I think I grew gills today. Not to mention I am now sporting a fine coat of mildew. It is humid. Humid, humid, humid. It has been raining for a little less than 24 hours and it is not pretty, people.

My job can be fairly rewarding, material-wise. I have received everything from apples (although sweet potatoes are more common) to beautiful wine goblets from Italy. Just this week I got some plums and honey from two different students.

Most of the good stuff comes from adults. Sometimes the kids draw me a picture, or make me a bracelet, and it is cute beyond compare. Mostly, however, they just like to share their cold germs, which is why I am sitting here tonight with a steaming mug of hot lemon and ginger, wistfully trying to remember what it was like to be able to breathe.

I can't believe I almost forgot to share this. Finally, proof of my genetic superiority!

Meredith F. Small
LiveScience's Human Nature Columnist
LiveScience.com
Fri Jun 20, 9:45 AM ET
Humans are fundamentally social animals. Our social nature means that we interact with each other in positive, friendly ways, and it also means we know how to manipulate others in a very negative way.

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Neurophysiologist Katherine Rankin at the University of California, San Francisco, has also recently discovered that sarcasm, which is both positively funny and negatively nasty, plays an important part in human social interaction.

So what?

I mean really, who cares? Oh for God's sake. Don't you have anything better to do that read this column?

According to Dr. Rankin, if you didn't get the sarcastic tone of the previous sentences you must have some damage to your parahippocampal gyrus which is located in the right brain. People with dementia, or head injuries in that area, often lose the ability to pick up on sarcasm, and so they don't respond in a socially appropriate ways.

Presumably, this is a pathology, which in turn suggests that sarcasm is part of human nature and probably an evolutionarily good thing.

How might something so, well, sarcastic as sarcasm, be part of the human social toolbox?

Evolutionary biologists claim that sociality is what has made humans such a successful species. We are masters at what anthropologists and others call "social intelligence." We recognize and keep track of hundreds of relationships, and we easily distinguish between enemies and friends.

More important, we run our lives by social calculation. A favor is mentally recorded and paid back, sometimes many years later. Likewise, insults are marked down on the mental score card in indelible ink. And we are constantly bickering and making up, even with people we love.

Sarcasm, then, is a verbal hammer that connects people in both a negative and positive way. We know that sense of humor is important to relationships; if someone doesn't get your jokes, they aren't likely to be your friend (or at least that's my bottom line about friendship). Sarcasm is simply humor's dark side, and it would be just as disconcerting if a friend didn't get your snide remarks.

It's also easy to imagine how sarcasm might be selected over time as evolutionarily crucial. Imagine two ancient humans running across the savannah with a hungry lion in pursuit. One guy says to the other, "Are we having fun yet?" and the other just looks blank and stops to figure out what in the world his pal meant by that remark. End of friendship, end of one guy's contribution to the future of the human gene pool.

Fast forward a few million years and the network of human relationships is wider and more complex, and just as important to survival. The corporate chairman throws out a sarcastic remark and those who "get" it laugh, smile, and gain favor. In the same way, if the chair never makes a remark, sarcastic people are making them behind his or her back, forming a clique by their mutually negative, but funny, comments. Either way, sarcasm plays a role in making and breaking alliances and friendship.

Thanks goodness, because life without out sarcasm would be a dull and way too nice place to be, if you ask me.

I cannot believe it took me until yesterday to realize it is both possible and easy to make tortillas instead of paying through the nose at the import store.

Happy start of summer, everyone. Japan decided to celebrate by getting stickily humid. Yay! Of course, it is still nice and cool because of the rain, but this means that the overall environment can best be described as "clammy". Fun, and yet I know for a fact that I will miss it once the heat of non-rainy-season-summer moves in.

We are having a mini vacation starting from July 1st. I'm just going to stay with the Sasaki's for a few days and then hang out with Andy for the weekend, but it will be a nice break (from the hassle that is my daily life, natch). And then there is a long dry spell until the end of September, although I think I do get one long weekend in August.

But then! I am off from September 20th-October 5th, and it will be glorious. Although I haven't purchased a ticket yet, or even made a reservation, I have talked with the travel people and gotten a quote for a ticket to Laos. I have also already mentally planned an itinerary (Which, Laos being the kind of country it is, essentially consists of "Go to Laos. Head north. Drink beer. Maybe hang out with some elephants.") and even mentally packed. (Mental packing is much more fun than actual packing.)

Packing. Alas, my careful scouring of teh internets leads me to conclude that my trusty suitcase will not be suitable for Laos, and that I am going to need a, urk, backpack. Step one will be to ask everyone I know if they have one I can borrow, and I'm hoping that this works out. I do have the one I used in Europe still sitting in the basement of my parent's house, and my father even dug it out to see how it was holding up.



Sure, he says the puppy is included, but we all know what my mother has to say about that.

Let us just pause for one more moment to admire the cuteness.

It's sturdy enough (the backpack, not the puppy. Although from what I hear, she's not exactly a delicate little flower either.), but not exactly the most convenient backpack ever. Quite aside from the issue of it being in Canada, it's basically just one giant sack with no external pockets. Despite my strong desire to not buy a new pack, as I hate lugging things around and much prefer wheelie suitcases, I decided to take a look at the MEC website. Just to see what they have, y'know. Care to guess how long it took me to spot a backpack I clearly am destined to have?

Anybody want to give me an early birthday present? Anyone? At all?

It never ceases to amaze me how every trip seems to require new luggage.

With all the talk lately of rising oil prices and layoffs and prophecies about how bananas are going to become a luxury fruit (which...why aren't they a luxury fruit in North America? Read the article and find out! A heartwarming tale for the whole family!), it is nice to see that some people can still afford to pay 650 000 yen for a watermelon. Not because that's how much it costs, mind. No, these babies usually retail for a more modest 20 000-30 000 yen. Apparently the guy just really felt like supporting local agriculture.

I wonder if I could interest him in the mint I've got growing on my balcony?

Heh.

I was just thinking about saying something about how I haven't seen roaches in the sink for a while. Yeah, shut up, self. I totally jinxed that. Booo.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure it's bats in the kitchen wall. The squeaking combined with the swooping shapes outside the window tonight pretty much point to bats.

Or owls, I guess.

Whatever it is, one of my housewives pointed out that they might actually be eating some of the roaches inside the wall, which is perhaps why I haven't seen as many lately. In which case, a) hello wall creatures, welcome to the neighbourhood! and b) missed one.

It's so hard to get good help these days.

In non-bug news, I bought a bonnet. And no, that's not a cutesy euphimism for a hat, it actually is a bonnet.



It's one ribbon and a floral print away from bearing the label "as seen on Little House On The Prairie" and I lurve it. I can actually pile my hair up underneath it, which means I might actually wear it this summer. The main reason I avoid hats is because I would rather deal with the possibility of a sunburned scalp than the reality of hair on my neck.

Right. I'm guessing the roach is dead by now, drowned/suffocated in a mixture of dish detergent and mold spray, which means I need to go clean out the sink.

It's so much fun being me!

Liberace! I didn't even know they made rhinestone tuxedos. Never say The Muppet Show is not educational.

I cannot help but wonder how many children were scarred for life by the appearance of Alice Cooper on The Muppet Show.

How many children's shows reference Faust?

How well can you do on this?

Right. I have learned to live with the cockroaches. I know they are probably swarming all around the walls, but frankly, as long as they stay out of my sight, I will happily pretend they are not there.

I have also gotten used to the birds living inside my wall in the living room (although I still harbour worries that they might one day burst through the wall and give me a heart attack.)

But now there are thingies living inside the wall in my kitchen, too. I was hoping for more birdies (hello, birdies!) but based on the squeaking noises, I suspect they are either mice or bats. (Turns out I don't know what either of those creatures sound like.)

Apparently I'm now living in a treehouse.

Can you spot the toddler hiding among the cushions?

Rainy season started on Monday. Somewhat to my surprise, it actually coincided with rain. That almost never happens. Things are very squelchy here and my laundry is taking forever to dry, but it's nice and cool and my allergies seem to have been drowned into submission. Take that, nature!

Got too much disposable income? Money burning a hole in your pocket? Don't feel like giving it to poor people? Yeah, don't blame you. Poor people are annoying. Got a cat? If you've answered "yes" to all of these questions, then Kitty Wigs is the place for you.

Take lots of pictures, and be sure to keep plenty of bandages nearby.

The following exchange took place sometime last night after three am, entirely in mime:

Me: *slumped at bar*

Drag Queen: Girl, get your ass back on that dance floor.

Me: But my feet! They hurt!

Drag Queen: Whatever, Whiny McGee. Take a gander at my shiny silver stilettos. I laugh at your pain.

Me: Pwned.