Speed Test - Online Connection.

http://www.speedtest.net/ Wayyyy better than Telus. Amended: After my wife switched to Telus: ~sigh~

More F*NG CLEANUP!

More f*ng cleanup! Anyways. There's a few more things that we have to do in order to make things nicey-nice. Well, here goes. Today we'll be working on the living room where we'll be sweeping the floor, mopping the floor and dusting the shelves and organizing it so that it looks tidy, Storm's room, the hallway which seems to collect dust on a minute-by-minute basis and pretty much has to be kept on top of every other day it seems. We also will be working on the downstairs room which is the storage room. The boys will work on the bedroom after they get back from going over to Grandma's. Tomorrow, I'll tackle the sink, mop the floor and make things a little more presentable. But we'll see just exactly what we can get done today.

OK...back home from getting my daughter to day-care and into washing the last of the cutlery that needed washing. Finished sweeping the kitchen floor and now into boiling some water so that I have some good extremely hot water and disinfectant to mop the floor. Then I will sweep and mop the living room floor. In the interim, I've folded clothes, so that the clothes are all done.

I have to say that I have some major complaints about the size of the kitchen. When two adults stand in the middle of this kitchen, both will feel claustrophobic. That's how small this damned kitchen is. I keep saying "one of these days..." but it's definite. There is going to be an entire revamping of the layout of this house. Sooner than later, if I win the Lotto Max - have to play though. However given the choice between playing Lotto and having a better financial situation, I've got better things to spend our money on - our kids.

0955 - Kitchen and bathroom mopped. Laundry folded and neatly set up to put away; stove-top cleaned off. My kids will put away the dishes when they get home from school - that's one of their tasks.

1257 - Working on daughter's bedroom to organize it better than it currently is.

Daughter's closet is now cleared out but unfortunately we have to share closet space until we manage to get some sort of decent built in closet in our bedroom.

Toyboxes/Diaper ChangeStation-Bookshelf Unit completely cleaned up and non-toybox toys are all stacked neatly. Meanwhile my wife is going through her winter clothes.

Prior to making the bed. Shot of Dad's Desk where I still have to work on getting it clear, but the rest of the listed stuff that needs doing comes first.

Foot of daughter's bed.

Bed made up, and excess stuffies placed neatly on rocking chair.

After four hours of tackling my daughter's bedroom, it now looks like this. The top shelf has Easter and Christmas wrapping since we don't have a place for those things with easy accessibility. My desk has to stay where it is as we have no other place for it and I need a place to work myself.

Evidently, the rocking-chair is the gathering place for the over-flow stuffed animals until we can somehow manage to get a proper toy box.

I hate Fall Cleanup just as much as I hate Spring Cleanup!

Talk about busy these past few days. Wednesday, I got done the kitchen and made it presentable, Thursday - the living room. Tackling my daughter's room today along with some throwing out of some clothes that I intend to do this week should make things a lot more user friendly for the condition of this home. It always seems like the place needs a major overhaul in order to make this place seem the slightest bit liveable. However I intend to lay down some groundrules.

a) WE are getting a portable dishwasher; I have a photography career that I am trying to build up from the bottom up. And if I constantly have to keep cleaning up the house, there is no way that I'll have time to build up my career. The condition of the house has been pathetic and it stops right here and that starts with the place in the house that I spend the most time in trying to keep the dishes clean: the kitchen!

I used to want a lot of books, a lot of toys, a lot of junk that would make me happy. Now, I don't need that. If I have my camera, my lenses, my computer and a way of transferring my images from camera to computer and onto the web, I'm perfectly happy. That and my family. That's all I need in this world now. I don't need the constant rat race, I could be living out of a hovel and still have a perfectly good standard of living. Money isn't the objective anymore. As far as money is concerned, just enough to pay my taxes, eat, keep a roof over my head and gas in my gas tank and a little left over so that I can save up towards upgrading my camera equipment and I'd be a pig in mud - happy as hell.

b) we are getting rid of things that we no longer need in this house. That means everybody. The more things we have in this house means the less space that we have to utilize. Hoarding stops now.

c) I fully intend that there will be rules in the house: 1) wash dishes as you use them so that we don't have to do so much. The dishwasher will mainly be for pots and pans during a cooking session and for cleaning up big messes like when we clean out the fridge annually but what we will not be utilizing these for every day dishes.

d) Having time will mean being able to do more things - not necessarily stuff to do with cleaning the house, but fun family things. I won't be so harried and we will have the freedom to be able to do everything that we could possibly want to.

And that means a much more enriching life. And more enriching means "photography" to me because that's what makes me feel like I'm living. And now that my oldest son and second oldest son plan to learn what they can about photography, they have started coming out on my shooting expeditions (at least on the weekends). I will be grooming all three (my 2 sons and my daughter) to take over my photography business and chart it to where they want it to go after my death.

Hopefully tomorrow I can tackle the bedroom and I'm saving the last spot for Sunday or Monday -- the bathroom. UGH! Then once that is done - it's finished. And we will also have an idea of what other necessities for organization that we need: I've already counted in a blanket box, a few more containers and storage cabinetry for the kitchen. I'm tired of not having enough space and plan to utilize that area beside the fridge to make it more handy. We'll see how that goes.

Barely Political - Key of Awesome,

Mark Douglas is hysterically funny. With the recent performance of Mumford & Sons up here in Holland Park in Surrey; this particular musical parody was very timely.

LYRICS: Grab every single one of your friends And start a Mumford band Take a Mumford stand Ya don't need a drummer in a Mumford Band Ya just stomp your feet and ya clap yer hands Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Pack yer bags. We're goin' to mumford land We got our own spoonman Scuse me sir I'd like to know where is this Mumford land? It's somewhere between Limmerick and Williamsburg Brookland So pull up your suspenders, chug another jug of wine Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1899 We strum on our guitars so hard, we break our strummin' hands We use the toaster filter when we post on instagram We used to be the house band for The Antiques Roadshow Someone sound the trumpets now lets do some hey's and ho's Ho's and Hey's Hey's and Ho's 3 cheers for the Lumineers They're a Mumford Band And Phillips Phillips He's a Mumford man Well he's more of a Mumford kid. We saw "Oh Brother Where art Thou" And said lets start a band right now Our clothing and our songs are hand me downs (spoon solo) They way we play is pure and honest bordering on weird and Amish Technology is what we abolish in Mumfordland Cus we're a Mumford band The oldest latest fad Laddie plays the washboard, Wendel plays the fipple flute Bare Knuckle boxing's How they settle band disputes Emmet plays the jews harp and Bill plays his own mustache Thaddeus the barkeep and he makes us cocktails in a flash Joe scratches the victrola like an old timey DJ Jill's on social media she twitters from the stage We've got too many members now the stage is cavin' in Can't tell where the audience ends and where the band begins Hey mumford fans We need an ambulance

Absolutely Priceless and Mark also rips Twilight too...and anyone who rips that abomination of a movie deserves a shout-out.

Twilight Sucks (Emo Vampire Songs)

Lyrics: (spoken) Wolves. Children of a night. What sweet music they make,eh? How old are you? I have crossed oceans of time to find you. You're breath smells like dirt. (sings) Ill never be an emo vampire Setting tweenaged loins on fire Ive got nothing in common with the vampires of today They gaze at girls and pout and brood and then just run away This Twilight hack thinks she can come along and change the Vampire rules I guess sleeping in coffins and wearing capes, suddenly isnt cool Girls wont climb up trees with me or canoodle in the grass And when I play Vampire baseball I always get picked last [spoken] Seriously dudes. Thats a human you just picked over me. Ive seduced all kinds of women from all over the world But, now the only dates I get are with chunky gothic girls When did all these Vampires become abstinent and whiny When I walk into the sun I dont get all bright and shiny Vampires dont have purity rings like undead Jonas Brothers If I cant score with these high school girls perhaps Ill go for their mothers [spoken] Why not? When youre 600 years old theres no such thing as a cougar. Ill never be an emo vampire Setting tweenaged loins on fire Ill have no participation In this vampire pussification So wake me up when the world grows a pairof... ...fangs [spoken] You thought I was going to say balls didnt you?

These guys are great. Check 'em out at Barely Political - Key of Awesome

Casting Star Wars Ep. 7????

With the hoopla over JJ Abrams taking on the casting and directing of Star Wars Episode 7, it will be very interesting to see exactly what he comes up with. Over the next few days, I'll see if I can come up with some actresses and actors who might make some good characters for what I think Episode 7 would become.

The first being the female offspring of Han Solo and Leia Organa - Jaina Solo. Considering the ages of Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, I believe that Zoe McLellan could play the role of Jaina who would be in her early to mid 20s if the continuity was to be 30 years after the Return of the Jedi.

Melody - Love Story (A Japanese Pop Song).

Melody - "Love Story"

nagarete yuku hitogomi no naka
ushiro sugata zutto mite ita
unmei no itazura de deaeta kiseki o dakishimete
kizutsuite mo ii setsunakute mo ii
ima dake shinjite

mogaite egaite yuku koi monogatari
mienai asu tsuzuri nagara
kodoku ni tatazumu toki soba ni itai no
mayowanai youni

mimi ni nokoru anata no koe o
mabuta tojite omoidashiteru
modokashisa ni tsukarete dare ka o kizutsukeru no naraba
yasashii egao mo mune utsu kotoba mo
wasuretai keredo

mogaite egaite yuku koi monogatari
hajimarazu ni owaru no nara
kokoro ni kagi o kakeru
kanawanu koi ga mezamenai youni

omoi o tsutaeraretara
hoka ni wa nani mo iranai
kodomo mitai ni sunao ni naku watashi o
anata no te de mezamesasete

mogaite egaite yuku koi monogatari
mou ichido koe o kikitai
todokanu hodo ni tooku hanarete ite mo
mayowanai youni

mienai asu tsuzuri nagara
kodoku ni tatazumu toki soba ni itai no
futari itsuka sugao no mama deaeta nara
tsuyoku dakishimete

"Rabbits Are Delicious" - Misheard Lyrics - "Furusato" 故郷 - Hometown.

There is a song that I heard on this documentary about Fukushima. Since I am Japanese (Japanese-Canadian), the lyrics touched home. Even though Japan is not where I was born; even the Nikkeijin who were born outside of Japan hears a siren-call to Japan, the land of their ancestors.

The English Lyrics are as follows:

"I chased rabbits in those mountains
I fished in that stream
I still dream now and then about those days as a child
How I long for and miss my hometown
How are my father and mother?
Are my old friends okay?
Whenever it is rainy and windy
I recall my happy childhood in my hometown
Some day when I’ve done what I set out to do,
I will return to what used to be my home The mountains are green there in my hometown."

The Japanese Lyrics in Romaji (romanized Japanese) are as follows:

"Usagi oishi kano yama
Kobuna tsurishi kano kawa
Yume wa ima mo megurite
Wasuregataki furusato.
Ikani imasu chichi-haha,
tsutsuganashi ya tomogaki,
ame ni kaze ni tsuketemo,
omoiizuru furusato.
Kokorozashi o hatashite,
itsunohinika kaeran,
yama wa aoki furusato,
mizu wa kiyoki furusato."



It is one of my favorite songs and one of these days, I do hope to get a chance to visit Japan. I do wish to go to Kyoto and pay my respects to my ancestors and to bring a part of my father's legacyback home to Japan.

For the people who don't get the titular joke. Oi-shi (chasing) is also pronounced similarly to the word oishi which is "delicious", so periodically it confuses the heck out of people when they think they heard "Rabbits are delicious in those mountains". I've never tasted rabbit meat...so I wouldn't know.

Here are a few other versions that are favorites:

Il Divo singing in Japan one year after Fukushima.


Japanese Self Defence Force Concert

This is so poignant as every time the Self-Defence Forces deploy to places like Afghanistan (where Japanese soldiers have been captured by the Taliban), they don't know if they'll see their hometown again. So this is especially fitting


No matter what, it speaks of the love and the longing that Japanese feel for their hometown or country. In my case it would be Kyoto, where my ancestors, my uncles and my cousins lived and worked.