Memo to self

Stop by hardware store on way home.

I finished most of the work I had to do on the room last night; in fact, the only thing left that I Need To Do is put together a bed, and that requires carriage bolts that we somehow don't have at home. (Actually, I also need to track down another set of bedsheets, but that I know we have; I just didn't feel like rummaging through the linen closet in the dark at 10 PM.)

I've been reading backlogs of harukami's and wondergecko's journals. Very interesting. Learning new things every day.

I'm trying desperately to think of a response to an INML post that begs for one; mine, however, are coming out snarky and sardonic, and I'd really rather not discourage this guy from doing what he's doing. On the other hand, posting about a website that's

a) obviously an unfinished work
b) using a name which I told him he needed to get permission to use (he didn't. How do I know this? He explicitly stated in the post that he hadn't been able to contact the guy who ran the original website that used the name)

isn't the best way to inspire confidence.

I've figured out why it feels weird to be at work today: I'm not immeasurably tired from having stayed up until midnight or 1 AM, since I bowed out of my Sunday night IN game in order to work on getting ready for Dave's arrival. Eric (the GM) didn't sound particularly pleased with me (when he forwarded my email to the rest of the group asking if anyone else was going to be missing the game), but I haven't seen anything since to back that up, so I'm going to chalk it up to my overactive imagination and inferiority complex.

On the other hand, I did sleep in a strange bed last night (although not in a different room), so I tossed and turned all night trying to get used to the thing and worrying about the creaking sounds it was making.

On a final note: the cat came in to sleep at the foot of my bed last night. I didn't mind that when I was sleeping on a queen-sized futon. I do mind it now that I'm sleeping on a twin bed. I need to figure out how to keep the door closed without actually preventing humans from getting in. (The door has sunk enough in its frame that the latch and the plate no longer line up properly, so the door doesn't close firmly or lock anymore.)

What's in the water supply

"101 Things Removed from the Human Body" features amazing-but-true tales of people who have either ingested or been impaled by foreign objects -- and survived. The special will also focus on weird things growing inside people.

What the hell?

Toastyfrog

is my god.

"The pieces all fall together for me, and I understand. Japan is a nation held together not by law (from what I've observed, "laws" here are more like "polite suggestions" - especially where traffic is concerned) but by a deep-seated sense of propriety and a smothering reluctance to inconvenience other people, programmed into the culture at the very basic level. It's built into the language; you rarely thank people in Japanese but rather apologize for tainting their lives with your miserable existence. Conversations are punctuated by pre-scripted apologies, but don't hold your breath for someone to ask forgiveness when they do something geniunely thoughtless, like forcefully shoving you out of the way on the sidewalk. Policemen are less law enforcement than walking reminders that it's very bad to break the rules, so please please don't."

(http://www.toastyfrog.com)

In other news, leaving now. See you tomorrow!