Chris Heinz (John Kerry's stepson) is coming to the Ogden on October 21st for a major Democratic campaign event and the organizers are looking for a DJ to warm up the crowd. I think this is going to be a major event, with a strong probability of local and possibly national press and TV (we're working on the media strategy) -- and as you know, TV is all about good visuals. So in addition to Chris Heinz saying something memorable, I'd like to push for camera arrival in the throes of the DJ work as well, since a 3-second shot of that would liven up the broadcast if the stations chose to use it (always a big if). There also may be some Hollywood types there; this has turned into a major stop on a swing-state turn-out tour.

oh... i see you're not familiar with ingredients we use,
first we take a measure of the sweetest dairy creams,
combine it with your meat of choice, along with cheese and beans,
we mix in a juicy batter, then we heat it up,
and add the secret syrup, and serve it in a cup.
...
i see you're not excited,
well wait until you've tried it,
you'll want it in your diet.
it's a warm and tasty way to eat your daily beef,
and its very, very smooth, you don't have to use to teeth.
its kinda like the food a pregnant woman gives her fetus,
it builds you up and makes you strong. people really eat this.

Wow... could I have used more of a cliche. Today was my last day in Japan. Did not do anything all that exciting, just went shopping around Osaka with Marc. Picked up a couple things... a CD, a coffee mug, a gift or two, and a digital camera. You know, the usual. I leave tomorrow afternoon. The funny thing about that is, there is a typhoon a comin' this way. I have no idea if that will affect my flight... guess I will just have to wait and see.

So what have I done in the past couple days? This really deserves some photographs, so I am going to throw up a couple that gobo12 took on his cellular phone.

The first is a picture taken at a Buddhist temple we visited. The name of which I cannot remember at this point in time, but I believe gobo12 posted it in his journal yesterday. The second is a picture of a monkey (slightly edited) taken at the top of the Monkey Park. Everybody loves monkeys, right? The park was nifty. This large area where the monkeys live is private, and you pay a small admission to get in. You hike about twenty minutes (I would guess about two hundred and fifty to five hundred meters -- convert to feet yourself) to the top of this hill where there is this hut. Outside the hut, there are a bunch of monkeys running around and doing what monkeys do... like loafing about, and picking bugs off each other. Inside the hut, you can feed the monkeys through a chain link fence. The fence seems to be in place more for the protection of the visitors of the monkey park, than for the protection of the monkeys themselves, as they seem to be awfully aggressive when there is food around. One of the really nifty things about the park is the fact that the clearance at the top overlooks all of Kyoto, which is an amazing view.

So that, in a nutshell, is yesterday. While I did focus on the monkey park more, I must say that the temple was pretty amazing, too. It came complete with a Zen Garden, and "Moss the Interrupter." What exactly that is, I have no idea, but it makes us all giggle.

Alright. I think I have little else to share tonight. I need to start packing, as I have a bunch of crap to bring back with me. Luckily, I had extra space in my bags on the way here, and I dumped some stuff off on Marc, but I still think it could be tight.

Still in Japan, and still alive. Had an amazing day, and I am too tired to go into details on it right now. However, I did want to share this terrible picture of my (if that is not a cheese grin, I don't know what is) with all the William Gibson fans out there...

Yes. That is me, holding a bottle of Bikkle (which only matters to folks reading Pattern Recognition, but may not matter to them either).

Brief synopsis of my day. 1) Went to bed at about 6:00 AM -- pulled an all-nighter with gobo12. 2) Got up at 10:00 AM. 3) Went to Kobe, which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in person. 4) Took a cable car (think gondola) to the top of a mountain near Kobe. 5) Went to the top of the Sky Building in Osaka at night -- think brilliant city-scape all around and open air observation deck. And up next: bedtime. Over twelve hours of non-stop movement on only four hours of sleep seems like enough.