And to add insult to injury

....I open my email this morning to find a reminder from McAfee to renew the antivirus subscription that routinely slows down all operation of my antique computer, with the statement that they cannot use the auto-renew feature because I need to update something. So why did I also find TWO emails from Paypal, documenting TWO deductions from my account payable to McAfee??????

Shamelessly ganked from ladycelia

Her journal is f-locked or I'd've sent ya there.

Tanka challenge 04/02/09

A polished mirror
Twins the dawn sky above it,
Glum with seaborne clouds.
A lone boat glides up-channel
To pass beneath a green bridge.

(People are writing stuff. I am pleased.)

I cannot believe....

....I just wrote up documentation for something that's not terribly documentable. Does it help if one throws the word "plausible" around? A lot?

Excerpt: "Kanebako Masami, a director of the Nihon no Akari (History of Japanese Lighting) Museum, writes:

“Chochin lanterns were made of rolled takehigo (thin strips of bamboo) in a spiral, with Japanese paper pasted on them and a lit candle inside. Originally people covered bamboo baskets with paper and called them chochin.”

Masami goes on to describe the development in the late 16th century of a chochin design peculiar to Japan in which the lantern could be collapsed and folded away when not in use. While this does not provide a precise date for the kaga or basket chochin, it would evidently pre-date 16th century paper-and-bamboo chochin."

That's it, people. I've got the word of Kanebako Masami and a photo of an undescribed, undated kaga chochin from an idiosyncratically translated article on a moribund pop-culture-and-design site called PingMag. I've got fiberglass "paper" on the thing! 

Then again, I suppose it beats burning down the Imperial Palace with one of these things: