February 11, 2012: Casting dilemma! Another Apple issue! Dancing bonito! And remembering Maximus.

Well, well, well – look at who picked up the latest issue of my comic book series, Dark Matter.  None other than my buddy (and former Stargate Special Features Producer) Ivon Bartok.  While I appreciate the effort and obvious enthusiasm, I can't help but feel there's an ulterior motive here.  Let's face it, it's no coincidence that, the day after I ask for casting suggestions for the Dark Matter t.v. series, Ivon suddenly sends me the above pic.  And it's no secret that our Mr. Bartok has a background in television performance -

"Pardon me, ma'am. Did you say TEN dimensions?"

- and yearns to land another lucrative onscreen gig he can use as a stepping stone to the big screen (and his oft-discussed future love scene with Scarlett Johansson and Mila Kunis in Wild Things 3).  Now this is all sorts of awkward.  To be honest, I don't mind bringing him in for these network auditions if he didn't always introduce himself as "Ivon Bartok – and I don't mind doing onscreen nudity.  In fact, I PREFER it!".

So, yesterday I mentioned my inability to transfer photos form my MacBook to Akemi's iPad and, along the way, ranted a little about Apple's apparent unwillingness to facilitate the process by actually providing some sort of connector cable.  According to the guy at Future Shop, there was simply no way to do it.  Well, the solution came to me this morning compliments of tech wiz Robert C. Cooper (Akemi: "HE should be working at Future Shop!") who emailed me with a simple suggestion: why not use the USB plug on the iPad recharger and transfer the photos that way.  So I did.  And it worked!  Problem solved, right?  Well, yes.  THAT problem solved.  I successfully transferred (as it turned out) all 1600+ photos onto Akemi's iPad using iTune's sync feature.  Unfortunately, as it turns out, it is impossible to delete synced photos from your iPad.  Presumably, there must be a way to sync only select photos to another device, but I have yet to figure that one out.

Last night Akemi made okonomiyaki.  Check out the dancing bonito flakes -

Bonito flakes, by the way, are actually dried, smoked tuna.  They certainly look alive and, the first time they were presented to me at a Japanese restaurant, dancing atop a plate of sizzling eggplant, I thought I was witnessing the death throes of some strange exotic creature.

Anyway, the finished product was delicious and, I dare say, even better than the one I had in Tokyo -

Took all three dogs out for a walk this morning.  I have to say that, despite being unusually stubborn and given to planting himself on the grass whenever he grew tired of trying to keep up, Maximus was the best strolling dog.  He always kept a fairly even pace, never charging ahead or wandering over to investigate some suspicious bush.  He ignored other barking dogs but always took the time to happily greet those that stopped to say hello.  He was very good with people, calm and appreciative of any attention directed his way, and especially great with kids (and the occasional drunk) who would flock to him like fervent convention-goers to a post-panel Joss Whedon.

Akemi is remembering him through a Buddhist ritual in which food offerings are made to the recently departed.