Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!!
I know some of you celebrated last Saturday but do you have some plans for tonight?
I wish I was in the US personally to celebrate all the craziness! I spent Halloween in Salem (next to Boston) 2 years ago and it was soooo much fun with everybody wearing all those fantastic costumes and everyone having fun with everyone, sharing a joke and taking pictures!
Happy October, 31st!!!

Halloween at RLE 4

Halloween at RLE 3

halloween at RLE 2

halloween party at RLE

Infinitives & Imperatives

Yesterday I was asked about imperatives & infinitives 

so I'd like to go into a little more detail here.

INFINITIVES

Infinitives are verbs used in a sentence 

most often (but not always) with "to".

For example "to go" "to do" "to eat" "to see".

The sentence "You need not stay if you want to go" 

contains two infinitives, stay and go .

Infinitives can be split 

by putting an adverb between the 'to' & the verb. 

"to better understand" "to boldly go"  "to more than double"

IMPERATIVES

We can use the imperative to give a direct order.

1. Take that chewing gum out of your mouth.
2. Stand up straight.
3. Give me the details.

We can use the imperative to give instructions.

1. Open your book.
2. Take two tablets every evening.
3. Take a left and then a right.

We can use the imperative to make an invitation.

1. Come in and sit down. Make yourself at home.
2. Please start without me. I'll be there shortly.
3. Have a piece of this cake. It's delicious.

We can use the imperative on signs and notices.

1. Push.
2. Do not use.
3. Insert one dollar.

We can use the imperative to give friendly informal advice.

1. Speak to him. Tell him how you feel.
2. Have a quiet word with her about it.
3. Don't go. Stay at home and rest up. Get some sleep and recover.

We can make the imperative 'more polite' by adding 'do'.

• Do be quiet.
• Do come.
• Do sit down.

Some of the Worst Passwords

Here is a list of some of the worst passwords....ever!  I mean if you are using some of these passwords and had your computer hacked into, then you pretty much deserve it.  Yes, it is a harsh comment, but come on.  You can be more original than that!  Well if you are using these passwords right now, I recommend you change it right away!  Or even if you are using your birth date or parts of your cell phone number, I would change those too.   Well here's your list of some of the worst passwords to use.

1. password

2, 123456

3. 12345678

4. abc123

5. qwerty

6. monkey

7. letmein

8. dragon

9. 111111

10. baseball

11. iloveyou

12. trustno1

13. 1234567

14. sunshine

15. master

16. 123123

17. welcome

18. shadow

19. ashley

20. football

21. jesus

22. michael

23. ninja

24. mustang

25. password1

SLENDERMAN is watching you

If you go out in the woods today,

you're sure of a big surprise.

If you go out in the woods today,

you'd better go in disguise.

If you go out in the woods today, 

you'd better not go alone.

It's lovely out in the woods today,

but safer to stay at home.

Beneath the trees where nobody sees.

 They hide and seek as long as they please.

SCHLOCKTOBER

OK so as it's Halloween time,
let's have a look at some horror movies.
Now I bet most of you have seen JAWS
but I guess no one has seen ORCA.

Released just after Steven Spielberg's JAWS in what looked
very much like an attempt to cash in on the other films success,
ORCA is a truly 'so bad it's good' horror film.

After a fisherman kills the Orca's pregnant mate
it decides to terrorize the local town as revenge.
Strange thing is, orca could do this if they really wanted to.
They are much smarter than sharks and just as deadly.
But they look kind of like pandas so we tend to trust them more.
Well after you watch 1977s ORCA you wont trust them anymore.
MUHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

World's Top Delicious Drinks!

What is the most delicious drink for you?  I'm sure everybody has different answer and opinions for this, so we can take a look at the world see what it says:

10.  Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows - I'm sure you all have tried hot chocolate, but have you tried it with marshmallows?  You have got to try this and you will understand why this drink comes in at #10.

9.  Gin and Tonic - Another good drink and this one is from England.  Again, try this and you will see why many people enjoy this drink. 

8.  Red Wine - Not my favorite due to some traumatic experiences, but a favorite among many.

7.  Orange Juice - Loved by kids and adults of all ages, this drink is good!

6.  Air mata kucing - A sweet drink from Malaysia, it is made from longan (a type of fruit) and sweetened sugar with some winter melons.  Haven't tried it, but it sure sounds good. 

5.  Tea - A favorite around the world.  I can't think of any country that does not enjoy this drink.

4.  Beer - I must say beer is gooooood!  I know there are many who don't like it, but this has got to be one of the most popular alcoholic drinks.  There are many versions of this drink from around the world. 

3.  Coffee - Another classic favorite drunk by people around the world.  I'm sure most of you agree with this, but as for myself, I am not a big fan of coffee.

2.  Coca-Cola - Some of you might be thinking, what?!  But you have seen ads and signs all over the world right?  Thus making it the #2 popular drink in the world.  Plus it comes in many different flavors such as cherry, lemon, diet, and zero.

And the number one drink in the world is............. Believe it or not..........  A drink that everyone absolutely needs................

1.  Water - Imagine a very hot summer day and a ice cold glass of water.  Well most of you might have imagined beer, water is just what your body really needs. 

So there you have it folks.  The top ten delicious drinks in the world.  You can check out this site and you can see all the way to #50. 

Would you steal this sandwich???

Have you ever had any problems with people stealing your lunch?  Well in Japan, it might not happen so often.  But in America, in some companies, workers share a refrigerator.  And sometimes, there is a sneaky co-worker who steals your lunch.  Now, there is no way to find the culprit unless you had garlic french fries, and one of your co-workers wreaked of garlic.  But here is a new ziploc bag to help you prevent getting your lunch stolen!  Ta-dah!!!

Now you don't have to worry about someone stealing your lunch.  Just maybe you might have to worry about someone throwing away your lunch.

Pants? Oh you must mean trousers.

Click the picture for a link to a BBC article about British English 

words that are becoming more popular in The US and Canada. 

I don't know how true it is but it's interesting none the less.

 (Many of these Briticisms are also popular in Australia.

By the way, 

several of the examples in the above picture are not real. 

For example a "face" is not a "Slappy Ham" in British English. 

That is just a joke.

Can you spot any others that you think are nonsense?

#6

             Someone's at the window. 

Plate No. 36F 24G

Anyone looking for a new camera???

Maybe some of you have already seen the commercials on TV, but one camera I really want is the Nikon Coolpix S800C.  So what makes this camera so great?  Well, it has WiFi and an Android OS in it so you can upload your pictures to Facebook or videos to Youtube or any other SNS that you use.  Now, you're probably thinking why don't you just use your smartphone?  That is true.  You can use your smartphone, but the picture quality is 2x better on the Coolpix.  So if you are a person who doesn't care about picture quality, this camera is definitely not for you since it costs a whopping ¥44,000.   You might be able to find it cheaper on the internet. 

But! Another good thing is that you can download apps onto it and do some picture editing right on your camera.  Again, yes you can do that on a smartphone as well.  But again, the picture quality is better!  And one more downfall to this camera is that it is only WiFi.  So if you have no WiFi connection, you cannot upload your photos or videos.  Well enough talking and now you can take look at this video:

Mini monsters

OK so it's not as awesome as the ninja Lego 

that I got for my birthday a couple of years ago, 

but they have now released a new set of 

"Monster Fighters" just in time for Halloween. 

Have a look at the Lego website for more pictures.

WOW Lego is so much cooler than when I was little.

I had Knights and pirates, but now they have Star Wars, 

Batman, X-Men and soon Lord of the Rings!!!

R

 I can see a 
 pattern developing. 

 Can you? 

Ninjas!!!

Since the previous post was about old Japan and geishas, I thought I would put another thing related to this.  All foreigners love ninjas.  I mean if you meet any foreigner and ask them about Japan, they will have ninja as one of their top 5.  So, for all ninja fans of all nationalities, here is an interesting video of as ninja house.  Enjoy!

NO WAY! Really?

When I tell people I am from Australia, they often say something like, "Koala!" or "Kangaroo!". In English, a normal response  would be "Really? Whereabouts in Australia do you come from?" But as I live in Japan I try to do things the Japanese way, and play along with the shout famous things from your country game, so I often respond with, "Samurai!" or "Geisha!"


Foreigners seem so have some sort of obsession with the idea of geisha. (That silly Hollywood movie made things even worse) Whenever a I pass through the Gion in Kyoto there are always tourists with huge cameras, taking photos of any young lady wearing a kimono or yukata, be she a maiko or not. Well during my study of all things Japanese, I found something very interesting about these iconic ladies, that would surprise many people. Originally they were all men. That's right MEN! In fact the first "Onna Geisha" did not arrive until 1751. If you don't believe me have a look at this article on Taikomichi

E

 What is this? 
 What do they all mean? 

Gangnam Style Fever!!!

Do you all remember a post from last month about Gangnam Style?  If not, you can check it out here.

The craze over this video is just amazing.  It is number 2 on the Billboard ranking and it just won the Guinness award for the most number of "likes" on Youtube.  There were over 335 million views on Youtube and PSY, the singer for this video, has appeared on many TV shows and radio programs.  I'm just wondering when it will hit Japan.  It must be pretty soon because it went crazy in America, then moved its way to England and Europe, and now it made its way to the Philippines.  Here is a video of inmates (people in jail) from Cebu dancing to a Gangnam Style.  Maybe some of you know, but they also did an amazing dance to Michael Jackson's Thriller as well.