Alyssa from Chasing Amy. Duh.

You’re a very open and adventurous person, you’ve been around the block and back several times. Yet, as all people do, you realize that this life style cannot go on forever and need to settle down. Hopefully as more time progresses you’ll stick to one gender and not be so greedy! Take The “Which Kevin Smith Female Are You?” Quiz!!

Sweet — the National Weather Service (USA) predicts above normal temperatures and below normal precipitation for all of Arizona and Nevada. They give their 6-10 prediction an unusually high confidence rating: 5 on a scale of 1-5. Looks like I got lucky . . . the perfect weather for our trip! =)

Time for joy and cheer…check out our Holiday Party pics and see how happy everyone was!

My girlfriend got me this gorgeous amethyst, diamond and platinum necklace . . . I am floored, it’s so incredibly beautiful. I’ve never gotten such an incredible piece of jewelry before as a present except when my grandmother died, and that doesn’t count. I just hope she liked the bedside water pitcher I got her too. If not, at least the big trip to the U.S., the New Year’s bash in Vegas, and the clothing shopping trip will help too. I also gave her some hardly-worn clothing I can’t fit into anymore as well, to which she’s already taken a great liking. The leather mini-skirt looks far better on her than it ever did on me. (She’ll get the other leather items over my dead body. :P)

One cup of cocoa, Grand Marnier and Amaretto later, I’m full of warm toasty Christmas cheer. I just can’t believe I have to work today!

At least there are three things that make it wonderful: (1) I’m taking my GF out for an incredible dinner tonight, replete with caviar and all the finishing touches. She’ll light up like a Christmas tree! (2) Work is bound to be slow, since most people are gone and I’ve finished all my deliverables for the year. (3) Christmas in Japan is known as a holiday for lovers, not for religious reverence (for obvious reasons.) At first I was a bit shocked that it wasn’t a family holiday, but the more I think about it, the more it feels like a more “true” modern Christmas spirit. At least everyone is in love, happy, and spreading the right cheer (and presents!) I keep finding reasons to be happy living here.

GF just said purple looks good on me, and she’s right. I’m off to prove to her how purple I can look in the dark in bed. =) Have a great holiday!

<sdk-c> i just got a new 2 1/2 foot water bong
<sdk-c> named bin laden

Ugly. Just ugly.

The scary bit is that, even living away from the US for a year, I still know most of these advertisements!

Measure your life in love.

And yes, it’s been a year since I’ve seen this last. Just getting ready for “my last year on earth,” and I don’t mean I’m dying or committing suicide. =)

OK, I’m not trying to point any fingers or anything but…

At work, our design team made these New Year’s postcards we’re supposed to send out to all our clients. But there seem to be two fundamental mistakes with them:

1. The things make no sense. They’ve got a hole cut in the center, with text on the side saying something like: “Look through the hole with your left eye. Then close it and switch to your right eye. Have a fresh new perspective on life.” HUH? And the copy was written by a native English speaker too!
2. Because there’s a hole in the middle, the cards don’t qualify for the postcard rate, requiring an extra 71 yen of postage (about USD$0.55).

Brilliant. Not only are we not making a whole lot of sense to our external clients, our internal ones (e.g. finance) aren’t that happy either. I’d be embarassed sending this thing to any of my clients! Instead I wrote up my own, put them in an envelope with my new meishi (business card), and was done with it.

So we watched Shrek last night (thanks chibi!) and rocked the house. Literally. The subwoofer was so loud I’m surprised the neighbors tolerated it! We also rocked the house with our laughter . . . what an incredibly hilarious film. And to think, almost no one in this country has seen it yet, especially on a screen that size =)

The projector really made Notting Hill come to life last week, so vividly that I couldn’t help but get choked up. It’s a surprisingly witty (yay, British humor!) and thoughtful film, uplifting for myself and the gf. I don’t think I’ve snuggled that closely after a film in my life. Yummy warm fuzzysnuggles! (The bathroom’s on the right if you need to puke now.)

On the train this morning: A guy wearing a brown backpack that has “Fresh” written on its outside pocket in big white letters, over a background of the word “nymphomaniac” tiled in orange. WTF?

Joan’s Rule of Order #1: Never fry while naked.

OK, I’ve got a backlog of things I need to post, but first:

Hostess bars in Japan aren’t the sex dens people make them out to be. They’re basically bars with more personalized service, sort of like your own personal bartender. You are limited in what you can drink (you better like whiskey!) and you get just a little snack of some sort, plus they help encourage you to talk and have a good time. Perhaps they’ll get you to sing a little karaoke. But on the whole it’s just a fun little bar. It’s even better when the hostess who’s taking care of you is a friend, too! =)

Next post: Notting Hill observations.

Ungh! An entire Powerpoint presentation on like 2 hours of sleep.

Life sucks sometimes.