Dave’s Logs – Page 118 – Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.

Chocolate-Coated Potato Chips

Fri - 10.22.2004 by Dave·2 Comments

If I tell you “Milk Chocolate-Coated Potato Chips”… the first thing coming to your mind might be: “Japan!“…
(a close second being “gross!”, if you are not into experimental gastronomy).

And you’d be dead wrong. On both counts.

Come on now, I hope this is not the kind of low standards you’ve grown to expect from this blog: if it was indeed made in Japan, it would at the very least be peppered with nori shreds or sold in giant heart-shaped boxes covered in pictures of sickeningly cute bunnies and atomic vampire robots (yea. both)…

Not in this quaint, sober, nearly tasteful, two-tone, Pringle-style, cylinder box.

No. Let’s be serious: Japanese researchers probably stumbled upon some variation of the Milk Chocolate-Coated Potato Chip (with extra wasabi flavor as an option) decades ago and quickly canned it as way too tame for the domestic market.

American researchers, on the other hand, immediately saw the full potential of such a symbiosis…

All conspiracy theories apart, one cannot help but wonder about the hidden motives of a corporation whose food product combines, in one single ingredient, the two most addictive substances known to Man: Chocolate and Pringles.

Quite obviously somebody has been greasing a few hands at the FDA to slip that one through…

And the kicker? Masako brought this back from SF as a typical sample of them wacky American foodstuff…
ミルクチョコレートポテトチップス。変な日本の食べ物？
違うアメリカから！
もう変なですけども。。。

Giant Lizard Attacks Japanese Coasts

Wed - 10.20.2004 by Dave·Comments Off

The signs are unmistakable: the End of Days is approaching.

Not only has my garden turned into a lovely little pond outpouring into a nearby river that, upon closer examination, would seem to be the road…
But simultaneously — and despite the distance I haven’t ruled out any correlation — Duran Duran has just noisily resurfaced: crushing ten years of dwindling hope that they might never be heard ever again outside of late night VH1 and supermarket PA.

Plugin Database Update (v. 1.2)

Wed - 10.20.2004 by Dave·68 Comments

Update:: latest WPPM news are here (doesn’t affect wp-plugins.net)

A new version of WP Plugins Manager with many, many new features…

Sous le Pont Mirabeau coule la Seine…

Mon - 10.18.2004 by Dave·Comments Off

Been happily back home for two days now.
Just got around to cleaning the last few pics I took while walking around in Paris last week. Unfortunately not much to save: too bad they haven’t figured how to add a special DrunkUser™ feature into these digital thingies yet.

The Most Luxurious Airline in the World

Sat - 10.16.2004 by Dave·1 Comment

Now I ask you: are your luggage hand-delivered at home for free, every time you fly on your favorite airline?

Ha. Suckers.

Some people are quick to bash Aeroflot for the most insignificant details (you know, like when two drunk flight attendants start beating up a passenger…), but they always fail to point out the positive.

For example, how many companies are so truly dedicated to the well-being of their long-distance flights passengers that they insure all luggage are directly dispatched at home by qualified airport personnel, free of charge.

Subduing Russian Airline Employees

Thu - 10.14.2004 by Dave·1 Comment

In the US, when dealing with customer service reps, it is of utmost importance to be authoritative: show them who’s the boss and ask to speak to a manager every time something doesn’t go your way. Customer is King, even when customer is an asshole, even when he’s wrong. Especially if he’s wrong.

At least, that’s what any wise American will teach you, with a conspiratorial look that’d make you think he is letting you on the secret masonic handshake of the customer support guild. Equipped with these conceptions, he will then proceed to use them abroad, wherever he goes, perpetuating the accepted worldwide standard for Ugly Americanness…

WordPress Plugins Manager v. 1.0

Tue - 10.12.2004 by Dave·20 Comments

Last Update: The WordPress Plugin manager is no longer available for download and support has been discontinued. More info here.
10/20/04 Update: Check out the new version…

If you are a WordPress user, go check out the shiny new WordPress Plugin Database!

If you have written plugins for WordPress, go add them already!

If you do not use WordPress, then, well… you should.

But I’ll still talk to you if you don’t…

Costa Brava

Mon - 10.11.2004 by Dave·1 Comment

The other south.

Who’s Gonna Clean the Carpet Now ?

Mon - 10.11.2004 by Dave·2 Comments

There is only one thing on which I really stock up while in Europe: Books.

Everything else, albeit at ludicrous prices, can be found in Tokyo.

All right, maybe not exactly everything else, but I keep a wild ferret and two gerbils on crack sitting by my computer, specially trained to go straight for the groin and bite off my nuts in a split second, were I ever to stoop low enough to make a single joke on the size of Japanese prophylactics on this blog, so we’ll leave it at that.

In fact, even foreign languages books are easy to come by in Tokyo. Some for less that Japanese ones; as German, French, Italian and Spanish books can all be borrowed freely at their respective cultural embassies. Ironically, most of the books I buy here are by Japanese authors.

If you think about it, it’s easy to see why: my current level of written Japanese barely allows me to decrypt my emails (painfully so, when the witch sending them has drawn some evil glee from purposely using utterly rare kanji forms wherever english katakanas would have done just fine). On the other hand, attempting to read Mishima and his astronomical kanji vocabulary would be as entertaining as taking on the dictionary in alphabetical order.

Wine, Brie and Blogs

Fri - 10.8.2004 by Dave·8 Comments

Will I come out as an insensitive cold-hearted bastard if I publicly lament here the fact that all things interesting and exciting only happen in Japan when I’m not there, stuck six thousands miles away, in a city where major earthquakes, flood and other cool natural disasters are about as likely as a shred of human soul mistakenly finding its way into Dick Cheney’s corpse…

On that count, Paris is quite boring.

I am told the floods of yore, when the as-of-then-undomesticated Seine river expanded its bank to all surrounding neighbourhoods, were a vision of surrealistic awe. What with the people, bank clerks and congressmen alike, having to swim their way back from work, French baguette in one hand, cigarette in the other and beret on top.

OK, perhaps the congressmen didn’t have to go freestyle swimming, but surely there couldn’t be enough boats for everybody…