MetaAnomie

I just started playing BioShock 2:

Really cool. I’ve only played a few minuets of it so far but it definitely gets points for originality. And creepiness.

It seems I have now developed quite a list of games I have started playing but haven’t found the time to finish, including:

Modern Warfare 2:

And Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Oh, and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

I haven’t also technically finished Super Mario Galaxy (even though I have won it), but damn that game is hard — I don’t think I’ll ever have the patience to collect all the different stars.

I also really want to dig into the two expansion packs for Half-Life 2 among other things but I figure I have more than enough on my plate at the moment. Who knows — maybe one of these days. That’s the hard part about getting old I guess. There is always something more pressing to cover and even forcefully making bits and pieces of time to play here and there, it still never really amounts to much.

As is life.

Here is a hint: it starts with a “J” and ends with a I-have-to-put-on-a-suit-and-go-to-work-on-monday.

Just got my tax book in the mail (*sigh*).

It’s going to be rather fun this year, both with losing my job and trying to figure out how my Japanese unemployment benefits and pension payout counts against the current tax treaties in place between the two countries. I’m hoping to god I don’t end up getting double taxed because I really can’t afford it right now. By the way, I’m reminded every year how utterly ridiculous the U.S. tax system is. It’s like going to a restaurant and them making you calculate the bill.

Except you don’t get any food.

It’s been a very busy year for me so far. I had about a million interviews last month, finished reading “The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz (it was fantastic), and I’m seven chapters into “A Brief History of Time” by Stephen Hawking (and my brain is about to explode). I also finally started watching “Flash Forward” and I’m rather hooked. It’s almost completely different from the novel (except for the main theme), but that’s kind of a good thing (because you know how well movie versions of books usually go). I’ve also been doing an ass load of studying — programming and math stuff, among other unspoken things.

Anyhow, I have about a million other things I could probably write about but rather than going on till infinity, I’ll just end with a picture of Ren sleeping with his face pressed up against an elephant’s butt:

Chicken Parmigiana:

Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo:

I made the chicken mild cajun and it came out tasting pretty decent.

Random Stir-fry (aka throwing shit together):

I had the rather odd idea to mix balsamic vinegar (because balsamic vinegar makes my world spin) with habanero sauce but abandoned the idea after tasting it because I knew the princess couldn’t eat it. She didn’t eat anything but the meat anyway, but you know, that’s besides the point. Anyhow, I was surprised at how good it was — I really want to play more with it. I bet it would rock on roast beef.

The wifey’s grandmother passed away last week and we went out to Gifu for the wake/funeral. She was a whopping 98 years old believe it or not. Odd to think that I have known her for over ten years now.

Anyway, I have been to quite a few of the Buddhist memorial services for her grandpa (they have these on intervals of seven days from when a person passes away till the 49th day, and then some more at different intervals stretching as far as 60-70 years on — the latter I really don’t understand so well), but it was the first time I have ever taken part in a tsuya (wake) and ososhiki (funeral).

Over here, it’s common to keep the body in the house (surrounded by dry ice) until the day of the tsuya. The immediate family gathered there, and the men helped to carry her down the staircase into the hearse. From there, we went to a funeral home to move her into a casket, other people gathered, and a monk was brought in to do the okyou (Buddhist sutra — chanting if you will). After everyone left, the closest siblings (as well as the wifey, princess, Ren, and myself) stayed the night at the funeral home and kept the incense burning. Note that you’re technically supposed to stay awake all night (which explains the characters of the word tsuya - “through the night”) but you can imagine how well that works with a two year-old.

The next day, people gathered again for the funeral service, the monk came again and did the okyou, people put flowers and manju (a sort of traditional Japanese snack that the wifey’s grandma loved) into the casket, it was closed, and the family took a bus to the crematorium. From there everyone went back to the funeral home, had lunch together, and returned yet again to the crematorium afterwards.

The crematorium room was medium size, plain, with one small platform in the center (the building apparently contained multiple rooms like this). The body was laid on the platform, dropped down below, and was then lifted back up again by the time everyone had come back, leaving just the ashes and bones. Relatives lined up two at a time, picked up a bone from the platform together with pairs of chopsticks, and then placed the bone in a small bag/box that will later be split in half: one part going to the family grave and one part going to the main temple in Kyoto at a later date.

By the way, if you have ever wondered why passing food from one person’s chopsticks to another is taboo, I figure you can guess why by now. If you didn’t know, well, now you do.