in_interval

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=hoshii

欲しい(hoshii)

Meaning: to want something (desirative)
Example: I want a car.

[ View this entry online ]

Examples:

靴がほしいのです。
I'd like some shoes.
「わたしは、妻と子供が欲しいので、家が必要なんだよ。」
"I want a wife and children, and so I need a house."
だれか話し相手がほしい。
I want someone to talk to.
もう一杯ビールがほしいな。
I feel like another beer.
デザートにアイスクリームがほしい。
I want ice cream for dessert.
君は何がほしい。
What do you want now?
領収書がほしいのですが。
I would like a receipt, please.
欲しい。
I want (you/it). [romantic nuance]

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=hoshii

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=kotokara

〜ことから(kotokara)

Meaning: because
Example:

[ View this entry online ]

Examples:

店の前にいつも人が並んでいることから、人気のある店だということがわかる。
Since there's always a line of people in front of the store, I understand the fact that it's a popular shop.
町並みが昔のままに保存され、古い寺も多いことから、その町は「小京都」と呼ばれている。
Since the streets are maintained to look how they did long ago, and since there are lots of old temples, that town is called "Little Kyoto."
文字のことから看板のことまでご相談下さい。
Please feel free to contact us about anything from text to signboards.
皆さん、話がおしゃむ君のことから逸れてるんですけど｡
'Scuze me all, but the subject's about Oshamu-kun so you're getting off topic.
そういうことだから。
Because it's supposed to be like that.
このことから当然彼は潔白にちがいないということになる。
It follows from this that he must be innocent.
このことから彼は当然無罪潔白にちがいないということになる。
It follows from this that he must be innocent.
ふとしたことからその噂は嘘だと分かった。
Accidentally, the rumor has turned out to be false.

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=kotokara

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=tsumori

つもり (積もり・積り)(tsumori)

Meaning: One's intention; conviction; belief
Example: I intend to do that; I am convinced that ...

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Examples:

私は医者になるつもりです。
I intend to become a doctor.
出かけないつもりです。
My plan is not to leave.
会議には出ないつもりです
I do not intend to attend the meeting
そのつもりは全然ありません
I do not ever intend to do that.
1時間後に出発するつもりだ。
We will leave in hour.
3月末に私たちは結婚するつもりです。
At the end of March we will marry.
明日は家に居るつもりだ。
I will stay at home tomorrow.
あす（明日）一番にそれをするつもりです。
I am going to do it first thing tomorrow.

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=tsumori

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=nikurabete

〜に比べて(nikurabete)

Meaning: compared to
Example: compared to past times...

[ View this entry online ]

Examples:

今年は去年に比べ、雨の量が多い。
This year, compared to last year, the quantity of rain is much more.
ノーパンクタイヤはエアタイヤに比べて寿命が長く、理想的です。
"no puncture" tires in comparison with air tires have a long useful life and are ideal
この作品は君の前のに比べて進歩している。
This work is an improvement on your last.
この本はあの本に比べて、ためになるばかりでなくおもしろい。
This book is not only more instructive but more interesting than that book.
それは以前に比べて格段に進歩した。
It has greatly improved compared with what it was.
コンピューターに比べて、ワープロは一つの目的にしか使えない。
Compared to a computer, a word processor has a single purpose.
古い機種に比べてこちらのほうがずっと扱いやすい。
Compared with the old model, this is far easier to handle.
昨年に比べて今年は春の訪れが早かった。
Spring has come early this year compared with last year.

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=nikurabete

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/30/view-from-a-hotel-window-7-30-25-indianapolis/

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56631

And boy, if the state capitol wrapped in scaffolding isn’t a metaphor for something, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, hello, here I am in Indianapolis for GenCon, where I am a Guest of Honor for the convention’s writers symposium. For the next several days I will be on panels, dispensing what passes as my wisdom on the subject of writing and publishing. Oh boy! If you’re here, come say hello. If you’re not here, maybe wait to say hello until I am in your vicinity.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/30/view-from-a-hotel-window-7-30-25-indianapolis/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56631

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3122/

During the most recent glacial maximum, it's believed that land bridges extended from the surfaces and connected several of the spheres together.

https://xkcd.com/3122/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/30/rays-bucktown-bed-breakfast-an-eclectic-artsy-space-in-the-suburbs/

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56613

When I went to Chicago last week, it was just for one day and one night, and then the ol’ five hour drive back to Ohio. So, I needed a place to stay for just one night, and specifically not downtown. My mom was actually the one who found Ray’s Bucktown Bed & Breakfast, an eleven bird-named-bedroom bed and breakfast with the most eclectic decor this side of the Mississippi.

My mom and I had a great stay, and I wanted to share the avian affiliated B&B with y’all in case you’re ever in Chicago and need a totally bomb dot com place to stay.

We stayed in the Cuckoo Room, which is one of the only rooms where the bathroom is not attached, and is actually right across the hall from the bedroom portion. They make sure to put up a sign on your bathroom that says it is specifically for the Cuckoo Room, and not for public use, and your room key is also the key to the bathroom if you want to lock it just in case. The bathroom being separate actually did not bother us at all, even when I went to shower and whatnot I wasn’t concerned about it not being attached to the bedroom area.

I was really impressed how clean the bedroom and bathroom were, and especially the shower looked really nice and clean.

A shot of the bathroom, just the half with the toilet, sink, mirror, and a cabinet.

A shot of the bathroom showing the tub/shower and some towels hanging up. There's a window in the shower and the tile is like a small light brown square style. There's shampoo, conditioner, and body wash attached to the wall.

I liked that there were plenty of towels, a bath mat you could lay out, and the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in the shower for you to use. There were also robes and sandals in the room for you to use.

As for the rest of the wild, maze-like estate, there were multiple communal spaces with couches, comfy chairs, books, board games, and even a rooftop patio with tons of plants if you needed a bit of sunshine and fresh air. Plus, so much cool art on the walls. And a little library!

A grey comfy looking couch in a well-lit area with a coffee table in front of it and framed artwork behind it.

A room with several seating options, two couches and two chairs, plus a chess board on the coffee table and tons of knick knacks and art around.

A well-lit corner with a chair and ottoman, an ideal spot for reading near the window.

A little sitting area with a couch and a chaise lounge, and a coffee table. The coffee table has an assortment of books on it.

A little wooden box library out front of the B&B. It doesn't have a ton of books, but it's nice regardless.

The rooftop patio with patio furniture and an umbrella, and tons of greenery and potted plants around.

Apparently, there’s even an orange cat that is sometimes on the patio. I did not see him, but I wish I had! The patio is also 420 friendly, if that’s your vibe.

Aside from the communal space to sit and relax, you’re also free to go into the kitchen anytime and fill the carafe from your room with filtered water, get a cup o’ joe, or grab a free snack from the snack station. I actually appreciated that they had some pretty decent snacks and not just like, one type of granola bar.

A shot of the kitchen. The floor is grey hardwood, and there's grey countertop visible with a black dishwasher and white cabinets.

As you can see, I wasn’t kidding about the exorbitant amount of art and knick-knacks. Here’s some particularly interesting pieces I took note of:

A tissue box cover that is made entirely of small white shells.

(I thought it was covered in teeth when I saw it from across the room.)

A big bowl of fake fruit, and the fruit is like, super bedazzled, textured beads. There's a banana, a peach, an orange, raspberries, I don't even know what else.

(I wanted to touch these sooo bad but I looked with my eyes and not my hands.)

Five globes adhered upside down to the ceiling.

(What is keeping them up there??)

A huge, brown slab of stone or clay or something that is carved with an image of two people and a tree I think? I'm not entirely sure.

(This piece is actually HUGE.)

Tons of old timey toiletry-type goods, such as a box of "cue tips", "Colgate Talc For Men", and other odd things like a bottle of peppermint extract.

More old timey goods, like a giant jar full of old matchbooks, "shoe dressing cream", "itch-me-not" in a brown glass bottle, and old fashioned razors.

And finally, this blackboard menu from a restaurant that closed down in 1997.

A giant black chalkboard menu from an old restaurant that no longer exists. The menu consists of some really good sounding items, like butternut squash apple soup, olive tapenade, creme brulee, cheesecake, and more. Really wish it were still around.

You can’t beat those pre-00’s prices.

So, now that you’ve seen the “bed” part of the B&B experience, let’s talk about the “breakfast” part.

Breakfast is made to order, with a real lil’ menu!

Everything on the menu is included in the cost of your stay, so no need to bring your wallet down from your room. Aside from what you see on the menu, there’s also pastries and fresh fruit in the kitchen you can help yourself to.

I ordered the herbed goat omelette, with a chicken apple gouda sausage.

An omelette and a large sausage on a salmon colored plate. The omelette has tons of herbs visible throughout, as well as some white goat cheese coming out of it.

(I know it looks like there’s a hair on my orange slice, but it was absolutely not a hair, I promise.)

The omelette was totally stuffed with goat cheese and herbs and was super yummy, and the chicken apple gouda sausage was quite possibly the best sausage I’ve ever had. It was so flavorful and juicy and had chunks of apple in it, it was seriously so good.

Aside from the hot food cooked for me, I also had some cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes, and a pastry.

My mom got the B&B pancakes, which are blueberry and banana pancakes with real maple syrup, and they were flippin’ delicious. They were packed full of blueberries, and the bananas were actually caramelized. I had more than my fair share of her pancakes, plus I tried a bite of her overnight oats which I also really enjoyed.

Aside from the breakfast, there’s plenty of other great amenities that make staying here really worth it. You can request a garage parking spot so you don’t have to use the street parking, there’s a steam room and a sauna, and the place is dog friendly (extra twenty bucks for a dog)!

The management and staff were all super friendly, and even referred to me by name.

Honestly, I think the thing I liked most about this place was just the awesome amount of little details, like when you’re about to leave, there’s a basket with SPF options for you to help yourself to. Out front, there’s a doggy water bowl, jar of treats, and bags to clean up after your dog with in case you forgot one. There’s chocolates waiting for you in your room upon arrival, and make up wipes and Q-tips in the bathroom. It just really feels like an actual home away from home, and my mom and I really enjoyed our stay.

If you’re in the Bucktown/Wicker Park/Logan Square area, I highly recommend staying at Ray’s.

Which funky art piece is your favorite? Have you heard of Ray’s B&B before? Let me know in the comments, be sure to follow them on Instagram, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/30/rays-bucktown-bed-breakfast-an-eclectic-artsy-space-in-the-suburbs/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56613

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=yori-2

より(yori-2)

Meaning: more ____
Example: Don't you know a better method?

[ View this entry online ]

Examples:

よりいい方法知りませんか。
Don't you know a better method?
あなたと会って、より一層あなたのことが好きになりました。
I liked you even more when I met you.
より早く着く電車はないのですか？
Isn't there a train that gets there earlier?

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=yori-2

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=niyotte

によって(niyotte)

Meaning: by; according to; due to; owing to; due to
Example: we lost our father due to the war

[ View this entry online ]

Examples:

アメリカ大陸はコロンブスによって発見された。
The American continent was discovered by Columbus.
Dan Sman さんによって書かれた本
A book　written by Mr Dan Sman
列車の代わりに飛行機に乗ることによって失った時間を埋め合わすことができる。
You can make up for lost time by taking an airplane instead of a train.
理想は言葉によって表現される。
Thoughts are expressed by means of words.
リンゴは彼女によってナイフで半分に切られた。
The apple was cut in two by her with a knife.
卵は大きさと重さによって選別された。
The eggs were graded according to weight and size.
友達を見ることによってどんな人かわかる。
You can tell what a person is like by looking at his friends.
輸入の増加によって需要は下がった。
The demand was brought down by increases in imports.

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=niyotte

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/29/the-big-idea-mia-tsai-2/

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56603

Memory is a funny thing. We all have them, and yet, even when we all have the general same set of memories, each of them is different from the memories of others. Author Mia Tsai has been thinking about memory a lot, and how they come to inform her novel, the very appropriately-named The Memory Hunters.

MIA TSAI:

“You can’t prove [historical event] didn’t happen. Were you there?”

What if we could say yeah, actually, I was? And then we could share the memory of being in that place and time with anyone we chose? What if there were people who could slip back into the genealogical record, pull memories from centuries past, and show definitively that something happened? And then, how would we deal with the fact that memories are not as reliable as we believe them to be, especially eyewitness accounts?

I’ve been fascinated with memory for decades. When it comes to music, I memorize repertoire quickly, and the few times I’ve had trouble with memorization have turned into crisis-inducing moments. I wondered what predisposed me and others like me to memorization and what made it difficult for others to know a piece by heart. Still, we work to memorize deeply in classical music, which means memorizing not just notes on the page, what the hands look like as they play, or what the music sounds like, but the theoretical analysis of the music and the feel of the piece in your body.

I took that fascination with me to college, where I jumped into psychology and cognitive neuroscience and learned how fallible human memory is. The brain is incredibly suggestive, and mistakes happen at every stage of the memorization process, from information gathering to memory retrieval (the infamous selective attention test, also called the invisible gorilla test, wasn’t created to test memory, but it serves as a good example of how someone can be an eyewitness yet not remember critical aspects of the situation).

So, with that knowledge as a foundation, I imagined how retrieving someone else’s memories would work. My own memories aren’t fully realized scenes from a movie; the same holds true for many people. How could someone truly understand someone else’s memories?

And if those memories could be understood, how would they be reframed and shaped as exhibits in a museum?

About ten years ago, I watched a video on Janet Stephens, the hairdresser-turned-archaeologist who now specializes in ancient Roman hairstyles. She’d interpreted the word acus not to mean a hairpin, as others thought, but a needle and thread, and it broke open her understanding of how the hairstyles were created.

In the future, with no real documentation on how to use our everyday items, like self-sticking wall hooks or decorative toothpicks (or 8-tracks, floppy disks, and manual transmissions) we might need our own Janet Stephens. How would anthropologists and archaeologists write about us in museums? This cast-iron hook I had, which was supposed to be drilled into a post and used to hang pots, an object I thought was simple enough that it could not be misconstrued as anything else—would it get misinterpreted two hundred years into the future? Would its placard in the museum read like this? OBJECT OF UNKNOWN FUNCTION, EARLY TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. CAST IRON. Wouldn’t it make research easier if, say, an anthropologist with the ability to pull memories from DNA fragments could take specimens off said hook hundreds of years later, say yes, I was there, then write more accurately about it?

But it’s not enough to magically pull a memory and present it. Our lives are rooted in culture and context at increasingly micro levels thanks to social fragmentation, and so the people doing the memory work would also need to be well versed in the historical context of the memory. Much like how “acus” mystified archaeologists until a hairdresser came along with the right knowledge set, the memories gathered by my fantasy anthropologists would need someone to interpret them—perhaps someone living who would have a tangible, contextual connection to the memory, someone who might be looking for lost ancestral knowledge or needed a reference to how things used to be done.

None of that personal connection would have a place in a museum. Thus, I created the memory temple as well as a system of ancestor worship for the everyday things that have great personal impact but much less impact when weighed against the rest of public history. I took inspiration from Taiwanese ancestor worship as well as the practice of people going to the cemetery to speak to their loved ones. And The Memory Hunters continued to grow.

There wasn’t a part of society diving didn’t touch. In effect, the characters in the book would always be beside their ancestors except for those who had been sundered from family heirlooms or relatives. I turned that over for a bit, not really able to get my jaws around it, until one day I heard someone say she’d love to sit with her ancestors for five minutes. Suddenly, it crystallized for me so many of the book’s issues that had been hovering just out of reach. It put me back in first grade, living half a world away from the rest of my family, when we were tasked with bringing in a family tree (I could not).

The Memory Hunters takes place in a world where distance and lost knowledge can be overcome, and I think that’s the biggest speculative aspect of it.

The Memory Hunters: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s

Author Socials: Web site|Bluesky|Instagram

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/29/the-big-idea-mia-tsai-2/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56603

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=naide

ないで(naide)

Meaning: without
Example: "I went to school without eating breakfast."

[ View this entry online ]

Examples:

朝ご飯を食べないで学校へ行った。
I went to school without eating breakfast.
払わないで去る
leave without paying
宿題をしないで、学校へ行った。
I went to school without doing my homework.
彼は死なないで埋められた。
He was buried alive.

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=naide

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=no-3

〜の(no-3)

Meaning: ? (sentence ending particle - question) [F]
Example: What is it you don't get?

[ View this entry online ]

Examples:

「納得いかないんですよ」「何が？何がですの？」
"I just can't accept that!" "What? What is it that you can't accept ? "
男・女：もうお店やっていないの？！まだ4時だよ。
This shop is already closed, is it? It's still 4.
なんで彼女がいないの？
Why don't you have a girlfriend ? [M/F]
悪いけどほかに用事があるの。
I'm sorry, I have another engagement .[F]
「どうしたの。」「少しほうっておいて。あなたには関係ないことなの。」
"What's wrong with you ?"[F] "Leave me alone for a while. It's none of your business."[F]
「今出かけてはいけない。」「どうしてだめなの。」
"You mustn't go out now." "Why not ? "[F]
私、去年から新しいことを始めたの。
I started a new practice last year .[F]
「私、自動車にしょっちゅう乗ってるの。だから、クライアントが私にコンタクトが取れないって文句を言うの。」
"I'm on the road a lot, and my clients are complaining that they can never reach me." ."[F]

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=no-3

xkcd_feed

https://xkcd.com/3121/

Detectives say the key to tracking down the source of the kites was a large wall map covered in thumbtacks and string. 'It's the first time that method has ever actually worked,' said a spokesperson.

https://xkcd.com/3121/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/28/what-i-got-in-murano/

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56582

When Krissy and I went to Venice, one of the trips we had scheduled was going to the nearby island of Murano and watching some of the artisans engage in their centuries-long tradition of glass-making. That in itself was quite interesting, and when it was done we were taken into the actual shops, just in case we wanted to buy, say, a $50,000 chandelier or an arty blown-glass head of Medusa going for $25,000. In fact we did not — the mere thought of owning something both that expensive and that fragile fills me with an almost holy terror — but as we wandered about both Krissy and I found (relatively) more modest-priced items we decided to take home as 30th anniversary gifts to each other. Krissy’s was a glass rum decanter, which she will get excellent use from. Mine is the item you see above.

What precisely is it? I mean, technically I think it qualifies as a bowl; you can put fruit in it, or possibly keys when you come home, or maybe those marbles you use to fill up clear vases in houses where you’re not actually supposed to touch things. But I confess I didn’t buy it to be functional; I bought it because it was pretty, and green (which is my favorite color) and because all the little square elements you can see have their reflective layer at different depths in the glass, giving the piece in real life an almost startling sense of texture. When we were wandering about the shop, I kept coming back to it, which meant this was the piece I wanted (it also happened this way several years ago when I bought a painting from an aboriginal artist while I was in Perth). For me, it’s art, not necessarily functional (Krissy’s is also art, it’s just art you can store rum in).

Again, it was not a $50K chandelier (which is what the one in the picture above was going for), but it also was easily the most I’ve been on a single piece of glasswork — I paid more when we had the windows in the house replaced a couple years back, but that was, like, all the windows. So I was naturally apprehensive about whether the thing would make it to the house in one piece. Fortunately, the folks we bought from have some experience with shipping glass, and work with a courier service here in the US that knows how to expedite object d’art coming from abroad. Both the bowl and decanter arrived without a scratch.

(And yes, we had to pay a tariff. I’m pretty sure we would have had to before the current administration as well, but the thing about the current administration is one can never quite tell what the tariff will be on any particular day, which is a really not great way to do things. As it turned out, we paid the tariff before this administration and the EU decided on a 15% general tariff on everything coming out of Europe, so we got a lower rate, but regardless, this is no way to run a trade relationship.)

If you go to Venice I do recommend a side trip to Murano to look at the glass and such, because it was fascinating, and also, I will warn you not to go if you’re not willing to end up spending more than you ever expected to in your life on glasswork. Is it worth it? In my case, yes; this piece is lovely and I think I will get years of enjoyment out of just simply looking at it. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to buy any more of it. One piece (plus a rum decanter) is enough, thank you.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/28/what-i-got-in-murano/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56582

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/28/an-experience-with-soft-touch-asmr-in-chicago/

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56573

Have you ever wished you could just pay someone to scratch your back and play with your hair? Like a massage but lighter and softer? Well, it turns out you can, and I totally did it.

A little known fact about me is that I love ASMR. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, and it basically means that when you hear or see certain things, you get a pleasant tingling sensation in the back of your brain that can even give you chills. If you’re not well versed in ASMR, you probably just think of it as that weird whispering thing people do into a microphone, or worse than that you associate it with unpleasant mouth or eating sounds.

Well, I’m happy to report not all ASMR is like that. Certainly not the kind I like, anyway. For me, I have always liked the ASMR videos of people pretending to do your makeup or skincare, where they dote on you and give you a pampering session and are a comforting presence. But I also like the ones where they actually use a real person and do things like scratch their back, tickle their arms, play with their hair, trace their face. It sounds like a strange thing to watch, but it’s really easy to imagine yourself as that person, and it’s weirdly relaxing.

And I’m certainly not alone in this, because if you look at the comments of these videos, you’ll see so many people saying things like, “I wish that were me,” “how do I get someone to do this to me,” “I wish I could just pay someone to do this for an hour.” It turns out a lot of people would love to have someone touch them nicely in a soft, comforting way! Who knew?

So, there I was, watching one of these videos on Tik Tok from Soft Touch ASMR, when I noticed that the caption of the video said that you could book an appointment with her. Someone was finally doing the thing everyone had been asking for for so long! Where in the world could this possibly be located?! California. Of course it’d be across the country from me. Tragic.

@soft.touch.asmr.spa
it’s your turn to be the girl in your fave ASMR vids – book in bio to feel the tingles IRL at Soft Touch ASMR Spa (based in LA & poppin’ up all over!) #asmrmassage #asmrspa #softtouch #asmrtok #fyp #inpersonasmr #asmrtreatment #asmrrelax #asmrbackscratching #asmrtracing #asmrhairplay #asmr #asmrtingles #asmrsleep

♬ memories – leadwave

Then, I saw that she travels and does pop up events in other major cities. And she had one coming up in Chicago. Well, now there’s a drive I can do. Is it five hours? Yeah. Did I book an appointment anyways? Oh yeah.

Julie was so sweet and friendly, and I had an amazing experience with her. Before our session began, she asked me if there were any specific triggers I wanted her to focus on, and I mentioned I really wanted the back scratching with the claws I’ve seen in her videos:

@soft.touch.asmr.spa
Could you handle the IRL tingles? Book a Soft Touch ASMR Massage & feel it yourself (link in bio / softtouchasmr.com) Soft Touch is LA’s 1st & only ASMR Spa for gals, trans & non-binary pals #softtouch #asmrmassage #fyp #asmrtok #asmrspa #asmrirl #asmr #asmrbackscratching

♬ original sound – Soft Touch ASMR Spa

Julie gave me the most relaxing hour ever, with tons of light touches, tickly scratching all over my back, arms, and shoulders, combing my hair softly, I was seriously in heaven. I had to try really hard not to completely fall asleep and miss everything.

It was such a calming escape, I started to wish I had booked the 90 minute experience instead of the 50 minute. I really thought that by the end, I would be totally touched-out and that it maybe wouldn’t even feel good anymore, but I was completely wrong and I was dreading it being over. I also determined I needed this treatment like, every single day from here on out. It really was so nice.

So, even though it was definitely a splurge and a five hour drive away, I am so glad I went and had such a unique, relaxing, awesome experience. It was only after I went all the way to Chicago that I learned she was doing a pop-up in Indianapolis and Columbus later that week, but I wasn’t that upset about it since I love Chicago anyways and had a fun time visiting there regardless.

Would you enjoy this kind of experience? Do you like ASMR videos? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/07/28/an-experience-with-soft-touch-asmr-in-chicago/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56573

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=node

ので(node)

Meaning: because, and
Example:

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Examples:

彼の話はあまりにも馬鹿げていたので誰も信じなかった。
His story was too ridiculous for anyone to believe.
このように平易な英語で書かれているので、この本は初心者に役立つ。
Written as it is in plain English, this book is useful for beginners.
彼はお金に困っていたので、昨日スーパーマーケットで万引きを働いた。
He was in financial trouble, so he shoplifted at the supermarket yesterday.
風邪をひいたので学校に行かない
I won't go to school because I cought a cold
今から出発しますので、席にお座り下さい。
Please remain seated because we are departing now.

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=node

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=ppoi

っぽい(ppoi)

Meaning: -like
Example: It is a child-like expression.

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Examples:

ジョンは怒りっぽい。
John gets angry easily.
子どもっぽい表現だという印象があります
The expression has a childish ring to it
かわいいっぽい上原さん。
Ms. Uehara, how cute-ish you look.
なにっぽいって！
What do you mean, -ish!
ローラちゃんは色っぽいよ。
Laura is sexy!
あの黒っぽい服を着た人はだれですか。
Who is that person in blackish clothes?
彼女は、飽きっぽい性格で、今までに職場を何回か変えている。
With an easily bored personality, she has changed jobs countless times up to now.
怒りっぽい人は、友達が少ない。
An easily angered person has few friends.

http://www.jgram.org/pages/viewOne.php?tagE=ppoi