Lunch is ready

Head in the Clouds

Head in the Clouds

Well, I found it.

I’ve long been searching for it, and now I’ve found it.

My new hobby. Something on which to focus my free time. There are so many things that one can see and read and do. But, where to invest one’s free time? Cooking, running, yoga, some sort of collection? There are just too many choices, too many things to collect. Where does one begin? So much choice, so hard to decide. This indecision has long prevented me from enjoying a relaxing past time and providing a confident answer to the ubiquitous question in Japan: “What’s your hobby?”

Recently, I discovered it on the Internet and I knew as soon as I saw that it was for me. This is something I can get behind. This is for me. What is it? Clouds. That’s right. As of today I am a card-carrying member of The Cloud Appreciation Society.

Sound crazy?

Sound like something only crazy, eccentric people would join?

I am member number: 16093. There are 16092 members before me. It should not be a surprise that the Cloud Appreciation Society is based in England, land of cheese rolling and other eccentricities. I think I have strong English blood because when I first saw this site I was immediately drawn to it. This was it: cloud appreciation. No expensive equipment, no special shoes or clothes, no rigorous examinations, nothing to buy nothing to collect. Just look up and appreciate and feel a connection with 16000 of my fellow members. What’s the purpose? No purpose. Why does everything need a purpose? Is there a purpose in spoon collecting? No, cloud appreciation, that’s for me.

However, now, when I reply to the question: “What’s your hobby?” I will have to learn how to respond to the head-tilting looks of confusion and the follow up questions that are certain to occur: “What?” “What’s that?” “Clouds?” What should I do?. Let’s see: Q: “What’s your hobby?”, A: “Golf”. There, sounds better. Perhaps I’ll save my true hobby for friends and any eccentric Brits I meet.

Screen shot taken to commemorate my membership: member number 16030 – before new members join.

The Cloud Appreciation Society
http://cloudappreciationsociety.org/

GDrive

It is very mysterious, the Google GDrive.
The posting on Wikipedia and the audit / edit trail are quite mysterious.
Check it out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDrive

Shame on Japan

Clearly, Japan has lost it. And this week, they announced it to the world. Their 3rd prime minister in less than two years, Taro Aso entered with a 75% approval rating, now, less than one year later, his popularity sits at a tiny 9.7% approval. 9?! A single-digit approval rating. The Japanese Finance Minister, allegedly "drunk" while speaking on camera at a G-8 meeting in Rome, resigns due to "health" reasons. The other G-8 countries are taking the global financial crisis seriously. It was reported the day before this event that Japanese GDP fell 3.3% for the quarter. In three months. For a developed economy, a 3.3% decrease in GDP in one year is serious cause for concern. This is an annualized rate of 12.7%. They have allowed themselves to become vulnerable due to a major drop in exports. For years, the Japanese government has constipated and rudderless -- no vision, inept. Japan's lost it.

Orange peppers

one of the great mysteries of the modern world:
Why do red peppers and orange peppers cost more than green peppers?

Sex and the Olympics

Times reporter and former Olympian describes what goes on at the Olympic village once the competition ends.

Barcelona was, for many of us Olympic virgins, as much about sex as it was about sport. There were the gorgeous hostesses - there to assist the athletes - in their bright yellow shirts and black skirts; there were the indigenous lovelies who came to watch the competitions. And then there were the female athletes - literally thousands of them - strutting, shimmying, sashaying and jogging around the village, clad in Lycra and exposing yard upon yard of shiny, toned, rippling and unimaginably exotic flesh. Women from all the countries of the world: muscular, virile, athletic and oozing oestrogen. I spent so much time in a state of lust that I could have passed out. Indeed, for all I knew I did pass out - in a place like that how was one to tell the difference between dreamland and reality?

Read this very interesting story.

The Untold Story of Milk

The Untold Story of Milk

The Genetic Conspiracy - Part 3 of 3

GMO in the EU and results in South America

The Genetic Conspiracy - Part 2 of 3

Amazing connections between Monsanto and the US government - elected and judiciary.

The Genetic Conspiracy - Part 1 of 3

The dangers to Japanese of Genetically Modified Soy