So it’s been a while. I logged in to my site earlier this evening to find that I have over 4,000 comments– all spam. So I’ll be turning off comments for a while, til I can get that cleaned up. Not much has been going on around here. Work has been good. Busy, but good. I am actually applying to be a classroom facilitator tomorrow– if I’m accepted I’ll teach classes to new partners and newly promoted shift supervisors. I have to give a presentation tomorrow, and then I’ll find out if I’m in! Tina’s doing well– she survived her first major round of exams for the year, took a day off, and is already diving right back into things. But the real reason I wanted to post today was that I found that Google Maps covers Japan! I’m not sure how long they’ve had it (I think a while), but here is a map of my old neighborhood. (Satellite map– I lived near the big green park in the middle). One of the cool things, though: those tiny icons are convenience stores! You can see three Circle K’s in this map, all of which I use to frequent. Speaking of old neighborhoods, the green area in the middle of this map, with the lake in the middle, is my old Oxford stomping grounds. This is fun– I might update later with maps of other places I’ve called home. Anyhoo, ciao for now!

These shockwave games are soooo much fun. I’ve spent all evening playing with them. Incredible.

How to Bow is a site with tons of detailed cultural info about Japan. The site has three in-depth (i.e. long) videos series about various aspects of Japanese culture that relate to the visiting foreigner. Some of it seems a little stereotypical, but most of it is right on. I think I’ve made every mistake they warn against. via MilkAndCookies.Com

ArtServe, at the Australian National University, is a huge collection of art and architecture related photos from all over the world. And I mean huge– nearly 200 gigs of photos. My favorites so far are the old Black-and-white photos of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

I saw this photo on Yahoo!’s most emailed photos page. I had no idea about the inluenza epidemic of 1918. Kind of puts SARS to shame. Here’s a brief history of influenza. This site has a ton of links about the 1918 outbreak. About.com’s influenza page.

This is too awesome… go to google, and search for “adam graunke.” The ILAGA site, dedicated to me, Adam Graunke, is the fifth site listed!!! That is awesome because that’s all I ever wanted from that site: I wanted people who searched for Adam Graunke to come across a site that would enable them to get into touch with me. Seems like it’s working better than planned, at least for now.

the video for the song hell bent by kenna is one of the most amazing things i’ve seen on tv in a while. apparently the album came out yesterday, but it doesn’t seem like i can buy it online yet. i was looking on google to see what i could find, and there isn’t much. i guess that the video was actually a short film done by someone else a couple of years ago to a different song. awesome awesome stuff.

i just updated the links page… it’s kind of funny how many links i have in there. it’s like i collect ‘em or something. most of the sites look pretty cool, but with the exception of metafilter, i don’t visit them very often. go on, though, have a look… there’s some good stuff in there, i promise.