While on our trip to the Amami Islands in the south of Japan, we came across all sorts of odd plantlife. Well, odd to us, that is. This orange pod thing came in all shapes and sizes, and looked like some kind of aloe-like plant:

In looking it up now, I see that it's not an aloe-like plant, but that is aloe, just not the non-flowering Aloe vera I was used to seeing occasionally in pots while growing up.

This next grassy-type-puffy thing was a weed found pretty much everywhere...

Beside the road at one point we came across some [...]

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Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 31mm — 1/60 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — full exif Ninja Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 55mm — 1/25 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — full exif “I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you” Nikon D200 + Nikkor 17-55 f/2.8 @ 50mm — […]
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I mentioned yesterday that Anthony had received some train stuff for Christmas. From Santa, he received the Tomy PlayRail Twin Tower Train Station that he'd petitioned Santa for, and from Mommy and Daddy he received various sets of extra track, bridges, and the like. All this added to the little PlayRail Automatic Train Transfer Station that he picked out when he turned five in October.

He'd really been hoping for the twin-tower station, and when it came to opening the last present – the present from Santa – he saw what it was with the first tear of the wrapping. [...]

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Anthony served at Mass for the first time today, at a Mass said by Fr. Graham McDonnell, who says an English Mass once a month at the Catholic church we attend (the Kyoto Kawaramachi Cathedral, which is the same church that I got married in almost 10 years ago).

Anthony had been begging to do it for months, but it took until today until our schedule matched up with Fr. McDonnell's, so by the time we got there, he was quite excited.

Jimazaki-san (one of the parish office workers) had to scrounge around for a cassock in Anthony's size. She [...]

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Alexander Kiel's has developed some insight into the "FormatMessageW failed" error that plagues some Windows users of Lightroom export plugins, including my export plugins for Zenfolio, SmugMug, Flickr, and Picasa Web. From his reports, the problem seems to be related to IE7 and slow internet connections.

He poses a potential solution, so those running into this error are encouraged to see his writeup on the subject.

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