Thursday, September 12, 2019

Spirited Away Kaonashi (No-Face) piggy bank

Based on the Japanese animation film by Hayao Miyazaki.



Seen on Amazon along with a slew of similar piggy banks; the more typical ones such as a kitten in a box that peeks out and a paw grabs the coin, a panda in a box, Godzilla under the sea that does the same thing, a dog on top of a box, and so on. This one is the most different from the rest. I think they're all made by the same company.

Commenters on YouTube say, "I want this." 



I conjured my brother psychically. 

Trufax.

It took a few days, but that made the conjuring powerful.

Several months ago I sent his wife this aged soy sauce.


I wrote him an amusing email saying I chose it for his wife because chicks dig the packaging.

And they do.

Take off the packaging and boom regular bottle and the novelty is gone.

But the thing is, just one year of aging in oak barrels really does knock off the hard edge of regular soy sauce. This soy sauce is much smoother. 

I didn't expect them to appreciate that. 

But they did.

I also told them that I had a large bottle of Whole Foods brand 365 that I had to use up before I could purchase another bottle of this good stuff for myself. I used the phrase "that plebeians use," for some reason my sister-in-law found hilarious. I don't know. I suppose because Whole Foods is not plebeian. 

The 365 brand soy sauce is actually very good. I have no complaint about it.

Anyway, my bottle of plebeian Whole Foods soy sauce is nearly empty so now I get to buy another bottle for myself and that made me think about my brother. And I haven't talked to his boys in awhile. Too long, actually. 

And they grow up so fast. 

You have to keep the communication thing going. Or else miss their whole childhood. And they'll never be this precious again.

So I looked around for things to buy them. 

And I found two really cool things. 

They told me that they really loved the glow-stick packs I sent previously. The kit allows them to make a bunch of stuff.

 

My sister-in-law told me they decorated the back yard with them and then had a neighborhood party. The visiting kids got to take home some of the glow sticks that they used as bracelets. 

They don't glow forever. The stuff wears out overnight. I think.

Later I was told they didn't know the oldest boy secretly saved some then sprung them out later after everyone else thought they were gone. 

The oldest boy is artistically minded.

That decorating with lights gave me the idea to send them led light strips that come in different colors and with an infrared controller. 

The strips drop energy the longer the length due to resistance. So this kit is actually two kits in one. For double the customary length. I don't know if it comes with two controllers. 

That's for the oldest boy. 

I forgot what I had picked out for the younger boy. He is more athletic. Nearly every photo I took of that kid in action he looks like a trained athlete. His activities outside school are all about physical training. When I told him to do jumping jacks every time he lost tic-tac-toe his form became sloppy. I told him they must be proper jumping jacks and he joyfully straightened right up. 

And that cracked me up so hard my sides hurt from laughing. Pure joy in physical activity.

All this right in front of me, facing me, and smiling, instead of running around the whole restaurant like the other kids were. 

But he also has this thing about cash. 

I see money on the ground all the time but I cannot bend over and pick it up. Not easily anyway. 

Stepping out of the car at the park I noticed a dime on the ground.  I said, "there's a dime" woosh blur dime disappeared. The boy was fast. He swooped in an instant like a hawk and snatched the dime. As an athlete. That picks up dimes.

I think there was more than one dime.

Every time I see a coin on the ground, and that's almost every day, I think of him doing that. See, I'm always looking downward because I have to measure each step. I do look upward and forward, but I look down much more than most people do so I see money all over the place.

I also see piss and bits of trash, but the coins stick out. 

Just yesterday I went through the back door with two small girls and their mother. We converged at the same time. "Look! There's a shiny penny."

     "I'm not picking that up. It's got germs on it." 

"Come on. You can clean it out in your mouth."

     "No way! Ew, that's gross." Both girls at the same time. 

Often I point it out to people, perfect strangers on the street, and they offer to pick it up for me!

Anyway I selected the toy bank for the second boy. I almost got the Godzilla but reviews said it's really loud. This one here plays music from the movie then burps after it swallows the dime.

It they had a bank that farts, I would have bought that one. Because to boys, there is nothing funnier than farts. Alas, we have to settle with burps. And burps are the same thing as farts. Almost. 

Then today my brother called. 

He was waiting for a bus to take him to Bart to take him to the place where his car engine was repaired. He had a lot of time to talk uninterrupted by his family. 

He began by telling me how much they like the soy sauce. They really do notice a big difference. And they use it all the time. Because it's so mild. It's a very good thing to jazz up vegetables and protein. It's become a go-to thing with them.

That surprised me because I imagined they stuck it in the cabinet and forgot about it.

At the end of a very long conversation he said, "Send my boys something and I'll pay you back." 

!

Is he reading my mind, or what?

Yes. He is reading my mind. I am channeling thoughts about him and his family. And he is picking them up. And then acting on them. By calling me and discussing the very things that I'm thinking about. 

Man, oh man, these coincidences sure can be coincidental sometimes. 

The timing is just too precise. There was no time delay. The beginning and the ending of his conversation with me are the two things I was pondering strongly and visualizing. And I was very happy to talk to my brother and span that gap where we hadn't. 

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