shigajet

I also have a nifty little optical mouse that came with my Fujitsu laptop. As for my *old* Toshiba laptop - it's still working...along with a used Microsoft ball mouse.

Remember those bands/singers from the 80's? I'm sure some of you out there can recall names like Nik Kershaw, Baltimora, The Romantics, A Flock Of Seagulls, Naked Eyes, Big Country...the list goes on and on.So..do you have a favourite band from that era and have you ever wondered what happened to them as time went by?

Never got to see Platoon (shame on me, I guess.) I was more into the comedies at that time - particularly the high school movies. Oh well, guess I'll catch it when I have the opportunity.

Just thought I'd ask anyone out there if the have/use iTunes on their PC. I've been using it regularly (even though I don't have an iPod) to record and play music. Who else has been pleased with it so far?

Hi again! I'm sure there are some of you out there who grew up durng the 1980's - a time of style over substance, computers began to become popular (remember the Commodore 64?), hair bands dominated the airwaves, and Pac-Man was the king of the arcade games... ..which brings me to the topic of movies. What's your favourtie movie rom the 80's? The ones that stood out in my mind were the John Hughes films - like The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Weird Science and Sixteen Candles. How about you? What were some of your favourites from the 80's?

Recently, several cities and towns join together to make a larger city in.order to make public services more efficient. To list a few examples:In 1998, Toronto became a megacity (and the term they used for this is alamalgamation), where many of the boroughs within Metro Toronto joined to make a large single government for the whole city. Same thing happened to Hamilton.Same thing has been happening in Japan, too. In Shiga prefecture (where I live), at least 5 "new" cities have been made (through what they termed "annexation") over the past year and more will be on the way.So what do you think - is annexation/amalgamation good or bad for a municipality for both the short and long term？

Hmmm...kinda tough, although I'm always curious as to what the future would be like what with so many advances - especially over the past decade or so.So I think it'd be really cool to live in the next millenium. My vision for that era? Cars that fly in the air will be the norm, public transport on demand (thus, no set schedules) would be among those advances.

I enjoyed the Flying Circus, too. Saw every episode. Too bad John Cleese left after the third season. There were a few gems in the fourth season (simply named Monty Python ) like Mr. Neutron and the one with some coming in to a department store to buy a pet ant. Apart from those, it wasn't nearly as good as when they had John Cleese with the group. Other favs from the Flying Circus days was the Argument sketch and the one where some guy (played by Terry Jones) was attempting to jump across the English channel - and then went on to try other stunts, like eating an Anglican cathedral, as so forth.

Believe me, it was all over the news in Japan. I don't live in that area, but there were a lot of people who were on their way back from Tokyo. Case in point, the earthquake caused the Shinkansen (bullet train) to be derailed near one of the stations-and that train service has NEVER been derailed up until the earthquake happened.

Hello again!ANother quick question - has anybody out there ever read any works by Haruki Murakami? If so, which books did you like?The first stories I read was "A Wild Sheep Chase" and its sequel "Dance Dance Dance". Some time later, I also read "South of the Border, West of the Sun". I've liked all of them, although "Sheep" and "Dance" (both set in Hokkaido) made an impression on me.Anyone out there with their recommendations?

Hey all! I thought I'd ask any Monty Python fans out there what their favourite MP movie is? Feel free to add any famous quotes from that movie, too! For me, it's Monty Python and the Holy Grail - hands down!...and my favourite quote? Too many to mention, but here's a few that come to mind. What is your favourite colour? Blue! - No, YellAHHHHHH! In the frozen land of Nador, they were forced to eat Sir Robin's minstrels - and there was much rejoicing. What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? What do you mean? An African or a European swallow? Uh...Er I don't know that? AHHHHH! Help! Help! I'm being repressed! Bring on your favourite movies - and any quotes, if you wish! Cheers!

Okay, this happened a few years ago so it's not new at all, but it has happened here in Japan as well. Finger found in rice ball

Okay, this happened a few years ago so it's not new at all, but it has happened here in Japan as well. Finger found in rice ball

Man...that IS sick, but it's not the first time I heard of somthing like that. It' happened here in Japan a while back when somebody found a finger in one of the rice balls sold from a convenience store. I'll see if I can Google up the story again to share with you.

Although I haven't been to either a McD's or KFC in a long while, I'd go with KFC for their chicken - and the chicken wraps. Since I'm in Japan, my options for quick meals also include curry and rice, pork cutlets and ramen (Chinese noodles).

You might want to try airmp3.com. This site does a search through the several mp3 sites for you. If it has the artist/song, the site will generate a list of mp3s to choose from.

Ditto for Guy Ritchie, but I also like Vincent Gallo's "Buffalo 66" and Kevin Smith's "Clerks".As for commercial directors, gotta go with James Cameron - mainly for the two Terminator movies he directed.

Okay, here goes:CloserHaloDream OnA Good HeartWhip ItI Feel LovedCleanNew LifeThe FlyBig ThingOrdinary WorldCome UndoneAck! Ran out of time. Blanked out for a few seconds and ended up with 12 songs.Still, not too shabby.

Well, I do watch anime, but not nearly as much as I did about 8 years ago. Among the first anime shows I watched was Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, Marmalade Boy, Sailor Moon, Video Girl Ai, Macross Plus, among others. Since I came to Japan, however, I've really only watched Inuyasha on a regular basis...plus the odd episode of One Piece and Meitantei Conan. I've started to watch a few episodes of the Black Jack TV series.

My top 3 ideal jobs would be....1. Web Designer2. Graphic Designer3. Writer

I like a lot of 80's music myself, although I also like jazz, classical, folk, etc.As for specific bands, I've always liked Depeche Mode, U2 and Barenaked Ladies(and hey, these bands are still around today!). As well, I like Japanese pop/rock bands like Mr Children, Every Little Thing and globe.The problem is lately it's getting very difficult to keep track of what's playing on the radio and TV stations...guess I'll stick to what I grew up with.

I personally think FF 7 has the best story and gameplay.FF 9 was a great mixture of the old and new. FFX was visually stunning and can involve strategy in the battles, but it was very linear.

I like reading manga, although I haven't had much time to read it these days.I have to admit that over time I've also narrowed down to what kind of manga I would usually read. When I first got into manga, I would read any comic that was popular at that time. These days, I've become more selective in what I read.I've always liked Rumiko Takahashi's works, and I'm currently reading Inuyasha - and yes, that is its original language (I'm on volume 37 now...too bad the TV series stopped at around volume ) Another one I've started to read recently is Black Jack by the one of the great manga artists of all time - Osamu Tezuka. (Remember Astroboy, anyone?)

So the new 3G mobile phones are quickly becoming a success - in Japan, at least - with Vodaphone leading the way.How about in your area? Have the 3G phones arrived on the market and are they selling like hotcakes?

My least favourite sport? Golf...and baseball. Watching it on the tube is really boring. I'd enjoy it more by playing it rather than watching it.On the other extreme, I love basketball, volleyball, hockey and lacrosse.