dokool's New Writeups

mandarake (place)

2004-09-19T22:24:07Z

Calling Mandarake 'a chain of Japanese stores' is akin to calling the Louvre 'a museum'. Having visited two of Mandarake's stores, I'm of the opinion that the above description just doesn't cut it.

Founded in 1987 as a used manga store in Nakano, Mandarake has now spread out to several stores:

Tokyo - Shibuya, Nakano, and Akihabara
Nagoya City - Naka-ku
Osaka - Umeda and Nanba
Fukoka

So far I've only been to the Shibuya and Nakano locations, but as they seem to be the flagships of the franchise I feel descriptions of them are appropriate.

Mandarake Shibuya
Mandarake Shibuya is about a 5 minute walk away from the JR Station's Hachiko exit. It's a bit hard to find the first time, but if you see the broken clock on the left (assuming you go to the right of the koban, viz. the map on their website), then you've found it. Two flights of stairs…

Samurai Champloo (thing)

2004-06-05T18:27:38Z

Some days/Some nights/Some live/Some die/In the way of the samurai...

Samurai Champloo
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe (Escaflowne, Cowboy Bebop)
Animation Director/Character Design: Nakazawa Kazuto (Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040, Final Fantasy: Unlimited)

Production: Manglobe, Inc.
TV Broadcaster: Fuji TV
North American Licence: Geneon Entertainment

Characters
Mugen - A vagrant, age 20.
Jin - A ronin (masterless samurai), age 20.
Fuu - A former waitress, age 15.
Momo - Fuu's pet, a flying squirrel.

Music
Opening Theme - Battlecry by Nujabes feat. SHINGO2 (Engrish hip hop that grows on you like cancer)
Closing Theme - Truth of Eye by Minmi
Music Producer - Yoshimoto Ishikawa (RahXephon, Scryed)

About the Show…

Simon's Rock College (place)

2004-06-05T04:42:47Z

Simon's Rock College - The Campus

Dorms

Dolliver House - Male freshman dorm. The majority of the troubledoers and ne'er-do-wells reside here, and much chaos is generally had on a daily basis. Parietals in effect and easily enforced.
Crosby House - Female freshman dorm, located across from Dolliver. Parietals in effect and moderately enforced.
Kendrick House - Co ed freshman dorm, and is generally considered to house the sketchier students of SRC. Kendrick has the koi pond and Kendrick Pit, and the suite setup as opposed to dorm-style halls make it one of the more desired locations on campus to stay in. Parietals in effect but lightly enforced. Also the home of Kendrick Bridge.
Hill House - Sophomore (and some upperclassmen) housing. Opened in Fall '02, and contains one of Great Barrington's three elevators. There is controversy

…

Temple University Japan (place)

2004-06-04T20:00:31Z

Temple University Japan is a branch campus of Temple University, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Recognized as the oldest and largest American university in Japan, it was founded in 1982.

Location: TUJ has three locations: the main campus is located in Tokyo. Furthermore, there are two campuses in Osaka and Fukuoka that support their Graduate College of Education Program. One attends their graduate program to recieve their Masters in TESOL - Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.

The Tokyo Campus: The main campus of TUJ is located in Minato-ku, which I've been told is a large foreign embassy/business district. Self-contained in one office building, it boasts a Writing Center, a Language Learning Lab, an Editing Room (for audio and video production), a Computer Center, the traditional library, study room, and student lounges, as well as a bookstore. In addition, the TUJ campus has one of two…

Hell, the Forms, and Everything: An Antigone Story (idea)

2003-05-01T07:36:57Z

This story was written as a final paper for my First Year Seminar class, taught by the one-and-only Bill Sequin. We had to incorporate everything we'd read, including the Oedipus Cycle, the Dialogues of Plato, and Dante's Inferno. Rather than analytical, I decided to be fictional, and combine aspects from each of those tales into one story, as well as related things (i.e. the Allegory of the Cave. For those who care, I got an A-, the highest grade I achieved in Seminar all semester, and so far the highest Seminar grade I've achieved all year.

Enjoy.

Hell, the Forms, and Everything: An Antigone Story

by dokool

One day in Thebes, Antigone was weeping by the river. She had been without her father for many years, now, and still mourned his passing. Her brothers were at war as well, fighting for the throne of Thebes. On this day, however, she was seen by the wise philosopher and orator, Socrates. He slowly approached her.…

Smoking from a Pringles tube (thing)

2003-04-27T05:18:33Z

Along a similar vein, I present you How to make a pipe out of a Pringles tube

Disclaimer: I don't do drugs, because as a result of my medical condition, I prefer to keep a lucid mind as often as possible. However, that says nothing about people I occasionally associate with.

Background
Me and two friends were heading down to New York City for a protest. Through the confusing vagaries of the MTA Metro North system, we made the wrong switch at Brewster North and ended up going in the wrong direction. Fortunately, we weren't the only ones who did this, as almost everyone else on our train did the same thing. While this made us feel a little better about fucking up, it didn't change the fact that we could either ride all the way back up to Wassaic and start over, or sleep in the Patterson station overnight and catch the first morning train to Brewster North. We chose the latter, and found ourselves in that one…