I just finished watching Welcome to the N.H.K., a light hearted story of self imposed isolation and the efforts put forth to solve it. While probably intended to help those afflicted with the problem, it worked in the reverse for me, and I wouldn't mind hiding out for a while. Wait.. I have to go to work, and I still go out, rarely now, but once in a while.. plus how am I going to go out to eat! I guess I can't do it .. but I can pretend.

Hikikomori lit. "pulling away, being confined," i.e., "acute social withdrawal") is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive adolescents and young adults who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement due to various personal and social factors in their lives. The term "hikikomori" refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to individuals belonging to this societal group.

Updates will be slow for a while, I'm not in a mood to continue for a while. I'll elaborate later, probably in person.

Singles Awareness Day (SAD) is a humorous holiday celebrated on February 14 (although some prefer the 13th or the 15th to get away from the commercialism associated with the 14th). It serves as an alternative to Valentine's Day for people who are single; that is, who are not involved in a romantic relationship and can therefore not participate in Valentine's Day traditions. Some observers of SAD do so out of spite for Valentine's Day, as a Hallmark holiday, or for other reasons.

On Singles Awareness Day single people gather to celebrate or to commiserate in their single status. Some want to remind romantic couples to remember those less fortunate than they are. A common greeting on this day by its adherents is "Happy SAD!"

I know this has been forwarded around a few times by now; but since I got it again, and this time the whole story, I figured I should post it.

I've always wanted to do a short video like this one, if you guys can come up with a story we should film something like it.. not based on Final Fantasy though. We should spoof Initial D, Shuto Kousoku Trial, Wangan Midnight and The Fast and the Furious; combine them together into some sort of odd hybrid. We do have enough rice mobiles around to film something! (I kid, I kid!)

If you've got forty minutes to kill, this isn't a bad way to do it.