Monday February 15
 
10:32
 
Aaarrrrrgghhh GOOGLE!

A very pissed off letter I want to send to Google Adsense but can’t because there’s no contact option:

Dear Google,

I have been an Adsense user for a long time.

Suddenly you have decided that my earnings must be shown in Japanese yen because I live in Japan. It’s not something I want, but I have to do it to continue with adsense – fine.

However, you tell me I must accept new terms and conditions and these are only shown in Japanese. I don’t speak Japanese. Just because I live in Japan, it doesn’t mean I speak Japanese.

My computer is set to English. My browser is set to English. My account is set to English. But you insist that terms and conditions are shown to me in a language I don’t understand? Ridiculous.

There is no way in Adsense support to contact you about this. No way to get help about the terms and conditions. What am I supposed to do?

It’s bad enough that every time I go to http://www.google.com/ you ignore my PC OS language, browser language setting, Google account language setting, the fact I’ve clicked on “Show Google in English” millions of times, and you redirect me to http://www.google.co.jp/ – but presenting Japanese terms and conditions to me and forcing me to accept them without giving the option of a different language or even be able to contact you about them is just taking the biscuit.

Repeat: PC has English OS. Web browser has English as the primary encoding language. Google account is set to English. Stop thinking that what I really want is Japanese!

Arrrrggghhh!

Of course this letter will have zero effect and I’ll be forced to accept terms and conditions I don’t understand, but writing it made me feel a whole lot better.

Friday January 8
 
13:38
 
Suicide

I just found out one of the bloggers I used to read religiously about Korea committed Suicide in 2006. Yeah, it took me a long time to find out – but after he left Korea, I stopped reading his blog.

One of the reasons I stopped blogging about personal stuff is that people read your blog and think they know everything that is going on in your life. People who read Shawn’s blog had no idea of what the guy was really feeling behind the scenes, and Shawn’s suicide illustrates that.

I actually bought Shawn’s original book when I saw it on sale in a bookshop in Korea. He inspired many people with his blogging and humour.

Thursday January 7
 
10:13
 
Yaeba

A new search term suddenly became popular on my blog yesterday – Yaeba. I mentioned Yaeba before on my post “The blog for Japanese girls with bad teeth“. Why the term should suddenly become popular now, I don’t know.

Wednesday January 6
 
11:02
 
Cute Japanese Girl

For comparison, the search terms that bring people to this blog:

Today
cute japanese girl
canon eos 5d mark ii nikon d700 comparis
finepix real 3d w1 sample
panasonic gf1 raw samples
louis vuitton men wallet
hanging knickers
shin okubo sex
them windows 7 tokyo
popcorn hour upscaling
canon eos-1d mark iv compared to nikon d

Yesterday
japanese girls
panasonic gh1 focus points
nikon d90 purple fringe
japan girl
tamron 17-50mm vc
g1 lightroom 2 sharpening setting
tamron 17-50mm vc review
difference between d700 and mark 3d
nikon d3s vs canon 1d mark iv
lumix gh1 14-45

Sex, cameras, and Japan. You bunch of camera wielding perverts :)

Wednesday January 6
 
10:43
 
Byron Dorgan?

I stumbled up Google trends “hot searches” page. The most searched phrases in the states at the moment are:

1. byron dorgan
2. eclipse script leaked
3. randy johnson
4. chicago executive airport
5. angelyne
6. rory markas
7. royal air freight
8. upillar
9. chicago plane crash
10. matt holliday
11. orange bowl kickoff time
12. bill hall
13. nexus one vs droid
14. casey kotchman
15. ye li
16. jet crash
17. new google phone nexus one
18. jon reep
19. dahn yoga
20. minneapolis airport

What is the implication of Byron Dorgan being the #1? Is it that Americans are seeing news about him and don’t really know who he is? I certainly didn’t. But after seeing news about him, I wouldn’t be inspired particularly to search for him – so there must be more going on than that.

Randy Johnson. Snigger.

What happened to the days when free, sex, porn, and mp3 were in the top 5?

Looking at the UK hot topics:

1. google nexus phone
2. mike shanahan redskins
3. casey johnson and tila tequila
4. toyota
5. body scanners
6. sam mendes
7. tna
8. ces
9. american idol
10. dorgan

I can’t believe an American sport is #2 hot topic in the UK. That’s just wrong.