Beware the rice cake

I have fallen in love with mochi--that sticky-rice substance which can variously be toasted, put in soup, shaped into coats around balls of ice cream, and more. This warning label amused me: "Children (especially under three years of age) and elderly people should be cautious. Please chew thoroughly before swallowing."

Apparently, though, the warning is very much in earnest:
Mochi (rice cake)

"Glutinous rice is steamed, pounded into a paste, and shaped into cakes.　...They are one of the essential Japanese foods, and having a celebratory significance, are particularly eaten at New Year, when many people try to eat a lot of them. They are served in zoni, the special New Year soup. They are very soft and sticky and every year a number of people, usually old people, choke to death on them."

Fear the goo. o_O

(But I gotta say--the Mochi*Mochi manga scanslation site redeems the food's image for me! Mochi makes for some very cute credit pages.)

...so what makes you think I'm procrastinating?

iTunes Music Library Meme, gleaned (and slightly altered) from the journal of akainagi


Open iTunes, Winamp, RealPlayer or Windows Media Player to answer the following. Go to your library. Answer, no matter how embarrassing it is.

Number of songs: 544

Sort by song:
First Song: "A Circle Is Cast" - A Circle Is Cast, Libana
Last Song: "Yuu" - Hikaru no Go Original Soundtrack 1, various artists

Sort by time:
Shortest song: "Eyecatch" from Descendants of Darkness Original Soundtrack (9.5 seconds!)
Longest Song: "Drop of Water/Traditional Song" by Dana Lyons from Turn of the Wrench (10 minutes, 23 seconds)

Sort by artist:
First Artist: ABBA ("Waterloo" on ABBA Gold)
Last Artist: individual = Vanessa Carlton ("A Thousand Miles" on Be Not Nobody); collective = Various Artists--though actually, I think it's Topol ("If I Were a Rich Man" on Fiddler on the Roof)

Sort by album:
First Album: 1962-1966, Disc 1 (The Beatles, "From Me to You")
Last Album: Yu-Gi-Oh! Sound Duel 4 ("EYES (TV-Size)")

Search the key word and see how many songs appear:
"Sex": none
"Death": 4
"Love": 24
"You": 25
"Me": 14
"Drugs": none
"Hate": none

Search for your own name, how many?: none

Do The Shuffle!
Shuffle your library and list the first five songs. No padding your playlist, you hipster, you. Be honest!

"Yesterday" - The Beatles (1962-1966, Disc 1)
"Confrontation" - Various (Descendants of Darkness Original Soundtrack)
"Deja Blue" - Various (Into the Sky: Vision of Escaflowne Original Soundtrack)
"Eternal Flame" - The Bangles (Love Songs of the 80s)
"Family" - Dar Williams (Mortal City)