#sean... probably not. i think he's a little too independent. it's not impossible but i don't think it'd be easy.

[ofyorkshire]

hummmms... reminded that bj would actually be very susceptible to cults.

desperate for connection, love, and acceptance in multiple angles. would bend, quite frankly, to any amount of it and forgives a lot in order to get it.

[andrewuttaro]

New Look Sabres: 2019 Offseason Retrospective

Some offseasons are over in a hurry. All the action is done by Independence Day and Hockey goes into hibernation for two months. Then there are offseasons like this one: hurry up and wait because something else is about to happen. That said Jeff Skinner is our Stanley Cup. In the Season Retrospective back in April I said the Buffalo Sabres’ Stanley Cup for the 2019 Offseason would be resigning Jeff Skinner. The team didn’t qualify for the playoffs so what’s the next most important thing for the team? Jeff Skinner. If you said anything other than Jeff Skinner you either thought the Sabres were going to trade up in the draft or you think Jack Eichel is a bum… or both. Either way I think you’re fooling yourself. Jeff Skinner proved to be the ideal left wing for Jack Eichel, even after the wheels flew off in the second half. Lose a guy like him and you’re in the same spot we’d been in for three years prior putting Eichel with left wingers like… Zemgus Girgensons? Yikes. Looking back at last year’s Offseason retrospective its kinda funny that I was so pumped for Conor Sheary. The guy does an important job but he’s really just a middle six wing. That left side was so barren for years that it seemed impossible we’d ever get a guy capable of skating wing with Jack Eichel. The crazy thing about the offseason the Sabres have had is that now they have… dare I say it: a very good top six! Don’t worry, we have all of Training Camp to debate roster deployment and we certainly will! The next great offseason accomplishment, our secondary Stanley Cup, is ROYAL FUCKING BLUE! On August 15th, 2019 shortly after 3 in the afternoon years of waiting came to an end. One little tweet ended years- YEARS of our bitching and moaning for the best incarnation of the Sabres look. Honestly it overshadowed the reveal of the 50th Anniversary third jerseys the following day for me. Coupled with an implied return to the original Sabres logo without the silly silver lining all over it, it’s not exaggeration, and certainly not out of place on this blog, to say Buffalo now once again hosts one of the best logo/color combinations in sports. Either way, those were the two big defibrillators taken to the chest of an exhausted Sabres fanbase this offseason.

The hurry up and wait of this offseason was Rasmus Ristolainen. That trade seemed inevitable and then it wasn’t for most of the summer. Then Chad DeDomincis spoke about his secret sources and put the likelihood of a trade at 70%. Just as we had feared the move was held up by a string of dominos that can best be described as cowardly General Managers waiting for the market to be set on restricted free agents. As of the posting of this article there is no resolution of the Ristolainen situation making any in-out section somewhat hard to do. I still believe the trade will happen before opening night, but we’ll just have to wait and see. For me its not worth getting wound up about what he said in a Finnish newspaper. It’s been clear he’s not been entirely happy here for months if not years. Does it hurt the potential trade? Idk, does it hurt more than his shitty advanced stats already do? This is already more time than its worth spending on a hypothetical trade. The moment that trade happens there will be a heartfelt goodbye from me, Risto is a guy I loved a lot. Let’s talk about the moves that did happen! Going out is Matt Tennyson, Sean Malone, Danny O’Regan, Matt Moulson (finally officially gone), Scott Wedgewood, Jason Pominville and Alex Nylander. The out list could be longer than that, but I tried to keep it to folks who were or could’ve been NHL players. That list is very scant on big names but more importantly its shorter than the coming-in list (particularly on defense): Henri Jokiharju, Marcus Johansson, Curtis Lazar, Andrew Hammond, Jimmy Vesey, Colin Miller, Arttu Ruotsalainen and… I know it was technically a resigning but Jeff Skinner because we resigned Jeff Skinner!!! Before Matt Hunwick’s neck injury unfortunately sent him to Robidas Island (LTIR for all of this upcoming season) there was not only a surplus of defenseman on the right side but there was so many that the team was going to be over the salary cap. This was what made us all think a Ristolainen trade is inevitable... and now September is knocking on our door. Once again, talking about the outs and ins of the Sabres offseason is kinda hard with this big, pending, hypothetical trade hanging over our heads. Nonetheless, plenty did happen.

As always take my enthusiasm with a grain of salt. Last offseason retrospective I was amped for Patrik Berglund and that ended in a way no one could’ve predicted. Nonetheless, I am pretty excited for Colin Miller and Marcus Johansson. Miller will be an excellent top 4 d-man once he filters into that role and Johansson is the kind of role player at left wing this team needs more of. Side note: I’m just really happy we’ve got a GM who knows how to take advantage of cap strapped teams like we saw in the Miller move. If “Trader Tim” was dumb enough to waste a draft pick on negotiating rights for Vesey three years ago, “Poppin Botts” is smart enough to poach playoff performers. Speaking of three years ago Jimmy Vesey probably doesn’t need to be in the top six, but his acquisition is low-key brilliant and if you ask me he’ll look like a steal by November. When it comes to the forwards I know we could still use a right wing, but I don’t think there are many offensively bad incarnations of this top six anymore. Pending that hypothetical Risto trade, the closest thing to a blockbuster this offseason was Alex Nylander for Henri Jokiharju. It was a one-for-one trade and pretty immediately called as a win for the Sabres; as fans we thought Nylander would go as part of a package but there it is! The steal of the summer! For one, whatever switch was flipped in Nylander’s motivational subconscious toward the end of last year’s training camp was fleeting. I’m not suggesting anything dubious but LMFAO had a longer run of quality play than Nylander. I apologized for calling him the lesser Nylander brother last year though that is plainly correct. I think the words of a Chicago blog really have the best words to form my new, final burn of the 2016 first rounder: piss-poor motivation. We may never know what he could’ve been had he given a shit, Chicago isn’t exactly where you go for quality development these days, but the return for him was way more than we could’ve hoped. While I normally struggle to wrap my head around prospect trades this one was a quick learn. Henri Jokiharju is the kind of young defenseman you can’t really put a ceiling on. He could’ve been a regular on Chicago’s blueline had Joel Quenneville not lost his job there. Keeping guys like Marco Scandella and Rasmus Ristolainen around decreases the likelihood Jokiharju starts in Buffalo but he deserves the spot whether he gets it or not. Lawrence Pilut and Zach Bogosian starting the season injured throws some more wrinkles in that story, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Before we wrap up I want to reiterate how hawkish I am on Linus Ullmark. Both him and Carter Hutton fell off a cliff in December and never recovered last season. Those two guys are the main reasons we got a ten-game winning streak. I am crazy enough to say they’re good play early in the season was not a fluke and Ullmark specifically I think will make a compelling case for the starter role. Next up in the world of New Look Sabres is a blog on the Prospect Tournament next weekend. I’ll be in Delaware that weekend but nonetheless you’ll get a post on that as the final appetizer before Training Camp starts and we’re really off to the races! Like, share and comment. New Look Sabres is now a part of my broader Uttaro Sports Plus blog so there’s other stuff to enjoy while you wait for more Sabres content. We don’t have to wait much longer. Football season is here and I’m back in graduate classes so it can’t be too much longer! Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. I wrote a full-fledged Farewell Jeff Skinner piece that was never published because we were blessed enough to keep him. If there is enough interest I can post it or parts of it. Let me know what you think.

[scruffyplayssonic]

And the best movies of all the years I’ve been alive are... (updated for 2017!)

Hey folks, I’ve got of a bit of a tradition that I’ve started. It wasn’t a New Year’s tradition previously, but this feels like the best time to be updating

Back in August 2015, I watched a Youtube video by Jeremy of @cinema-sins, where he was answering fan questions. One question that he addressed was, “What is the best movie of every year that you’ve been alive?” While Jeremy thought this was a great question, he didn’t think one video would be long enough to explore it fully, and he wanted to find another way to answer it. This eventually was done through the Cinema Sins podcast, SinCast. Each week, the cast would discuss the movies of a certain year and then vote on which one they thought was the best, starting with 1975 in episode 14, and then working their way through another year each episode right up until episode 54, where they voted on the best movie for 2015. They then took a break for a few weeks to get caught up on some of last year’s movies that they hadn’t seen yet before finally tackling 2016 in this week’s podcast, episode 58.

I did my own picks for my favourite movie of each year back in August 2015, when I first saw Jeremy’s Q and A video. I really liked that question and was inspired to try and name my own favourites from each year. I reuploaded the updated version of this when the SinCast finished going through it last year, and I’ve been waiting for New Year’s Eve to update it again for this year. I hope you enjoy it. Feel free to comment and/or argue about my choices. And thanks again to @cinema-sins, for providing me with laughs every week in the podcasts and videos they release. :)

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1982: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial This might be a bit of a cheat, since the film came out in June and I wasn’t born until October, but oh well. It’s still the same year.

1983: Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi The first Star Wars movie I was around to see the cinematic release of, although I wouldn’t see it in cinemas (or at all, shamefully) for another 14 years.

1984: The Terminator The original was pretty chilling. This still gets me every time. “Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can’t be bargained with! It can’t be reasoned with! It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear! And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!”

1985: Back to the Future The beginning of what I still believe is the greatest movie trilogy of all time.

1986: Aliens More awesome from James Cameron.

1987: Spaceballs Well, it’s pretty funny. Plus I haven’t seen much else from this year, other than Lethal Weapon.

1988: Die Hard The original and quite possibly the best. More on that later.

1989: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade This was a tough one to pick, as Michael Keaton’s first Batman film, Licence to Kill, AND Back to the Future: Part II all came out this year. But it really has to be the onscreen chemistry of Harrison Ford and Sean Connery!

1990: Back to the Future: Part III At the time, I probably would have picked DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. Ahhh, nostalgia.

1991: Terminator 2: Judgement Day I’m sure most of you who know me and know my favourite movies saw this one coming. This was my very favourite movie of all time for almost twenty years, but recently something has surpassed it. Silence of the Lambs would probably get second place for this year.

1992: Batman Returns It was a hard choice between this and Aladdin, which was my favourite Disney cartoon for a very long time. But since it’s not in my dvd collection and Batman is… Honourable mention goes to A Muppet Christmas Carol, my favourite of the Muppet movies.

1993: The Fugitive Another tough choice, considering that Jurassic Park also came out in 1993. But I just love the battle of wits between Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.

1994: The Lion King Another of Disney’s finest. No contest, although True Lies, Speed, and The Mask were all excellent films too.

1995: Goldeneye (007) This was another tough choice, and Die Hard with a Vengeance came very, VERY close. It’s hard to live up to the awesomeness of that first film, but the partnership with Samuel L. Jackson definitely pays off here. But Goldeneye was the first Bond film I saw in the cinema, and I remember that experience vividly. Pierce Brosnan remains my favourite Bond, even though the next three films he starred in didn’t quite live up to this one.

1996: Scream The Rock and Independence Day were my other main picks from this year, but Wes Craven made an instant classic with Scream, which inspired so many other movies and spoofs. If only they’d stopped after the first Scary Movie…

1997: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Special Edition) It’s a bit of a cheat, but technically the original Star Wars trilogy was re-released in cinemas that year with new “special edition” footage, which is when I first fell in love with the series. From original movies that came out in ‘97, it’s a toss up between Men in Black, Air Force One, and The Fifth Element.

1998: Rush Hour Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker were hilarious in this one. The Mask of Zorro was another great movie, and Deep Impact, which was waaaaaay better than Armageddon. Of course, a Michael Bay film will be obsessed with making things go ka-boom. :P Yes, yes, I know The Rock was a Bay film too. So sue me.

1999: The Matrix Another of my very favourite movies. The effects, the plot, the action… it was just sensational. The Sixth Sense was another very clever movie, and Austin Powers: The Spy who Shagged Me was hilarious! But… c'mon, The Matrix, man!

2000: The Whole Nine Yards I was still a big Friends fan at the time, so I loved Matthew Perry starring alongside Bruce Willis. There was also Gone in 60 Seconds, which is one of my favourite Nick Cage films, The Emperor’s New Groove, and of course, X-Men. And then there’s Mission: Impossible 2… hey, be nice. I watched this a lot when I was in Virginia and homesick for Australia :P

2001: Ocean’s Eleven Such a clever film with a great cast!

2002: The Bourne Identity Spider-Man came pretty close, but Matt Damon was amazing as Jason Bourne. …well, that most recent movie was kind of hit or miss…

2003: Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl Who would have ever guessed that a movie based on a Disneyland ride could be so good?

2004: The Incredibles It was a good year for animation - there was this one, Shrek 2, and Team America: World Police. National Treasure came out too, which I quite like.

2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire There was also The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (a huge improvement on the previous two movies), Batman Begins, and of course, Serenity; the movie that had Firefly fans screaming, “NOOOOOOOOO!!!” near the climax. :P

2006: V for Vendetta I just LOVE this film. Top performances from Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman and John Hurt. The Da Vinci Code was my second choice. Controversial it may be, and people tend to poo-poo Dan Brown a lot, but I loved this movie too. Tom Hanks was the perfect choice for Robert Langdon, and Ian McKellan was brilliant as always. Casino Royale also came out this year, which brought the 007 franchise back from oblivion.

2007: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I had to find a cinema playing this in English in Nanjing - no easy feat! But at least they didn’t butcher it like they did with Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (my second pick, after I saw the uncut movie on DVD). Ocean’s Thirteen was pretty good too, if not as good as the original. And of course, The Bourne Ultimatum. I was on the edge of my seat for that one.

2008: The Dark Knight A no-brainer. One of the best films of the decade, let alone the year. Iron Man was a surprise hit too. Little did we know of what was to follow - and in fact, you’ll be seeing a few MCU movies coming up on the list. Taken was great. Oh, and I quite liked Steve Carrell’s take on Get Smart, even if he didn’t quite capture the original magic of Don Adams.

2009: Up One of my very favourite Pixar movies. Angels & Demons was pretty good too, although not as good as the first movie. Plus Tom Hanks cut his hair - I thought his shaggy do in the first movie suited Robert Langdon better. :P Strange that I liked Angels & Demons better of the books but The Da Vinci Code better of the movies. Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes was great too.

2010: Kick-Ass This one was a surprise, but I loved the deconstruction of the traditional superhero movie they did here. And when I read the original comic, I loved the film even more for the improvements they made. Nicolas Cage was hilariously hammy, but the major star of this one was undoubtedly Chloe Grace Moretz as the tiny killing machine, Hit-Girl. After that, there was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and Toy Story 3.

2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 A fantastic end to a fantastic series. There was also Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which really surprised me. Excellent stuff there. The Adventures of Tintin - an amazing film that tricked me into forgetting it was animated and not live-action several times. Finally, The Muppets, which was such a fantastic return for some of my favourite childhood icons.

2012: The Avengers No surprise there. Honourable mentions go to The Cabin in the Woods, which is a delightfully insane deconstruction of horror movies, Looper, a film I still occasionally stay up late at night scratching my head in confusion over, and Skyfall, which is probably Daniel Craig’s best Bond film so far. I also loved Wreck-It Ralph.

2013: White House Down This one was definitely the film I liked best from 2013What can I say? I love Die Hard, and this was basically Die Hard in the White House, yet it felt original enough to not just be a knock-off. The other ones I liked best would be the Marvels (Iron Man 3, the Wolverine and Thor: The Dark World), Kick-Ass 2, and Gravity, which was absolutely terrifying.

2014: Guardians of the Galaxy Marvel sure knows how to get my bum into the cinema - X-Men: Days of Future Past and Captain America: The Winter Soldier are up there, but Guardians wins out for pure fun (and the delightful company I had in the cinema <3). There was also The LEGO Movie, which I thought was very clever, and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

2015: The Martian When I first made this list in August 2015, my prediction was that Jurassic World would be my favourite of the year. Nope, not by a long shot. The Martian was absolutely amazing - Matt Damon’s ability to keep the audience on the edge of their seats when he’s completely alone on the screen (and on the planet) is a major credit to him as an actor. In fact, I think this film has now actually surpassed Terminator 2 to become my favourite movie of all time. Then of course we have Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, and Terminator: Genisys. …no, really. Stop laughing, I really enjoyed it. :P And then there was Ex Machina, which was a really intriguing film that kept me guessing the entire time.

2016: Captain America: Civil War It’s no secret that I love my comic book movies, and this was definitely my favourite of last year. Civil War (the comic) was the first instance that got me intrigued enough to actually pick up and read a Marvel comic. It really raised an interesting question for me - just how accountable should superheroes be for what they do when fighting crime? Granted, the comic really went too far and made both Cap AND Iron Man look like total dicks, and I was relieved when the film managed to not use some of the more ridiculous ideas, such as a homocidal Robo-Thor-clone or a prison for superheroes in an alternate dimension that literally saps your will to live. On top of that, the film also introduced a fantastic Black Panther, and Tom Holland really nailed what Spider-Man should be. And that airport scene was worth the price of admission all by itself.

2017: Wonder Woman Ohhhhh man, it has been a really good year for superhero movies. We’ve had Tom Holland really prove he is Spider-Man in Homecoming, and the most ridiculous-and-yet-accurate portrayal of Batman ever in the LEGO Batman Movie. Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart’s swansongs in Logan were heartwrenching. Ragnarok and Justice League were a lot of fun (yes, I liked Justice League. Fight me). The Guardians managed to surpass their first movie in Volume 2 with really great character development and humour, and that would probably have been my pick for the year if there wasn’t one other superhero movie I loved even more. But I found Wonder Woman to be truly inspirational. Patty Jenkins,Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and everyone else involved with this movie created something that took my breath away. I cheer every time I see her walk out onto no man’s land, and I scream, “FUCK YEAH!!!” every time that iconic butt-kicking theme music plays. In non-superhero movies... Coco was simply amazing, and is another of Pixar’s very best movies. Star Wars Episode VII: The Last Jedi was fantastic, and I can’t wait to go see it again. And I went into Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with pretty low expectations, but I really enjoyed it and laughed a lot.

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I challenge any of my friends out there who are avid movie lovers to give this challenge a try - it’s not as easy as you’d think. Wikipedia is your friend though - just browse by “(insert year here) in film.” Comments telling me, “Yes, I love that film!” or, “Are you nuts? How could you forget THIS film?” are quite welcome. :)

[63824peace]

Thursday, 13th of october 2005

China successfully launched its second manned spacecraft. Shenzhou-6 blasted off riding a Long March 2F rocket booster. The spacecraft entered orbit within ten minutes. This launch cements China's place as the third nation in spaceflight history able to launch its own citizens out of Earth's atmosphere. Like its predecessors Russia and the United States, China made history by performing the launch without assistance.

My boyhood dream was to fly into outer space, and the dream remains within me. I would trade everything to go into outer space... my job and even my life.

I heard that Shenzhou-6's pilots are astronauts in their early forties. God, I envy them.

Japan has given up the pursuit of a national space program capable of independently launching a Japanese vessel into space. My generation laments the situation. We dreamed about outer space. I definitely want my country to persevere. I want Japanese children to inherit my generation's dream of space travel.

I read in the newspaper that Horiemon (CEO of Livedoor Co., Ltd.) recently began investing in the space industry. Perhaps now we should pin our hopes on the efforts of private companies.

I had my endoscopic examination scheduled today, so I slept in a little. I would feel so much better physically if I could get up like this every day. It seems bad to leave the house after the children though.

Here's how things generally work: the head of the family leaves home in the morning. His family sees him off to work. Then the children leave home to go to either school or work. At night, the father returns last.

"The breadwinner leaves home first." There is a subtle luxury in leaving home before all others and returning last of all. The family head can feel a sense of dignity through these routines. We live in the wrong times for these habits though, since both parents work in more and more families.

I usually get up around 6am because I have a managerial job. I arrive in my office for the morning meeting at 7am. If no morning meeting is scheduled, then I at least arrive by 9am. Kojima Productions head creative staff normally arrives in the office at 10:30am, which means they probably leave their homes between 9am and 10am. If this is so . . . are they seeing their children off to school? I have a hard time imagining that.

I left home for the exam. Of course, I didn't see any students or businessmen on their ways to the train station. I didn't even see anyone walking their dog. I didn't hear a single bark.

"Okay, I get it," I realized. "So this is how it is."

Morning had already passed. I felt guilty for some reason. I walked through the fully awakened city like a student who had overslept. The weather is really nice, by the way. Since my endoscopic procedure has been scheduled for such a sunny day, surely it means that my insides are as sharp, crisp, and clean as a fine autumn day.

Right? I really hope so...

I had to take 1800ml of Magukoloolu-P when I arrived at the hospital. (It was the same medicine that I had to take last night.) I drank two 500ml bottles of a sports drink after that.

Drink, excrete, wait fifteen minutes... drink, excrete, wait fifteen minutes... I repeated the process for two full hours in order to clean my insides. It was the most painful part of the exam. I kept up the masochism until the nurse signaled for me to stop.

The annual procedure cleans out my esophagus, stomach, duodenum, small intestine, and large intestine. The whole affair seems surreal when it is finished. I can drink clear water, and it emerges as an equally clear fluid after running from my top to my bottom. It makes me remember that the human body connects directly from the mouth to the anus.

Life forms originally used the same orifice for consumption and excretion. The mouth and the anus were one. When our great evolutionary ancestors were living in pre-sentience, they only had their intestines to handle food and waste. The complex differentiation that resulted in a separate mouth and anus had not occurred. Maybe this is why human beings have gastrointestinal trouble when we suffer too much stress.

I started reading Eiichi Ikegami's book Shangri La since I had plenty of time to wait. It's interesting. I had started reading the book before, but I quit midway.

The purification procedure concluded and the afternoon examination finally began. Even though I undergo this procedure as an annual checkup, I still feel nervous right before it begins.

I hadn't seen my doctor in six months. He refreshed me as always. He is a warm and welcoming man. The look on his face alone relieves me. I feel eased by a relationship with my doctor based on mutual trust.

The examination concluded by evening. Nothing is wrong inside my body ; I seem to be a pretty healthy man. My doctor and I agreed that we should have dinner together sometime, although I don't know when we'll be able to. He's quite busy.

We can now see inside our own hidden organs thanks to technological developments. I am like another creature inside. Today I met the secret self inside. It's a weird thought, but internal organs carry their own idiosyncratic expressions. Despite what you'd expect, they are even good looking. They looked so nice that I asked my doctor for a copy of the pictures of my innards.

I will be charged with sexual harassment if I hang these pictures around my work booth. I think I'll just keep them inside my desk drawer.

I went into the office at 5pm. It's about time for the first flood of evening's homebound rush hour. I press through those who hurry home. I move toward the Hills. I feel a strange embarrassment as I walk against the crowd's current.

I think as I walk. Nothing remains inside my body. I have nothing to digest. I don't even have the need to digest. My emptied body has an unstrained, natural repose.

I relish the emptiness. I want this feeling to endure a while longer. Perhaps an insight exists that is exclusive to people who forsake digestion: a vision only for the emptied ones. I decided not to eat until nightfall.

What is this lightness inside my body... inside my heart and mind? The laxative must have flushed out all my clotted stress.

I took care of the day's mail at the office. I dealt with the documents that needed my signature. My schedule had filled to the brim while I wasn't looking.

I am supposed to write project plans for both MGS4 and a new PSP project. Once again, I find myself unable to make a single schedule; I don't think I can write them.

My field training outfit has been delivered. We are supposed to be on different teams, so each team's camouflage pattern differs. We have a variety of camo patterns, such as Woodland and Desert. For some reason my team got black camouflage.

I doubt it will help us during daylight. Can't you do something about this Toyopy?

After twenty-four hours, I finally put food in my stomach ; I went to the restaurant ROTI for supper with Kenichiro and Ryan. It was a bit chilly, but we decided to eat on the terrace anyway.

I ordered the Roti Burger, with mushrooms of course. I held back on drinking wine, due to having just had a physical exam.

I took care of miscellaneous mundane tasks at the office, a monotonous affair of ticking checkboxes. Creativity is impossible today.

I stood in front of a four-passenger seat as I rode the train home. This was in the portion of the train connecting the cars. I listened to Depeche Mode's new album on my iPod. Across from where I stood sat two women in their thirties, a middle aged grandpa, and a young girl dressed as though she were older than her age.

I glanced down at them. My eyes paused when I saw three white cords attached individually to both women and the older man. (The young girl didn't have one.) My mind wandered a bit. "All three of them have white cords. Is this a new fashion?"

Then I noticed that I had a white cord myself.

The reality was simpler than I had imagined. The three older passengers in front of me were listening to their iPods. As I gradually realized this, the woman on the left took out her iPod.

The other woman remarked: "Oh! It's just like my iPod-Mini! It's even the same blue color!"

While I thought about this, the old grandpa took out his iPod. "W-What?!" I thought. "This old man has an iPod-Mini too?!"

I was taken aback. I own the same device as this grandpa?! I admit that I'm something of a grandpa myself, but it's still depressing to know that I have the same thing as this guy whose hair is so thinned that it looks like a barcode when combed to the side.

Few things are as awkward or irritating as having a model identical to others. Still, we should be listening to different music even though we have the same type of device. I wonder if we could invent an iPod that changes color according to the music it is playing, kind of like a chameleon changes color according to its environment.

I pushed my iPod deeper into my pocket so that no one would notice the similarities. The train arrived at the station. Passengers who needed to switch trains exited. The woman who hadn't shown her iPod put hers into her bag.

"Thank God," I sighed. "She has an iPod Shuffle."

Maybe I ought to trade my iPod-Mini for the newly released iPod-Nano. It's less of an I-Pod and more of a We-Pod now that everyone owns one.

I swam at the gym just before midnight. I need to have physical stamina for next week's field training.

Well... technically that's true. I had another reason for swimming tonight though. I wanted to know how my internal purification had affected me.

I only had an undigested burger in my body. I suspected that I had lost a lot of weight…  no, I was sure of it. I slowly mounted the scales.

"What?! I only lost half a kilogram!"

Is that all I get for my pain and discomfort?

According to Sean Penn's character Paul Rivers, we all lose 21 grams of weight when we die. A person's soul therefore weighs 21 grams. So… what's the total weight of a person's stress?

I drank a chu-hai after I returned home, even though it's normally forbidden for someone in my position. Then I went to bed.