It's Stupid Map Saturday!

 Here's a new thing, stupid maps! 

For instance:

Yep it's the good ol' murder rate map. Even our least murder-y places are only matched by the very worst parts of Europe like Lithuania and Latvia. 

Then we have ... 

 

I don't like the color choices but the funny greenish color is for the longest-lived states. Spoiler: Hawaii's the longest-lived with California and New York not far behind. 

This data is not a big secret and I'd expect people moving to a different state would, in their research, find it. But these are Americans we're talking about here so: 

Americans are leaving the least-stupid states for the most stupid ones. They're aiming for maximum stupid.

OK so on with the day.  I slept in until almost 5, because I could. I didn't feel like doing anything, and moped around drinking coffee. I thought about how, when I was still mostly asleep and was thinking, "I could not possibly ever be homeless, because S- A- would never let me be homeless". S- A- is a friend down in the Los Angeles area. For some reason this was a big relief. 

I finally got going, and rode over to Japantown. I was actually there before Nijiya closed, and got a little plate of yakisoba which I heated up in their microwave and ate out front. That was just to take the edge off my hunger, so I could walk around and take my time deciding what else to get. 

This was the yearly Japantown Immersive festival, the centerpiece of which was San Jose Taiko. I'd gotten there between sets and I wandered around the closed-off street, deciding finally to get something at JT Express. 

And there was Ben Yep, with his wife and kid. I did this little "Ex-er-ci-ses" thing with my fingers to entertain his kid, and Ben and I talked up a storm. In fact we talked so much I stood off to the side so other people could order their food - Ben and company were waiting for some takoyaki. I finally ordered a poke bowl. 

Their food came and not long after, mine did too. They've have been happy to have me sit with them but they've had "close calls" with covid and his wife is very pregnant. So I sat nearby and when the taiko started up they took off. I sat and ate until I heard a shinobue and I hurried off too. 

I stood with the crowd eating my rice and fish and watched the one shinobue player, dancing around and playing a little riff that kind of sounds like "We Are Flintstones Kids" so, pretty easy to learn. But that turned out to be the only shinobue playing tonight, maybe because this was the taiko group's third set and maybe the shinobue player was tired. 

It was still great fun. It turned out to be San Jose Taiko's 50th anniversary and they'd been traveling around to places like the various internment camps and other places of Japanese-American historical interest. (I thought about how it's one thing to be sent off to a camp for 4 years, but it's far worse to come back and have lost your house, your farm, your business, your savings, etc.)

Once the show was over everyone dispersed and it was pretty cold by now due to the wind. I'd helped a guy with his bike, too. Some regular old Middle-Eastern Joe Workingman who said his bike had tipped over and now the brakes didn't work. I'd offered to help, seeing him fiddling with the thing near me. He'd managed to turn the handlebars all the way around and the brake cable was wound around the headset. I got him to turn the handlebars back around 1 turn, then we tried to get it so the brake cable didn't have so much slack. I said at least you should be able to ride it home, and sometimes I'm carrying things and can only use the rear brake, I just stop more slowly and plan ahead. 

On the way home I decided to try finding this weird little convenience store that's nearby but in an odd location. I found it, having realized the other night that it's on Taylor not Jackson. It *is* on Taylor, and just East of the railroad tracks. I went in and got some Clausthaler near-beer and some pork rinds and rode home. 

I'd been busy last night, taking the Apple computer stuff apart and listing parts, and I also cut up and froze some pork I'd bought at H Mart, and finally practiced a little. 

Last night I also did an order from Mejiro for a shinobue cover for my 6-hon shinobue, a 7-hon Aulos shinobue to match my 8-hon one (at least those come with covers) and because for some reason shakuhachi covers have doubled in price, I spent what I would have for one, on a shakuhachi book that might be pretty good.