Last week the hard drive in my little web server died. I restored the system and reloaded as much data as I could from backup, but the last good backup I had for my database was from late May. What this means is that the norlosers address book site has reverted to data from May. If you've made changes since then, please log in and redo your updates. Sorry about that.

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The commode on my hotel room is electronic and has buttons. It also has helpful illustrations showing the force and flow of the water that pushing one of these buttons would send to your buttocks.

Of course, I forgot to bring a camera.

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I'm heavily involved with the election in Japan, where polls show the ruling Liberal Democratic Party is going to going to get its ass handed to it by the Democratic Party of Japan. This would be only the second time in more than 50 years that the LDP lost. The first time, about 16 years ago, it was out of power for all of 11 months before it came right back.

This is one of those work trips were I travel to an exotic (to me) place and spend the entire time in an office. Let's hope there's time for a field trip somewhere in there.

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This is a quote from a man who kidnapped an eleven year-old girl, kept her imprisoned for 18 years and fathered two children by her. I saw it and thought, "yeah...you keep telling yourself that, buddy."

In other news, I was riding up through Central Park yesterday on the way to Ward's Island. Just south of 72nd Street there was a red light and pedestrians crossing the road, so I slowed down to a crawl to let them pass. It was at this point that I slammed into by a Lance Armstrong wannabe.

The good thing is, I learned that my tough little bicycle can totally fuck up a fancy road bike with no more damage than my saddle being knocked off kilter. The bad thing is, I've suffered a zillion injuries riding bicycles over the years, but I've never gotten an injury like one that I got last night. It's an abrasion right above my waistband in the middle of my back. It's like some sort of scabby tramp stamp.

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Norloser may be wondering about the name of slugson (known as Dianthus on my blogs, after the common name of Dianthus barbatus). Is it perhaps a basketball tribute, after Self Forrest? A nod to the school of journalistic excellence that gave Mr. Guapo his official education? Or the children's book award that slugmother had students vote for each year? Maybe the name is just a name that sounds good followed by a middle name of plantnerd's father? Perhaps the name came to plantnerd in a dream. Maybe slugson is named after a chemist, an Australian rules football player or Confederate general.
All could be true, but a moment's investigation makes it perfectly clear that slugson was named after the famous filibuster, pirate and early ruler of Nicaragua, because, really, could slug and plantnerd resist suggesting "filibuster" as a career?
Mr. Guapo, there are slightly more images of slugson on sparkling squirrel, although not many.

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That is all.

Actually, did you know you can't buy an extension cord in Hong Kong? You have to buy a power strip with a realllly long cable. If you can find one. One a recent trip to get one I couldn't find one longer than three meters, and I needed something like six. One place offered to make one for me, to the tune of $130 Hong Kong, or about $17 U.S. It took me a while to realize I was getting the foreigner price. I didn't stick around for the final product.

Also, I'm really tired. I don't know much about North Korea at 4 a.m. Trust me.

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I recently moved to Lincoln Place between Washington and Classon Avenues. This puts me on the Crown Heights definitively states that the border between the neighborhoods is Washington Avenue. Most older New Yorkers hew to this view as well, but this map illustrates why new residents of the disputed zone between Washington and Franklin resist the characterization of the blocks as Crown Heights.

The Prospect Heights wiki is more ambivalent about the location of the border. Here I kind of feel that the wiki reflects the attempt of recent arrivals to the area to get lumped in with the "diverse" Prospect Heights instead of the black Crown Heights.

Right I'm leaning towards saying I live in Crown Heights, but I'm also thinking about saying that I live on (air quotes) the disputed border between Prospect Heights and Crown Heights.

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A pamphlet on sexually transmitted diseases from Watkins health center, 15 years and 11 time zones later.

Thank you, men of Stephenson Hall, my lifelong friends. And by "friends" I mean "assholes."

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I just went over to watch Peter Jackson's trailer for "The Lovely Bones". Jackson actually introduces the trailer and I was like, "whoa...that's Peter Jackson now?" My mental image of Peter Jackson has always been of a guy who looks like this.

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Absurd escapes from mortal danger in the GI Joe cartoon series. As the author puts it, the "escape isn't really from danger but toward a different, cooler danger."

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TSG's amazing investigation into a prank calling ring.

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In my neighborhood, it's actually the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell and Dunkin' Donuts...

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I saw Dean & Britta perform 13 Most Beautiful on Saturday at Celebrate Brooklyn. It was fucking amazing. I also saw a band cover the Lollipop Shoppe on Sunday and discovered a cool new old band.

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