The Loss of a Legend

Tsutomu Yamaguchi known by friends as "Lucky"

Back in the summer of 1945, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Nagaski Japan native, was on business in Hiroshima Japan. It had been a three month long trip by the time the morning of August 6th rolled around, and Yamaguchi was eager to put the finishing touches on his trip by visiting the shipyard he had been dealing with one final time - he was to return to his native Nagasaki just a day later. Yamaguchi would make it to the shipyard, and eventually home, but the story involving that is what truly makes this man amazing.

History buffs have likely already caught onto where this story is going already. But the good spirited Yamaguchi describes in a 2005 interview clearly remembering the morning, a nice summer day, nothing necessarily out of the ordinary, at least of course until he heard a single plane flying overhead.

This plane of course was the B-29 Bomber Enola Gay piloted by a young Colonel Paul Tibbets. The payload was "Little Boy" the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Yamaguchi's story does not however end here. As the resilient man survived the first bomb, of course deciding to high tail it out of Hiroshima as fast as possible. And where else would he go, but home to Nagasaki, where he would fall victim to and survive the second atomic bomb blast. That's right, one man, two atomic bombs, zero deaths.

Yamaguchi would go on to live a very long life, he did however pass away just a few days ago on January 4th, at the age of 93. It was stomach cancer that finally brought the old man down, although he had sworn off both drinking and smoking at age 50. He is the only documented survivor of both of the atomic bomb drops on Japan, attacks that killed about 260,000 people in total. In 2006 Yamaguchi took it upon himself as the only living witness to both of these attacks to go before the UN and speak out against nuclear arms, feeling that well into his twilight it was still his responsibility to pass on what he knew to the people of the world.

And why exactly did he feel that way? Having not known or never having met the man I can't say for sure, but this quote from last year might shine some light onto his reasoning,

"I could have died on either of those days. Everything that follows is a bonus."

Farewell Tsutomu Yamaguchi, Bonus Time and man itself have truly lost one of our champions.

For a more detailed look at his story please read http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/6943088/Tsutomu-Yamaguchi.html

PCP & You!

FRIDAY

Two video posts in a row? Yeah well, these are all pretty frikken hilarious. And how do these videos relate to Bonus Time? Don't do the shit you see in these videos during Bonus Time!

Very pleasant music, and I have to say I was a fan of both the tribal dance the man was doing in the beginning, and the look of wonderment and joy when he found himself immune to the traffic he was dancing through! The onlooker in the truck who ALMOST turned left, but then decided to do a U-Turn instead wins good samaritan of the year award in my book.



I guess I'd get naked if I were bleeding that much too, I mean why not, right? The highlight of this video I think was the hole this gentleman punched in the fence. Not only is there some monster force behind that hit, but it's arguable that had he punched a second, or even slightly wider hole that he would have gotten through that fence. I bet that lady cop is pretty glad he didn't turn his sights on her.



This one is the grand finale, and I think you'll agree I saved the best for last. From the humble beginning of the officer fumbling with embarrassment as he explains the situation to the the cameraman, to the stand off itself this video is second to none. Questions to ask yourself when viewing include:

• Do all of the lights on in this school imply children are present in some kind of afterschool activity?
• None of his clothing is seemingly present, did this man leave the house nude?
• A school, really?
• The fire extinguishers, did you really need ALL of those fire extinguishers?

I'm going to cheat and tell you that the answers to all of these questions are an emphatic yes, but I'm sure you had realized that by now already. I hope you've enjoyed these wonderful videos, Happy Friday!

WOLF WEEKEND MONTH PREVIEW

One of the coolest things that was ever invented during Bonus Time was Wolf Weekend Month. Much like Shark Week, it's a month that's dedicated to wolves, but only on the weekends. Therefore it's more spread out, and infinitely more bad ass. January isn't Wolf Weekend Month, because a weekend has already gone by, but here's a preview of what Wolf Weekend Month will be like.

An Important PSA from Bonus Time

Yeaaaaaaaaaaa Get Money!

It's 2010 folks, and we here at Bonus Time wouldn't feel right if we didn't remind you of one important thing you may have forgotten! It's time to get a new calendar. With enjoyment of Bonus Time comes one key that you may have been overlooking, proper time management. Nothing helps with this quite like a good old fashioned calendar. Map out your time, this week you might be working on your Fushion engine plans, next you may be working on your age halting serum, whatever it is your doing with your Bonus Time, it's important to be on top of things and realize just exactly what it is you are doing.

So go get a new calendar! Everyday that you don't you are wasting more and more money, and that totally sucks, you're not an idiot right? But what kind of calendar is it that suits you? Well this is a very important question, and one that can only be made after hours of deep upside down meditation. We decided though to give you a few pointers.

• Get a calendar with a lot of space on it - Not SPACE space persay (like outerspace), but space for you to plot out exactly what it is you'd like to do during the New Future. If your calendar is jumbled with ridiculous holidays, or tiny spaces for each day, then you are not getting the most out of your calendar, or your Bonus Time!

• Pick a theme that fits you - Planning on making some kind of wretched cat / man hybird during the New Future? Get a Kitten calendar to help inspire you! Planning to conquer a foreign nation? Get a calendar that shows the great wealth this land has waiting for you! Also, what month were you born in? It might be a good idea to locate that month on the calendar, and make sure that it has a theme that's right for you. Are you getting a super hot babes of Bonus Time calendar? Make sure the babe on your birth month is the babe for you!

A new calendar is a great way to make a fresh start in a new year, and a New Future. There's nothing more clean slate then a new calendar, so go get one, NOW!

The New Future And You!

A Dick Ship, made of Dicks you see!

Ahoy faithful, this is the first of many articles to come outlining what exactly you can hope to expect out of the new future. While largely speculative, all of these scenarios have been spawned from the minds of top Bonus Time scientists (the same men who brought you Bonus Time, and the New Future) and are all very likely to happen. The first of which will be ... SPACE!

Yeah this one was kinda a gimee, of course we're going to travel into space more! From water being discovered on the moon, to martian rovers to Super Earth and beyond, it's clear that man kind is ready to take off the water wings and dive head first into the rest of the galaxy.

As Captain James T. Kirk once put it, space is indeed the final frontier (if I hear any lip about our vastly unexplored and arguably more alien oceans I'm putting five across your eyes), and since the dawn of time it has been man's desire to explore, to make all that is unknown known, in this the new future, the age of exploration will truly come to fruition. But how exactly will we go about this you ask?

Spaceships.

Let that settle, trippy eh? Yes we will certainly need space ships, and much faster ones than we have now, at least if we're going to get anywhere past the moon. You see the main problem with space travel so far has been that man is very fragile. We're susceptible to all of the nasty gamma, ultra violet, x, and whatever other rays are out there to get us. We also have a fairly limited expiration date, all of us. So how do we get around this? Well we have a few options.

• Fusion powered space ships - By bottling a fusion nuclear reaction you are bottling the power of the sun itself. Indeed while fusion itself has been thus far out of the grasp of human scientists, it is fusion that gives us our very existence. Fusion is not a hypothetical science, and to see an example of it all one needs do is look up at a starry night, or at the sun itself to see it is very real.

• Reliable Cryogenics - And i'm not talking about taking Ty Cobbs head and playing home run derby for an afternoon, I mean real reliable cryogenic science that would allow a human to enter a state of suspended animation wherein they could be thawed once they reached their destination. It's tough to say exactly what this would do to the human psyche, on one had you would be one of the first people to step foot on an alien planet such as Mars. On the other hand 20+ years would have gone by, most of your peers would have aged past you, and most of your loved ones would likely already be dead. Still, it's a possibility.

• Magical Age Halting Serum - With a grape aftertaste, even kids will ask for NoGrow Age Halting Serum!

All realistic scenarios for man to explore during the NEW FUTURE. Another theory was that we could simply leap frog from planet to planet, establishing colonies, creating new generations of explorers while in space, and essentially living a somewhat nomadic existence, constantly on the move to your next destination. What exactly will be man's method in venturing out into space? Tough to tell at this early stage of the New Future, but space travel and expanded space exploration is certainly something that should, can, and with a little intuition will happen during the New Future.

The New Future

We're fucked.

In my hello again post, I briefly touched on the concept of the "New Future" that Bonus Time has embraced in the last few weeks.  The idea is simple, for the last 10 years we have been in Bonus Time, and since 1976 we've been in the "Future."  However with 10 years of Bonus Time already gone by, we feel that 2010 rings in not just a new year, but a new future as well.  

What does this mean?  Does anything you've done in the last 10 years matter?  What exactly is going to change?  These are all questions you are likely asking yourself, and it's okay, the New Future should be exciting you like this.  What we want you, the Bonus Faithful to take out of this concept is simple really.

It's been 10 years of Bonus Time, and there have been many wonderful things created, programmed, dreamed, and puked up over these years.  But now it's time to take all of them to the next level.  While we've been promoting living your Bonus Time to the fullest for the last year or so, the New Future is a time to fly.  Take everything you've had during Bonus Time, everything great you've done or thought of and take it to the next level.  

Were you thinking of finally asking out that co worker (Do it, the Office tells us this will work), finally getting around to writing that autobiography, taking that extra class on string cheese theory?  Any and everything should be done in the new future, fill your hearts desire, go fourth, and be merry in the NEW FUTURE!

Cowabunga, Ride the Wave!

Fuck Yeah!

CNN wrote some dumb ass article the other day about the biggest technology fails of 2009.  There was some good stuff on there, the the original article was mostly redundant crap.  We get it, twitter and facebook are scary, but even moreso when something bad happens to them!  And while I have myself certainly raged over gmail outages, the last item on their list really served to piss me off.

CNN has already decided to openly declare Google Wave, a program not even available yet to the general public, a failure.  And why?  Well read the article, because as far as I can gather their biggest irk with wave is simply that they are either too dense, or simply not innovative enough to properly utilize the program.

Now I'll admit, Wave is very new, and while we here at Bonus Time have begun using wave with really all of our new projects, we truthfully don't fully understand it yet either.  But just because you don't understand something NEW does not mean it is broken, or that it is bad.  It means that humans in general, continue to be closed minded and ignorant during the digital age of Bonus Time.  And that reality in itself is sad, but at the same time this is all coming from CNN.  The same news network that has Roman Polanski being arrested on the same ballot as Barack Obama being sworn in as the first black president of the US for the top stories of 2009. 

The point is that we here at Bonus Time like Google Wave, a lot in fact.  And it's what we've begun to use for our weekly web meetings (Sundays at 8), so consider another more Bonus-y point of view before you buy into negative hype about the Wave.  And while Wave is currently in a limited preview beta, we here at Bonus Time have a few invites to spare, so if you'd like to check the wave out for yourself drop your e-mail into the comment section and we'll hook it up.

The Beast With 1,000 Teeth

Pow! Right in the dick!

Aloha Bonus Faithful!  

It's been a long time, hasn't it?  But here we are, 2010, all grown up and ready for the new future!  But before we go there, you've likely got a lot of questions, and valid ones at that.  Now that I've reshined my life giving light back into the petri dish that is your worlds, you're likely scared, confused, but at the same time aroused, and excited.  First let's take a look at what happened in the ass end of 2009, and what I (and therefore you) found interesting about the end of a stupid year.

- That Bitch from Jersey Shore got punched in the face, this is one of my favorite .gifs of it.  Also fuck you blogger for not letting me embed gifs.

-Those Balloon assholes got sentenced to some jailtime, good!

-Some other asshole discovered Super Earth again or something.  I remember seeing that story and getting pissed, suffice to say we're still fucked.

-Water was confirmed as being on the moon, more on that later.

There was probably more, but truthfully I can't remember.  Bonus Time itself also has quite a bit of news that we would like to share with you as well.

-Bonus Time World HQ was established in Brooklyn, New York.

-Bonus Time has began hosting weekly meetings with new exclusive Bonus Time information, these are typically on Sunday's at 8 on the internet.

-We have also hosted our first in person meeting for the public, while it was under the clever guise of a New Years Eve party, all of us here at Bonus Time feel the meeting was a great success.

-We got a white board!

Aside from Transformers Christmas that should be it, aside of course from the "NEW FUTURE" which we have now entered in 2010, which I will focus on in a new post shortly.  Until then though, welcome back, and here's to 2010!

A Muse is Found

Hi so I know I haven't written anything on here in like 3 weeks. There's been a lot of reasons behind that, one being really cool and the other being kinda boring and stupid. The boring and stupid reason is that I actually work a job and it's been killer lately, so I just haven't had the time or motivation to write. The other is that Miguel, the co-founder of Bonus Time actually just moved into my apartment. So we've been working on a lot of stuff we want to integrate into Bonus Time but haven't really gotten it 100% together yet. I probably should have said something earlier but who cares.

Anyway, in the interim I've decided to give you little bits and pieces, and I've got this conversation between my friend Shane and I to share with you (note I have a countdown as my gchat "status" that is at 85 today)

I'll be putting up Shane's original piece shortly, and feeding you more bullshit news after that. Yay for Bonus Time

shane: 84?
83?
me: In two days yes
shane: what are you countingdown?
me: secret
shane: shit
me: suffice to say you're going to die when it hits 0

shane: clues?
figured as much
me: mmhmmmmmmm
shane: how?
how will I go?
me: comet
pretty bad ass way to go
shane: does it hit just me? or is it a planetary thing?
me: pretty much just you
but then like radiation
and clouds of dust
that kills everyone else
shane: so I'll die painlessly, while everyone else will die miserably
?
perfect
me: no well
because it's a comet you actually don't die
you're slowly digested over thousands of years
like the pit in star wars that you have no idea about
shane: oh true
damn
me: yeah
i hope that doesn't mess up your tuesday
it's still a bad ass way to go
shane: I'll be a human blak hole
no it's just like all the other tuesdays
Sent at 1:09 PM on Tuesday
me: nice
well just keep watching the countdown
because that could be what happens then
i'm gonna go look for lunch though
shane: ok.. if something happens to me at the end of your little g-countdown.. I hope you feel guilty as fuck!
Sent at 1:11 PM on Tuesday
shane: sent you something
me: is this
wow
okay
Sent at 3:40 PM on Tuesday
me: this is good
and I'm glad you're so concerned over what is clearly a pressing issue to all of man kind
shane: um yea
so you want to donate to me?
so I can afford it?
me: afford?
oh moon water
yeah i'll buy you a glass someday
shane: I appreciate it
did I send you the songs I recorded with Jay?
me: uh uh
also
I kinda don't want to tell you this
because it's an even more freightening picture
but you don't realize how they're going to get the water out of the moon do you ?
shane: tell me
me: well it's not actually frozen inside the moon
shane: where is it
me: back in the old days before the atmosphere formed there used to be something called reverse rain
where rain would be exchanged between the Earth and the Moon
During these times the water was spread across the surface of the moon into the soil, and that's just kinda where it still is
The molecules of water are spread across the entire surface of the moon
shane: jesus christ
me: when you look at the moon you see the water
shane: holy shit
me: It's just so tiny that you can't see it
shane: that's incredible
well fuck
me: Yeah
(that part about how it's spread out actually is true)
So uhhh
You know how they got the first water right?
shane: not exactly... I was too upset to read
me: Oh okay
So they launched a satelite into the surface of the moon
shane: yes yes I know this
me: Which sent a plume of debris up into the sky which they could see blah blah
What they're gonna do is unveil their gravity canon that they've built in the north pole
and then begin to launch all of the world's satelites into the moon
shane: fuck
me: and then it's gonna reverse reverse moon
I mean reverse reverse rain
shane: wow
and flood the moon
me: and that's the fucked up part cause what most people don't realize is that the moon isn't actually a sruface
surface*
it's actually thousands of tiny water bears huddled around one giant waterbear
so what you're going to do is A) Rain ultra heated pissed off water bears down onto the Earth
shane: oh yea I know of these water bears
me: and then B) wake up mamma waterbear and face hear wrath
yeah see it's not actually water on the moon
that's why it's molecular
it's water bears
some asshole at NASA Made a spelling error and rain with it cause it got printed and people were excitecd
shane: oh yea.. no I knew that.. I was using my creative license there.. but I wasn't aware of the rain thing
me: Well yeah what it's gonna do is rain the little water bear carcasses down onto Earth
which is like fuck
you're done
shane: so done
me: and then mama waterbear is gonna completely devour the Earth's oceans
to create new babies
shane: will they expand in our gravity?
maybe in time for the thanksgiving day paradE?
me: no they'll just make us all really sad with their mind powers
shane: fuck!
me: so that we won't see it when mama water bear comes
shane: we're done
me: and sucks all of our brains out
shane: that's what we get
is that what you are counting down?
me: I'm afraid I can't hide it any longer
Yes that's what I am counting down
I'm sorry I didn't want to make you really sad by revealing it before hand
shane: no at least I know
thank you
I'm not completely ruined
me: It's better this way
shane: but a piece of me is already dead
it is
me: Sucked dry like so many oranges
your future cut short before it even started
shane: great
seriously
reverse oranged
me: I'm putting this whole convo on Bonus Time
you've inspired me to start the blog again Shane and I thank you for that
shane: yes!