Why, Oh Why?

Hello my dearest readers.  Today I am featured as a guest blogger on Random Japan, a blog by my lovely and humorous Irish friend, Ciara!  She invited me to write about the reasons why I came to Japan.  So if you'd like to have a read of this amazingly profound post, head on over by clicking the photo below.

Book Club - The Cat Who Went Up The Creek

Looking for something to read (in English), I discovered the library at Hikarigoaka park, and to my delight they have English books!  The first one I read was The Cat Who Went Up The Creek.  Being a cat-lover the title caught my eye and I thought I'd give it a go.  The blurb on the back implied it was some kind of murder mystery.

I soon discovered the book wasn't really about a cat, as such, but about a part-time journalist, Jim Qwilleran, who owns not one, but two Siamese cats.  Don't cringe when too much when you hear their names...Koko and Yum Yum.  Yes.  As you can probably guess, these are two very pampered felines.  But as Qwilleran says, they're the only family he's got.  There are times when I kind of rolled my eyes at their high social status, but I told myself it's just part of painting the character and I should worry more about the storyline.

Speaking of which, I thought it would be a pretty standard who-dunnit storyline.  The scene for murder set-up, the suspects laid-out, the character comes across and heavily ponders clues, before finally the light-bulb moment occurs and they know who the culprit is and face a dangerous moment of confrontation, before gaining victory and making the killer known to the police who show up just at the right time.  

Well, this book is a little different!  If I didn't read the blurb I probably wouldn't have realised it was a murder mystery.  There's some mystery initially which the main character, Qwilleran attempts to solve, but it soon becomes apparent that it is of little consequence.  Instead, it leads into the events which gradually build to form the greater mystery, of murder and motive.  But this is still somewhat hidden among the other events within the book.  In fact, when the first body is discovered (by Koko, the cat who went up the creek, incidently), not much attention is given to it by Qwilleran.  Kind of like "Hmm that's unfortunate...I wonder what's for dinner?"  You almost want to say "Hey!  A dead body!  Aren't you going to investigate?" But after calling the cops, he literally does nothing.  

The book continues, with other events and people and happenings, eventually leading to another murder.  Along the way, Koko sniffs out a few clues and even predicts or senses the second murder.   Despite not getting a huge amount of attention throughout the story, we are told that Koko has a bit of a gift for sensing these things and pointing out clues.  It is through this and other circumstantial evidence that Qwilleran, in consulation with his detective friend, eventually determines who the murderer is, and the motive.  But there is no confrontation, no confirmation of the motive itself, we told of the arrest which has occurred and are left to accept Qwilleran's theory as fact, and trust the instincts of the cat who went up the creek.

While a little unconventional, I did enjoy reading the book.  The people within it are interesting and it kept my interest going hearing about them and little connections in the history of the people and place.  The story keeps moving along at a nice pace.  I'm not too good with names though, and a lot of names are dropped along the way which the reader is expected to remember and piece together, so I got a little lost in the subplots at times.  I was also amused everytime it mentions Qwilleran stroking his moustache (i.e., in thought), as I kept forgetting to picture him with a moustache.  I'm not really a big moustache fan, but I guess it suits his character.  But anyway, it was overall an enjoyable read and I was a bit sad when the book was over.  

What are your thoughts?

Random Thought of the Day - Procrastination

You know, it's really interesting the variety of things we do in order to procrastinate.  There is no one way of doing it, and it usually involves far more than just sitting or lying and doing nothing.  In fact, I can become highly productive when I am procrastinating.  It's sometimes motivation to clean my whole house!  Or send that important email I've been meaning to.  Or exercise my brain to write a somewhat intellectual Book Club blog post (as I was doing just now).  They are usually pretty useful or interesting things that I do when I procrastinate.  The problem, however, lies in the fact that there's something else more urgent that I should be doing first.  Like now...

The variety and creativity of the things I do when procrastinating got me thinking.  Maybe I could write a book about procrastination?  So basically, I would end up procrastinating that task for several months, then list all the things I did instead of sitting down and writing it.  The book would practically write itself!

What are some interesting or unusual things you have done as a form of procrastination?

I want a pet jellyfish, and some garden eels!

I don't know how I do it, but every time I choose to go somewhere, I always manage to pick the busiest days!  It's just my talent.  So it was with the Sunshine Aquariam at Ikebukuro this week, but I still managed to have a good time (it was a close call though! So many screaming kids!).  One of my favourite things was the jellyfish arch, where I took this photo, watching them float and swoosh around and pondering how amazing they are to look so animated and fun without a brain.  I watched them as the edge of their "mushroom" top contracted and propelled the jellyfish forward, resulting in a beautiful flowing movement of the tentacles.  It was whilst enjoying the tranquility of this scene that I decided it would be pretty cool to have a pet jellyfish.  You know, just sit in the living room watching him do his thing.  He'd want a decent sized tank obviously, maybe a few friends. 

I also came across these guys at the bottom of a different tank (photo "borrowed" from google).  They look like little snakes sticking out of the sand.  I thought they were unusual and pretty cool, but it was in the gift shop when I saw what they were called that I really decided I liked them. Garden Eels!  Sounds so homely!  As you can see, there are two kinds here: the spotted garden eel and the splendid garden eel.  How cool would it be to have these in the tank at home too, swaying to and fro with the gentle current, like leafy seaweed?  

I think once I have a more stable place of residence and don't foresee the imminent international transportation or disposal of all my possessions, I shall invest in some kind of home aquarium.  Preferably with jellyfish and garden eels!

Gone Viral

Several months ago, back when I was living in Tasmania and we were having a long, hot summer (hard for you all to imagine now, I'm sure), I wrote a post which featured a poem entitled "Hare In Summer".  Instead of the hare photo you see there now, I had opted for a photo of the blue sky, with a hint of clouds and a bright, glaring sun in the corner.  Well... what I didn't know at the time was that this post would soon go viral.  

It took a bit of time, actually, and was definitely not an instantaneous result, but after some weeks had passed, I noticed its popularity dramatically increase.  I knew this through the statistics feature on blogspot, where you can see how many views each of your post have had over various periods of time.  But I knew somehow that it wasn't my amazingly interesting and witty post that attracted such attention, but alas, it was this rather plain, yet rather sought after image of the sun (I won't post the photo here or we'll have the same problem over again!).  With the stats feature also showing the source of each view, it was clear that google searches such as "sky with sun", "sun sky", "hot sun sky" and "sky images with sun" where indeed the culprit, and that most of the views would not have yielding in anyone actually reading the amazingly brilliant blog post text.

I'm not sure what it was exactly that made this photo so popular.   Perhaps the recent solar eclipse.  Perhaps the northern hemisphere summer.  Perhaps global warming (we can blame that for everything, right?).  But once the stats went up, they did not come back down.  

To give you a little taste of what I have been seeing:

Today - 13 views;

The last week - 208 views;

The last month - 887 views;

All time (since 29th Jan 2012) - 2,606 views.

My total blog views, including this figure, is 5,005.   So in other words, this post got more views that my other 45 posts combined.

So anyway, recently I decided it was time to do something, and today I finally took that photo off my blog. Goodbye popularity.  Goodbye fame.  Goodbye false sense of achievement.

Hello again, my 13 dedicated followers ;)

Modest is Hottest

A little while ago on Pinterest I decided to start a board entitled "Modest Is Hottest". The purpose of this board was to highlight and promote fashionable, modest clothing. 

There are a few pre-requisites I have to posting images on my Modest Is Hottest board.  

Firstly, it must be modest.  If it is "almost modest" then it does not make the cut.  

Secondly, I prefer to stick to images of clothing that people are actually wearing, rather than just the clothes themselves.  This is mainly just my personal preference, but also because seeing someone wear it becomes proof it is modest.  Sometimes clothing looks modest, until you put it on and whoops, it's just a little too short.  

Thirdly, it has to meet my personal tastes.  If I think the outfit looks revolting, but hey, it's modest, it still doesn't make the cut.  Again this is personal preference - when I look at my board I want to see an array of clothing that I consider to be beautiful and would actually wear.  

Celebrity photos is one exception to this.  If I notice a celebrity who is dressed modestly, first I get over the shock, and then I post a photo of them in their modest outfit.  As this is to highlight that big-name celebrities also think dressing modestly can look good, it's okay if their outfit suits their personal taste more than mine.  It doesn't mean, however, that I promote them as a role-model of continually modest dress.  Sometimes it may be a once-off, but hey, they wore it and they looked good!

Since starting this board on Pinterest, I have noticed something.  Many people have started following it!  People I don't even know.  While most of my boards average 63 followers, this board currently has 74 followers - including 20 people who don't even know me.  The numbers might not sound like much, but given that this blog currently has 13 followers, almost all who know me personally, I think it's pretty significant.  It makes me really happy when yet another person starts following my Modest Is Hottest board, because it feels like I am making a difference in the world, and encourages me to keep going and to add more to it.  

Modesty in clothing is very important to me, and has been addressed in specific counsel given by the Prophet and Twelve Apostles of today. They have counselled us to be neat and clean and avoid being extreme or inappropriately casual in clothing, hairstyle and behaviour, as well as to choose appropriately modest apparel when participating in sports.  According to their words, to dress modestly is to avoid clothing that is tight, sheer, or revealing in any other manner.  To women they have counselled to avoid short shorts and short skirts, shirts that do not cover the stomach, and clothing that does not cover the shoulders or is low-cut in the front or the back (see this link).

It may sound like a long list, but the result is worth it, which I have endevoured to illustrate with my board. It is part of my response to Elaine S. Dalton's call for a for each of us to "arise, and unfurl a banner to the world calling for a return to virtue."

I know that when we dress modestly we show respect for ourselves and for others.  It allows us all to feel more comfortable and focus on what is important.  I know that I certainly feel so much more comfortable when I am not distracted by somebody's cleavage.  Awkward!  For those of us who are single, if we are dressed modestly when someone of the opposite sex shows interest, we can know it's most likely because of who we are and not what we are.

It's up to each of us to make the world a better place, and why not start with living and promoting modesty in dress.

Modest is hottest!

Random Thought of the Day

Welcome to the new segment of my blog I call "Random Thought of the Day".  Just as the name suggests, they will be kind of random, and will be fairly short posts scattered here and there for your reading pleasure.  And now for today's random thought, on the topic of Fast Sunday:

You know you're fasting when you're looking at the vase of lovely flowers next to the pulpit at church, and find yourself fantasising about drinking the water...