So, ive gotten a new computer, a new keyboard…and I think they are working ok. They keys to this new keyboard feel a little funny, they arent smooth. Still, I like the way it types, it sounds cool. Not as cool as my laptop was…but kinda cool.
So…whats new? Oh wow…the shift button is so small! Its like..the size of a normal key. Thats gonna take some getting used to. But…only on the right side. Pity I use that one a lot, or…maybe not. Maybe I use the left one. Go go muscle memory.
I looked a little bit at FF14. It looks…interesting. Gimme a low down on it. Im still not completely sold. I had a couple of major complaints about 11, mainly the speed of the game. Lvlvling was slow, combat was slow…etc. Im hoping this one is a little faster. Any word from the beta players? Holy crap…the backspace key is small too. Japanese keyboards with all their extra keys is making me make so many mistakes. Waaaah.
So, sell me on FF!
Its Obon holiday now and i went to see those fireworks that I went to last year again this year. Again, they were great. Ill just upload the last 2 min of the finale. The whole thing (the finale) was around 8 min. And…wow…my keys arent labelled correctly! Thats really funny. Anyway…video. If i can remember my youtube password and stuff, ill upload it. I also have some pics and stuff from the last few months. Keep in mind..I lost something like 3000 pics when my laptop died…so…yah.
Oh, I also lost all of my onions!!!!! T_T. Sad beyond words. Hrm…maybe its not that my keyboard is mislabelled, maybe its because I am using the canadian type settings on a japanese keyboard that is making it go wonky!
So, lets look at some pics yo.
Haha, minor complication. Did i mention that I am using a japanese computer? With a Japanese OS? Well, it just so happens that I cant read any of the error or system messages that come up. As such…I also cant read the picture viewer program…so I cant figure out how to change pics from landscape to portrait. So…that kinda limits what pics I can post. Oh well.
Those are some pics from the cherry blossoms and the festival. Man, I missed some seriously cool stuff cause I had to work. They had this traditional (sorta) dance called Yosakoi (spelling?) that was pretty cool. There was a whole day-long competition. I totally missed the naked Yosakoi dancers from Hokkaido too! Sad panda. No, I didnt type that wrong. I guess it was quite exciting. Lets get on to more pictures!
Those are from the night we had a party at the school No students were harmed in the making of these pictures! Mostly none. Well, maybe a FEW, but they were just superficial injuries.
This was from the…oh whats it called…I cant remember. They are azaleas though and there is a festival for them every year. As you can see, there is a whole park full of them. Had a fun little train ride over to the park and then a picnic in the park. Even ran into a co-worker over there. It was a lot of fun. Again, my selection of pics are limited cause half of my pics are sideways. Balls.
Couple weeks ago I finally got around to going to Kyoto. Here are some of the pics from that adventure. Holy bloody hell was it ever FRIGGIN HOT. I think I sweat off like…12 pounds. Heh, apparently I ate a lot of sweets over those 2 days though, so I am told I got them all back T_T. Still, some cool stuff. Yah, thats totally Astro-Boy.
I also went to the Manga Museum in Kyoto, but I wasnt allowed to take pics. Which was too bad. Greg man, they had the coolest transformer toys I have seen yet. Beautifully made. Just great.
Few days ago I went to Shiga. There is a museum there that was kinda neat. I wasnt allowed to take pics inside, which was too bad, but understandable. The …wet…pictures are just to show how bloody hard it rained. It was a beautiful day when we got there…then kraka-thooooom! (Yosh! Go marvel sound effects!) Thunder! Lightning! On a side note, Japanese doesnt seem to have a separate concept for thunder and lightning. They just have one word for both of them. Or so it seems. I could be wrong, but all my students are surprised when I explain that we have separate words and concepts for them. Huh.
Now…fireworks! Ill just post the last 2 min of the finale. Once again…the show was awesome. They had these super cool sideways fireworks. I didnt take as many pics or vids this year, cause I wanted to watch them myself. Sorry yo.
Grrrr. Youtube is being a royal pain in the ass. Just so ya’ll know, ive been trying for 30 min at this point to get it to accept my old Youtube login. It keeps insisting I go through Google, which i dont really want to do…because its not a google account!!!!! /smash!
Well, the video is processing…and while it does that…
I had a kinda cool idea for a game to run when I eventually get back. So if anybody is terribly interested in playing something I run when I get around to … you know…getting back to Canada…limited seats available! I have, of course, forgotten most of the rules though heh. And i dont own any books anymore…so…ahem…loaners! Of course it will be a world of my design. Im not 100% sure on it yet..but its slowly coming together. Maybe.
Ok, video is ready to go…lets see if i can link it in now…
I…hope that works. I cant see anything…so…fingers crossed.
Anyway, thats enough of an update for now. I hope all is well back home and ill talk to you folks again soon. Ciao.
August 13th,2010
Day to day |
1 Comment
Yah. Sorry. Been even longer than usual. Laptop died…like…kaput, dead. I had to get a new comp from Japan, and surprise, its all in Japanese. This has severely slowed things down. I cant quite get it into English yet…but im working on it. Eventually ill have something worked out.
I spend a few days in Kyoto, and I have a bunch of pics that ill update once I put them on the comp, which will be soon. On the downside, all of my other pics were on the laptop, which means…well…i cant update any more of those. There were come cool ones too. Oh well. Im not throwing it out or anything, so I am hoping I will be able to get it fixed when I get home. Nobody here will even touch it cause its a Dell. Bloody hell yo. Even the company who helped me last time wont help me again.
I really hate typing on this keyboard too. The keyboard on the laptop was friggin awesome, so I am gonna see about picking up something similar to it. Hopefully it wont cost me an arm and a leg. Id actually like to get a Mac keyboard, but I doubt Mr. PC will support it. Any ideas?
Im gonna go to bed now. I had a tiring weekend in Kyoto. I have to say though, it was awesome. Was nice to go to a bigger city. Ill def go back when the weather is a little bit cooler. It totally thwamped me. So, sleepy! Ill try hard to update again soon. I say that so much though and im usually lying, so like…yah.
Have a good one ya’ll. Im still alive. Hope all is well.
Its so addictive. Its like worms…but…with…Angry little birds that squeal and squawk as they fly across the screen. If you have an itouch or an iphone and you dont have Angry Birds, you are seriously missing out. Get it and kill those damn piggies >_<//.
How are you folks doing? Life here has been interesting these last few weeks. Im working on a super secret project that is very hush hush. Id tell you what it is, but then id have to kill you. I dont think either of us want that. When it fails miserably, ill tell you all about it. Heh.
Did you folks back home get a spring? We went straight from winter to summer back to bloody winter. I think summer might be trying to show up again. I saw something that looked like summer hiding around a corner on my way to work this morning. It dashed off down an alley when I tried to get a closer look though. I think it mugged some poor guy before I got there because all i found was a tie and single shoe. It was eerie.
Speaking of ties, Cool Biz just started here in Japan. Now, im sure youre asking yourself, “Self, what the heck is Cool Biz?”. That would be a good questions, no its not a bad disney movie about Jamaicans doing something in the snow. Cool biz is almost like a season here. Normally, businessmen have to wear a tie to work. During Cool Biz season, no tie and no jacket needed! Everybody looks very casual. Oh, everybody buy us english teachers. Bugger all. I still have to wear a tie and jacket and its gonna be hooooooooooooooooooooot. Hot baby hot. Rawr.
Ive been eating some really strange stuff lately. They have these things here, that I dont think we have back in Canada, called….vegetables? They are a strange food! Some of them taste ok, others are very…not so ok. Still, I am told that they might be good for me. I have also encountered this thing called fruit. Im sure its a kind of candy, some of it is almost sweet enough. I am told that it might be good for me too. While I am against that anything that might be even remotely healthy, I figure I am kinda over the hill, so I should eat something good for me occasionally.
Id totally kill for Subway still though. Actually, id kill for just about any really good sammich. Terribly tough to find one here. The closest Subway isnt so close T_T. Mexican food would be pretty swank too. Ah well, I guess it gives me something to dream about.
Speaking about dreaming, I think ill go do that right now. Im sleepy after a long day of work. Ill try to write again before July. No promises.
Just a quick update to let everybody know that …well…im still alive and stuff. Nothing new or terribly exciting going on over this way.
Its Golden Week now, which is a week long holiday. Hurray! Taking it easy at home, catching up on some sleep and going to a few fun restaurants. Im sure i did something remotely fun the other day…what the heck was it? Meh, if i remember, ill let you know.
I do have an observation that id like to share and get any opinions on. Its kinda a chicken and the egg thing. The culture of Japanese youth is very interesting. Most of you know that I read Manga and watch Anime. Before, when I had watched it, I had no idea how much it actually mimicked a lot of everyday life. I mean, I knew they wore uniforms, but seeing it so truthfully was really interesting.
Anyway…a lot of the mundane things are translated from life to manga (and anime, but im just gonna say manga from now on). But…now im curious where some of the stereotypes started. I mean, the kids these days love to do their hair and some of the styles are great, and some of them are a little wild. Did the manga follow real life, or the other way around? I dont know nearly enough about things like cosplay to really comment, but…that had to come after manga? Right?
Now, I dont just mean appearance either. In a lot of the comics there are character archetypes. Are these based on real personality types in high school? I mean…the writers of some of these things must do them for a reason. Is this what the “cool” people are actually like? And…is there really so much violence in the high schools? Some of the high school manga is terribly violent. Terribly. I understand that its fiction…but…with how much manga and life mirror each other, im curious how far it goes.
I am neither condemning nor supporting it, im honestly just curious. I dont know the answer to it. The kids I see at school are usually the good kids. The ones that want to learn, the ones that want to get into a good university. Did i mention how fierce the competition here is? So, I dont really see the other side. Makes me wonder.
Oh, the whole reason I thought about this was cause I saw a guy seriously bee-bopping on his bike to whatever he was listening to on his iPod. I mean, this guy was really going at it. So much so that he was weaving all over the sidewalk. It wasnt safe at all. He was having a great time though!
Oh, I knew there was something. I got an iTouch. Damn its cool. Finally have a Japanese/English dictionary. Great little Ap. Only…its a little tooooo powerful haha. I dont know enough Kanji to make the most out of it. Im learning though. And, why the hell didnt anybody tell me there were squaresoft games!? You can get FF1 and 2 for it! Bloody hell!
Thats enough talking for now. Ill write some more later. Maybe. If anybody has any good free/cheap apps that they would recommend for the iTouch, lemme know please! Thanks! And new music. Somebody suggest some new music. Please! Ciao!
I was puttering around with the built-in voice recognition software on the laptop, cause im lazy and typing is so much work. Anyway…just playing around with how it heard my voice lead to something I found quite funny.
I said “..with a big tail” and this is what came out…
The Dog’s Name Was Dragon Because It At Large Wings A Pigtail And Breathed Fire At A Knife And
So, im not “exactly” sure how that came out. I have to say that the thought of a dragon with a pigtail is pretty funny, but not exactly what I had in mind. The software was neat, but I guess it needs a lot of practice before it stops making so many damn mistakes. I have to wonder how long it would take for it to actually be faster than me typing. Im not really a FAST typer but I do ok. Making all the corrections for the VR stuff took longer than typing anything out would have.
Has anybody out there used it? Any luck with it?
April 19th,2010
Day to day |
1 Comment
So like…did my email account spam everybody with useless emails? I think i finally tracked down the culprit, or it could be because my contacts list now seems to be empty. I dunno if MSN/hotmail did something, or if everybody just blocked me. Either way, a heads up would be cool. If its cause peeps blocked me, ill see about setting up a new MSN account and such. Worst part is that I think I might have gotten the virus from a WoW related website. What a waste of a virus acquisition, it wasnt even from anywhere fun T_T.
Also, im looking for some new music. So please, hit me with some suggestions!
Just chatted with a buddy, and i guess i was sending out spam. Damn, terribly sorry guys. Changing all my PWs now. If you think of it, readd me on MSN. We will see if the account is cleaned up. You can also send me an email at carterinjapan@gmail.com , ive had that addy for a while, but havent really used it. I feel like a tool =_=. Now i just need a super cool new password, that I will actually remember. Blarg. Ok, got it!
Lemme know folks. Sorry again.
I guess its around Easter too. But no…thats not what I was talking about. Cherry Blossoms! Hurrah. Im sure most of you are STILL sorting through some of the pictures I took last year, there were kinda a lot. Well, ive started taking more. Im planning on taking less than I did last year, so that I can enjoy the blossoms without looking through a camera lens so much. We will see how that turns out. Anyway…I will post a few things here.
If you look carefully, you MIGHT even find a picture of me in there somewhere. No promises though, yo.
Dont worry, I didnt put them all in there. Maybe 1/5th. Sorry that some of the photos are grainy, but thats what happens when I take pics at night. A lot of the shots arent flash friendly, and it really changes the atmosphere. The stairs up lead…well…up. Surprise! We climbed the mountain that we drove up to last year. It was quite a hike. I think i put in a good 30km of walking and biking this weekend. Bit of a suntun on the ol’ bald spot too. Itai!
There was also a small little festival on the street near where I live. Didnt take many pics, though I did take a few vids of the taiko drummers. Damn that stuff is cool. Lemme see if I can put up one or two. Dont worry, they are much shorter than last year. I almost hate working during this week…I spend so much time inside instead of out with my precious cherry blossoms…
Near the end…you even see the strange guy from last year. Anybody remember the old toothless guy wandering around in the jeans and jean jacket from the pics last year? He has more hair this year…and a cellphone. He was still dancing with the older ladies though. Straaaaange fellow.
Bah, its taking too long to post even one video. Im way too lazy to wait for it to post another also. So…yah. Enjoy what yah got. Im going to bed! Ill talk to you all soon. Hope things are well back there. Miss ya all.
Ive been super slack lately when it comes to photos, but ive got a few from recent adventures. Ill put most of em into a folder for easier browsing, but there are a few that have to go on the front page…namely…this one!
OMG yes yes! Arent they ADORABLE!? Not “quite” as cute as the cutest taru ever, but hey…they will have to do.
Went to a festival a few weekends ago, as well as a takoyaki restaurant. Takoyaki is octopus bits inside some fried ball thingies. Its, interesting. I have pictures from both. Not together. There were no octopi playing the drums, sadly. Now that would have been a picture! Take a gander.
There is also a pic of some of the snow we got 2 weeks ago, a nifty drink from the takoyaki restaurant (tako means octopus btw), and some other stuff. Nope. No pics of my yet. I swear, every time the camera turns my way, the battery dies. Really. Maybe eventually ill remember to charge it. Or not. Bwahahahah.
I saw this fun little car the other day. On the grill, in big red letters was “MOVE”. I am told that its the make of the car, but really I think its just a warning to pedestrians. I didnt have my camera at the time, wish I did.
Saw Sherlock Holmes tonight. I really enjoyed it. Downey Jr. did very well again. Id certainly watch a sequel. Anything else I should be watching for?
Thats enough typing for now. Talk to you all again soon.
Just. Wow. What a game that was. I literally stayed up all night to watch it. It started at 5:15 am or so here and I didnt think id be able to wake up, so staying up seemed like a better option. Man, it was totally worth it.
Both teams played a great game, and the USA team was really putting the pressure on with some exciting forechecking. Miller (USA goalie?) was a WALL. Luongo was looking a little shaky the entire game too. Still, his defensemen came up big, tonnes of blocked shots.
It was actually really stressful to watch. I dont think ive been that excited about a TV show or game in a long long time (if ever). Maybe it was just too much caffeine though, i really had to hammer it back to stay awake until the game started.
I can only imagine how loud it was in Canada when Crosby scored that OT goal. What a nail-biter. I hope i didnt wake my neighbours when he scored. It was still pretty early in the morning. Actually, I dont even remember what time it was. After the goal and medal stuff…i think i staggered off to bed. I just remember waking up in my bed, but not really going to it. I had dreams that we actually lost the game, so when I woke up I was having trouble remembering which one was real \O_O/. Thank goodness for the internet and showing me the truth!
Im pretty stoked for how well our men and women did this year. Great job team Canada. We love ya.
I woke up this morning to tsunami warnings all over the TV. I just wanted to make sure people knew that I was about as far away as I could be from any big waves and that I am in no danger whatsoever. We will see how the southern part of Japan fairs though. I hope it isnt as bad as they are expecting and that nobody gets hurt.
