Monday, December 11, 2006
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
A day in the life of the working poor-Japan
Working poor in japan. I was one for a long time in Ireland.
Following on the heels of risutora (layoffs due to corporate restructuring) and domesuthikku baiorensu (domestic violence), another unpleasant English borrowing has found its way into the contemporary Japanese lexicon: Wakingu pua (working poor) appears on the cover of not one, but two business magazines in the same week.
A day in the life of the working poor-Japan
When the old rules change
Then came the new run of cars that aren't worth buying used. They're poorly made to start with and they have fewer user-serviceable parts. Most of the "old grandpa" cars are gone. Add to that the new realities of emissions testing, smaller parking spaces, and changes in insurance, and suddenly doing things our old way is no longer an option.
When the old rules change
Friday, September 08, 2006
Imperial baby joins his mother
I hope Princess Kiko remains in good health.
Imperial baby joins his mother
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060908a4.html
Princess Kiko gives birth to boy. 1st heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne in 41 years
http://www.crisscross.com/jp/news/383384
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Spoon theory
As I tried to gain my composure, I glanced around the table for help or guidance, or at least stall for time to think. I was trying to find the right words. How do I answer a question I never was able to answer for myself? How do I explain every detail of every day being effected, and give the emotions a sick person goes through with clarity. I could have given up, cracked a joke like I usually do, and changed the subject, but I remember thinking if I don’t try to explain this, how could I ever expect her to understand. If I can’t explain this to my best friend, how could I explain my world to anyone else? I had to at least try.
The spoon theory
everyday terrible reality
Of course, of course! This is exactly the kind of world in which I lived, this hostile society where anything can happen at any time and me, powerless to stop it.
beam-me-up-someone
Dignity, Not Modesty
The problem with talk of "modesty" is the underlying implication, even if sometimes unintentional, that feminine beauty is shameful. I know it made me ashamed, and I certainly didn't get that from my parents. But this facet of "modesty" talk, if even admitted to exist, is quickly dismissed as accidental and of little significance compared to the all-important task of protecting men and boys from their helplessness before their own thoughts.
http://veronimitch.blogspot.com/2006/09/dignity-not-modesty.html
A Cradle Song
The danann children laugh, in cradles of wrought gold,
And clap their hands together, and half close their eyes,
For they will ride the North when the ger-eagle flies,
With heavy whitening wings, and a heart fallen cold:
I kiss my wailing child and press it to my breast,
And hear the narrow graves calling my child and me.
Desolate winds that cry over the wandering sea;
Desolate winds that hover in the flaming West;
Desolate winds that beat the doors of Heaven, and beat
The doors of Hell and blow there many a whimpering ghost;
O heart the winds have shaken; the unappeasable host
Is comelier than candles before Maurya’s feet.
http://www.bartleby.com/146/7.html
In the grey skys of connaught you can see how he wrote this.
The Collar-bone of a Hare
Would I could cast a sail on the water
Where many a king has gone
And many a king’s daughter,
And alight at the comely trees and the lawn,
The playing upon pipes and the dancing,
And learn that the best thing is
To change my loves while dancing
And pay but a kiss for a kiss.
I would find by the edge of that water
The collar-bone of a hare
Worn thin by the lapping of water,
And pierce it through with a gimlet and stare
At the old bitter world where they marry in churches,
And laugh over the untroubled water
At all who marry in churches,
Through the white thin bone of a hare
http://www.bartleby.com/148/5.html
A couple of thoughts on the poem,
you reach the celtic land of the dead by sea and yeats was traditional in these beliefs.
So I would see this singing of going home to the land of the dead and using the charm
of looking through the hare bone to see back to this ireland (where they marry in churchs compared to the old beliefs where you marry outside).
french terms
Bel Esprit (French).
A vivacious wit; a man or woman of quick and lively parts, ready at repartee. (Plural, beaux esprits.)
http://www.bartleby.com/81/1627.html
Bel-à-faire-peur.
A handsome, daredevil of a fellow.
http://www.bartleby.com/81/1626.html
Be’jan.
A freshman or greenhorn. This term is employed in the French and Scotch universities, and is evidently a corruption of bec jaune (yellow beak), a French expression to designate a nestling or unfledged bird. In the university of Vienna the freshman is termed beanus, and in France footing-money is bejaunia.
http://www.bartleby.com/81/1625.html
Bayard (Chevalier),
Pierre du Terrail, a celebrated French knight (1476–1524). Le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche.
http://www.bartleby.com/81/1500.html
Between Bels two fires
Between Bel’s two fires. Scylla on one side and Charybdis on the other. In Irish, Itter dha teine Bheil, in a dilemma. The reference is to the two fires kindled on May Eve in every village, between which all men and beasts devoted to sacrifice were compelled to pass.http://www.bartleby.com/81/1633.html
Bell phrases
A ceremony in the greater excommunication introduced into the Catholic Church in the eighth century. After reading the sentence a bell is rung, a book closed, and a candle extinguished. From that moment the excommunicated person is excluded from the sacraments and even divine worship. 1 “Bell, book, and candle shall not drive not back.”—Shakespeare: King John, iii. 3. In spite of bell, book, and candle, i.e. in spite of all the opposition which the Christian hierarchy can offer. (See CURSING.) http://www.bartleby.com/81/1643.html
Give her the bells and let her fly. Don’t throw good money after bad; make the best of the matter, but do not attempt to bolster it up. When a hawk was worthless, the bells were taken off, and the bird was suffered to escape, but the advice given above is to “leave the bells” and let the hawk go.http://www.bartleby.com/81/1642.html
Ringing the bells backwards, is ringing a muffled peal. Backwards is often used to denote “in a contrary direction” (tout le contraire), as, “I hear you are grown rich—” “Yes, backwards.” To ring a muffled peal, is to ring a peal of sorrow, not of joy. 5 In olden times bells were rung backwards as a tocsin, or notice of danger. http://www.bartleby.com/81/1642.html
Friday, August 25, 2006
Massive pill price hike in the usa
from 1 doller to 18 dollers. thats steep.
souless. And when your on a low wage the pill is hard to afford.
No one much noticed, but thousands of family-planning clinics across the country went into a tailspin last month. They were reacting to a drastic price increase by Ortho-McNeil, a major supplier of birth-control pills and maker of the popular contraceptive patch. The company used to charge publicly funded clinics as little as a penny a pack for the pills. Then, as of July 1, the price of some pills jumped to more than $18 a pack. Ortho’s move was apparently legal under federal pricing rules. But it’s anybody’s guess as to why the company chose to do this now, without giving the clinics any real notice.
http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2006/08/23/the-pill-price-hike/
Thursday, August 03, 2006
pastel - something to read.
Basic plot from Anime news network:
Tadano Mugi, a high-school student, falls in love with a girl, Tsukiyaki Yuu. When Yuu's father passes away, she and her sister are invited to move into Mugi's house by Mugi's father. Mugi and Yuu must then cope with the new challenges caused by living together and the growing relationship between them, as Yuu adapts to a new environment and Mugi struggles not to confess his feelings out of consideration for her situation.
http://homepage.hispeed.ch/aFFi/pastel.html
