New unretouched snapshots of poor quality have been added to Umeda, Niseko, Yubari and Misc., but yahoo is currently in the middle of sucking something so I won't put links to them here and instead you'll have to get there on your own (behind the picture on the left). [edit: added links cause I'm bored at work]

Today at school my favorite art club member constructed a tiny diorama of the art room in which she sat to make the tiny diorama. It included shelves, an easel and a table on which sat several featureless geometric shapes. "I don't see these here!" I said, pointing to them, "you'll have to make them in real life so your model will match." In response to my clever map-is-not-the-territory logic she went and got the real shapes, which she had made already, and placed them on the real table. I drew a tiny picture of them and put it on her easel.

Today the results for acceptance to Tukinoki high school were announced. Here kids have to apply for high school and it's a big deal which I don't fully get since they just sleep in class anyway. 500 kids applied... but only 250 would be allowed in. A mass of junior high students had congregated before the school by mid-afternoon. Large canvases were hung from the second floor of the school and at the stroke of 2 their protective paper was removed revealing the names of the chosen. Screams of joy and sobs of defeat rang out like the tolling of so many bells. I saw many kids crying. Hayashi sensei, a wise man, said this: "Happy faces. Sad faces. This is life."

oh yeah. This is great.