On a serious note, Apple products do seem to be a big item for theft. Just this week I experienced being part of an Apple targeted crime. On Wednesday, my father went to the local Apple Store and picked up a Macbook Pro for me (Because Apple won't ship to an overseas military address, but that's another story...). He took it back to the car, made sure it was well hidden in the trunk, and proceeded to the gym to work out. As he came out an hour-and-a-half later, security was surrounding the car and what was left of the back passenger window. By the looks of things, the thieves knew exactly where in the car the laptop was hidden and were only interested in it. Best guess is that they saw him coming out of the mall and followed him from there. His own laptop, two cameras, and briefcase were all untouched. The thieves were in and out in less than ten seconds. This is actually the second MacPro that I've bought, and apparently the second to be stolen. The first was sent through the black hole that is USPS and has yet to be seen. I'd bet a paycheck that someone else is enjoying it right now.

I recently have tried to learn Japanese, and can pass on a few tips.

The first thing I would recommend trying to learn is the written language. Of this there are three forms: Hiragana ('Traditional Japanese'), Katakana (For borrowed and modern words), and Kanji (The advanced characters). I worked on this by just trying to learn five characters a day, and then constantly repeating them until the whole set was memorized. A good reference, at least for the hiragana, is http://www.thejapanesepage.com/, which has decent exercises to remember everything.

After learning at least the hiragana and katakana, you can start working on grammar and vocabulary. Two books I used for grammar were 'Japanese Step by Step' by Gene Nishi and 'Easy Japanese' by Jack Seward, both of which I recommend. I also used the Rosetta Stone software for a little bit, although found it a bit difficult. All it does is show you a picture and has you say a phrase associated to what's going on in the picture with little explanation as to what is being said.

The one thing I truly wish I had was a tutor to check myself against instead of flying blind. At times, I feel like if I were to go to Japan and try out what I've learned, I'd end up like that guy in the Monty Python skit saying the dirty phrases instead of the true language.

Most importantly, if you're really serious about learning Japanese, stick with it! Make your learning a fun experience!

Steve-