It Might Have Been.

In the words of Neil Young (and others before him),
The saddest words
Of tongue or pen
Are these four words
It might have been

Once again my dreams of happiness have been dashed to the ground and trampled upon. Four years ago I wrote, in English, the resume of Olympic Figure Skater, Shizuka Arakawa and though we were destined to meet at a Rakuten Eagles game later that night, such an encounter was not to be due to the fates of the gods and scheduling conflicts.

This morning, I presided over a lovely wedding ceremony with the expectation of quaffing a brew or two at the Beer Fest afterwards, but instead I ended up watching "Brave and the Bold" on YouTube when I went home to change. Shortly thereafter, a colleague informed me that Ms. Arakawa was at that very beer fest and so I changed my garb and quickly grabbed the next bus. Upon arrival, I was informed that she had already left and thus yet again, destiny spat in my face and left my heart unrequited. I know that should we eventually meet, our lives will become entwined and we shall be inseparable. (Okay...Reality check. She may actually have still been at the fest but in all honesty, I don't really know what she looks like!)

After I realized that, yet again, our paths would not cross, I instead met up with my co-workers for a colleague's Sayonara party. We had a swell time and though I proved myself triumphant at the games we played (billiards & darts), I now type this with a slightly heavy heart for I know that I once again am destined to be alone.

As I type the above, it has just turned 4 am and seconds before, the earth shook and my life flashed before me. Frankly it was a pretty dull revelation and so I shall now retire for the evening.

Adieu...

Bound Of The Rings.

As you may have guessed, today's binder is of none other than LOTR which prior to today, I had never opened. I just did and I don't ever recall seeing the items that are supposed to be inserted into it but it is pretty nice nonetheless. The inside covers fold out into a Character Height Comparison Chart from Gollum (4'1") to Ent (17'4").

















I'm surprised that I haven't posted more about LOTR than a brief mention on a previous Oscar post and a mini review of Toronto's LOTR Musical extravaganza. I saw The Two Towers in S.Korea back in the early Naughty-Noughties and the Hamburger joint, Lotteria, had a several promos (click that link for some) including these cardboard cutouts of TTT buildings.






























Ya know if I can think of a CONTEST, these are light enough that I could send them out to some lucky fan. How about if you tell me which of these binders you like best and why, I'll send these along to you. Just commenting on any binder post from now until I'm done will qualify you. If you decide to become a follower, that'll earn you bonus points as well.

While I'm on the topic of Korea, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Kim Yu-na who skated to the James Bond theme. By coincidence, I saw the Korea-based Die Another Day while in Korea and it was more intriguing to watch the audience of SK than it was to watch the flick. Further mention should be made of the cherubic Mao Asada who is running a not-so-close second. Aww Heck, if she wins a medal, I'll throw in a MouseTrap (erm, Mao-strap) to the CONTEST winner as well! But extremely major kudos go out to Joannie Rochette's personal best considering she had lost her mom only 2 days before. Take care!!

Mao-sy No Longer.

As the article in the Asahi Weekly states, "Mao regains her footing." 浅田 真央 (Asada Mao) is Japan's next Olympic hopeful in the Figure Skating category. Check out her Official Site for more details, if you're so inclined.
Though I'm usually not so interested in skating unless it involves hockey sticks and slashing, this is not my first foray into the world of Figure Skating. I never did meet Sendai's very own 荒川 静香 (Arakawa Shizuka) who was the 2006 Olympic Champion and the 2004 World Champion but I came close. One of my pals, Mariko who has her finger in most of the pies in this city, once asked me to translate her Skating resumé into English so that she could take her Ice show to Dubai of all places. Some of this may actually be my handiwork! I never got paid for this work, but I was given free Rakuten Eagle tickets as compensation. Shizuka was intended to become a sponsor for the Pirate Charity that I was assisting occasionally and we were supposed to meet at that ballgame. She didn't show otherwise I'm certain that we would have hit it off and today we'd be working on our second child together! (In some parallel universe, this time-line has occurred.)

Anyway, back to Mao. Best of luck to her in Vancouver, I hope she beats her South Korean rival (Kim Yu-na) and I'll even allow her to win the Gold, provided she makes room for Canada to win the Silver (Ha! Fat chance!) Remember, it's not whether you win or lose that's important, what's important is that the USA loses (I kid!)



Now for the reason that I'm rambling about Figure Skating in the first place...Lotte chocolates have had a promo where if you buy two of their products, you get a free Mao-strap! Look what I have attached to my phone now! Quite the conversation starter...