Stiff

The neck's still giving me jip. Went to a different massage place today and I think they isolated where the problem is: a couple of vertebrae down from the skull. It was really tender and sore around there, as well as behind the shoulder blades, but I grit my teeth and endured the pain as the masseuse did her thing.

Beer is good though.

It looks like Australia's fast becoming a really expensive place to live with inflation spiralling upwards and the dollar approaching parity with the US dollar (ironically keeping petrol prices lower!). But, with the cost of fuel affecting so many things, and life in Australia really revolves around having a car (unless you're my brother), I don't really see how I can come back any time soon. Believe it or not, but living in Japan is fast becoming cheaper than living in Oz! Mind you, that's because in Adelaide I'd have a social life, whereas here.... well..... I'm doing what I can.


I don't know whether to give this kid a high five for being so smart, or a slap on the head just for being smarter than me... but anyone who works out a way to biologically decompose plastic bags using bacteria is a good person as far as I'm concerned.

Climate change is going to cause Jupiter to explode... well maybe not.

Quentin Tarantino is a prat. But he made Reservoir Dogs, which is one of the coolest movies ever, so ...

Just another day in Japan. A man storms a newspaper office with a knife because the workers were rude to him. Never mind that storming a business armed with an offensive weapon while ranting isn't exactly the height of polite behaviour!The last sentence gives it all the justification you need, "He was drunk at the time of the incident, police said," In other news, a man reached through the driver's side window and squeezed a woman's breasts after she stopped to help him . Never mind that her husband was also in the car with her and he pinned the guy down until police arrived! Also a man was arrested after stealing cars hired by his two ex-wives in a scam involving GPS high tech and the women's real IDs with their real addresses on them. But the real scandal is the possible passing of being able to see schoolgirls in skirts. Yup, this was just another day in Japan.

But, Kotooshu won the sumo tournament with a day to spare! Good on ya, son!

There was also this interesting short piece on how the nation's psyche has changed completely since World War II. Mind you, that is just a tiny piece of the puzzle that is the Japanese national psyche!

Time for the annual kangaroo cull in Australia - and time for the freaks to come out.

More good reading about the Iraq situation. Yes, it's still going! (But don't miss the next instalment!)

A really thought-provoking piece about the causes of climate change for your consideration. It's not just about the CO2; everything we do as humans has fundamentally changed the ecosystem and affected the weather too.

Goodbye Hillary. Hello war tax.

Blessed are the peacekeepers, for they shall sell the arms they confiscated back to the militias they are supposed to be disarming.... Wait, what?

Finally, the tragedy that is Open Mouth Disease.