Evil Tracey

QotD: NFL Check-in

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:08:39 -0800

It's Week 12 of the NFL season. How's your team faring?
Wing and Lowe are now coaching at ~~8-Drinks~~ 8-Rinks.
Oh, you meant FOOTBALL teams?
Well, Barcelona beat Real Madrid 1-0. I like their jerseys. (I actually didn't watch NFL football this weekend. Or any weekend, for that matter.)

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Holiday Celebration on Ice

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 13:53:26 -0800

Right now, the latest Disson figure skating special is on King 5. It's a Christmas show, featuring REO Speedwagon (who I mistook for Air Supply. Silly me.). And a bunch of skaters.

Anyways, I was thinking of Disson skating specials that will never be produced:

Tribute to Vote for the Worst
Tribute to Milli Vanilli
Tribute to the Shaggs
Tribute to William Hung
Adventures in Success (with musical guest Carly Hennessey Smithson)
Tonya Harding and Friends
Skate for the Liver (hosted by ~~Drunksana~~ Oksana Baiul)
Fundraiser for D.A.R.E. (hosted by Nicole Bobek)
Festivus Celebration on Ice (with special musical guest Jason Alexander) - Jason Alexander is actually a really good singer; I'd actually watch this!

I looked at the cast for the shows - Princess Jorbacca is actually singing (howling) in one. It's a fundraiser for underprivileged Wookiees. Disson needs to invite a more worthy American Idol, like Sanjaya.

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David Archuleta on tour!

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:26:13 -0800

David Archuleta kicked off his tour a few days ago. One of the songs he performed was a cover of Eva Cassidy's "Fields of Gold." He first heard it when Michelle Kwan skated to it at the 2002 Olympics exhibition.

David Archuleta Salt Lake City Fields of Gold

I'm just glad that he was inspired by Michelle and not by Wing & Lowe.

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Finally, a museum about the important things in life!

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:19:01 -0800

The Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum celebrates the joy known as ramen. It opened in 1994.

Homer visits the Shin-Yokohama Raumen Museum

The trim atop the entrance looks like ramen bowls.

Ornamentation Atop Raumen Museum

The main floor has an exhibit of ramen history and culture. And a gift shop (yes, they sell a Ramen Hello Kitty).

Exhibit

Statue of Ramen Vendor

This is the guy that would bring the ramen cart around the neighbourhood.

The lower floor has nine ramen restaurants from different regions of Japan. It was designed to replicate Tokyo in 1958 (Showa 33). According to the brochure:

The mood from the good old days of Showa fills visitor with nostalgia and an appetite to taste ramen. And importantly, instant noodles were invented in 1958. The invention transformed Japan into a nation of ramen connoisseurs.

P1020491

P1020482

P1020494

There was music from the era played through the lower floor. Naturally, there was a lot of Elvis music.

On the way back to the train station, I saw this:

Advert for King Creole store in Shin-Yokohama

The store sells Elvismemorabilia and all that is Elvis. The guy working behind the counter is even dressed like Elvis (the 50s Elvis, not the fat '70s Vegas Elvis).

I must tell my evil, Elvis-hating coworker Lord Thingy about all this, so that he could enjoy it too!

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New Recurring Feature: Douchebag of the Month

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 21:16:07 -0800

On the last Friday of the Month (or thereabouts), I plan to write about a douchebag in my universe. The Urban Dictionary has a number of definitions; pick your favourite one and go from there.

I've already mentioned a few douchebags already here, like BLASPHEMOUS Sanjaya disser BBBBBlake Lewis, Greasy, Sweaty, Song-Stealing Aussie Douchebag Michael Johns, and Dead Wife Danny Gokey. And, I'm sure that next season's "American Idol" will spawn a new crop of douchebags. If not, there's always Randy, Kara, and Simon. While I'm waiting for "Idol" to start, I'll write about some douchebags outside of "Idol" land. Where to start?

Today's douchebag is a regular in the Dance Fit and Zumba classes at the gym. I warmly refer to her as Mule Kick. Mule Kick is a gym diva of the highest order. For starters, she comes into classes late and pushes her way to the front row. Even if the front row is crowded, she expects people to move over and make room for her. I hate to tell her this, but Len, Carrie-Ann, and Bruno are not hiding out in our Zumba class, waiting to sign her up for "Dancing with the Stars."

Once she is in the class, she acts as though she is the only person there. She takes up a lot of space, flailing her arms and kicking her legs, but doesn't respect anyone else's. In the Dance Fit class, there are a few routines that feature doing back kicks. Mule Kick does the back kicks high, like a mule. (Hence her name.) Anyone who is unfortunate enough to be behind her runs the risk of getting their teeth kicked in.

I initially cut her some slack because I thought she was doing what she was doing out of classic newbie cluelessness, but she's been at the gym for several months now. I wonder if she ever got called out on her rudeness. Someone else in Dance Fit gave her the stink eye.

Anyways, for narcissism and rudeness beyond the call of duty, I salute you, Mule Kick.

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The Second Sign of the Apocalypse

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:12:07 -0800

First, Jamie Sale and Craig Simpson won "Battle of the Blades." Now Donny Osmond (and partner) won "Dancing with the Stars." What's next?

Notice that Sanjaya didn't appear on either show. Big mistake.

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News Spews

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:21:24 -0800

So the Kindle is now available to Canadians (albeit NOT on Amazon.ca). I wonder if Amazon will bring out a model that's waterproof. Then it could be taken into the bathroom. I mean, didn't they take into account that some people like reading in the tub (or while sitting on the toilet)?

The Oxford University Press picked "unfriend" as their word of 2009. It means the act of removing someone as a friend on a social networking site (like Facebook). I thought the term was "de-friend."

Oh, and Jamie Sale and Craig Simpson won Battle of the Blades last night. I wanted to gag. Jamie and David's syrupy skating programs (La Vie en Rose, anyone?) gave me serious hypoglycemia. I think I will have to watch a DVD set worth of CSI episodes to regain my equilibrium. (CSI is just plain gross. Criminal Minds is also gross, but marginally less gratuitously gross than CSI. Quincy covered the same material, only with less gore.)

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Mmmmmm....chocolate. Double chocolate...triple chocolate!

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 21:07:33 -0800

Apparently, Hans and Fritz (the guys who temporarily bought the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant from Mean Monty Burns) were wrong; Germany isn't the ONLY land of chocolate. There were some interesting chocolates in Japan, too. So I decided to try some of them out.

Over here, we have KitKat bars in chocolate. Pretty dull, huh? In Japan, the KitKat bars come in different flavours. Every time I visited a kiosk (on the subway or the train) or convenience store, I checked to see if there were any interesting flavours.

While shopping in the duty free shop at Narita Airport, I noticed that each city/ region is represented by a different flavour of KitKat bar. Kyoto, for example, is represented by green (matcha?) tea. Kobe is represented by Kobe pudding. And Tokyo is represented by...shoyu. That's right; soy sauce-flavoured KitKats. Interesting.

KitKat

This flavour is "Kinako ohagi aji," or soybean flour covered rice cake. It was actually pretty good. This video came in handy identifying the different types of chocolate.

This was a bit more mundane (but nonetheless tasty):

Homer with Caramel KitKat bits

I came across a few other chocolates. The Morinaga bar is plum vinegar flavoured; it actually tasted like a liqueur chocolate.

Aero and Morinaga Chocolate Bars

and these snacks.

Homer with Tabasco Corn Puff Thingies

Of course, this brought to mind the following bit of dialogue from Homer's last visit to Japan:

At Sumo Stadium, Homer and Bart are among the spectators. A sumo wrestler sprinkles salt on the ring. Homer eats a soft pretzel.
Homer:    Mmm, fifty-dollar pretzel. Hey, what's Baby Huey doing?
Bart:     [reading a folded piece of paper] It says here they throw salt
          before they wrestle to purify the ring.
Homer:    [looks at his pretzel, then walks in the ring to the wrestler] Spare
          some salt, Tubby?
Wrestler: Tubby? [Japanese, subtitled:] The name "Tubby" is hurtful, as my
          weight problem is glandular. Are you going to eat that? [takes
          pretzel from Homer] Yoink.
Homer:    Hey, that's mine!

The corn puff thingies were tasty, but not as hot as I would have liked.

ETA (11/21/2009): I found Japanese KitKats at T&T! Yayyyy! (Sweet potato and black sesame, in case anyone's wondering. If I can keep myself from eating it before it stops raining, I'll get a picture of Homer with it!)

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One Fish, Two Fish, Blue Fish, Blowfish

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:39:56 -0800

So, while Homer was in Japan (of course, I took him along), he went off in search of fugu. Which he found in Shin-Sekai, in Osaka.

Homer in search of Fugu

This is how fugu was viewed on "The Simpsons."

Poison...poison...poison...poison...tasty fish!

And this is how it's viewed in Shin-Sekai. (Actually, blowfish are kind of cute. For fish.)

Fugu is for Lovers

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Starbucks-in'

nobody@vox.com(Evil Tracey) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:39:19 -0800

Marge: I'd like to see the Japanese take on the club sandwich!  I bet it's
       smaller and more efficient.

Today, I nearly smacked a few people upside the head in Starbucks. The place is packed, there were people who wanted to sit down and eat/ drink (like me), and some of the people in the seats were just sitting there (I guess they had finished their coffee), doing homework or gabbing with their companion. There's nothing wrong with doing that if it's quiet, but if they're not eating or drinking, why can't they vacate the seat for people who are?

I wonder if this happens in Starbuckses around the world. Maybe not in London, because (IIRC) you get charged extra if you want to eat in the store.

Today, I sampled some of the offerings in a Japanese Starbucks. They serve coffee jelly frappuccinos. The coffee jelly frappuccinos taste more or less like a regular frappuccino, except there's little chunks of coffee jelly in the drink. The coffee jelly can be a little difficult to suck up through a straw.

Since it's November, Starbucks is preparing for Christmas (can't they let us get over Halloween first?). Which means that the Christmas blend and some of the Christmas pastries are out. (I didn't check to see if there were eggnog lattes or peppermint mochas, though) Anyways, my favorite Christmas-related item is this thing called a Cranberry Bliss Bar. It's a gingerbread brownie -type of thing with cream cheese icing, topped with chopped dried cranberries. When I was in London a few years back, I ordered one there; it was a gingerbread cake topped with cream cheese icing and chopped dried cranberries. In Tokyo, it's a gingerbread brownie type of thing, but it tastes a bit different and I don't think that there's a cream cheese icing.

The Starbuckses in Japan also sell these really cool Thermoses - but they're 3,800 yen. Ouch.

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