Jay J. Armes
I was trying to get work done today and then found out about Jay J. Armes and got so excited that I couldn't work at all.

Jay J. Armes is an amazing guy who is too awesome and good to be true.

Here's a bullet list explaining why:

• Jay J. Armes is currently a working private investigator in Texas.
• As a child, Jay J. Armes lost both of his hands in an accident involving dynamite. He now has hooks for hands. (At this point I would like to draw attention to how excellent his name is.)
• Jay J. rescued Marlin Brando's son when he was kidnapped.
• Jay J. played a bad guy in an episode of Hawaii-5-0.
• In 1976, Ideal Toys reckoned Jay J. Armes to be a real-life bionic man and made a Jay J. Armes action figure (which included interchangeable hands and a Mobile Investigation Unit with a "Super Hook").
• In 1993 an unsold pilot television detective show was made about him.
• Jay J. has a pet tiger and a pet cheetah.

Here's a Jay J. Armes photo gallery showing Jay J. with Republicans and wild animals.

And here's to you Jay J. Armes. If there were an award for best and most interesting person alive in our world today, I would nominate you for it.

[Thanks, Arika]

more on Thai nachos
I think I forgot to mention that I melted cheddar cheese over the Thai leftovers. So, basically: corn chips covered with Thai red curry leftovers which are in turn covered with cheddar cheese, baked for a few minutes in a toaster oven = heaven. So good. I swear.

album cover lookalikes (babelfisherized)
from a Brazilian music store/magazine. Pencil Sharpener Imposters

[Thanks, someone. I forget who. I forget whom? I'm sorry.] Meet the Grade One students in Division 11 at Armstrong Elementary School!
Awesome drawings. Awesome nicknames.

new invention: Thai red curry nachos
I was making nachos but I was out of salsa. So I used Thai red curry leftovers instead. And they were super good. At least as good as regular nachos. Maybe better.

And that's how I invented Thai Red Curry Nachos.

I know it's a million-dollar idea for certain. And I'm giving it away for free to the readers of this website. That's just the sort of generous thing that I might do.

The gift of Thai curry nachos is my way of saying thank you for continuing to check in on this sporadically-updated web page.

Comparison of life in Piscataway, New Jersey; Kochi, Japan; and Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, China
Experienced, observed and cataloged by Ernie.

Africa geography quiz
I keep taking this quiz every day. How cool is it to know where Burkina Faso is? Not to mention Eritrea and Malawi.

The other quizzes are good too. Thanks to these quizzes I can confidently distinguish Turkmenistan from Tajikistan.

aojiru
One of my favorite shows on the local sometimes Japanese channel is the Aojiru infomercial. It totally draws you in with heart-warming stories of lives made better by Aojiru.

In one, a sweet old man in some Japanese country village would ride around on his bike and give impromptu puppet shows to children. But one day he got sick. And he realized that if he didn't take care of himself, the children would no longer get to enjoy his puppet shows. So he started drinking aojiru and now he's well again.

I'm sure it sounds hokey and cheap the way I've described it, but if you watch it, you will probably cry. The infomercial will seriously make you cry.

I'm also in love with this piece of information: "lactic bacteria is the Ambassador of healthy bacteria". Anyway, here's the broadcast schedule. I don't necessarily recommend the product but I definitely recommend the infomercial, if you happen to be in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Hawaii.