Holiday Dump Post - Shaman King

This is the first of two posts I wrote while on vacation. They have nothing to do with anything.

From Antiparos, with love: a Shaman King drabble originally written in commemoration of my reaching the end of Neal Gaiman's American Gods.

( Yoh is a God )

And since I'm talking Mankin, let's talk drugs:

( Stoner Yoh and Poppies Poppies Poppies )

Holiday Dump Post - Detective Conan

Second of two posts written on vacation in Antiparos, although actually this one was written in Tinos (Greece), London (England), an aeroplane (the Atlantic), and New Jersey (USA). Long live jet lag.

It's a solve-your-own-mystery! How good is your logic? Put it to the test! I'm putting up the mystery today, a hint tomorrow, and the solution the day after that (or, as soon as I finish writing it). Absolutely no knowledge of Detective Conan/ Case Closed needed.

( Encyclopedia Conan and the Case of the Refridgerated Corpse )

( HINT (highlight to read) )

Did anyone else read the Encyclopedia Brown mystery series? This is my blatant rip-off homage to that series. I love love loved those books, even though they had really corny jokes and you solved the crime not with logic but with trivia. For example, I remember one mystery was cracked if you knew that lobsters didn't turn red until you boiled them and another if you knew that only the jack of spades doesn't have a mustache (or something). My personal favorite was the one where you had to know that it's polite to let ladies sit with their backs to the wall in a restaurant, while gentlemen sit with their backs to the room. WTF?

I even copied the writing style of the Encyclopedia Brown books (less most of the bad jokes, unfortunately. I'm just not unfunny enough). This presented some problems, namely a) I haven't read one since second grade, so my memory is a little rusty, and b) I haven't read one since second grade, because they're written for a third grade reading level. Fourth if you're feeling generous. The mysteries were easy, too, obscure trivia notwithstanding.

I'm not sure how easy this one is. Tell me if you got the answer, pweeese? It seems blindingly obvious to me, but that's just because I wrote it (I think). Alex didn't get it.


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From now on, all original character names will be taken from Hiroko Sherwin's Eight Million Gods and Demons because they're easy to remember, yet authentic. Additional last names will be from Japanese car companies.

Back from Greece

I'm back. See last two entries for fan stuff I did while away.

I won't bore anyone with the details, except to say that both the house and island of Antiparos where we stayed were beautiful and that I had a great time. Instead, I'll put those details and some more photographs up on a website and then post the link here.

( But of course I have to mention that I met Tom Hanks. )

While we were talking to him at the dock, Dad was taking spy footage with the telephoto lens from across the water. He positioned himself so it would look like he was filming my mother. He did this on the ferry, too, when Hanks and family were standing a few benches away.

I'm really sorry I didn't ask for an autograph for Oliver, but it didn't occur to me until too late, and anyway, I didn't have any paper or a pen. I ended up getting lots and lots of Ouzo (Greek whiskey) for him instead, which, in retrospect, was a very tasteless thing to do.

( Since nothing else I have to say about the trip could possibly be as intersting, I might as well talk about books. )

Anything else interesting that has to do with the trip, but is too inappropriately personal to go on a website, might end up here. In the meantime, perhaps you guys can help settle a bet:

Large Image File for Greatest Possible Level of Detail

This is the pufferfish keychain I bought in Parikia. I say it's a real pufferfish, encased in plastic. My brother insists it's a model, even after I told him the story of the jade leaves. Tell him that he's wrong for me?