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Kare Kano

Also known as:

• 彼氏彼女の事情 (Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou in Japanese)
• 男女蹺蹺板 (in Chinese)
• His and Her Circumstances (in English)

Of course, all you would see is garbage unless you have Japanese and Traditional Chinese fonts installed, which is pretty damn unlikely unless you're running MacOS X, or if you got really, really bored and decided to install some Windows updates.

Whatever one's complaints may be about feminism in America, it's nice to be able to go into the bookstore and rent girl-y shoujo (少女）manga without feeling threatened. Frankly, most of the shoujo stuff is as trite as the bad shonen stuff (e.g. Dragonball) is dumb. Most high-school-based love stories are your typical opposites-attract stories, where a delinquent guy falls for the smart girl, the rich guy goes after the poor girl, the nerdy guy chases after the pretty girl, and combinatorics thereof. Kare Kano is different in that the pair are both smart, talented people at the top of the class at the best public high school in the prefecture, and the relationship is one of equals, even down to the fact that they both have something to hide. Still, you can tell it's shoujo since all the girls are thin, and the guys are tall, with eyes drawn even bigger than the girls'. The guys are just dying for the right woman to come along so she can listen to his feelings, relieve him of his teenage angst, and change him into a better man. Talk about harmful stereotyping. At least one doesn't have to worry about panty shots or large, jiggling breasts in shoujo manga. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

I always wondered what it would be like had I stayed in Taiwan and in its (Japanese-style) school system. I imagine it would be kinda like Kare Kano, except without the:

• Athletic prowess
• Good looks
• Top grades
• Cute girlfriend
• Admiration of my peers

Oh, and life doesn't go like a comic book, either. Maybe I'm better off being here.

Kare Kano is a wordy manga (and a wordy anime, too, with so much screen text and speech to subtitle that the DVD caused some players to lock up). Knew most of the characters and idiomatic expressions, although I did forget some of the pronounciations. That's not much of an accomplishment, really, considering that the target demographic is (well-read?) middle school girls.

Spoilers below. Highlight the hidden text in brackets to see what's going on.

I'll have to do some research into Japanese formality grammars, though. The main characters become an official couple by the first chapter of Volume 2 [only at the handholding stage though]. They [kiss for the first time] three chapters later (still in V2), and [Do It (Albeit illustrated in the most PG way possible. The animated scene, all three seconds of it, was included only in the Japanese home-video release. The American DVD contains the Japanese TV version, with only an ambiguous white text panel explanation. Of course, there was much complaining.)] in Volume 6. But they don't even call each other by their given names until Volume 10, and even then only rarely. Those crazy Japanese kids.

Imagine a World

If I told you that a woman waited in a parking lot with her son for thirteen days for the grand-opening of a Krispy Kreme, what do you think the duo would look like? For me, the mental picture was a dead ringer for the real thing:

Not that I fantasize about big-boned donut-addicts or anything like that.

Pennywise

Sam borked his computer so that Windows wouldn't boot. The Dell tech support guy (complete with Indian accent) quickly decided to overnight him a new hard disk. Unfortunately, that doesn't help him recover his study notes for the board exam. Not that I was much more useful initially, making him download a Linux boot-CD when it doesn't even support the Centrino chipset yet. Fuck Linux. Yes I know it's a bunch of people writing code for my benefit for free. Fuck 'em anyway.

Anyway, a brain-dead reinstall of Windows barely resurrected the dead machine long enough for him to burn all the important data to CDR. I use to think that the Windows reinstall was SOP for tech-support, but now they aren't even competent enough to suggest that, even when it's the appropriate solution for once (i.e. Windows boot process stops with a message about some missing file). Instead, the cheap, outsourced tech guy ships a new hard disk overnight at Dell's expense, which would've costed Sam his data in the process. Unfortunately, having a tech talk someone through a Windows install process probably costs more than slapping in a newly imaged hard disk. I guess if doing support right actually helped their bottom line, they would be doing that instead of the crap they're pulling now.

Vegas, Part 3

Uncle's friend went back to LA with his sister after we all hit the brunch for the buffet. Always tough to decide between the cheesecake and the carrot cake for dessert. Wasn't in an icing mood so I went with the big cheese. Didn't feel like trekking over to the Mirage in the midday heat, so I stuck to blackjack. Flushed $150 down the drain for the afternoon. It wasn't as if I won some and then squandered the winnings. It was a steady parade of 14s and 15s, pushing 20s, and even two blackjacks in a row by the dealer. Did tilt a little bit here, as I tried to make up the losses with bigger bets. Tried to justify it to myself with the thought that with all the low cards being played that we were due, but with five decks of cards and constant shuffling by the stupid shuffling machine any card count was totally worthless anyway.

Lasted long enough to just run out of afternoon and have a couple of bucks left to toss the dealer's way. Went upstairs to clean myself up a bit before meeting up with the uncle and aunt in the lobby. Stopped by at the sports book on the way out to put twenty bucks on the A's and Mulder. Caught a cab to Mandalay Bay for our reservation at Aureole, which is suppose to have the best wine selection in Vegas, displayed in a completely impractical four-story tall tower. Uncle was interested in the wines and the tower, of course, but the Bellagio VIP folks were a little too efficient and booked us into the Swan Court, which is a separate small room from the main restaurant with a view of a small fountain and some (duh) swans, who seemed a little wilted in the heat. It was for the best, really, since the main restaurant is a large, modern room with many hard surfaces, hence rather loud. They partitioned the main room into sections to make it appear less huge, but it just adds to the echoing surfaces.

Aureole's other schtick is their wine list, which is delivered via a Flash presentation on a wirelessly networked Tablet PC. Except it didn't work. The interface was pretty, but the wine lists wouldn't show up on the screen. We made it easy on the waiters anyway, since we went with the tasting menu and the accompanying wine flight.

Aureole nominally features creative American cuisine, which basically means it's French, but it's okay to have some pseudo-Asian or Southwestern dishes. A tiny version of a Caprese salad served as the amuse bouche, then an Italian sparkling wine went with the peach and fois gras first course. Wine was quite sweet, almost like a wine cooler, but not cloying. The second appetizer was tuna sashimi, with two scoops of a ground beet salad made from two different colored beets. Actually, it was more like a single piece of sashimi sliced up into little strips with some microgreens sprinkled on top. It was paired with an extra-dry Reisling. Frankly, I think we prefer our raw fish in large slabs with lots of soy sauce and wasabi. Actually, the aunt doesn't like raw fish at all, which we always forget at the Japanese restaurants.

The fish course was halibut on top of thyme-flavored zucchini strands and a tomato-puree sauce. Not the most exotic dish, but very tasty. Came with an Italian white that was the perfect balance between the sweet sparkling wine and the dry German white. The waiter said it was between a chardonnay and a sauvignon blanc and he was right on.

Okay, time for the rich meat and red wines just when we're getting full. Auntie was shipping at least half her wine over to the uncle, and I gave him a fair share, but even then I was getting plastered. The fowl course was a seared pheasant leg lying on a mushroom au jus, with a little phyllo dough spring roll filled with pheasant confit and fois gras. The wine was a southern Rhone, a blend of mostly Grenache and some Syrah. The lighter Grenache makes it work well with the bird while the stronger Syrah complements the gaminess. Didn't know Syrah was a Rhone grape originally, since one usually sees it in Aussie wines, at least in the cheap part of the aisle.

The final meat course was a veal medallion with artichoke-olive relish and a chive mashed potato cake. I'm not hugely PC about it, but I usually avoid veal anyway, and this didn't inspire me to get over my squeamish-iness about baby cows. The veal was a little dry, I thought, and the relish wasn't the best accompanying flavor for it. The Burgundy Pinot Noir was good, but I couldn't really drink more than a sip at this point.

The cantaloupe granita was light and cleansing, but the cookies, candies, chocolates, and the final triple-layer triple-chocolate mousse-y thing was just way too over the top. At least we could take the candies with us, and I don't think we were the first people who had to skip most of dessert at the end of the tasting menu.

I think it was the blue cheese and poached pear tart that pushed me over the top. I'd like to think of myself as having a fairly adaptable palate, but some things just don't work with my upbringing and stinky cheeses is one of those things. Was a little wobbly going up the stairs (which wrap around the wine tower) leaving the restaurant, just in time to catch one of the "wine angels" get hauled up on their wire-fu contraption reaching for a bottle off the wine tower. So we got the whole show after all. Stop-and-go traffic down the Strip didn't help me any, and when I got out of the cab I had to decide whether to make a break for it, or stay still and hold it in. I'm stubborn like that, and let's just say some poor schmuck had a nasty clean-up job to do out on the curb. On the other hand, spewing in the Bellagio lobby probably would've been even uglier. I think I would've been okay if I were really full or really drunk, but being drunk and full was more than I could handle. At least uncle was understanding. I doubt it's the first time he's dealt with dinner companions who drank too much.

Actually, throwing up was probably better than trying to hold it all in all night. Felt surprisingly decent after:

1. Rinsing my mouth out with mouthwash.
2. Pop a Tums tablet or two.
3. Take an Advil with lots of water.

Stayed awake long enough to find out that the A's got killed by Boston. Crashed and woke up at 3 AM again, but decided that I've done enough losing for the day, so I clean myself up and get some sleep instead.

So I actually woke up early since I got lots of sleep. Usually have good luck on getaway day and doubled up my hundred bucks in short order at the blackjack table. The dealer was a grumpy lady with good reason since she'd been working the late shift with a bad back, just coming back from a car accident. On the other hand, the people at the table were cool and she was handing out the goods at the table. Had the funny, talkative dealer the day before and she kicked our asses and took our money, so there you go. One more trip around the buffet and then it was time to pack up and go home. Lost about $200 all in all, which was fair enough for the "free" room and food. Now if only one of these places would only get themselves a decent Chinese restaurant.

Technical Achievement of the Day

Installed an auxiliary input converter into the Accord so I can patch the iPod (or anything else) directly into the stereo system. The magic box tricks the stereo into thinking that the auxiliary input is a factory CD-player. Thankfully, there's plenty of information available on how to take Hondas apart. Riceboys are good for something after all. The stereo wouldn't recognize the auxiliary input initially, and I was close to ripping it all out and asking for my money back before I disconnected the power from the radio. That worked. I should've disconnected the car battery from the start anyway, but I don't like lifting the hood. I'll have to reset all my radio stations, but who needs radio now that the iPod works? Lost a screw into the nether reaches while putting everything back together, but that should be mostly harmless. Anyone want a external casette audio adapter?

Manga Economics

Opened a manga rental account with the bookstore in the Pacific East mall. Fifty bucks up-front in the account, minus fifty cents per volume, checked out for two weeks. Picked up the first 19 volumes of Inu Yasha to start. The Cartoon Network ran the first 36 anime episodes covering volume 17 of the manga, and they're finally going to run new episodes starting next week, hopefully through episode 52 which is what they own contractually. Looks like the Japanese manga is up to volume 30. Did notice volume 20-27 returned on the shelf at the bookstore when we went for dim-sum today, so it looks like they're keeping reasonably up-to-date. Not that they can possibly keep up with everything, even if they filled up the store with the stuff.

So it takes me about 20 minutes to read each volume (about 175 pages). So three books per hour = $1.50. A $6, 300-page novel takes about five hours for me to read leisurely. So comics are just a little more expensive, but then there's the pretty pictures. Even if I've forgotten the meanings of a number of Chinese characters (and lost the pronounciation to more), I actually found it easier to skim through the Chinese. The denser information content of the ideograms provides more contextual information for me to fill in the blanks, I think. Not that comic books are going to strain anyone's vocabulary in any language.

Immediately noticed one difference between the manga and the anime. They can show nipples on paper. Surprisingly perky nipples, too, considering the main character is a 15-year old Japanese middle-school girl. No way any of that was getting through the Japanese and the American censors on cels (one of the last new series that's still being cel-animated, btw). Hooray for hot-springs, anyway.

Vegas, cont.

The teppanyaki meal was tasty, even if the Benihana-wannabe schtick has got a little old at this point. Uncle's friend's sister and her family were also in town from Arcadia, and we almost filled up the teppanyaki table, but they wedged in a Brit couple with oh-so-posh accents at the end. It was quite the cosmopolitan mix, actually. A European family asked for their Pellegrino cold. Three Indian ladies in saris sat at another table. A group walked by speaking in Cantonese, and there were the requisite Japanese folks (possibly here for the K-1 kickboxing tournament?).

Got a glass of white for the sashimi and teppan seafood, and uncle ordered his usual bottle(s) of Bordeaux red for the table. So I basically drank more than what was good for me. Plus I was too full to drink much water, which didn't help, especially in the dry air. Tried to get over it in the sports book on their comfy loungers, but I had to go up to the room and crash. Got up at 2:30 AM feeling reasonably clear-headed after an Advil and about five cups of water. Headed out to the Mirage for some 3-6 hold-'em action.

Even Vegas slows down sometimes. The neon was on full-blast, but it was strange to hear the cicadas calling as I walked down the Strip. Got into a game with some talkative guys who'd met up and formed a little group, mostly in pursuit of a comped breakfast. The game was weak but loose, as half the people would play the flop and then check all the way around on the turn. I think I was playing OK pre and post-flop, but I shouldn't have played some hands when there were flush or straight draws on the table that I knew I couldn't beat with my pair. Some of my middle pair plus overcard hands were dead men walking, too. Then there were the flat out bad beats. Got pocket kings and played fast, but Mr. Calling Station (with a home in Malibu and a vacation home in Santa Barbara) wouldn't quit. The face-up cards were garbage, no faces and no flushes in sight. Only out would've been a straight with 5-7 hole cards. Sure enough, the guy played 5-7 unsuited and kicked me in the balls. Anyway, there were way too many crappy straights that hit.

Did get a hot streak where I got some good cards and some hands where I flopped big as the blind. Got up about $75, then a slow, slightly bumpy, slide down from there. Hung in there when the dealer told us about the traditional 5AM sandwiches. Sure enough, there they were on the brink of dawn. Nice sandwiches too, lots of varieties, and they even cut them into triangles and removed the crust. For a bunch of people who've been sitting at a table for hours, they sure moved like a bat outta hell when the food showed. Stuck around until 8AM, well after the sun came up, but not yet full-blast. All in all, lost 140 bucks in five hours of action, which is within normal variance for a $3-$6 game, I think. A little frustrating in that I knew the people at the tables were playing badly, but I didn't know how to take advantage of it, but considering I've played poker for money for about 10 hours total in my life, it wasn't bad. The experience in Magic probably helped me from tilting more. I'm plenty used to losing games and tournaments to lousy draws and bad luck (and lack of skill).

The Drill

Does it get worse than being stuck in traffic, on the way to the dentist, forced to listen as your ace pitcher get hammered on the radio?

Vegas Baby, Vegas

I really should catch that movie sometime. Best Buy has the DVD on-sale all the time. I guess I was just turned off by all the hype from Gen-X wannabe hipsters (read: The Sports Guy). Feel as if I've seen the movie anyway, since all its quotable lines have been beaten to death, which I suppose is actually a point in the movie's favor.

So the uncle flew in with an old friend of his and it's off to Vegas after a weekend stopover at home to meet the cousin's girlfriend, an HK girl living in Toronto. I think they met over the net. Straight shoulder-length hair, thin-rimmed glasses, you know, the quiet-nice-girl look. Tri-and-a-half-lingual, too, thanks to her time in Quebec. I was just trying to figure out how much wine I can get away with and still make it back home from Emeryville without freaking dad out.

Thanks to the VIP card, a voice mail to the uncle's Player Host scored an extra comped hotel room. Helps that it's mid-week in the summer, but still nice. Makes up for the last-second ass-rape plane ticket, anyway. It's all for the best, really, since I fucked up the date on my ticket, but easily fixed it without penalty because I was paying full fare.

Did have to take a different flight into Vegas from them since theirs was the only one that sold out. Thank to my bag of electronic toys (which got by the screeners okay despite the dire warnings), killing 1.5 hours at McCarran wasn't a problem. How did you think I got around to writing all this crap?

Thankfully, there was a Coffee Bean next to the gate. Got an ice-blended Vanilla Sunrise, and found out that a Regular size is at least a third larger than the drinks I was sucking down in those Pasadena summers way back when. On the other hand, you can't really go wrong with a large, icy drink in Vegas during the summer, AC or no. Bonus points for whip cream on top, of course. Except I get possessed by some sort of misplaced food guilt and always ask for "just a little bit" when they ask if I want whip or not. They usually still fill the dome with cream anyway, so I can transfer the guilt to incompetent customer service instead of those empty calories. Got my drink behind a couple of Japanese ladies, and the girl behind the counter punched out three spots on my Coffee Bean "frequent" drinker card (which has been in my wallet for like three years). Hooray for Asian genetic similarity (i.e. can't tell 'em apart). I'll have to keep my blacked-out card around and see if I can get my freebie from the Coffee Bean in Taipei.

It was cool for the Comic-Con, but decided to unclip the grunty plushie the bag. It was a little too gay, in the literal and perjorative sense. Plus it's worth $ on EBay. Clipped on the Cthulu toy instead. It got curious stares from a kid and mom behind me on the jetway, but I didn't feel like explaining Elder Demons and the whole Lovecraftian mythos.

A convenient limo got us to the hotel. The VIP check-in probably took longer than the regular counter, since VIPs tend to have plenty of picky requirements. Had quick two-plate buffet for a late lunch. Didn't have to go crazy filling up at the buffet since it was comped. Killed the rest of the afternoon at the blackjack table, where despite the up-and-downs the net effect was to change five twenties into a C-note plus a tip for the dealer.

Hit the Bellagio sports book (what I want my house to look like if I had an unlimited budget, no taste, and no intention of ever shacking up with a woman) to have a look at the tote board before dinner. Baseball betting is such a bitch, but I had to lay down some bucks on the Rocks for the brotha, and might as well as put a bet on the Giants while I was at it. No action for the Little League regionals. Bummer. Now they're covering the Little League Softball World Series, too, because crying little girls = good TV.

Adult Education

What a maroon:

Ok say I do take a few math classes and get a few Cs [ed: in community college], well then my GPA goes under 3.0 and I can forget about transfering into a good 4 year university, I can also forget about scholarships and grants which also require a high GPA of above 3.0 or 3.5, I really cannot afford any Cs and I know for a fact that its simply impossible for me to get an A or B in math. I take classes which I know I can/will get an A or B in...

Maybe if universities werent so strict and competitive on the GPA issue I could actually focus on learning but right now I have a goal, that goal is to get into Harvard, Tufts, Boston College,Boston University or North Eastern, all which are ELITE private universities which will NOT let you in with a sub 3.0 GPA, you most likely wont get in with a sub 3.5 GPA, so no its not about "learning" right now, its about moving up the ladder, it will be about learning once I get into university, thats when I'll take math clases, get a C or two, and learn something.

Does he really believe that a B average at JC will get him into BU, much less Harvard? Mind you, that's a B average without the "tough" classes like Calculus I. Reading the rest of the thread, it seems an awful lot of these IT geeks couldn't hack it, either. No wonder these people are worried about outsourcing. Even if abstract math has little to do with system administration or basic programming, I bet the Russian, Indian and Chinese programmers got their calculus, etc. in high school. Sure, you don't need a degree to be a programmer or a geek, but you should at least be a sentient being. Based on their Slashdot posts, it's not as if they're particularly talented at language, either.

OK, one doesn't have to be particularly good at math to be an Alpha Geek. It's all about curiosity änd problem-solving ability. Of course, he was bad in math compared to MIT grad students and Nobel-winning UChicago econometricists. Anyone who can do multivariate regression analysis in his sleep deserves his props.

On the Road

It's surprisingly difficult to fit a 10-hour block of time into one's day. Procrastinated enough so that I ended up eating lunch in San Diego and didn't leave until 2pm. This meant that I ran smack-on into the Orange Crush around 3pm. Found myself stuck behind a car with a Syracuse University sticker, in one of life's little coincidences. Decided to take 57 North instead of sticking on I-5, since the traffic was only to going to get worse. Had to crawl for a while on 57, too, but it was smooth sailing once I got past the I-10 interchance. If crawling through northern Orange County rush hour isn't hell itself, it's a good approximation. Hey, they finally extended the 210 East extension to San Bernardino! So even more people can commute across the entire width of the LA Basin from the Inland Empire to downtown. I guess Orange County isn't that bad, when compared to San Bernardino. The freeway extension sure did its job, as traffic piled up to fill all the new capacity and then some on 210 East. Thank god I was travelling in the anti-commute direction. Got back on I-5 and escaped the Santa Clarita valley just in time to leave the commuters behind. Hit the Grapevine at the time of the day when the sun was high enough to highlight the expansive blue sky and thin white clouds, but low enough to impart a golden glow to everything on the ground. No, I shouldn't be taking in the scenary when going 80MPH downhill on a twisty road with lots of big-rig trucks around.

Finally had the chance to stop in at the Kettleman City In-n-Out. Somebody at InO Corporate needs to get a kick in the ass because it's a fucking crime to only have one outlet on I-5 between Castaic and I-580. It's a slam dunk, considering that the only competition along the highway is other fast-food chains, and everyone already knows that In-n-Out kicks their collective ass. Got the best In-n-Out fries I've ever had, good fresh potato flavor, with great golden color and crispy skin, unlike the usual limpy production. It's about as good as you can make fries without double-frying.

Got nailed by the county sheriff in Dublin for going 85 in a 65 zone. No, safe speed in the middle of nowhere is not the same as safe speed in the middle of suburbia. Time to go back to school. Nevertheless, even with the stops for gas, food, and police I managed to click off 513 miles in under nine hours. I've done better, but I got there.

Crap

Apparently, the next bogeyman in the anti-terrorism chase is "the possibility of weapons that could be concealed in small electronic items carried aboard airplanes." Now this is seriously not good since just about all I carry onto the airplane are small electronic items, with many suspicious wires and batteries all about, not to mention the random spare parts. Frankly, I've wondered how they can just wave me through when they see little black boxes with wires and batteries and even antennas. Now I'll probably get anal-probed when they see the whole laptop-iPod-PalmPilot-GameBoy-cellphone package. Hey, strip-searching might be fun. Or maybe I've just watched too many bad porn movies.

Model Minority

I can't decide what's the worst, Asian who wanna be white, Asian who wanna be black, or Asians who wanna be Asian.

Hey, I could be this guy if we'd moved to, say, Texas, instead of the greater-Berkeley metropolitan area.

Chen seemed so mild and centrist that at one point I called him a closet Democrat. Taken aback, he replied: "How am I a closet Democrat? I'm racist, I love guns and I hate welfare."

He wasn't kidding. "I'm racist against anybody who doesn't work for a living," said Chen, whose family comes from Taiwan. "We're in Washington D.C. You can guess who that is." He's no fan of religion, but says he's less bothered about paying tax dollars to faith-based programs than to "crack whores who have eight kids because it's easier than working."

Boy, what a spoiled prick. Not to say that I'm any better, but at least I'm not joining national organizations to promote my prickiness.

Most Misleading News Story of the Day

Hooray! Unemployment is down, and factory production is up. The economy has gotta be improving now, right? Um, not so fast. Checking the small print:

The jobless rate slid to 6.2 percent last month from 6.4 percent, the Labor Department said. However, that decline was caused by an exodus of job-hunters from the labor force, not by any surge in hiring.

Yeah, having 556,000 people give up on finding a job should be a real shot-in-the-arm. Oh, overall payroll was reduced, too, by 44,000 jobs (71,000 in manufacturing alone). On the other hand, personal income rose by 0.3%, and factory activity is up. Sounds consistent with the offshore-outsourcing (loss of jobs) and wealth-concentration (rising average income despite more unemployed people) trends. Of course, one month's data is insufficient to determine any sort of trend, but I do love it when the numbers come together, even if it's just a random fluctuation.