After a nice dinner at Rose Garden (thanks for tieing my ties,dude), I popped over to Ernie's in the company of DJ Mokugohan who dazzled us with his ipod set (I remember when he poohpoohed those who "spun" via computer and not by actually scratching vinyl, times change) of "Basic Base Bass". Best song, "Mike Jones" remix! (I also liked the tune to which Alex & I recited "Green Eggs & Ham".)
It's good to be back in the swing of things. While we were there, there were only 7 lads (5 of them were Canucks) and two lasses and I managed to monopolize the dames. While chatting up Kaori*, I heard the 3 little words that every gaijin dreads to hear, "Teach me English!"
*My Oyaji Gaggu for "Kaori"...I like Pepsi Zero. Zero Kaori (Calorie).
I ended up quaffing two more brew at my local Billiards/Darts bar and getting my ass sorely kicked at both games.
Great news: we now have a venue for Halloween (Ernie's), I got a few more ties tied & I think I've figured out my Halloween costume this year!
Bad news: I stole someone's umbrella by mistake. But it's a nice one, so I might keep it. Karma will be disappointed.
I apologize if I haven't been spouting off my words and wisdom and blurry photos of late, but I just haven't been in the mood. It's the middle of Golden Week (a stretch of holidays) and I'm just sitting at home fiddling on my computer and occasionally tidying up but I'm just not in feeling peppy enough to blurb.
Let me show you a little tweet from one of my Facebook pals and that pretty much sums up my feelings...
"Royal weddings, dead terrorist and majority elections? Today we went by the airport; An overturned semi and hills of mud-caked wreckage where a park used to be, house after house, sub-division after sub-division torn apart and scattered by the sea, burnt out industrial complexes and rice fields strewn with pulverized cars and a bowling alley used to store the dead. Sorry to rain on the parades."
Not cheery stuff to say the least.
But I gotta get out of this funk somehow (a guaranteed job next week would be a good start.)
Sooo, here are some of the good times I've had of late interspersed with Wave One of a bunch of toys that I'm gathering up to donate to a worthy orphanage or shelter.
Once I get rid of some of these toys, I'm sure I'll get out of my funk and start getting funky!
On Saturday, I played in a local Bridge tournament and played fairly pitifully. (Admittedly, the night before, I had played Darts and 9-Ball with pal Rob at my local and, alas, my Uterus was not there...so we got good'n'drunk instead.) My Bridge partner and I came in last place after the first round. Then the Tylenol™ must have kicked in or something, because we came in first place in the second round with a showing of 4th overall!
So I thought today I'd haul out some of the decks I've acquired over the last several years and give you a peek. I'll start off simple with a couple of packs received gratis with various 6-packs: Mike's Hard Lemonade, Yebisu Beer, another deck that purports to do magic tricks and a cute mini-deck featuring Raymond Briggs' The Snowman that came with a KFC kid's meal.
Here's a deck of ドラエモン that is a pretty cheaply made-in-Taiwan knockoff. For some reason, a deck of cards here is called ドランプ (Trump) and the only card game kids know how to play is an Old Maid clone called ババ抜き(Baba-meki) and , THE KIDS CHEAT EVERY TIME I HAVE EVER PLAYED!
I found this deck of Stitch at the 100￥ shop at half-off and it is a very nicely made set. The Ace-10 have a equal # of Stitch heads per card and the Jokers, King, Queen & Jacks are unique. Most of my students refer to the cards as 1-13 with no knowledge of AKQJ. The suits are referred to as
スペード=Spade, ハート=Heart、クラブ=Club but more frequently called クローバー=Clover & ダイヤ=Dia.
These are 3 dicks decks of slightly naughty women in various trump trampy poses. I got these a few years back in my UFO-Catch days and I occasionally give them out as Stag presents. I love the slogan on the Goldengirl deck, "Golden Girl Delicarcy Puker".
The yellow one is the last deck from my IBM Bridge Club days in the 90s when my brother and I partnered up. Each week, the winning team got a deck and I have given out about 10 of these since I've arrived. I think I scammed the deck with the Teddy Bears from a tourney last year.
My proudest decks are recent UFO-Catch acquisitions but they are tough to snag and thus prohibitively expensive. Some day, I'd like to get all of the Ghibli-related decks but for now, I only have these 3. Once I get my scanner working, I'll showcase 借りぐらしのアリエッティ (Karigurashi no Arrietty.)
or 千と千尋の神隠し (Spirited Away).
One of my all-time favourite Ghiblis is もののけ姫 or Mononoke Hime/Princess. You can follow most of the movie by just going through the cards!
You're such a card, Michael.
I know, I should be dealt with!
ps. I know the 7/8 of hearts are out of place, you try moving them around once you've already uploaded them. It's nigh impossible!
