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Credits: TheTalkingDad.com & FeedWind.comRecent Posts: M Thomas Apple
In his house at R’yleh…
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn! In his house at R’yleh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming… …because of course his ancestral DNA was brought to Earth aboard an asteroid, as part of an ancient bombardment that seeded life… Well, maybe not. It’s a controversial idea only in the sense that octopi are not aliens and no […]
Half-finished, half-destroyed, hybrid? Syncretic culture
During the first week of May my family and I had a chance to explore ancient Greece. Well, OK, modern Greece. With some ruins thrown in. In addition to the museums of Byzantine culture, early Christian churches, old Turkish baths, reconstructed tombs of Phillip II of Macedon and all that, we also wandered around downtown […]
Why I’m leaving Facebook (and why you should, too)
About ten days ago, I started a countdown on my Facebook “wall.” Some of my “friends” asked if I was going to send something into space. When I “commented” that I was leaving Facebook as of May 1st, they begged me not to. The system will police itself, they argued. User complaints and the #deletefacebook […]
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© Matthew Apple and Taking Leave, 2009-2017. Duplication of this material without express and written permission is strictly prohibited. If you would like to post or copy brief excerpts from the blog, please provide a link to the original URL along with an author's credit.
Category Archives: Japanese culture
First Year Wall (Part 2) – The (not-so voluntary) parent-teacher conference
In mid-April, I went to a parent-teacher conference. Actually, it was more like an enforced PTA committee, which one parent per kid had to attend. As a group. We sat at our kids’ desks (tiny!) and introduced ourselves. This was … Continue reading
Death of a Cherry Tree
This past Monday, city workers came to cut down a cherry tree near our house. It had been there for years. We found out later that a neighbor had complained that leaves falling in her backyard were a nuisance to … Continue reading
Farewell, Nursery. Hello, Kindergarten
After turning five in January, our youngest daughter finally made to the end of nursery school (“nen-cho,” 年長). Or so we thought. We had heard rumors in previous years that the system might change. It turns out that in this … Continue reading
Who was that Masked Flu Avenger?
Looking back now, I can laugh. The first week of February was rough. My wife had to work both weekend days, at the end of an already exhausting end-of-semester work week. I had also had little sleep. The previous month, my … Continue reading
Kaiten Zushi Magic
Last week, my youngest daughter turned 5. Because three of us (both daughters and myself) were recovering from the mumps, we cancelled her birthday party and rescheduled it for the 14th. As a reward to both girls for their hard … Continue reading
Daddy-daughter vacation (kind of)
Friday, my two daughters (aged 7 and 4) and I set off on a four-hour bullet train (Shinkansen) ride without my wife. She did see us off at the Shin-Osaka bullet train station, but since she had a week-long business … Continue reading
Self-reliance starts young
Two weeks ago, my daughter graduated nursery school. Last week, my grandmother passed away (my daughter’s great-grandmother). Today, my daughter walked to elementary school for the first time. And the cycle continues… This is cherry blossom (sakura) season in Japan, … Continue reading
