I’m not a big fan of microwaveable Japanese food, but today I saw a 30 pack box of Yaki Onigiri at Costco.  All you need to do is stick the onigiri in the microwave and you’re set.  Someone try this out and tell me how it is, please.

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Posted via email from Japa’s posterous

So obviously the biggest news of the week has been Tiger Woods’ affair, car accident, and the bizarre incident with his wife and a golf club.  Woods has apologized publicly and he has taken a ton of flack in the media, but really, is what he did so wrong?

First of all, Tiger’s wife is crazy.  It appears now that she not only chased down his car and broke the windows with a golf club, but also hit Woods himself with the club.  That’s domestic abuse and it’s symptomatic of a crazy person.

Sure, Woods cheated on his wife, but that’s no justification for physical abuse.  No one would have blamed Rihanna for getting beat by Chris Brown even if she cheated.

Sure, Woods was attacked by a woman, but that doesn’t make a difference.  She assaulted him with a weapon, and with that in mind I understand why he cheated on her crazy ass.

Anyone disagree?  He’s a billionaire and famous, he can get most any woman he wants, and I’m sure that tons of incredibly hot women throw themselves at him.

Look, I get that he’s married and he made a vow and he has kids, but is it that hard to understand why Woods cheated?  Particularly when you consider that he had the crazy golf club beater waiting for him at home?

Woods certainly shouldn’t be rewarded for his actions, but at the very least the public should cut him some slack.  And everyone who criticizes Woods for his affair should really put themselves in his place and see if they could resist.  I’ve heard a stat that someone cheats in 50% of relationships – and that’s without Woods’ money.  Let’s not get so high and mighty until we’ve had a hot hostess shoved in our faces.

Jak pointed out today that Punahou has adopted a new slogan on their website - “Kindergarten through life.”  Sure, the slogan is a bit pompous, perhaps, but it does really underscore the appeal of Punahou for parents in Hawaii.

I think the greatest benefit of Punahou is that the school focuses heavily on preparing students for college.  Few students that graduate from Punahou end up skipping college, particularly if they attended the school since kindergarten.

And, given that college does play a key role in the future prospects of a student, I think it’s fair to emphasize that the education at Punahou will have a lifelong effect on a student.

What Punahou’s new motto doesn’t capture, however, is the lack of diversity a student would experience if they went to Punahou from K-12.  While academically these students would probably be very well-off, I think the private-school environment makes it difficult for a student to develop street smarts, the understanding of different viewpoints and ability to interact with people who do not fit within the private school mold.

As a K-12er myself, I feel that Punahou did do an excellent job of keeping me on the right track, while eliminating many of the negative influences that could have derailed my education.  At the same time though, eliminating negative influences does not teach one to deal with negative influences – in many ways it just creates a false sense of security.

I suppose if a student was fortunate enough to be able to attend Punahou for their entire life, then that’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be overlooked.  However, I do think there are aspects of childhood that Punahou hides from its students, and this is something that the school and parents need to be conscious of.  After all, once a student graduates from college, they will be exposed to colleagues and competitors from a variety of backgrounds.  This is where street smarts are needed, even in a professional environment.

I hate it when kids misbehave in general, but most of all I hate kids crying or acting up on airplanes.  You’re in an enclosed space, you can’t move, and sitting near a whiny kid on a long flight is infuriating.

Now, some people would argue that controlling kids is a tough job, and I should have sympathy because I may be in the same situation at some point.

But guess what, that’s not my problem.

If you can’t control you kids, then don’t take them on a plane.  Sure, they may not be able to visit distant relatives or see disneyland, but again, not my problem.  Get a sitter, or keep your kids in check, but don’t ruin my flight because you’re a shitty parent and inconsiderate.

So, I was happy to hear that a mother of two got booted from an Allegiant Air flight when her two kids wouldn’t behave.  Now, if you look at the report here, you can tell that first of all this mother looks like she is still a teenager, and probably shouldn’t be having kids in the first place.  Clearly, this kid isn’t going to be able to control her own two kids, and this would mean a flight of horror for those around her.

I applaud Allegiant Air for booting her.

As far as not receiving a refund – well, that’s the airline’s policy.  This mother probably got a cheaper ticket because of it, so she shouldn’t complain after the fact when she can’t get a refund.  And of course, this would have all been taken care of if this woman knew how to manage her kids in the first place.

We all visit CNN.com.  It consistently ranks within the top 100, and often within the top 50 websites worldwide.  Recently, the site went through a dramatic renovation.  And I hate it.

I think the new CNN.com can be summed up in one word:  obnoxious.

When you first visit the site, your browser will likely be taken over by a huge animated graphic that will probably take up most of your screen.  See the ‘Droid’ ad above.

Not only is it bad form to force your viewers to wait through a processor-hungry ad, it’s also quite low res of CNN.  I mean sure, times are tough, but you’d think that CNN of all sites would have a bit more class in their website design.  Their intrusive ads have become so bad that when I visit the site late at night I almost expect to see an infomercial.

Next, if you’re trying to read a news story you’ll most likely be directed to CNN.com’s ridiculously slow and buggy video player.  Oh, and for that privilege you’ll be forced to watch a commercial before seeing the story that you’re interested in.

Look, I get that CNN would like to make money and would like to be big in video, but Google gets me to the same news, if not better news, through a streamlined interface that doesn’t take over my browser with intrusive ads.

IMO the new CNN.com has taken the site in completely the wrong direction, and I urge people to avoid visiting the site completely.

The f-word has become the most dangerous word in sports.  Think about it – a football player can curse all day, say horrible things about other players and even use the n-word without penalty.

But say fag, and you may lose your job.

That’s what happened last week to Chiefs’ running back Larry Johnson, who called a reported a fag under his breath, and tweeting the f-word (above) to a heckler.  Of course this brought on the big guns from the gay community, who among other things started a petition encouraging the release of LJ.

To be clear, all accounts point to LJ being an arrogant ass.  But so are many football players.  However, there is no evidence, other than the use of the word ‘fag’, that LJ has any hatred for the gay community.

So why is the word fag so important?

It seems like gays now interpret the word ‘fag’ to automatically suggest some kind of hatred for the gay community.  But I don’t think that’s a fair definition.

Fag is similar to ‘sissy’ in that it indicates some level of girlyness and/or lack of manliness…but what’s wrong with that?  If you grow up playing football, clearly a very physical sport where girlyness isn’t really effective, shouldn’t ‘fag’ be an appropriate insult?  It’s like a woman insulting another woman by calling her ‘butch.’  Is that a discriminatory term against heterosexuals?

At the end of the day, the term ‘fag’ is insulting to straight guys just like the term ‘manly’ or ‘butch’ is insulting to straight girls.  It’s an insult because it’s calling someone something that they don’t want to be, that’s all.

I really get the feeling that gays are just too quick to pull the ‘homophobic’ card, and it’s getting annoying.  Sure, gays deserve the same rights as everyone else, but they don’t have the right to define the words that other people use.  Most of all, I hate the idea that they not only get to define what LJ meant by ‘fag’, but they also feel empowered to end his career because of it.

Not a bad idea - plastic martini glass with pre-mixed martinis for $2. Seems like an ok solution for the low res crowd.

I’ve noticed that over the past year a bunch of these mini-kegerators have popped up.  Now, I love the idea of a kegerator in general – it’s wonderful to have your own tap whenever you want, and it’s so much better than opening a can or bottle.

But regular kegerators, like the ones that are used in bars, are pretty big and expensive.  So, these mini-kegerators really caught my attention at a recession-friendly price of $100 or so.

These mini-kegerators use 5 liter mini kegs that are produced by a few breweries like Heineken.  Ounce for ounce, they are generally cheaper than buying a six pack, and about the same price as a 12 pack of imported beer.  So, you’re not really getting a whole lot of price benefit here – it’s mostly convenience.

In any case, I found the T-Fal BeerTender (above left) at Target this week in the clearance aisle for only $35.  That’s a huge deal, since the list is $150.

The BeerTender is pretty large, so it takes up a decent amount of counter space in my kitchen.  It has the footprint of one of those convection toaster ovens.

The best part of this thing is that is serves your beer perfectly chilled.  All you do is plug it in and turn it on, and you’re set.  I dunno – it’s just wonderful to have beer on tap at any time, and I love it.

If you live by a Target, I’d stop on by just to see if one of these things are available.  They’re perfect for your kitchen, garage, mini-bar…even bedroom.  And since the price of these things has dropped so dramatically, you can’t really go wrong.

If you have a newspaper subscription, you know that papers sometimes sell additional advertising in the form of stickers on the front page.  The New York Daily News did this with a PC Richard & Son  sticker on October 14th.  However as you can see from the picture above, the sticker covered up some letters in the headline to…er…change the meaning of the headline.  The original headline is below.

Although this is obviously an unintentional mistake, the sticker did produce a bunch of complains.  It didn’t help that C.C. Sabathia had a particularly menacing look on his face.

Last week Gizmodo broke a huge story from Microsoft.  Meet the Courier – a dual touch screen device that will redefine the idea of a personal computer.

Sure that seems like a lot of rhetoric, but really, this thing is quite innovative.  Check out the video here to see what the Courier interface will look like.  There’s a lot of intuitive interaction between the two screens, and touch commands seem to work seamlessly.  The use of a pen for sketching and notes is interesting too.  Sure, this can be done on tablets today, but not in the interactive journal format that Courier proposes.

Gizmodo says this is a late stage prototype device, which means, sadly, we may never see it.  Microsoft doesn’t make PCs, it makes PC software, and they have stuck to this model for years.

Who knows, maybe this is a complete fake made by Microsoft to f with Apple.  Or perhaps Microsoft is tired of its partners screwing up tablets and decided to go on its own, like it did with Zune.  All I can say is I hope this device is real, and I hope it comes out soon.

The Raiders lost to the Broncos 23-3 today.  But no one in the Bay Area saw this game because it was blacked out.

Now, one could certainly make the argument that no one that has any interest in the Raiders would want to see their team beat they way they were beat today, but lets leave that aside for the moment.

The NFL black outs, i.e. doesn’t show any game on TV within 75 miles of the stadium, any game that does not sell out 72 hours prior to kickoff.  I suppose this rule is designed to encourage people to go to the games, rather than sit at home and watch on TV.

But this is a BS rule for several reasons.

1.  A team that is doing poorly needs as much help marketing as possible.  They need more TV exposure, not less.  Blacking out games makes people forget about the teams, rather than potentially see a breakout player or improvements that could result in higher attendance in the future.  How can a team expect to improve attendance when it’s primary product, football games, are not even being shown to the areas that should support it the most?

2.  The economy is bad.  If people can’t afford to go to games, then they shouldn’t be punished for it.  The Oakland Coliseum holds 65,000 people – that’s a lot of seats to fill for a city whose unemployment rate is 17.5%.  It’s no surprise that Detroit’s game was blacked out also – the city currently has an unemployment rate higher than 20%.

3.  With the advent of HD, it’s waaaaay better to watch a football game on TV unless your seats are right on the 50 yard line.  In a 65,000 seat stadium, lets face it, a lot of seats are horrible.  Not to mention in Oakland, if you’re in the upper decks you’re likely to get into a fight or robbed before the 2nd half.

I think the main point here is that the NFL’s black out rules are archaic.  I think a better approach would be to cram more commercials into games that don’t sell out – that way at least the league and team benefit and fans still get to see the game.  But this vindictive approach of taking away TV coverage is lame, although I’d doubt that this changes anytime soon.

There was a ton of protestor-shot footage from the G20 summit in Pittsburgh this week.  Many, like the video above, show police tear gassing and arresting protesters in the street.

And frankly, I have to side with the cops here.  They gave an order to disperse, which was perfectly within their rights.  Then, they arrested people who didn’t follow their orders.

Sure, most of the time people have the right to assemble on public property.  But sometimes you don’t, and in those cases if you try to assemble you will get tear gassed and arrested.

I mean really, how would you like to deal with these shithead kids all day?

Jennifer’s Body, which relied almost entirely on Megan Fox’s hotness for advertising, came in 5th this week, making a disappointing $6.9 million.  This is an interesting outcome, because Fox is by far the hottest actress now, in terms of both publicity and beauty.

But I think what Jennifer’s Body’s numbers show is that people won’t pay $10 a ticket to just see a hot girl on screen.  Sure, if she could act that would be one thing – but she can’t.  She had two Transformer movies to prove that.

I blame the internet.  Why pay $10 to see a movie with implied nudity, when you can find some pretty good Fox content on the web?

Either way, Megan Fox is way overrated IMO.  Sure, she’s hot.  But there are tons of non-crazy women without tattoo writing all over their bodies who are just as nude on film or on the net.

The nearly-completed Burj Dubai tower is already the world’s tallest man-made structure.  It will top out at 2,684 feet, that’s slightly over half a mile tall.  The building will have 160 stories that are served by elevators travelling 59 feet per second.

The first picture below is of the Burj Dubai in February 2006.  The following pictures, via Gizmodo, show the building today as it nears completion.

I don’t really buy the whole Kanye West interrupting MTV award shows thing.  I mean, nowadays an outburst by West is almost expected.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if MTV put West right next to the stage in the hope that he would do…well…exactly what he did.  I mean, without that incident the MTV VMAs wouldn’t have gotten any airtime.  Now that I think of it, I can’t think of an MTV awards show that got press for anything except a Kanye outburst or perhaps the Bruno/Eminem stunt a few weeks ago.

Really, if MTV wanted to create a professional, serious award show, they wouldn’t let Kanye near the stage.  Not only that, they’d have security to prevent incidents like this.  As it was, Kanye was in the front row and had unobstructed access to the stage.  He wasn’t even ushered out while he was speaking.

And lets face it, Kanye may really be an inconsiderate, arrogant jerk…or he may just be very media savvy.  Kanye knows how much these incidents improve his radio play and sales.  He knows he can’t survive just being another black hip hop guy in the crowd.

Decide for yourself, the video is below.