- My GF (girlfriend) and I watched the first 2 seasons of 24 and now we're halfway through Season 3. WARNING: If you watch even one episode of 24, you will get hooked. Don't say I didn't warn you. Now I'm busy looking for the CTU ringtone for my keitai.
- Remember earlier when I was telling you about the laptop that died? The GF and I started using her old laptop. Well that didn't last long, as just 2 weeks later, it died as well (some HD problem that can't be fixed). So we caved in and split the cost on a new PC. With that, plus the cost of several big appliances purchased this summer, I'm set back for a while. Sorry, guys... can't go drinking for some time.
- On the first day of summer vacation, I experienced my first Japanese funeral. It was my GFM (girlfriend's mother)'s cousin. She was a wonderful woman - always very nice to me. The funeral was not too much unlike one in the States... that is, until the part where we put the bones into the urn. The Japanese tradition is, after burning the body, the family uses these chopsticks to pick the best leftover bones and bone fragments from the ashes to save in the urn. Since I'm kind of in the family, they asked me to participate as well. I tell you... my stomach was turning a lot.
What's up, Herman? I just tried to email you, but I guess I don't have your current email address. I still have my yahoo address, so you can email me if you have the time. Cremation's common in Hong Kong, too. There's not much room for burial plots, though there are cemetaries. My wife told me about walking around, looking at the different photos on headstones, seeing how young some of the people were when they died.
ReplyDeleteHey Jesse, good to hear from you. Yeah, not much room here for burial, either. I get that, but picking up charred human bones with chopsticks? That I don't get. Seems disrespectful.
ReplyDeleteBy the time I got to the third season of 24 I was sick of seeing Kim Bauer survive so many certainly fatal "accidents" without a scratch on her. I just couldn't take it. I'm glad you enjoyed it though.
ReplyDeleteThe chopsticks part of the burial does seem rather odd. Maybe it's some sort of intimacy thing, or a symbol for partaking of the body as partaking in the lineage. Are chopsticks commonly used for anything else other than eating.
My wife and I use it sometimes to clean the hair out of the gutter on the balcony, but that's about all I can think of.
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