The Adachis – Our Famous Sickly Relatives

My brother told me about these commercials some time ago, and I just ran into them again lately.

What intrigues us is that this poor family is “Adachis”, but obviously not of a Japanese heritage.  I had no idea that the family name could be of another civilization.  Unlike other cultures, Japanese did not migrate beyond their confine of their small islands historically, so it is safe to assume that this is a coincidence that our family names match.

I can’t tell what heritage this sickly family is being portrayed as.  Italian? I think the name sounds more like an Italian, but I’m just guessing…  They speak with an American accent, though.

My discovery with the encounter this time around is that they have made an online game based on the commercial series (http://www.gettheglass.com/).  I haven’t played it yet, but it seems to be a well-made game with cute characters that don’t resemble any of my real family members.

Anyway, here is to the family!  Salu! or Kanpai! or whatever!

Hypermiling*

Theoretically speaking, you would get a better gas mileage if your gas tank is less full because you are not carrying as much weight from the gasoline.   So in order to achieve a  good gas mileage, you should wait before you fill up again until you are down to the last drop (actually, you shouldn’t even fill up.  You should buy just  enough gas just to last you until the next nearest gas station… but you may find that very impractical… lol)

The problem is you may not be around a gas station when you really need to fill up.  Timing decision is very crucial.  I find the “fuel range” indicators with which the recent vehicles are equipped very useful for this purpose.

I did it pretty well this time.  You might call it a stupid pursuit of insignificant efficiency compromising safety & sanity…

Only 1 mile left to go as I arrived at the gas station!

*Hypermiling: the act of driving using techniques that maximize fuel economy (from wikipedia)

Unidentified Flying Objects in Formation Flight over Cincinnati

I was walking toward my car in the parking lot of my office, and I noticed a bright light over Cincinnati.  Our office is located very close to the airport, so air traffic of low flying vehicles are very common, so I didn’t think much of it.

As I reached my car and unlocked the door, I noticed that the light is actually 4 lights, and they are flying in formation.  Hmmm… bunch of airplanes approaching?  No, they are not heading toward the airport.  Military aircrafts in training?  No, they are moving awfully slowly… Helicopters?  Then why are they flying in tight circles?

The lights then formed a straight line and started to move away from me, then faded away one by one until there were no more of them.  I managed to take a couple of shots with my phone, but I still can’t tell what they are.  I didn’t see any articles of any other witnesses, so I assume that they were not anything abnormal, but from where I was standing, it sure looked out of this world!

The lights are flying away in formation…

… then start to disappear one by one…

Halloween 2009

For once, I actually dressed up as something for Halloween this year.  I originally wanted to be a pirate (I’m not really sure why.  Maybe it’s the fluffy shirt…), but when I went to a Halloween store, the costume dubbed “Captain Jack Sparrow” was priced at $99.99!  Of course, I was in the store 2 hours before trick-or-treating was starting, and I understand that these seasonal stores take advantage of us procrastinators…  Bastards…

So I looked around for a cheaper option, and found this “Phantom” costume for $35.  After the disappointment with my pirate costume, this sounded like a good deal, so I went with that.  Check it out!

Hachi in Phantom Costume.  Check out the glowing eyes!

It’s  basically a black nylon 1-piece long dress with a black mask that makes it look like a reaper hood.  It comes complete with the “glowing eyes” device that you wear like a pair of glasses connected to a battery pack.  The red eyes fade in and out for the spooky effect.

My lovely wife loves dressing up for occasions like Halloween or Renaissance Festivals, and she had been looking forward to this day (especially since we never do stuff like that…).  With her Renaissance outfit, dark eyeliner and fake fangs, she turned herself into a sexy Vampire Lady (I don’t know the technical name for it)!  I think she got it together very nicely!

Dawn is hungry for blood… Where are the trick-or-treaters?!

 

The first kids arrived shortly after 6pm.  I think they were a little scared of our outfits…  I’m glad they didn’t cry or anything.

We didn’t get many trick-or-treaters after all.  I don’t know, maybe 20?  Maybe less?  We even sat outside with a bowl of candies so that kids would know to come around our house without skipping.  Oh, well…  A little disappointing, but we did our part.  Maybe it will be better next year.

Waiting for brave souls to approach us, but we were left hungry… Thank goodness for all the left-over candies!