Herro Flom Japan

I'm finally getting around to answering mail. It's such an easy way to find something to talk about, it almost feels like cheating.

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I think I first read about this "fad" about a week ago on Boing Boing. Search Google for "shiny mud balls" in English and you get 186,000 hits. Search for the same term in Japanese (光る泥団子） and you get 413 hits. The latest fad taking Japan by storm? I think not.

For what it's worth, I asked the expert this morning (Tony, 8yrs old) and he had never heard of them. Maybe they're all the rage in another part of the country. Some place where people don't use the Internet much, I guess.

Update: Siuyee, our resident Quality Control expert, notes that if you remove "shiny" from the search term you get 19,700 hits. So it's quite possible that I'm totally wrong, and my kid's a nerd. Maybe all his classmates are mass-producing shiny mud balls and hiding them when he comes around. What I do know for sure is that I'm at work eight hours a day and I've never seen any of my Japanese colleagues make one…

While we're at it, let's also tackle the myth about Japanese being in love with their robotic dogs and manservants. Sony recently stopped production of the Aibo and Qrio to return their focus to products they can actually sell. For a profit.

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Managed to record the first 8 seconds of this morning's podcast. Got to work, turned the recorder on when I thought I was turning it off. Recorded 518 minutes of office noise but didn't realize it until I tried to record another podcast on the way home and ran out of memory after 12 minutes.

On the bright side, I got lots of practice. Better luck tomorrow.

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Dead battery. I'll do one tonight.

Meanwhile, here are a few podcasts about Buddhism.

• Zencast - Good format. Audio clips from Buddhist superstar lecturers, music, etc. Episodes are worth saving and listening to again and again.
• Alan Watts Podcast - New, and I hope it's good. His son Mark runs a website where he sells extremely expensive CDs of his father's lectures. Alan originally broadcast his lectures over the radio because he wanted them to be available for free.
• Lam Rim Radio - Download or subscribe. I particularly like Venerable Thubten Chodron's Working with Anger.

Update: Too…tired. Must…sleep.

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Podcasting neurosis update: I'm almost OK with the thought of nearly 1,000 people from around the world listening to each episode. (15,000+ MP3s served this month.) I can brainfart while recording without becoming overwhelmingly self-conscious. But to be honest, I still think I suck. I should be over that after another 10 or 20 more episodes. Old habits die hard, or something like that.

The song is from Daiki and Little Wing. Check out his photo. He looks like a pirate. Arrrrrh.

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