D.O.M. 7 ...and a news article

Mako-chan is one of those members who looks remarkably unchanged throughout the 5 years she's been with the Morning Musume crew. In fact that last time anybody noticed a "new look" on her was when she cut her hair short and dyed it within 6 months of her debut (before which it was unremarkably black).

That said, I've chosen a photo to represent with from the MoMusu promotional photo-shoot for the "Sexy ...Impatience" single featured some urban-style looks for the gals. They tweaked her look a bit then... sexy indeed.

...And now a bit of sad news...

Ikimashoi News reports on the event that I mentioned about a month ago in DOM6 - yes Konno officially graduates this week and they snuck in Ogawa's grad ceremony as well. *sigh* I'll miss them both so much...

Off-topic Simpsons Quote #1

Can you tell I'm a little bored today? This popped into my head:

Scene: Homer sits at home contemplating heart surgery options when a commerical on his television comes on featuring Dr. Nick Riviera who spouts this line...

"One-eight-hundred, 'doctorb' ...the 'b' is for 'bargain!'"

No Patlabor2 @ $65

Why yes, I AM that picky... First, some inside information - the Patlabor 2 LE box I was talking about a few posts ago has a MSRP of about $100CAD... And here's some insider information for you: the supplier to HMV (who can special order it for you) sells it to the retail giant for about $60CAD. Which means depending on the manager's mood, he can either make anywhere from 5 to 40 in profit.

Well, as it stands, I stumbled on somebody else's special order who didn't pick it up and the box was tagged at $66... I was needless to say, stunned and almost bought it on the spot. The one thing that stopped me was a gaping hole in the plastic sleeve it came in. Not to be mistaken for shrink-wrap, the Patlabor movies come with Japanese-style resealable sleeves over the cases (a feature most so-called "collector's editions" in North America are dreadfully missing). I tried to explain this to the manager but he understandably did not want to lower the price any further (which is fair enough). I'll gladly pay an extra $5 at Amazon to get a pristine version.

It's a just a crying shame that these things can happen - that a product gets damaged as such either during shipping or even at the hands of a careless employee in the back with an Xacto knife. Hopefully somebody out there can find it in their heart to give this copy the love that I can't. *sigh*

Reaction: Propel "fitness water"

So I found this stuff for 99cents per 700ml bottle at the supermarket... "From the makers of Gatorade" it said on the bottle. What's there to lose? I mean, I like Gatorade - it does what it's marketted to do ("The Thirst Quencher" they say) when I'm working out and sweating heavily.

Well, I grabbed an "orange" flavour and tried it - a little before the run and the rest after the half-hour run. I won't talk about the actual content because you can look that stuff on up anywhere, but I will say what it was like from a thoroughly uninformed point of view: it was kinda disgusting.

It tasted a bit like when I have a glass of orange juice, then forget to wash out the glass, and fill it with water a little while later and have a gulp. That's what "flavoured water" tastes like. It's not flavourful like juice would be, nor is it anything like the watered-down taste of Gatorade. But that said, it's actually kinda realistic, then... I mean it really tasted like there was a trace of real OJ in the bottle.

Did it feel particularly good? Well, there was a slight burning sensation in my throat. At first I was a little worried - the bottle label mentions all sorts of CYA "consult a physician" business. But "burning throat" was not one of the symptoms listed so I figure it's probably just me being sensitive to the acidity in it... after all, almost all the vitamin content advertised is in the form of some acid.

Will I buy this stuff again? Probably not. Will I try other similar products? Maybe - I hear Coca Cola LTD just released some sort of "fitness water" under their PowerADE brand called "Option" and I'm told it's not as acid so if the price is right, I'll give that a go.

snatched from some other blog

1. The book nearest me - "La Bible la Coran et la science" (my Muslim friend left it for me; it's been sitting on my desk for months)

2. Stretch out left arm what do you touch? a notepad with some debugging analysis I wrote down a moment ago

3. Last thing watched on television? - "watched" is a subjective word - more like "saw"...I saw part of a morning news show before leaving for work; didn't have time to actually pay attention though.

4. Without looking what time is it? - 10am?

5. What actual time is it? - 9:46 according to my computer's desktop

6. With the exception of the computer what can you hear? my cubicle neighbours talking

7. When did you last step outside? got out of my car in the parking lot this morning.

8. Before this survey what did you look at? those debugging notes I mentioned above (I really ought be to getting back to that

9. What are you wearing? a Nike dri-fit golf-shirt, shorts and sneakers (it's a dress-down day)

10. Did you dream last night? not last night; but recently I had a weird dream about LadyDeath who I hadn't seen in weeks. Dreamt we decided to start dating ...then we actually ran into each other the next day (I decided to keep the dream to myself).

11. When did you last laugh? last night while watching some video I downloaded off the 'net.

12. What is on the walls in the room? a calendar, some emails I printed out, some charts... it's a cubicle, what did you expect?

13. Seen anything weird lately? I almost ran over a couple of pigeons this morning; you don't see birds just walking around very often...

14. What do you think of this quiz? it feels like I'm talking to myself

15. What is the last film you saw? Superman Returns

16. Tell me something we don't know - despite all the running I've been doing lately, I'm still severely disappointed with the apparent lack of progress I'm making... it's depressing.

17. If you could change one thing about the world, what would you do? - I would tweak the gravity on this planet just a little bit - make it a little bit heavier.

18. Do you like to dance? - only with myself

19. George Bush? he's got big ears ...and a thick accent.

20. Imagine your first child is a girl - then I'd freak out because I'd know nothing about raising a girl

21. Imagine your first child is a boy - I'd still freak out.

22. Would you consider living abroad? - not really; I frequently find I go places and then saying to myself "I'm loving it, but I wouldn't want to live here."

23. What would God say to you when you reach the pearly gates? "who are you and how'd you get here?"