Makiko Itoh : Not a nameless cat.

Here are some notes on the advanced tatting class offered on Craftsy. The class is taught by Marilee Rockley, aka Yarnplayer, and is called Next Steps in Shuttle Tatting.

I may post a bit about tatting here from time to time.

I've decided to start a Tumblr blog about Funassyi, the yellow and blue pear fairy and the unofficial yuru-chara or gotouchi-chara (local/regional mascot) from Funabashi, Chiba, Japan. Why? Because I'm a big fan. Link: We Love Funassyi

I'm in the process of updating all of my sites, including this one. (Although I'm not sure I'm going to update the design here. I do like my falling purple leaves.) One of those changes is migrating away from Google Feedburner to another service that handles RSS subscriptions, since it looks like Google is going to abandon Feedburner any day now.

I downloaded my Twitter archive today for my main account @makiwi. In March 2011, I tweeted 7,041 times. Most of that were my desperate efforts to try to keep people updated with news regarding the earthquake coming from Japan. What a crazy, crazy month that was. But what a year 2011 was.

Every year, Apple Japan creates a great New Year image for their 'hatsu-uri' (first sales of the year) email newsletter. This year is no exception. Happy New Year to everyone. Hoping that 2012 will be a lot better than 2013! (I erroneously said previously that it was the year of the dragon, but it's really the year of the snake or serpent. I regret the error. ^_^;)

I woke up, and no longer felt like I wanted to go right back to bed.

Progress.

This piece was originally posted on Quora in response to this question. I wanted to re-post it here, as a part of my own history and that of my family. It contains some painful and personal/family details, for which I may incur the wrath of my relatives if they should happen to read this. For this, I apologize. But somehow I needed to tell it. It may also explain to some people why I have not responded to your condolences or attempts to reminisce about my father in the past year. For that, I also apologize. In many ways, this is the "other side" to this.