Brandon Inada's Blog

So I stop by the ABC Store on my way home, you know, in search of a tasty beverage, and I notice they’ve got all these new, different flavored varieties of Calpico – mango, strawberry, lychee – I’ve never seen before.  They all sound pretty tasty (I like Calpico), except they’ve got Hello Kitty plastered all over them:

Clever marketing, I suppose (Hello Kitty-branded stuff accounts for nearly half of Sanrio’s $1 billion  annual revenue), and oh-so-cute, but I can’t bring myself to buy one, so I leave with a Vitaminwater instead, because I’m a guy, and guys just don’t buy stuff with Hello Kitty on them (it’s a guy thing), but vitamins are OK, also, water is OK, so I figure it’s cool.   

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Ah, Calpico.

 (non-Hello Kitty, canned variety)

If you’ve never tried it before, it’s good stuff – sweet, slightly tangy, and milky in appearance, not-so-much in terms of texture. 

It’s refreshing and pleasantly unlike most western, heavily carbonated soft drinks.

In Japan and other non-English-speaking countries, the stuff is still referred to by it’s original name, Calpis (Karupisu in Japanese), which to the untrained ear sounds an awful lot like “cow piss.”

Putting Hello Kitty on the label seems like a pretty smart move to me because when I think of Hello Kitty I don’t think of cow piss which is probably why they chose Hello Kitty instead of, say, a cute cartoon cow like this guy:

So a couple of weeks ago I ended up watching the last few episodes of Heroes Season 1 in a late-night, up-’til-four-in-the-morning, marathon session, devouring home-made chicken quesadillas (I make a pretty mean chicken quesadilla, by the way.) and chugging down caffeine-free Diet Coke while glued to my TV.

It’s a good thing I waited until the Season 1 DVD Boxed Set came out.  I don’t really like having to wait an entire week to find out what happens next. 

On a related side note, I don’t watch TV.  Ever.  I stopped watching in high school.  I’m not entirely sure why.  I guess I just had better things to do with my time. 

In college, I’d watch the occasional episode of the Simpsons.  My roommate at the time, Pat, never missed an episode of the Simpsons and was really into Felicity and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, so I ended up having to sit through quite a few of those as well.

Now with a writer’s strike still in progress and no new episodes of Heroes for the foreseeable future, I think maybe I’ll break down and watch the episodes online.  (The original plan was to wait until all of Season Two comes out on DVD.)  My friends tell me the current story arc concluded with last Monday’s episode, so I can watch the story unfold in its entirety without having to wait unnecessarily. 

I enjoy coming up with ideas for cliffhangers.  Having to wait for the resolution to cliffhangers not of my own devising – torturous.

I walk into the air-conditioned gym and hand my membership card over to The Cute Girl With The Nice Calves working the front desk. 

She smiles.  I smile back.  There’s a sale – 25% off – through Wednesday on cookie dough-flavored protein bars.

She waves my card through the scanner – beep! – everything checks out. 

She looks at me and says, “Enjoy your workout!”

“You too,” I reply (like an idiot) then pass through the turnstile.

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Someone please tell me I am not the only person who does this.

Ah, Candy Corn.

I love Candy Corn.  I can’t get enough of them.  I bought a one-pound bag the other week and ate the entire thing in one day.  (Like a fool, I left the open bag on my desk.)

Tomorrow is National Candy Corn Day.

Seriously.

You can read all about Candy Corn, and a little about the holiday itself, on the National Confectioners Association site, candyusa.org here.

I wasn’t aware of this, but apparently Candy Corn is available year round, not just before Halloween.  I only ever look for the stuff right around Halloween, which is sort of a good thing given my complete and utter lack of control around those little yellow, orange, and white-tipped kernels of corn syrupy goodness.

Candy Corn.

Any time I want it?

Now THAT’s scary.

Well, it’s official.  I am now hooked on Heroes.

My friends have been telling me for quite some time that I should be watching Heroes, not only because I bear a slight  resemblance to one of the show’s principals (if you don’t already know which one of the actors I resemble most, I’ll leave it to you to figure it out; you can view my previous post on this very topic here), but also because it’s exactly the sort of show that would appeal to me, uber-geek that I am.

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