TheLeong.com

Joey over at Moon County had a Cartoosday contest a few weeks ago to write the words to go with a blank cartoon he drew. I won, so I got the glorious prize of the people’s ovation and fame forever. Also another picture of my choosing. I was originally allowed to name anything I wanted Joey to draw, but since he didn’t want to get arrested or sued or be made to draw anything super twisted, I agreed on a somewhat tame picture.

And by somewhat tame and not super twisted, I mean I asked for a picture of Chuck Norris eating a bunch of Pokemon.

And Joey did it!

Click here for the wallpaper version.

Thanks Joey! Also check out LOLJK. Talk about plugging your friend’s sites!

I ended up going to bed a lot later than planned last night, even after spending the entire evening in my apartment taking care of random tasks that I’d been putting off for too long. I burned some TV series off my external HD to clear space, filled out a Yodobashi credit card app, organized some bills I need to pay, did some laundry, and downloaded Megaman 9. I even cleaned up my apartment a bit and hauled a whole bag of trash downstairs. It felt like I had accomplished a lot.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking for a little bit* that I need to get a new phone, since my old faithful Sony Ericsson W43S is getting a little worn out and can’t even do the simplest things like watch TV, view MS Word documents, or give me a root canal – which are all standards for the current generation of Japanese ultra-phones. Yes, after only using my phone for 2 years it has already been outdated more times than I would like to mention, with new features popping up on the market every day. A few months ago the iPhone came out here in Japan, and despite its awesomeness +5 appeal in the US, in Japan it sucks and I don’t even know anyone that has one. No, wait, there was one guy at my office who has one but he seemed to only be interested in listening to the radio. This entry isn’t about the iPhone, but yeah, compared to any typical Japanese handset the only thing Apple’s magic device has going for it is the touch-screen. There are so many features missing (even compared to my old-ass phone) that most people aren’t interested.

Oh yeah, so speaking of phones. When browsing the au (my carrier) catalog for information about current phone models and pricing plans, I leaned about this recent service called au one Mail. After following the easy instructions on my phone, I was all set up and simply amazed at what it does. It seems that au has partnered with Google to give au users a special Gmail account. The interface is just a rebranded Gmail, giving you an @auone.jp e-mail address that you can access from your PC or phone. But the best thing is that this new account can automatically keep a copy of every sent and received mail from your keitai. And since it’s Gmail, you have several gigs of space forever, and the ridiculously sweet search capabilities. This was exactly what I always wanted.
Click the pic for a bigger screenshot.

If anyone else here on au wants help on how to set this up, let me know. It’s definitely nice to know that you can have an automatic backup of all the e-mails you send on your phone.

*about a year and a half

I set my work computer’s Firefox start page as Wikipedia, so I usually read a few random articles on the main page to start my day off (as opposed to actual work). The first one I read today was about China’s space flight this week. On the page they had an image of the China National Space Administration’s logo:

Is it just me, or is this pretty much exactly the same as this one? See:

Yes, while I realize that in both cases it’s supposed to look like a plane/spacecraft, you still have to wonder if the CNSA, established in 1993, didn’t have some huge Star Trek nerd designing their logo.

I guess we’d just have to ask Captain Jon Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise.

Haha there’s a chance some of you tried to access this site (I don’t know why you would) over the past few hours and found that there was nothing here. Just like last year, I forgot to renew my web host, which expired today. Since my host is in the US, midnight there was about the same time I sat down at work this morning. I opened Gmail and got a message saying my theleong.com e-mail accounts were expiring. I quickly renewed the host though, and everything’s fine now. Not nearly as much of a panic as last year, hahaha.

I’ll try and remember to renew ahead of time next fall.

I wish there was a way I could silently take pictures with my phone, but there’s not because too many Japanese guys take upskirt shots of middle school girls. Thus, it’s mandatory for Japanese phones to make a shutter noise. There’s no option to shut it off.

Anyways I’m writing this on my phone as I ride the Sobu line train towards Funabashi. The dude standing across from me looks like a young Japanese Rob Schneider if you can picture it. He has a really short buzz cut, a purse, tight holy jeans, huge buckled boots, a diagonal referee t-shirt, and is carrying a grandma shirt over his arm (probably for if it gets “a lil’ chilly willy”). But worse of all he is listening to his headphones and making this creepy child molester face. Not just smiling, but constantly making slight movements with his eyebrows and mouth as if he were Roseanne listening to the waitress at Golden Corral describe the specials. He is also doing the Night at the Roxbury dance. That’s Japan for you.

Aaaand he just got off at Tsudanuma.

I’m so grateful this country I’m living in has the natural wonder that is the Japanese Four Seasons*. Only Japan has a full spectrum of 4 distinct seasons. This may be hard for you to comprehend but let’s take a look at them:

• His Holy Majesty the Emperor’s Winter
• Graceful Dance of the Falling Cherry Blossoms Spring
• Who Needs Central AC When You Have Paper Fans Summer
• OMFG Nippon is the Greatest Country in the Galaxy Our Leaves Change Color Fall**

No other country in the world has the vast diversity in climates that Japan has, since every other country is blanketed in a single season year-round. For example: frigid cold (Canada), blazing sunshine (Australia), pollution and poisonous food (China), or gunfire (America).

The sad thing is there are some Japanese people who think something close to this. OK, maybe with less Pokemon and yeti, but the four seasons myth is something you hear far too often. Japanese people think their country is so special, a magical land that surely no other place on this planet could come close to. Yeeeeah. I’ve been asked multiple times if there is winter in St. Louis, as if the US is some alien planet devoid of temperature fluctuations. Old people, as usual, are even worse.

And before anyone starts thinking to themselves “they were probably just asking if the winter is cold, or how cold, or about the specific climate.” They weren’t. There’s no excuse.

*The terms “Japanese,” “Four,” and ” Seasons” are copyright 711 BC Emperor Jimmu, founder of Japan and direct descendant of the Sun God Amaterasu

**Alternatively referred to as OMFG Nippon is the Greatest Country in the Galaxy Our Leaves Change Color Autumn