Kittens, Domo Kuns and teh Interweb

It all started out with me not going to the Wall of Sound Festival.

Instead of a music review, I gave you this, Fort Worth:


Then, a funny thing happened. People from all over the world started hitting my blog because someone out in Interwebland remixed my kitten, like so:


Wow, I thought. Poor kitten. Those are scary monsters. Well, not really monsters. Domo-kuns.

Domo-kun (どーもくん) is the mascot of Japan's NHK television station, appearing in several 30 second stop-motion sketches shown as station identification during shows. He lives with a wise old rabbit underground and he really, really likes TV. OK.

So, Japan is a weird, wonderful place. Which is a perfect segue into offering congratulation to my brother-in-law, Paul, who was selected as one of the winners of the 2007 Kintetsu Essay Contest. I don't know what that is, but he won for an essay called "The Union of Purple and Brown" about the Japanese dislike of peanut butter and jelly sandwitches. Oh, and he got an all-expenses paid trip to Japan. Not bad.

Well, done Sir! Please accept these pictures as my sincere congratulations!