“photos”

This was frontpage news in the November 3rd edtition of ”El Norte” (there’s an online version of the article, sadly behind a silly paywall).

I’ve only started researching about it but EB5 visas seem to be very, very interesting. Strange, life. I used to dream about similar opportunities and here it is.

I see them a lot in Japan, in not particularly geeky contexts, so I’m sure they must have a name. I’d call them polygon graphs. Anyone knows the common name and perhaps where I can find more about them?

Before I came to Japan, I used to pester my sister who had been here with the question of what exactly did Japanese people do during their looong commutes (around 1 hour each way!). It’s perhaps the biggest free time chunk of one of the biggest economies in the world, so it intrigued me and it still does.

Well, they read Japanese books (usually quite compact because of kanji’s density) or the newspaper (carefully folding it halves or quarters), play Nintendo DS or Sony PSP, listen to music, sleep… But mostly, they use their ketais. Not to talk, no one ever talks on the train (despite the alleged perfect reception), but to text, watch TV, check train routes, surf the Japanese mobile web…

Chiba is where she’s from. William Gibson’s Neuromancer also took place here. It’s the eastern sleeperside of Tokyo and I currently call it home. Its kanji mean thousand leaves and so, of course, the mille-feuille is the official cake. Japanese make a great deal of its shape and 2 animal logos based on it are in current use. Isn’t the yellow one captivating in its deformity?

Similar cover articles have been common for more than a decade now.
In computer magazines.
This is a women’s fashion magazine (!).
220 sites you’ve never heard of, devoted to makeup, fashion, beauty, style..
The jocks, the cheerleaders, the geeks—we’re all webheads now.

Another day of beautiful food. As have been the case as far back as I can recall these days. Hog heaven on Earth, me proclaims it. I feel so blessed.

Khanom Kui Chai: Fried vegetable puddings sold by a smiley street seller. Chewy and delicious, swimming in sweet sauce and sour sauce.

Luk Chub: tiny colorful mock fruits made of bean paste (!).

Yum Tua Poo: winged bean salad with chicken, egg & shrimp, bathed in a tasty tasty curry. With steamed white rice on the side, of course.

Sai Grok Esan: North-eastern style Thai sausage with lettuce, fresh ginger, chillies, shallots (little, mild-flavored onions), lemons and peanuts. The sausage was lightly grilled but everything else was raw. This was a stellar dish. All the pieces may seem randomly assembled but they go together superbly. Crunchy, nutty, sour, pungent, fresh, fatty, spicy mouthfuls. The fat in the sausage even makes bearable chewing the chillies directly.

Then Bua Loy Nam Khing, sesame-filled rice balls in hot ginger soup, for dessert!

I went to Lisbon because I got hostel stranded for the weekend in Spain: all the hostels in Madrid and Barcelona were booked and hotels were so expensive that it was cheaper, and more interesting, for me to take a night bus to Lisbon. Of Lisbon I knew close to nothing.

I arrived at downtown just as the sun was coming out, groggy from barely catching a wink, without a reservation because the hostel aggregators showed there were rooms aplenty (were I not recklessness I would not have gotten stranded in the first place). I decided, at a whim, to follow the first pair of backpackers that I saw. Which I did, and ended up at the other bus station.

She was stunning. A tasteful bit of a decora girl.

Wittgenstein’s words-as-threads quote is one of my favorite pieces of thought ever. Turns out there’s loads more from where that come from.

Ah, long time since I’d been so delighted by so wonderful a metaphor!