August 30, 2006
The Japanese Olympic Committee has formally decided to back the bid for Tokyo to host the 2016 Summer Olympics rather than Fukuoka. The final vote came down to 33 votes for Tokyo, while Fukuoka garnered 22.
On Wednesday morning, both cities made presentations for their Olympic bids, and answered questions on their bids. The voting, held in a hotel in Tokyo, started at about 4:30 p.m. and the final vote was cast at about 5 p.m. The announcement of the winner was made soon afterwards.
If successful, Tokyo will end up hosting its second Olympic Games, following its hosting of the games in 1964. A formal announcement by the International Olympic Committee is not expected until 2009.
While 10 years is quite a ways away, I can imagine that this is a relatively short timespan in which to complete all the necessary work that Tokyo will require in order to host an event of this magnitude. It should be quite interesting to see how this plays out.
I wish Tokyo the best of luck. It would be fantastic if Tokyo won the bid and was allowed to host the games. Sure would make for some fun!
It appears as if the comment spam hell that I previously wrote about has finally resolved itself. There was a small bug introduced in to Akismet during an upgrade, which ended up allowing a horde of spam to get through. Fortunately, those cool and crafty guys over at Automattic were all over it and fixed the bug immediately after the problem became known.
The stats code introduced yesterday had a bug which only triggered about 24 hours after it had launched. It kicked in for different blogs at different times, but the result was that starting sometime last night you probably started to see really obvious spam getting past your Akismet filters.
I want to thank Matt for stopping by and setting me straight on what took place. This is what makes Wordpress, and the entire Automattic team, highly successful. They take the time to speak with the people who use their products, not to them.
Needless to say, jarkolicious dot com is “spam free” yet again. Akismet is the killer app for Wordpress, so if you are not using it then stop wasting your time and jump up on it. There is no better comment spam solution out there.
August 29, 2006
It has been almost a year since we last visited Narita-san in Narita, Japan. The temple is located very close to Tokyo’s new international airport of the same name. Roughly only a 10 minute train ride from the airport, Narita-san sees a lot of foreign visitors due to its location.
Narita-san is the one temple that Junko likes to visit. Each year we visit at least once in order to return our charms and acquire new ones. Most of the time Junko will have us participate in a prayer ceremony of sorts, which allows us to receive a blessed token from the gods. It is a surreal experience and quite humbling.
I took a number of pictures while we were on the grounds. We only spent a short amount of time at Narita-san before we departed for Tokyo. Check out the entire set to see all the pictures from the day.
August 27, 2006
I just got finished deleting roughly 200+ comments that should have been caught by Akismet, but did not and ended up getting posted. Those 200 are in addition to another 50 that did get smacked by Akismet. This took place across like 5 blogs that I run, which is what is so weird.
Well, I guess not that odd, but it is still annoying nonetheless. Has anyone else experienced a high volume of comment spam this weekend, or have I been the lucky winner of some sick plot?
August 24, 2006
The Saw III trailer has just been unleashed and I have to say that this looks like another round of twisted fun. I simply loved the first 2, even though in order to truly enjoy them you must have a sick and warped mind. No problems for me in that department!
Seems as if they are advancing the storyline ever so slightly, even though this is not a true “series” or trilogy in the normal sense, but instead just a sequel. Either way, it should make for some macabre fun!
Jigsaw has disappeared. With his new apprentice Amanda, the puppet-master behind the cruel, intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him, Doctor Lynn Denlon and Jeff are unaware that they are about to become the latest pawns on his vicious chessboard.
More than likely I will have to await a DVD release in order to see this, as the first 2 were never released in Japan early enough. Nonetheless, I will be watching this, one way or another!
August 23, 2006
I simply can not believe that Anthony is 12 years old today. As each year passes by, and he adds one notch on to his belt, I do as well - so I guess this really means that I am one old codger!
Happy Birthday to my son. You are a pain in the ass at times but a great kid more often than anything else. Your parents love you to death and will do anything within their power for you. Remember that! We love you more than we are capable of expressing, so realize that the well will never run dry. Take comfort in that knowledge.
Happy 12th birthday. Now let’s see if you live to see 13!
