Author Archives: Michael Gakuran

Clione

Known as ‘the Angels of the Sea’, these squishy little creatures captured my imagination while travelling around Hokkaido in Japan. Out in Hokkaido they have taken on minor celebrity status with items such as the ubiquitous Hello Kitty line of key chains Japanising this small shell-less snail into a cute fashion accessory.
Posted in Bioluminescence | 7 Comments

Brown Penny

“Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny. I am looped in the loops of her hair.” I first heard this poem watching the film ‘Must Love Dogs’ in a hotel in Asahikawa, a city in the Northern part of Japan on the island of Hokkaido. It was a recitation by Christopher Plummer, who did it so […]
Posted in Other | 6 Comments

Knowing Nothing relaunched!

Finally after two years, several false starts and a blank homepage, I’ve dug myself out the time to properly customise and set up WordPress on my web space. I used WPDesigner’s (aka Small Potato) ‘Peaceful Rush’ theme and then threw myself into the thick of it, tweaking the code and redesigning the entire layout. A […]
Posted in Other | 6 Comments

Trying Fugu

河豚 – River pig! Beloved blowfish. Admired for it’s quirkiness and puffiness. Forgive me for masticating on you. Absolve me from my consumption. But I did not taste the dreaded moudoku ( 猛毒), nor the dangerous kyoudoku (強毒) or the risky jyakudoku (弱毒), and quite thankfully, for they are poisons…
Posted in Journal | 4 Comments

At the University of Leeds!

We arrived on Sunday in a true embarrassing style. Everybody else packed into normal cars and us with a hire van twice as long as a parking slot, which repeatedly blocked other parents in dropping their dearest off o.O;. Unloaded all the boxes into my new lodgings and quickly bought a couple of tickets for […]
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Chatterbox

Update, update. I’ve been talking *a lot* today. I went in to my old secondary school to give a short speech to the current GCSE Japanese class. Apparently I was supposed to induce enthusiasm or something, from my gallivanting around rural Japan and sampling the refined culture. Though they were more impressed by my fortitude […]
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Random quiz

I will give a proper update soon, but it’s 5.05am and I’ve still not got back into a good sleeping pattern. I’ve been up configuring my internet firewall, getting rid of spyware and viruses and generally catching up on my missed geekiness with all things computers. Here’s a test for added measure. *Yawn*. `Night. (-_-)
Posted in Journal | Tagged | 8 Comments

Surfing on the gentle hum of air

My computer is in a state of stability! (he says, praying not to jinx it…) All that remains for me to is modify the graphics card cooler with a quieter one and I shouldn’t hear anything from my box at all. Then just more software installations, although the drivers are bound to throw up some […]
Posted in Journal | Tagged | 6 Comments