Awakened from a long slumber... by number 4!

Stre-----tch. Yawn. What year is it?

The noise of my own silence had ebbed to such a faint hum that I could have kept this up for another 19 years and 10 months, were it not for some gentle if annoying prodding from my good friend John.

Anyway, here's what I've got on all fours:


Four jobs I've had:

1. Furniture mover
2. Bookstore clerk (at the same shop as John. Good to see they're still using the same typeface!)
3. Insurance underwriter
4. In-house translator

Four films I can watch repeatedly:

1. Alice in Wonderland
2. Tonari-no Totoro (original Japanese of My Neighbor Totoro)
3. Amelie
4. The Big Lebowski (or Brazil, or...)

Four places I've lived:

1. The Big O
2. The Big Mikan (No kidding... some people, mostly foreigners I assume, call Tokyo that. Mikan is Japanese for mandarin orange.)
3. The Big Apple, and
4. The Little Apple

Four TV programs I like to watch:

1. The Simpsons
2. Lost
3. the occasional episode of House or CSI
4. Hi-def nature shows and other stuff on Discovery

Four places I've been on vacation:

1. Mainland Southeast Asia
2. Japan, head to toe
3. Chiapas, Mexico
4. Lucas, Kansas

Four of my favorite dishes:

1. Curry (Japanese, Thai, Indian, whatever)
2. Pizza in all its forms (I'm even growing to like NY style, with its emaciated crust)
3. Green salad, with dashes of color and a vinegar-based dressing
4. Anything donburi, especially oyakodon

Four websites I visit daily:

1. airline shipment tracking sites (for work)
2. some news sites
3. my friends' online digs...
4. we're already over four, aren't we?

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. A night market someplace in Thailand, with spicy food and a beer (subset of "anyplace with beer")
2. Sitting within the warmth radius of my in-laws' sunken kotatsu, watching a second meter of snow slowly accumulate outside (subset of "anyplace with family or friends")
3. On the second floor of Excelsior Coffee in Kabukicho, sipping a coffee of tolerable quality while alternately reading and watching the freak show that is the store's uniquely mixed clientele
4. Anywhere I'm not subjected to my boss' taste in radio - Smooth jazz, CD101.9 (I'm convinced this station owns about 75 singles and no albums)

Four bloggers I am annoying:

1. All the bloggers I know have already been tagged, except the Bellmen
2. and Mun Mun
3. So if anyone else happens by and wants to answer,
4. use the comments!

But not until I've made amends for my tardiness by adding a couple new categories.

Four places I've never been but would like to visit:

1. (a piazza somewhere in) Italy
2. the Taj Mahal
3. Montreal
4. the other side of the fence

Four differences in my alternate universe:

1. No pesky body hair. On humans.
2. Lots of things travel at light speed, including sound
3. Our brains contain an "ashes to ashes" lobe, which reminds us of our common origins. Everybody comprehends the potential synergistic effects of doing a favor. In Americans, this lobe also functions to make us more math-literate.
4. Dogs play poker, just like in the paintings