This site will be down for a (hopefully) short time on Saturday (Japan Time) because Akatombo Media, my company on whose server this site is hosted, will be moving to a new office in Yokosuka. I hope the downtime won’t inconvenience our reader too much.
Just a quick note for music buying mac owners in Japan. You may have noticed a lot of CDs with a “copy control CD” (in katakana) mark on them lately. These are especially common on releases from avex. I think putting technology on CDs to prevent people from recording it to their listening device of choice is a really bad move, and generally I avoid buying CDs with this mark on it. (I also avoid CDs from avex, but that is because they generally suck)
Anyway, to get to the point, I bought UltraGirl an avex CD with this mark on it. It says very explicitly on the label that you cannot play the CD on a Mac. I’m hear to tell you that that is untrue. I put it in, iTunes recognized it, and I immediately began ripping songs off into my library. Copy control CDs will play just fine on Mac OS X. This is a pleasant surprize, but I also don’t much enjoy being lied to (hence my hatred of the current administration) which is what this appears to be. Not only is it a lie, it seems like a pretty stupid lie business wise. Even if I didn’t think this kind of technology was draconian, I may have avoided buying this CD for fear of not being able to use it. Luckily I bought the CD for UltraGirl, and pass the information on to you.
UPDATE: The Hedwig Tribute Album CD featuring Japanese artists like Bonnie Pink is as you might guess, is very nice … for usage as a coaster. It is one of the worst pieces of garbage I think I have ever bought and ranks with the worst of the review copies I used to receive. You have been warned, go ahead, click on the link and buy, I dare ya!
As you have probably guessed, the dream was only semi-prophetic. I got up in plenty of time to drive the 45 or so mintues from Emmett to Boise, and was ready to hit the door, when I asked UltraDad, who had been ready for about an hour if he had eaten any breakfast. He looked a bit startled and allowed as to how he guessed he should have. I packed some cereal and nuts into cups to be eaten on the way. Then he decided that he probably take his “pills”. So we left about 15 min later than I intended. We were to meet Roz and Sara in front of the pavillion at 9:00, but I was able to call and let them know we would be 15-20 min late. We were still in plenty of time even though we had to park a fair piece away, and Sara led us to some good seating, and we saved three spots for bro Jim, and friends Cody and Lisa.
The ceremony started promptly at 10:00 A.M. and lasted almost exactly the two hours promised by the program. It was very well organized. Cody and Lisa arrived late, about 10:30 and Jim came breezing in at 10:45. By then, the parking was even more of a problem. Honestly! Then Jim had the nerve to complain that he really hadn’t needed to arrive even as early as THAT as Johnny didn’t receive his diploma for another 40 minutes or so! I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to spot my son, as Boise State University was graduating their largest class ever, but he was seated in the 5th or 6th row from the back about 4th from the end, and we had a great view of him, though he never spotted us. I remember when UltraB graduated we had the same thing; we were sitting in the perfect place to see him. It was great.
I was so proud of Johnny; he had a golden honors cord draped around his neck and he looked so handsome and distinguished! After the graduation, we were to proceed to the commons area where we could find our graduate near the tent designated for his college. But we never actually made it that far as Johnny found us quickly and was ready to get out of there. Roz and Sara had to leave, but UDad and I treated the others to a celebratory lunch at The Ram, the restaurant of Johnny’s choice. We walked, as it was only about a mile away, and the traffic was a little hectic with so many trying to leave all at the same time. We had arrived and ordered when UM discovered that she was missing her prized pedometer! It was very upsetting, and UDad offered to walk back and look for it in the Pavillion while we were waiting for our food. Well, Udad has had some major foot pain lately, so Um declared she would do it herself.
After many wondrous adventures, including walking the wrong way for a bit, finding the doors of the pavillion locked, and standing at the admin offices looking pitiful until someone let her in, UltraMom actually FOUND her beloved pedometer. What a happy reunion, as they vowed never to be parted again. The pedometer was set to -0- so Um could see just how far she had walked, (just a bit over a mile) and they arrived back at the restaurant just in time to watch everyone finish up their meals. I expected great exclamations and rejoicings, which I got to some extent from Udad, but I dont’ really think the others much realized I was gone. Well, come to think of it they DID save me an onion ring from the towering onion appetizer….......I felt a little invisible that whole meal. First the waitress took everyone’s drink order except for mine; then they took about 15 minutes to bring me extra tortilla shells for my fajitas. Poor me!
Johnny told us an absolutely WONDERFUL story about an experince he had at Heulett Packard where he was serving an Internship. Hopefully we can get him to relate it.
Join me in urging him: PLEASE JOHNNY. TELL IT JUST ONE MORE TIME.
I definitely meant to mention the digital camera Johnny received from UltraBob the day before his “barbecue”. I was privileged to be there when he opened it. The joy on his little face! It’s very similar to my own digital cam, but has some new features. Very easy to operate and it does a SUPERB job. What a wonderful gift!
When we arrived at the boys’ appt on Thursday night, they were alternating TV channels between Frasier’s Season Finale and the Los Angelos Lakers/San Antonio Spurs basketball game. We really couldn’t get much attention paid to us, even with an offer to go to dinner, until both events had ended. In the last 5 seconds of the game, Tim Duncan, a very large center for the Spurs, whom Jim detests, threw up a shot nearly from the 3 pt line that sailed through the basket. Tim was off balance and fell to the floor after the shot. Jim’s criticism of Mr. Duncan revolves around the allegation that he is “boring.”When it was pointed out that this particular shot was anything BUT boring, Jim declared that it was an ugly shot.
Well, with about 1 second left in the game, Derek Fisher for the Lakers threw up a nearly identical shot, winning the game for said Lakers. Jim proclaimed it a beautiful shot and he grabbed me and swung me around in the air. I was really glad to be there for that because it is usually quite the job to get anything more than a perfunctory hug from that young man.
I had also meant to mention that Jim and Heather gave Johnny an MP3 Player, which he loves. UltraMom and Dad had planned on presenting Johnny with a couple of thousand dollars, but Jim told us what he really wanted was this little refrigerator he could take to Dubois with him for the fire fighting season, so we got that instead. Johnny was a bit speechless (with delight?) when we related this to him.
I think I’ll string you along one more day wondering if we made it to the actual graduation or not. I’m just too tired to write any more tonight. Think I’ll try to get to bed on the near side of midnight for a change.
TaTa
UltraMom
It’s official. Johnny is a magna cum laude college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration. I don’t think the weekend could possibly have gone any better, even though none of you showed up at the barbecue. Well, I’m assuming that those who WERE there aren’t regular readers of our site, with the possible exception of John E. himself. I gotta tell ya that you missed good food, good fun and a good time at my sister, Debi’s home in Emmett (about 40 minutes away from Boise)
It was the UltraSisterAunt’s gift to Johnny; she had everything planned. There was a lovely “Congratulations” cake in blue and orange Boise State University colors. She made two kinds of cookies, and had strawberries that we dipped in chocolate. They were a work of art, and about as gourmet as I’m likely to ever get. Lots of stuff for tacos; chips, salsa, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, avocados, etc, etc, etc, Oh and watermelon. And bushels of pop and bottled water. The swimming pool had been “opened” just that morning, but not heated. Opening a pool for the season is quite the deal. It involves chemicals and compounds like dionacious(sp?) earth and lots of cleaning and odd contraptions. Really quite interesting. I had scanned a bunch of Johnny-photos and saved them to a disc, and we played that on Debi’s laptop all evening. Lots of folks stopped and watched for a while at various times. UltraB was in a lot of them, including a rather spicy photo of the two boys in their underwear. Attending were some relatives:Aunt Roz and cousins Nicki Mc, Sara Mc and Mary Lou Lear Gamas. Several of the boys’ friends: Cody, Lisa, Jared H, Robby, B.J., and Jared S. Some of Debi’s friends: Marc & Barb. AND a couple of Howe people showed up for a while! Jake and Afton were in town to see their daughter Loretta get her Master’s degree and decided to hop on over to Emmett and check out our party!
This is one of those small world things: Jared H, Johnny’s good friend has a sort of step brother, Travis, whom Johnny shared a house with when he very first moved to Boise. It turns out that Travis now teaches high school Spanish in Emmett! Jared gave Travis a call, and he came over, much to the delight of Debi’s son Michael (a high school Junior) and his friend Austin. Austin is actually in “Mr. Higgins” Spanish class. Funny, huh?
Johnny and Michael acually stayed in the frigid pool for about half an hour. The other boys lasted only moments. I think it may have been an endurance contest, but, in my opinion hypothermia was the winner of the day.
The big volleyball game was the evening’s highlight. UltraMom was on a team with Johnny and several friends. Jim and friends, along with Aunt Debi, were on the other side. I DID actually hit the ball several times, and a couple of those actually went over the net, but for the most part, my contribution was to try to jump out of the way, yelling the name of the person who should jump in and hit the ball. Our team never ended up winning a game, though we always had a few good runs, but we had a lot of fun. It got dark and noone wanted to quit, so vehicles were lined up with headlights lighting up the court. From the right angle, you could sometimes see the ball, and not just glaring lights.
The party finally broke up about midnight, and an exhausted UltraMom crawled into bed, only to have a disturbing dream. UM and party (I know there were other people, but besides UltraDad, can’t remember who) were driving somewhere in the car. Suddenly she has a disturbing flash: the time is 10:00 A.M., which is the time that Johnny is due to graduate. Destination time to arrive at Boise State University is one hour. Arrangements had been made to meet Roz and Sara in front of the BSU pavillion at 9:00 A.M. Despite repeated attempts, there seems to be no way in the world that UltraMom , on her cell phone, can correctly key in Roz’ cell phone number. I’ll tell ya, waking up was a relief!
Come back tomorrow, UltraReaders, and find out if this dream was prophetic. Does UltraMom actually forget about her son’s graduation? Can she complete a simple telephone call?
Suspensefully yours,
UltraMom
