bird and a sharp nail and a string to recall it with. It was a real neat weapon, you could penetrate the walls of my old house with it and pull it back. Unfortunately, my parents didn't think very highly of it.

5. On one occasion, I crafted one of those nifty kendo wooden swords out of oak. Well, it was really just a wooden sword, but it was slender and curved, and for wood, it could actually slice pretty well. Unfortunately, it was only slightly after I tormented my brother with it that my father threw it into the lake.

6. A lot of people say "violence" doesn't solve anything. I tell them that they are wrong, and when they disagree, I punch them in the face.

7. Okay, really, violence doesn't solve problems, unless the problem happens to be alive and have an opinion, in which case, violence works every time.

8. There's that old saying about attacking the problem, not the person. First, you must figure out what the problem is, then proceed to beat the crap out of him.

9. Recently, I have been wondering a lot about jelly fish. Like if you remove the jelly part, do you get a fish? Can you use it on a sandwich. I mean, I've eaten jelly fish before, but it's very different, but you can use it in a sandwich, and it's still pretty tasty.

10. Lately, I have found that a great way to add carbohydrates to your diet, which is pretty counterproductive when you consider the whole trend behind the low carb diets out there, is to put rice into just about any type of soup. It fills you up real fast, but you get sleepy real fast.

11. Ever though about the origins of the word "projectile"? It's such a wonderful word, first of all, you project, then you must have a tile. So in essence, you project a tile. Doesn't have to be any specific tile, it can be a floor tile or a bathroom tile, or one of those funny repeating garden tiles, as long as you can project it, you'll be fine.

12. The old fashion floppy diskettes fly the best as frisbees. I tested hard floppies, CDs, DVDs, cartridges, you name it, and nothing flies better than the good old fashion floppy diskettes.

13. My alarm clock can't turn off. Kinda' creepy actually, I'd love to unplug it and see if I can fix it, but it just seems to be so mysterious, so I just turn the volume off. It's odd, usually when something breaks, you can't turn it on, it is quite odd when you can't turn it off.

14. I like Slurpees a lot, they are a hidden pleasure of mine. The think I like the most about them is that there are certain tricks that you can do to maximize your potential Slurpee intake, and you only get better with practice.

15. Slurpees are pretty close to the most hostile food that you can legally purchase as a food item. Along with having enough sugar to impair your immune system for a day and half, it's also very cold, which additionally lowers your immune system, you can generally expect a headache after drinking one, along with some other nasty side effects, still, they are hard to resist on a warm summer day.

16. The sun is my alarm clock, that being said, I often wake up at around 3:00 pm because that's when my daily burning and roasting ordeal begins. I covered the windows with black garbage bags, but Mr. Sun still has a vendetta against me for what I did when I was six, so I guess I can expect pay back once and a while.

17. I love winter, fall and spring. The only season I do not like is summer. I never quite understood why people go to the beach, lie down, and let their bodies soak in the warm basking glow of cancer inducing sunlight. I personally love the smell of rain though, especially in autumn, I love that moist, cool scent. I wonder if this makes me strange.

18. Since me and Mr. Sun are potentially mortal enemies, I always wondered how I was able to survive so many trips to Thailand, where the heat is nice, smothering, and feels like a moist cremation in from Hell. A lot of it was because of the love of my great relatives and family, tons of nice bootlegged merchandise, huge buffets and of course, really good air conditioning. It really makes you appreciate cool weather.

19. I have a secret fear of gigantic rocks when I used to swim, that and seaweed probably contributed to my fear of swimming in the lake. Then again, the dead half decomposed fish that my head bumped into once when I was doing the backstroke and the dog that almost drowned my mother probably played a big part in it too.

20. I tried to roller blade once. It is very strange, although I can't remember ever having used them proficiently, I feel these days that if I just slap them on, I'd be able to skate perfectly well just like anybody, it is really a strange feeling, kinda' like muscle memory from a dream.