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Tonight I was surfing through the channels and I started watching Wipeout on ABC. It was a lot like MXC, which was a Spike adaptation of the Japanese Takeshi’s Castle. Wipeout however was not the same. While it is funny watching people beat themselves silly trying to get through an obstacle course, they do take it to an extreme trying to be overly funny when it is not natural to them. There’s just this inconsistency on how people manage to make it to the next level despite their falling and failing to complete a course intact. They just get out of the water and continue…wtf is that? After Wipeout came I Survived a Japanese Game Show the crazy Japanese host reminded me of Banzai.
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You know Amazon has it all when they start selling caskets online, and they are relatively cheap I assume. You can also get 50% of casket furniture with coupon code CASKET69. I’ll take mine with a sofa, a reading lamp, and oh how about an alarm clock radio I case I ever need to get up. Now, I understand the need to expand business offerings, but caskets from Amazon…that’s just too creepy.

It’s funny how customers also bought a shovel to go along with their caskets. I guess in this tough economy you have to do it yourself and bury the deceased in your backyard to save on cemetery costs. I for one would rather be mummified.

casket, amazon, product, funny

What’s with all of the vampires? Recently they seem to have made it back into mainstream culture. Its seems that a society which once shunned science fiction movies and television shows is craving them more and more every day. Vampires however seem to have made the biggest hit. There’s the twilight book series and movies, which altogether seems to ignore most of the vampire tenants introduced by Bram Stoker’s Dracula. There is True Blood, which sucks away all of the finesse and class which has become the widely accepted vampire way while substituting it with something reeking of the CMT channel, lastly there’s Moon Light on Sci-Fi. Lets not even talk about Moon Light. As one would expect from sci-fi programming, the acting and plot are atrocious. I almost forgot about the Underworld trilogy and the less famous Blood and Chocolate. I have to admit, I am a fan of Underworld.
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This commercial comes on several times on NBC during Heroes every Monday. I just can’t help but laugh when Abraham Lincoln rips of his shirt and you see his eagle tattoo. Even funnier is the part they freeze the video on as the letters appear on screen, where Abe is holding two sticks while showing his scrawny musculature.

Today I needed to buy a book (Blues People by Amiri Baraka) I have to read for my ethnic studies comparative literature class. I had waited so long to get the book, considering I need to have it read by Tuesday, that the only place I would be able to get it on time was Rainbow Bookstore. This was the bookstore the professor has ordered the book at. I took the 80 bus down to the Humanities building, then walked down State Street headed towards the capitol. Rainbow Books was near State and Gilman, which is about halfway between campus and the capital. Before I left I made a note to try to find Dobra Tea, a tea house in downtown Madison that sells matcha. Last semester I wanted to try out matcha and upon doing a search I found that Dobra was the closest place that sold it. I had walked down State many times trying to find it as I passed and funny enough it had been right under my nose. Anyways, after buying the book I decided to stop by to try matcha.

I went in and was given a small menu book which had a brief history of the tea house, with the preceding pages having the teas they offer separated by country of origin. With the book came a bell, which I was instructed to ring if I had any questions or when I was ready to order. I thumbed through the pages, already knowing what I wanted but deciding to make sure it was on the menu. I rang the bell, and ordered the Matcha Kyoto. I started reading the book as my order was prepared. I was expecting to just get the tea made like one usually gets at regular places. However, to my surprise Dobra takes their business seriously. The weighter (for lack of a better word) attending me sets up a stool opposite me and brings out a tray with a tea kettle, chasen, chawan, chakin, chaire, chashaku and three small leaf shaped cookies. He asked me if I had had matcha before, I replied that I hadn’t and he began to explain the tea ceremony procedure which traditionally goes with matcha in Japan. He explain that matcha is usually served at a Japanese tea ceremony which is usually an all day affair, but that at Dobra they had adapted it to give their customers the experience.

He began by cleaning the bow as it is traditionally done; by taking some of the hot watter from the kettle and slushing it around the chawan with the chasen. He then emptied it into a pot, and began cleaning the chawan with the chakin, after which he scooped up 2 scoop fulls of matcha with the chashaku and placed them in the chawan. He then took 2 ladle fulls of water from the kettle and dripped into the chawan. He then took the chasen and began whisking the matcha until it was frothy and green. Upon finishing he grasped the chawan gave it a turn, and handed it to me. I took a sip, and it was great. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, and attention Dobra gives their teas.

I’ve been feeling sick th last couple of days. I’ve had a runny nose, slight fever, body aches, and stomach aches every once in a while. Everything short of puking my guts out basically. I intended to go yesterday…I suppose by now it will technically be the day before yesterday (November 29th)…to the mall to return a few things I had purchased but ended up deciding that I really didn’t like, or just didn’t work, but it never happened. After staying sickly couped up all day Saturday I decided to give it another shot on Sunday. So on Saturday night I had planned to wake up at 10 AM the next day and make my way to the mall, but after waking up at 8 AM to turn off my room mate’s alarm, waking up at 10 AM to turn off my own alarm, I decided to just sleep in and forgo my expedition. So I thought until around 1 PM when I hear a knock on my door. I managed to toss myself out of bed and open the door, not being able to see anything due to blood rushing into or out of my head (I can’t remember which of the two it is that blacks out your vision for a few seconds). All I hear is “good morning,” and I instantly recognize the voice as Jen. I welcome her in, and we start talking and watching some TV. I started feeling better and soon ask her what she has planned for the day so that she can join me on my trip to the mall. She agrees to go with me so I go shower and start getting ready as she watches the packers game.

While I showered Tyler got back from his trip home, so we tried to convince him to come along with us, but he refused. He did provide some important facts, mainly that we were supposed to get a few inches of snow today. I was so excited, I would finally get to wear the boots and coat I had bought last weekend. I put on my thermally insulated boots, my thick parka, my scarf, and my funny hat and I was set to go into the deepest, coldest corners of the earth. We passed by Steenbock library to return the Mac I had checked out while I fixed my computer, which was 2 days overdue by now (ouch $40 fine), but the library wouldn’t open until 5PM for some reason, so I had to lug around the damn thing.

We made efficient use of our time, and managed to catch the bus headed in the proper direction. Once we got to the west transfer point however, we had some trouble. We boarded the wrong bus, but soon noticed and got off, then we had to walk all they way back to the transfer point. By now about 1 inch of snow had fallen, so Jen and I started to throw snowballs at each other as we walked/ran to the transfer point. We made it back and shortly the correct bus arrived. We boarded and withing 15 minutes we were at the mall. I returned the pea coat at American Eagle, then we headed to grab a bite to eat. Of all the places I chose Sobarro’s, which normally has good pizza…that was not the case today. We got reheated slices of stale pizza which must have been laying there for hours, and some baked ziti which wasn’t all that good either. After downing my $6 crap meal we made out way to Walmart, which was a few blocks away. Outside it was windy and snowing, by now there was much more snow on the ground than when we had gone in. Once again we started our snowball fight, which continued all they way to Walmart and back, and concluded with a snowball in my face, which got stuck on the nose ridge of my glasses.