Cruftbox: My Box of Cruft

Some of you don’t believe there really is berry-flavored coffee.

I’m not joking…

Tonight I went with my cousin Richard to see the original Godzilla movie. The Godzilla movie that most Americans are familiar with is not the one that was originally released in Japan. In the American version, Raymond Burr is wandering around as a narrator, added in 20 minutes to the film. TO fit him in, 30 minutes of the original were removed.
Richard is a true Godzilla fan. He gets invited to Japan for screening of new Godzilla films by Toho. He knows everything there is to know about Godzilla and monster films in general.
As he explained, the film was made in Japan after the Lucky Dragon incident, where a Japanese fishing boat was hit by radioactive fallout from an American nuclear bomb test. The Japanese public was outraged by incident and the Americans tried to cover things up.
Considering the timing of the release of Godzilla is important to remember when watching the original movie.
The movie tells the story of Godzilla being awakend from his slumber by H bombs and the subsequent devastation of Tokyo and other Japanese cities during his rampage. Most Godzilla movies show the battle between the Godzilla and humans in a campy way, but in the original, it’s quite serious.
Godzilla represents and unstoppable force of nature that was awaken by Man’s playing with powerful weapons. The analogy of this to the effects of the Bikini fallout on Japan’s food chain are obvious. During the H bomb tests, the fallout traveled on ocean currents and into the fish. Thousands of tons of fish were destroyed since they were contaminated.
The mysterious Dr. Serizawa has invented a powerful device known as the Oxygen Destroyer. He agonizes over using it even though it is the only things that can stop Godzilla. He fears that the device can be used as a terrible weapon.

In the lower left corner is the powerful Oxygen destroyer. Phear it.
If you want to know what happens, you’ll need to go see the movie. It’s well worth the time to go see the original Godzilla.

Coffee purists, you are warned to click away, lest you be offended.
This morning I stopped at 7-11 with Michele for morning beverages. For Michele it’s a Super Big Gulp, for me, it’s a cup of coffee.
7-11 has redoubled their efforts in the coffee arena and now sport a Coffee Station with probably eight or more different brews ready to go at any time. They have the usual cinnamon, hazelnut and vanilla coffees most days. Around Thanksgiving they had Pumpkin Flavor and at Christmas, they had Peppermint flavor. Most of the time you get just a hint of flavor.
Today I tried Berrylicious Coffee. Let me tell you, it was a blast of berry goodness that I wasn’t expecting. You need to get your sorry butt into a 7-11 ASAP and try it. I’m not kidding, it’s tasty!
It’s the middle of the afternoon and I want another cup and we only have a crappy Starbucks in the building. Starbucks needs to give up on the nasty, burnt roast crap they have and get hip with the berry coffees.
7-11 is the cutting edge of coffee technology. You heard it here first.

I finished my latest book, Ilium, a week or so ago. I didn’t get around to write about it until today. Seems fitting though, I received the book at Christmas as part of a Great Stack of Wishlist Titles and kept being put off to reading it by the shear size of the book. In hardcover, it’s 592 pages and several inches thick.
Once I got reading though, I couldn’t put it down. I should known. I read Simmon’s Hyperion Series at a similar furious pace.
Ilium – Dan Simmons
The story takes place in the far future, with plenty of high technology in every corner of the solar system. We follow three basic story lines, the humans on what appears to be idyllic paradise on earth, sentient robots exploring the outer solar system, and what appears to be an exact reenactment of the Trojan War, including the Greek Gods.
Literature plays a large role in the book and it would be good to have a passing knowledge of Homer’s Illiad, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, and Marcel Proust. I’ve read the Illiad and much Shakespeare, but not much Proust.
The story begins with life moving along normally for the characters with no sign of the drama about to begin. As Simmons has done in other novels, he draws the seperate story lines tighter and tighter together, leaving mini-cliffhangers along the way. He puts a lot of details in early in the story and you will find yourself checking back to the earlier chapters during the book to confirm that it all really does fit together so tightly. Simmons has obviously planned the novel out in great detail before getting to the actually writing of the prose. Science Fiction readers adore consistency and continuity and it’s here in the is novel in droves.
The main theme I read was the idea that all is not as it seems and that those that appear to be in charge, are not really in charge. The book is a series of unveilings to the characters that they are not as powerful or weak as they have thought previously. Interesting thoughts in these days of global hegemony…
The technology in the book is secondary to the main story line of rebellion and appearance versus reality of power, but it is interesting enough to to keep a geek’s mind spinning at the possibilities mentioned. While not firmly in the realm of hard sc-fi, the book does have a goodly amount of fun ideas.
The ending is a cliffhanger leading to the second novel in the series, Olympos, due in the fall. I anxiously await the release.
Dan Simmons has a good web site, full of information and even a message board that the author reads and replies to regularly.

On our way to pick up the kids today, we stopped at the Japanese supermarket to pick up a few things. I was mainly after a set of bento boxes that I could put the children’s lunches into for school. One of my daily duties is making the children their lunch for school. I use far too many plastic baggies to do this, so the bento boxes will be good.
Of course, I took a look at the coffee section. The Japanese may not have invented coffee and iced coffee, but hey have done a damn good job of perfecting it. Here are a few cans I had not seen before.

Who can resist these cans? Not I. I especially like the ‘On Business’ can. Also, the ‘naked beans’ are in intriguing.
For a few months now, we’ve been drinking tea more in the morning, much more thatn coffee. In fact, Michele has placed the coffee maker in the cupboard and we only have an electric water kettle on the counter now. To get my coffee now, I have resorted to instant coffee. It’s not bad.
I picked up a bottle of Japanese instant coffee on a whim. I saw a bottle of UCC Taste No. 114. I’m a sucker for any food product with a graph on the package.

There is a coffee called Taste No. 117 and the graph somehow compares them on a two dimensional graph. I cannot read Japanese, so I wasn’t sure whether to buy 114 or 117. I decided that the red dot for No. 114 denoted danger and so, that meant it was the coffee for me.
I’ll find out tomorrow how it tastes.
Eventually when I visit Japan, I fear I will not sleep because all I want to do is drink Japanese coffee endlessly.

Michele and I went out of town for our Anniversary. The kids were with my parents and Michele made reservations at a hotel in Indian Wells, near Palm Springs.
On the 60 Freeway, there was a brushfire that slowed down traffic to a near halt. We spent 90 minutes going about 8 miles to get past the problem. I was fit to be tied.
Once we made it out toward the desert, we saw the windmills.

There were several hundred large windmills in the canyon valley generating electricity. I twas amzing to see them all spinning.
We got to the hotel, took a break and had a nice dinner. The next morning we ate breakfast outside on the room patio while we watched hummingbirds flit around. Quite relaxing.

Michele wanted to do some shopping at the Outlet Center at Cabezon, so we did the tourist thing and wandered around looking for deals. I’m not a big shopper, but I did indulge myself at the Brooks Brothers store. They make a line of dress shirts that are called ‘No Iron’. Take it form me, they really mean it. You can wash the shirt, put in in the dryer and it pops out ready to wear. No ironing needed and it looks great. I cannot resist them.
After our fill of shopping we hit the road for home ready to start the next ten years of marriage.

Ten years ago today Michele and I stood under a canopy in Cincinnati and said “I do.”.
Ten years has seen us all over the world from China to San Francisco to a Uhaul driving across the midwest.
Ten years has seen the birth of our daughters and the deaths of family members we grew up with.
Ten years has seen us go from a 1200 baud modem to broadband and from one Mac laptop to six PCs.
Ten years has seen us go from unruly to respectable and from young to ‘aging well’.
Ten years of reading the newspaper together every morning.
Ten years of arguing the value of video games.
Ten years of arguing the value of art.
Ten years of gaining new friends and drifting from old ones.
Ten years of dealing with her endless bottles of ‘product’ in the bathroom.
Ten years of dealing with my endless numbers of t-shirts.
Ten years of unfunny fraternity jokes and confusing photography and quilting facts.
Ten years, and we still argue about how to organize the fridge.
Ten years and she still leaves the butter out till it melts.
Ten years and I still don’t pick up my socks.
Ten years of love and happiness.
Ten years I wouldn’t change.

Today Michele and I saw a coyote.
Last night around four-something in the morning Michele heard sirens and cops and firemen show up behind our house. Behind our house is a power line right-of-way (think open space), and behind that is a small apartment building. Of course, I slept through this and only woke up when the turned on the friggin’ chainsaw at about five.
We went outside to see what they were doing, but with my eyes, I couldn’t see crap and went back to bed. Michele’s conjecture was that they were removing a 800 lb. person from the apt. and were widening the door with the chainsaw. I asked, “Why would they do that at 5AM?”, turned over and went back to sleep.
After taking the kids to school, we drove around back to see what had happened to the building. Evidently there had been a small fire and the firemen had been using the chainsaw in some fireman way.
I looked into the right-of-way and saw a coyote.

I tried to sneak closer for a better shot with the trust phonecam, but the coyote started to walk away. Immediately, I ran after the coyote. Don’t know what I was doing by running after the coyote or what I would if I caught up to it…
Just something in the back of the brain saying strongly to me, “GET COYOTE NOW!!!”. Instinct ranks high in my book and I tend to follow it. So there I was in my work clothes, running flat out after a coyote at 8:30 in the morning for no apparent reason.

Tonight I was folding laundry and watching my DVD of Tenacious D, the greatest band in the world.
Michele walked out of the bathroom and into the bedroom while the video for Tribute was playing. I said, “Shel, check it out, it’s Tenacious D!” She watched the end of the video.
I said, “Do you want to watch a few of their short movies?”, and I picked up the remote to play one. She said she just wanted to go to sleep. I replied, “But it’s Tenacious D…”.
Then she said, “Tenacious D sucks.”
Anyone know a good divorce attorney?
UPDATE: Michele has responded…

I made a page of the photos I took at E3.

Photos of E3 2004
I also made a page with some of the E3 booth babes.
Hopefully you will enjoy them, I’m tired and heading to bed…