SITH. LORD.
Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.
I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.
As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.
The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker’s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.
The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.
Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, “I know why.”
Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. He said, “People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life – like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?”
The six-year-old continued, “Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”
I was on the train and I was going to work after school, and it was like 2:30 or whatever time it was. I was just riding the train and I was on Skype with my best friend, and then, like, my train just pulled into the station. Then the doors opened and all of a sudden shit went bonkers, like it…
lawwwwls yep…
Mister Rogers and the Dalai Lama
15 Reasons Mister Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever
1. Even Koko the Gorilla Loved Him
Most people have heard of Koko, the Stanford-educated gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in American Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people don’t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fan. As Esquire reported, when Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she’d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off!
2. He Made Thieves Think Twice
According to a TV Guide profile, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”
3. He Watched His Figure to the Pound
In covering Rogers’ daily routine (waking up at 5; praying for a few hours for all of his friends and family; studying; writing, making calls and reaching out to every fan who took the time to write him; going for a morning swim; getting on a scale; then really starting his day), writer Tom Junod explained that Mr. Rogers weighed in at exactly 143 pounds every day for the last 30 years of his life. He didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine. And while I’m not sure if any of that was because he’d mostly grown up a chubby, single child, Junod points out that Rogers found beauty in the number 143. According to the piece, Rogers came “to see that number as a gift… because, as he says, “the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three.”
4. He Saved Both Public Television and the VCR
Strange but true. When the government wanted to cut Public Television funds in 1969, the relatively unknown Mister Rogers went to Washington. Almost straight out of a Capra film, his 5-6 minute testimony on how TV had the potential to give kids hope and create more productive citizens was so simple but passionate that even the most gruff politicians were charmed. While the budget should have been cut, the funding instead jumped from $9 to $22 million. Rogers also spoke to Congress, and swayed senators into voting to allow VCR’s to record television shows from the home. It was a cantankerous debate at the time, but his argument was that recording a program like his allowed working parents to sit down with their children and watch shows as a family.
5. He Might Have Been the Most Tolerant American Ever
Mister Rogers seems to have been almost exactly the same off-screen as he was onscreen. As an ordained Presbyterian minister, and a man of tremendous faith, Mister Rogers preached tolerance first. Whenever he was asked to castigate non-Christians or gays for their differing beliefs, he would instead face them and say, with sincerity, “God loves you just the way you are.” Often this provoked ire from fundamentalists.
6. He Was Genuinely Curious About Others
Mister Rogers was known as one of the toughest interviews because he’d often befriend reporters, asking them tons of questions, taking pictures of them, compiling an album for them at the end of their time together, and calling them after to check in on them and hear about their families. He wasn’t concerned with himself, and genuinely loved hearing the life stories of others. Amazingly, it wasn’t just with reporters. Once, on a fancy trip up to a PBS exec’s house, he heard the limo driver was going to wait outside for 2 hours, so he insisted the driver come in and join them (which flustered the host). On the way back, Rogers sat up front, and when he learned that they were passing the driver’s home on the way, he asked if they could stop in to meet his family. According to the driver, it was one of the best nights of his life—the house supposedly lit up when Rogers arrived, and he played jazz piano and bantered with them late into the night. Further, like with the reporters, Rogers sent him notes and kept in touch with the driver for the rest of his life.
7. He Was Color-blind
Literally. He couldn’t see the color blue. Of course, he was also figuratively color-blind, as you probably guessed. As were his parents who took in a black foster child when Rogers was growing up.
8. He Could Make a Subway Car full of Strangers Sing
Once while rushing to a New York meeting, there were no cabs available, so Rogers and one of his colleagues hopped on the subway. Esquire reported that the car was filled with people, and they assumed they wouldn’t be noticed. But when the crowd spotted Rogers, they all simultaneously burst into song, chanting “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.” The result made Rogers smile wide.
A few more things about him…
9. He Got into TV Because He Hated TV. The first time he turned one on, he saw people angrily throwing pies in each other’s faces. He immediately vowed to use the medium for better than that. Over the years he covered topics as varied as why kids shouldn’t be scared of a haircut, or the bathroom drain (because you won’t fit!), to divorce and war.
10. He Was an Ivy League Dropout. Rogers moved from Dartmouth to Rollins College to pursue his studies in music.
11. He Composed all the Songs on the Show, and over 200 tunes.
12. He Was a perfectionist, and Disliked Ad Libbing. He felt he owed it to children to make sure every word on his show was thought out.
13. Michael Keaton Got His Start on the Show as an assistant — helping puppeteer and operate the trolley.
14. Several Characters on the Show are Named for His Family.Queen Sara is named after Rogers’ wife, and the postman Mr. McFeely is named for his maternal grandfather who always talked to him like an adult, and reminded young Fred that he made every day special just by being himself. Sound familiar? It was the same way Mister Rogers closed every show.
15. The Sweaters. Every one of the cardigans he wore on the show had been hand-knit by his mother.
Four years ago, I was attending the Nippon Jamboree, an international scout gathering held in Japan every couple of years, and I was touring with my host troop. While walking around, we were wearing our scout uniforms, which had the American flag patched on our right sleeves. And while we were…
In this scene from the Japanese tokusatsu show Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (which premiered last month in Japan), a battle erupts between some bad guys and what appears to be every Super Sentai (a.k.a. “Power Rangers” stateside) hero ever created. Somewhere deep within your subconscious, your inner child’s head has exploded into a million candy-colored pieces.
I just came. This is awesome!
My Classmates at School
Thought it would finally be a good time to post about my classmates in my Japanese class. There are 17 of us including myself. 14 are Chinese, 1 Swede (Alex), 1 German (Robert) and myself. So basically my class is 82% somewhere from China. And let me tell you, that is WAY too fuckin’ much. Today was the absolute last straw. It’s so unbearable being in class with these kids. And I do say kids because besides Robert, I’m the oldest one in the class by a long shot. And he’s leaving in less than a month anyway so I’ll be the oldest soon enough. Here’s a list of my classmates and their names/nicknames that the Swede, German and I have lovingly created for our classmates. I’ll go ahead and write about the heavy hitters down below so ENJOY!
te so SO
LILY-san
ryo-san
the dragon
checkers
TB
chin lifun
alex
sho tekyo
liu-san
sho enken
son jigogou
smurfette
robert
insurance-san
chin ryo
Te so SO
So from what I gather he’s here in Japan because his girlfriend his here. Gf is another Chinese fob living in Japan (go figure). I don’t know if he actually has any idea what’s going on in class. He looks like he does coke every morning before class and sits there staring off into space.
LILY-SAN
This girl’s name is in caps, because every time Ryo-san says her name, he basically yells it out. This girl is incredibly unremarkable just like all the other girls in my class. She reminds me of some sort of breed of dog because she looks really droopy. Nothing noteworthy except she gets picked on by Ryo-san a LOT.
Ryo-san
This kid is the class clown. 19 years old and a complete asshat. He’s originally from Hong Kong so he speaks canto, but knows enough mandarin to consistently pick on LILY-SAN! Tries to imitate my cursing, but fails miserably at it.
The Dragon
Now the Dragon is on of my favorite (least) classmates to talk about. Imagine a fat Chinese kid with slits for eyes and thin lips with a dumb grin all within a huge dork/geek/nerd body. That’s the makings of a winner. I didn’t have a problem with this kid at first. Yaknow I just minded my own business and thought, “oh wow, great another anime dork” but that was that. Only after Robert joined our class did we begin to notice that this Dragon wasn’t messing around.
First of all the background of his nickname. We were in class one day and I was talking to Robert about the Dragon for some reason. Robert had no idea what the fat Chinese kid’s name was but noticed that he wore a shirt with a dragon on it. Robert also mentioned that he noticed that he had worn that shirt since Monday (it was a Wednesday). So that’s three days in the same shirt. And you better believe that this fool doesn’t wash his shit everyday. Since then we noticed a disturbing trend. This guy liked to wear the same clothes consecutively on a 3-4 day rotation. He’d wear the dragon for 3-4 days then rotate to a pink button up shirt then to another long sleeve shirt each on 3-4 day rotations. Repulsive. As you could imagine, he smells like shit. Everyday.
Another thing that really jacks me up about the Dragon is that he picks his nose in class A LOT. Like he’ll go mining for a nugget, do his job, then CONTINUOUSLY go back for more. I’ve never seen anyone position his finger up his nose in more ways than this guy or as frequently as this guy.
Sigh. I hate dragons.
Checkers
He’s a relatively new addition to our class. Maybe 2 weeks now? I gave checkers his name because he literally wears checkers around his neck EVERY DAMN DAY. He has one long-sleeve shirt that incorporates a checkered collar/neckline thing and wears that shirt for days. And when he’s not wearing that shirt, He wears another shirt that looks JUST like it, but without the checkers on the collar. SO HE WEARS A CHECKERED HANDKERCHIEF AROUND HIS NECK. WHY???? So recap: he wears 2 shirts a week both with checkered print around his neck. Gotcha.
But this isn’t why he frustrates me so much. He’s constantly staring at me. I have no fucking idea why but he whenever I scan the room yaknow to see if Dragon’s still mining another nugget (which he is) or Te so SO still not having a fuckin’ CLUE as to what’s going on (always) he’s staring straight at me in the creepiest way possible. And you know how usually when someone catches you staring at them, you immediately look away and act cool? He doesn’t. He keeps on staring. Fucking creepy as shit. I talked to Robert about this and he says that Checkers stares at him too. I wonder if me and Robert both looked up at him, his head would explode and rain checkers all over the place. Gonna have to try that next week.
TB
Another one of Ryo-san’s creations. Apparently TB = Tomboy in Hong Kong which is used to describe girls that are incredibly butch. Usually lesbos. That’s exactly what this girl is. A girl (methinks) that is overweight and looks completely like a man (minus the boobs). Her Japanese accent is GODAWFUL. I mean let’s be honest, Chinese fobs have awful Japanese accents, but this girl takes it to a whole new down syndrome level. My ears bleed whenever she talks.
I’m tired as bawls so I’ll leave you guys with that for now. TO BE CONTINUED!
