Jim

According to my recent blood work, cheese and I also have to break up. Oh well. It was bound to happen. And now it's time to get serious about exercising a little. The twice a week Pilates doesn't really count.

Hearing about this, Tiny But Mighty decided that I needed to use the gym. She showed me how to use Netflix and my iPod to watch movies (a bonus), and how to get on the elliptical machine. I really don't care for it, but whatever.

I lasted 11 minutes. My legs burned at the beginning and I sweated profusely. I know that you're pitying me at this point but I made it 6 minutes more than I intended to or thought I could :) The 1965 film Hawaii was a poor choice for viewing, however. It's slow, it's brown (haven't these people been there?) and it's in Scope, so it's even harder to see on an iPod. But I was willing to try it again today.

I made my goal of 15 minutes today, but it was a stretch. Seems mrguy has taken control of the Netflix queue and was in the middle of watching Metropolis. It's visually stunning, but there's no dialogue.

NEED DIALOGUE

Thursday I will try for 20 minutes and I will find something better to watch. I really want to watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show, but they're not streaming at the moment.

AN UPDATE: X of X's Motors has agreed to send me no more weird promotions. Ahhh.

Breaking Up, Again

Why won't my ex-mechanic get the hint?

I am never coming back, X of X's Motors.

I don't care if Facebook recommends you to me or if you send me fake tax refund check that is really a fifty dollar off coupon. 

Or if you send me a mass email that begging me to come in and tell you why I am not your customer and offer me a"FREE key ring Flashlight. This is not one of those weak one bulb lights, but a small bright 2LED light."

NOT

COMING

BACK, Dude. My Toyota dealership is corporate but really nice. Never costs much. Never embarrasses me by leaving a robocall suggesting that I come in for a seminar on how ladies can explain themselves better to mechanics.

X, as I've said in the past, we are through.

Yaocho

Yaocho.

Bout-fixing.

The next sumo basho has been canceled over a yaocho scandal. Sumo fans (at least the ones on the sumo chat lists) know about yaocho, and match-by-match it seems like small potatoes. In aggregate, however, it seems like a bigger deal. The next basho has been canceled, as the sumo association tries to figure out who is doing it and punish them.

What bothers me more than the widespread yaocho is the response by the Japan Sumo Association to it, to every scandal. The JSA is only moved by external forces. It never moves to change because it's the right thing to do. Yaocho, pot smoking, beating of young wrestlers by their stablemasters, these were all activities that the JSA knew about and didn't move to stop. These may be relatively common activities, but these aren't parts of the sumo tradition that the fans who pay to see sumo value.

In the upcoming days there will be a typical response. We'll cringe through dozens of apologies. Someone high up in the JSA will be canned. An internal investigation by JSA cronies will excise the smallest number of responsible parties possible and just one who has some name recognition, in order to validate the process. They will hope that the fans come back, but as many of the die-hard elderly fans begin to pass away, the younger fans will expect sumo to become more sport-like.

How long will it take for Takanohana to rise to the top of the JSA and lead it into the modern era?