Post Christmas Blues and Greens

Most readers will know that I get suicidally depressed on a tri-weekly basis, and now is one of theose times. Not really.

I had the exact Christmas I wanted, full of fun and happiness, and family time over material gain. But my presents were better than Becky's.

I realise now that I omitted pictures from my trip to Ireland, and I would be malicious to deprive you of them. This is the main point at which we located ourselves in Dublin, it's our version of Midosuji, where I located myself in Osaka.



This is my cousin Roan and Yunhae on the ferry over there.



And this is a kitten.

Somewhere Else, Not Here

It's been a few weeks since I filled everyone in. I'm aware of that, and I know what I have done. And I'm sorry. Worst of all, I betrayed my travel-blogger roots, by going on holiday and not writing about it every day. But I'm going to write about it now.

Where am I? I'm home. Where have I been? Ireland.

As soon as University finished, my cousin, who has arrived from Canada, met up with me, and we went, with Yunhae, to Ireland. That's where my grandmother lives. And We drive, and took a ferry. It was a road trip. Only, this time, I was driving.

And I had fears that we'd all start grinding on each other, all argue by the end, but we fitted together perfectly. It was a great holiday. Stressful, and all organised at the last minute, but great nonetheless.

We drove on Saturday the 16th all the way to Pembroke in a few hours. I hit 120mph again, with 3 people and a load of luggage in the car. If I'm all alone and have a long enough stretch, I think I can go to 130mph or more. Maybe later though. I wasn't very nice to my car once we got to my grandmother's house. She has a field I was allowed to do doughnuts in, and I practised a lot of drifting. And part of my car broke off during. I'm not sure where it's from, somewhere under, but I kept it for later.

We drove to Dublin, and tried to meet with Ellie, but there was little time for it. We stayed in a very cheap Youth Hostel (14 Euros a night), a shared room and everything. Dublin has this amazing needle sticking out of it, it's huge. And I was introduced to it by driving up next to it, and realising it went quite high, and then being almost unable to see the top from within the car. I used it as my base point from there on in.

Roan (my cousin) and Yunhae eventually managed to get me to taste Guiness from Dublin, which was partially tastier than Guiness from anywhere else, but I still didn't enjoy it. We drove back to my grandmother's house and the next day started our drive home. We hit repeated warnings of horrible frozen fog that was rolling over England and Wales. Yunhae described it as "strong foggy". Despite this, I decided to stick behind someone I could trust, and that was a BMW 530d, the drive of which was confident enough to drive most of it at 90mph, despite close to zero visibility. I stuck behind him from getting off the ferry almost all the way to London, and by then it was clearing anyway. I did feel tired during it, and while I didn't fall asleep, I did begin to hallucinate a little. But I was fine after I woke myself up. When I arrived back in London, the front of my car and the wing mirrors were coated in ice crystals. That's how cold it was outside.

Since being back, I had a day off where I saw my family and slept, and then a day with Imogen, Becky where Yunhae cooked for us. It was delicious, and we had a fantastic time doing drive by chavving (Becky's invention) and McDonalds (after Imogen had been taken back home).

On top of al of this, yesterday was Christmas. I did guess my main present beforehand, and it's of the caliber I'm not used to: extreme practicality. But when I receive it in a few days time, I am sure I will appreciate it. I spent the day with my family, and Emma came along as well, which was great. We had an amazing meal (Christmas dinner is becomming more and more appreciated as a get older), I made a gingerbread house, and we watched Evolution and Ricky Gervais. It was a very family oriented Christmas, plus Emma or course, and I will remember it as a very fun one.

Still no snow.

Lost is back on, but only the first season, because I'm watching it again in the wait for Season 3. Emma seems to be racing me for watching the most. But it's ok, I study it more. I'd watch more Lost Podcast if it weren't so full of spoilers. Good though.

I'm so cold, I'm going back to bed. And watching Lost.

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas, and hope that your day was shiny and filled with cold wind but no snow. It's so cold here that my rev counter freezes on zero for the first 10 minutes of any trip.

43 days to go. See you all soon.

Something I Forgot

I totally forgot to mention the awesome thing last Tuesday.

Yunhae and I went to the theatre, like we were meant to before but couldn't, and we saw the Tom Stoppard play, Rock'n'Roll. It was very good. It was much more complicated than I was anticipating, and due to finding out about the tickets about an hour before the curtain was due, we missed the first section. It was about how rock music had a roll in changing the world, and the people it changed directly, along with their dying philosophies.

But it was very good, and as was mentioned in the play, it told the story of the music, not just what was happening because of it.

After the play we went for a great meal in Chinatown. And due to a minor miscalculation on my part with the bus and train times, we walked back from Putney to Roehampton, which was really fun. Plus I learnt the Korean for cooking. It's the same as the Japanese.

As I said before, I handed in my work, and I took a day off from working yesterday. It turns out, others didn't, and I am a little behind in XML. Which irritates me as I have to hand it in tomorrow, because I'm going away Saturday. It'll be good to get away for a while, and it'll rock to see Roan again. We have tons of catching up to do. Tickets are booked, times are set.

I feel terrible I missed Sarah and her texts, so a big hug for her. But I'll see you soon, you know I will.

I need new shoes. Or at least need to repair these ones. Superglue just isn't doing the trick.

56 Days

I just woke up from 18 hours sleep. That felt very good. Why? Well...

I have had a few deadlines the past couple of days. Monday and Tuesday, to be precise. Monday, my Development Project had a massive essay to be handed in, and yesterday was my 3D Animation. Needless to say, of course I handed both in on time and perfected.

But I have been working almost solidly the past week. Rendering is hard to do, especially when people keep turning off your computers, but that's what happens in public computer rooms. Plus, security lock up the only room you can use, because "there aren't security cameras in it". That makes getting a degree far easier, guys. Thanks.

But aside from fighting with security guards and battling my tiredness, I worked almost solidly from Wednesday to 18 hours ago. I worked everyday until Saturday, which was my father's birthday party, and I refused to miss his 60th birthday, even though I did leave early to go and write another 2000 words, but since 1PM Sunday until 2PM Tuesday, I only slept 4 hours. I spent the rest at Southlands trying my hardest to finish my work. I didn't sleep Monday night. And you know what? I finished it brilliantly.

My 3D Lecturer came to my animation's premiere, as well as a couple of other people. I showed it on a projector in an unused classroom. The animations were defined as "at least 10 seconds". Mine was 2:44 in total. As soon as I recode it into another bitrate (it's 500MB as is), I'll get it onto YouTube, so everyone can see. Just as the credits finished, my lecturer turned to me and said, totally deadpan, "I'm going to have to fail you on that.". I feel I might be on to a first.

Aside from having to work really hard, last week was one of the worst weeks I've had in a very long time. For various reasons. I won't go into details, but I quit my authoritative position at the JCS. As well as that, all of my housemates have managed to hurt and alienate me in several other ways. But now that I actually have some time to think, whereas I have been working solidly since the beginning of the month, I can actually react.

Luckily, I got to speak to Sarah about this. She called at the perfect time. I think I missed her yesterday though, as I was sleeping. If you tried to contact me, I'm sorry. You would have had more luck waking somebody in a morgue.

My father also had a wonderful party, where I met almost all of his friends I knew growing up. I've never seen a more profound collection of people I knew from being a child. And Ray played a fantastic Blues set with his band. I filmed it on my phone. The sound isn't great, but it never is, but I'll put them on YouTube too at some point. I also had a fun day with Imogen and Becky. LOL.

Completing such an arduous task has left me feeling very satisfied. I have to get going, since I'm usually asleep at this time of the day anyway, my body clock is telling me to rest. I'm also going to comment that ClassicFM played some amazing music to work by, with two Christopher O'Riley songs from True Love Waits. I was very happy to hear those.

I'm going to browse the net briefly, shower, and then see what the day is like from 8:30AM. Good day to you all.

13 Weeks

Yay, comments. Hey guys.

What an eventful week! I had a Karaoke party on Tuesday, and another Japanese lesson, a dinner party, watched Lost with Dan, a movie to publicise and 35 pages to write. And of course, my 3D animation to finish. Which is looking like it won't get spoken lines. Or at least no animated lines. But other than that, it looks great.

The party on Tuesday was Yunhae's party. We sang songs and ate delicious food. To clear things up, Yunhae is a friend of mine in the second year, and she provides interesting conversation. I've mentioned her twice before. She's also the person I misjudged previously. I invited her to come and see a play tonight, but she couldn't make it.

Which leads me on to what I did tonight! I saw a play! With Dan! He called up, we went out to London for cheap, and we saw Love Song. It's a new play, very funny, and it deals with a simple man and his love. It had a great soundtrack, and was sad as well. It wasn't very long, only an hour and a half, but I'm not complaining. I thought it was excellent and would recommend it. It had the bad guy from Red Eye in it, and Sally from 3rd Rock from the Sun, as well as Neve Campbell (you know, Scream). So cast wasn't an issue. And there was some really good chemistry going on.

Last night I went around to Qian's house, and I had a wonderful home cooked dinner. And I met with Lin again! I hadn't seen Lin in a year and a half, not since my 20th Birthday party. I met her with Weiwei back when they put makeup on me and Xing put on a bra with oranges and ran around Southlands. Memories.

All you lazy sods who don't email me or comment, take a tip from Erin, who is awesome enough to email me and join GMail because of me.

I'm going to Ireland. I may have mentioned it, but I say again, I'm going to road trip to Ireland before Christmas with my cousin and Yunhae, and we're going to party and drive across the country. Maybe if I find some nice roads, well...

Driving back from Qian's house yesterday, I drove past Whitelands, and where the road from Whitelands joins Roehampton Lane, you turn right then left onto the main road through traffic lights. As I hit the main road, still turning a little, I went to second gear and I lost all rear wheel traction. My back end slid out and when I let off the power it snapped back. It was frigetening. Frightening enough to go around and do again. Bring on snow.

My arm hurts, and I can't think why. Maybe I slept on it badly, maybe I strained it in quick gear shifting, I can't tell. Weiwei put her herbal medicine to it, and it felt better, but herbal medecine takes a long time for healing. I hope it gets better soon enough. Enjoy your update, peons. It'll probably be the last before I hand in my work. I love and miss you all.

Misjudgement

A couple of major things came to mind today. Firstly, never before have I felt that I completely misjudged someone before. I don't think I have been in a situation where my opinion of someone could change so much in such a short space of time. I mean, I misjudge people on appearances, which is why I am careful about judging by appearance (but it is a natural thing to do), but I knew this person beforehand, and I judged them on having spoken with them quite a lot, and spent some time with them. And then I spent more time, and I spent more time with them and my opinion flip-flopped like John Kerry*. Basically, I completely underestimated someone.

It feels very good to realise that I was wrong about how I felt, and my opinion, and it leads to several values I hold coming in to question. But hey, what doesn't these days?

I also did something very fun. Something Natasha once said was amusing; I told her that Qian and I were talking about something or other, and she said something along the lines of, "Oh, you and Qian talk about things other than work?". This was amusing, because more often than not, Qian and I spent ages chatting instead of working, and just having a fun time. People often misjudged our friendship. Anyway, tonight she called me, and while she usually calls me to arrange to meet up, she called me today because she was feeling down and wanted to be cheered up. And we chatted for half an hour about all kinds of crazy stuff, mainly what we'd done the last few days and our friends, and we laughed about various situations I was in. She even offered to split up Rika (the masseuse) from her boyfriend and give me her number. Thanks Qian. I don't need guilt. But for someone who hasn't quite mastered the English language, she certainly has a very humourous grasp of sarcasm, a trait most Americans can't handle. And she used it very wittily to mock me for a while, and had me laughing very hard. It was our longest phone call, and the most fun. And at the end of it, she told me how much happier she was because of it. And without realising it, the same had happened to me. It's put me in a great mood all evening.

As it turns out, my 3D Animation lecturer is a big Lost fan. After a short discussion, he informed me that I should take a Degree in Lost. If only they offered it. Helgi's catching up, I hope. And Dan has told me he's watching Season 2 properly again. Thank goodness. In that vein of though, I'm going to start reading The Third Policeman.

*I don't mean anything against John Kerry, he is a great man and deserved a place in the Oval Office. But it's a great simile and confuses the politically ignorant readers.

Jenny on Roehampton!

Oh my god, Jenny is on the Roehampton frontpage! That is so cool!



Rock on!

Card Sharp

First off the bat, anyone who doesn't see Casino Royale... well, their loss. One of the best Bond films I've seen, truly magnificent. I got to see it with my father, who I've seen every Bond film with since Goldeneye. Good memories, eleven years of father son explosion movies.

But Bond has a new face and a new style. And the attributes of the last film which I didn't like as much (the over use of sci-fi elements, puns and Halle Berry) weren't present. And it's a great film. Due to the amount of Poker I have been playing in the past day or so, it was fun to see some Casino action. I have a feeling this version is better than the spoof version.

After managing to eat most of the food from yesterday's party with my family (one bag of prawn crackers is left), I met up with Yunhae again and we saw Dan and Mike. I found some old magic tricks of mine, and I showed them, and I was happy with how they went with those I showed. I'll be showing others over the next few days. Rediscovering old patter was fun.

I have work tomorrow, and I need to be getting up earlier. I'm heading out. Goodnight.

Non Political

This post will not contain anything to do with politics.

Anyway, my life has been going pretty swimmingly. I've had a hiccup or two, but nothing major. I went on another date with Laura, and following that Qian's friend Yunhae took me out clubbing. The day after I went to Sarah B's party, which was really cool, and I didn't put much effort into my costume, so I wasn't disappointed I was the only one in costume (I went as a toffee). It proved to be a strange weekend for me, and I spent a good deal of time talking to original Sarah about it. Subsequently, she promised to kiss me when she sees me next, which is very flattering and ego boosting. Picture me with a mint-spray and a tie.

All through the week I worked hard. I saw my cousins properly for the first time in years, going for a curry at Pam's house, Imogen has grown up to be quite the fun person. We stayed up until late playing Yes/No games, and due to the fact that I took my own car, I didn't have to go when the parents did, which was a first.

3D Animation is taking its toll. I'm working very hard on modelling the stuff and getting it all together. I did sound work today. I hope I can get it done, as now it's week 9 (God, Uni is flying by).

For those of you who don't like the colour scheme, I recommend that you press refresh on your browser. ... I know, implemented in PHP.

Today (Sunday) is Qian's birthday. Woo! Happy Birthday! And last night (Saturday) was her party. I have been making banoffee pies the last couple of weeks, and for her party I made a superb one. But there was so much food going around, I don't think it got very sampled sadly. They still have it and will eat it though. This one contained crushed Daim bars. The party started at 8PM and went on until 40 minutes ago (5AM). I took a brief break from it dropping Emma, Xing, Coco and Genki home, but Weiwei wanted me to return, and I did. Most of the party was spent playing Poker or Blackjack, and I met lots of fun people. After I got back, one girl, Rika, gave me the most fantastic massage, and I chatted with Weiwei until the early, early hours. I had a really good time, including the time Xing smacked me in the nose with his head in Twister.

I saw Dan today as well, only briefly, but I intend to see him later today, maybe some comedy. Right now, I'm sleepy, and still partially euphoric from that massage.

If you haven't done already, Refresh (F5). If you're reading this on Facebook, it won't work. Go to the original post. And new readers (like Sandra), I hope you enjoy. There is a serious archive of my life the past two years.

Six Figure Design

Rick Santorum lost his seat.

The Democrats won the crucial Pennsylvania seat. I can't call this one just yet, but I might say that the Mid-Terms have not looked to shabby from what has happened so far on the streaming BBC. Ned Lamont lost, sadly, but I'm not unhappy with the results. The Senate is changing hands. For those of you who don't know/care, it's about the American elections that occurred today. It doesn't matter much, just how the world is ruled.

A collection of quotes that epitomise a cross-section of politicians.

Seeing all these speeches from politicians reminds me of that Chappelle sketch. It wasn't funny.

I think I've lost the English audience at this point. Well, a little about me and my week: I now have a new Japanese speaking partner, Yusuke, this crazy guy who is pretty in tune with how I want to talk, and I just need to follow his lead a bit, and maybe my language will get better.

I need to finish my handout sheet for next lesson on Thursday, to send to Fuyu. I also found out Kelly (good Kelly) is on Facebook at last, as well has having a couple of good Pool games with Helgi. A couple of you may have noticed the colour scheme change. Refresh the page a couple of times, and tell me what you think. In a comment. Comments, people!

I watched an event I hadn't witnessed since High School today, a teacher (lecturer) shouting and kicking out a pupil from a class. He was disobeying him, but he was taking it as a joke, and was really shocked when he got disciplined. But it showed just how resistant he was to authority. He refused to accept his fate, and only moved with the threat of security being called. I saw how he was so angry, and hated being told what to do by anyone. It's a whole culture that doesn't take orders well, and I could tell, the lecturer was loving getting to discipline him (the student was being a pratt, and had been pushing boundaries far too much). I couldn't help but laugh.

I miss you all who I do not see enough.

Post Two Hundred

This is the 200th post I have made to this blog. I am quite glad at its longevity. So on this historic occasion, let us look at the latest news:

Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death.

An hour ago the BBC reported he is to hang. This is the first time in my life that I am aware of someone, and they are to be executed. I mean, I've known of people being executed, but I've only known of the person because of the execution. I have been aware of Saddam for a while. Might I also say... days before the US midterm Elections! What incredible timing! Luckily all reading Americans will hurry to their RepubliCom voting machines and vote for the bold leader that brought us this verdict.

Government trial interference is terrible, and it doesn't matter who, either. Saddam Hussein is entitled to a fair trial, as much as any man. I mean, he's going to hang either way, but no one will doubt the verdict if the trial is fair. And by the looks of it, and by the complaints of Human Rights Watch (an American group), it seems to have suffered a great deal of government tampering.

But oh well, hooray for the red, white and blue.

Now that's a surprisingly political start for my blog. I don't usually discuss politics, I know. And avid readers will be able to name each time I have (cookie for the first comment with a correctly formatted list of political QB articles).

3DS Max is an incredible program. I have discovered so much more about how it works, and how fantasticly fun some of the things can be. I have been playing a lot. I made a city, too.

It is the fifth of November, and last night (Saturday), I drove out to mooch some free Fireworks displays. The KCS (my old school) display is usually at the forefront with amazing displays in Wimbledon. And with an illegal parking space just in front (somebody's driveway), I got an amazing view. I was asked to leave shortly afterwards, and my excuse was that I was overcome by the beauty of the fireworks.

I am experimenting with ways of keeping warm without using the central heating. I have my lemonade bottle filled with hot water, it works pretty well. And later today I'll probably try cheap double glazing.

I looked into my possible grades in the future, and I was quite happily surprised. I mean, it won't fall into my lap, but if I put in some effort, my final grade won't be too bad. I'm not sure if the same can be said for other people's grades, but I am not too badly off.

It's very cold. Really cold.

Ronin is an excellent film, if anyone has the chance to see it, definitely see it.

Hallowesome

Well, today is Hallowe'en, and last night I went to Beth's Hallowe'en party. I managed to get my costume made and working perfectly, and I was very impressed with how I turned out, and I was even more impressed with how Emma turned out. She had the same costume as me, but had the hair perfectly done. We were both amazing Starfleet Science Officers, I was the rank of Commander, she was a Lieutenant. And I haven't had a costume this good since I was a headless man. Though last year's droog was pretty neat. Natasha had a great red wig with horns, and she wore her usual slut outfit. For Hallowe'en. Not that she usually dresses like a slut. She doesn't.



Beth's party was great, she had a wonderful collection of music from the last 20 years, and Spaceman and It's Like That were the favourite songs. I haven't danced with Emma that much for months. Dan also burnt the Mylo CD and that was on repeat for a while, which is good because it's an amazing album. Dan managed to spill almost every drink he had, as well as other people's drinks. I noted that you know Dan's been to a party when the floor has a blood-alcohol level. There was one guy, who had really bleached blonde hair, who latched himself onto pretty much every girl he could see, and I think he was pretty offended when Emma didn't reciprocate his advances. After seeing him try to pull Anna up to dance for a while, I found one of the spare witch brooms which was lying around, and I stuck a note on it, stating "BEAT AWAY THE BLONDE GUY WITH THIS", which most people seemed to find funny. He didn't. And he went on to attack Emma for it for 20 minutes or so. He also argued with Mike for what seemed like ages. Not many people liked him it seemed, despite him claiming that they were all his best friends. My follow up note, "BLONDE GUY NOT WELCOME" was removed from the door, despite being Beth-approved. But he did generate a lot of chuckles, even if Dan wasn't around to see them.

I have more and more work due, and it's mounting up. I had an extra long modeling session in 3D Animation today, with Boolean Compounds causing me immense frustration. I will work on those more, probably tonight. The cars are coming through quite nicely. I wore my Starfleet Uniform to University today, and it was great. The looks and stares were worth it for the fact that Dan and I were walking around University in a pirate costume and a Star Trek Uniform. I should have dressed as a ninja and jumped into the 3D Animation class and started fighting him.

We saw the Descent, which is genuinely scary, and I haven't jumped that much since I was very young. Or seeing The Ring. But as Beth pointed out, there is an amazingly frightening part just after half way. I did enjoy it. The Grudge was also good, better than the American version. We're watching the Japanese Grudge 2 tonight, and Halloween (the old film). Should be fun if we get around to it.

HellRaiser IX

There shouldn't be anyone who doesn't see this film when it comes out.

That was just a quick Photoshop, and I did it on the laptop, so no mouse or memory (only 192MB). But it was an idea I had for ages. Anyway, enjoy.

It's the Hallowe'ekend from Saturday until Tuesday night, where the house just watches an imperial tonne of Hallowe'en movies, starting with Hocus Pocus (I know), and having all of the Hellraiser films, The Descent, Halloween, The Grudge (whole saga [Japanese version]), and many more.

I had a weird evening last night. Becky came over to watch Hocus Pocus and Hellraiser, and after I dropped her home, I went to my usual doughnut car park, and on the way out this couple waved me down and asked for a lift to Raynes Park. I normally wouldn't, but I couldn't take my father to the airport so I was down on petrol. And he offered to pay me to take him, so I did. And I made £10 for about 4 minutes of driving. Not bad.

And then I encountered either a really bad or drunk driver. I saw him racing up behind me, and while he was doing that, I was in the slow lane while another driver was in the middle lane, and the drunk guy coming up behind didn't realise that it went down to two lanes, so after he passed me, I slowed down. And I'm glad I did because the drunk guy had to slam on brakes as soon as the fast lane disappeared. Almost an accidents. He then (later down the road) swerved into my lane, and I had to go around him. I knew he was going to probably do something like that, so I was ready. But still, Saturday night drivers.

Natasha's been staying around and it's been fun for her to be here. I have been doing a lot of work during her stay though, and staying up late doing it.

Still no word on a speeding ticket, I think I have been let off. Life is going well. I have developed my Roehampton Oreo (with Emma's help) into a cake. Well, she developed it into a cake, but I have made my own now. Becky's working at the Entertainer, where I used to work. It's so strange to see that uniform again.

Back in Black

I know, another time without updates. I did plan on updating more, and a lot has happened in the past 11 days or so, but I just haven't had the energy to write about it. There was the time I almost got a speeding ticket after picking up Becky from Canada, and how I waited for a week fearing a letter from the government telling me they didn't like my driving style.

For anyone who thinks that driving fast is automatically dangerous, I refer you to Germany (where more than half the motorways have no speed limit and the motorway accident record is lower than England [wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn]).

I worked insanely hard on my dissertation proposal, which is about a mobile phone game in C#. I made a storyboard for my 3D Animation, and I have done a ton of 3D Animation as well. That brought me to my first Amazon purchase in ages. I bought a C# reference (my first ever textbook for University) and an external HDD (320GB, Western Digital).

As well as a wonderful (expensive) Chinese meal with Qian and going round to Weiwei's house a couple of times, I haven't been extremely active these past few days. I am having dinner with Laura tonight, which I am looking forward to. I have booked a restaurant and I'm dressing (semi)formally.

Natasha is here, she's back in England for 10 days or so and she's staying with me for a week(ish). It's been a very long time since she's been here and it's great catching up. She is using her laptop next to me now.

I finally found a suitable Halloween costume. I was planning (and have been planning for a year) to dress like Carlos, but I couldn't find a good enough coat. I did find something great for my new costume at Tescos yesterday. I look forward to making it.

Flashlights, and Explosions

As pointed out for me by Dan, the lead singer of The Knife lends her vocal talent to What Else is There by Royksopp, my current 2nd favourite song. Everyone must listen to it.

It's been a little over a week. Allow me to fill you in.

Monday: Emma and I went to see Miyuki, who is leaving the country soon. It'll be sad to see another friend go, but it always happens with International friends. I'm going to drive her to the airport when it comes to it. We went to the Chelsea kitchen and enjoyed a really tasty English meal. Emma and I also scoped out Housei's old restaurant, as we were planning on, well, you'll see Wednesday.

Tuesday: A successful day of 3D modeling for my project. Nothing too fancy, just old fashioned node dragging.

Wednesday: We took the JCS (all those willing to sign up and turn up) to Yoisho, a very authentic Izakaya where Housei used to work. Expensive, tasty, and worthwhile, it also played a part in a charade of myself and Sandra pretending to be dating. Rather strange, but I also managed to befriend some attractive French and Belgian girls on the way back.

Thursday: My first experience teaching a whole class for an extended period. It was frightening, but worthwhile. I taught a class entirely in Japanese. We studied saying hello and greeting people and introductions. It was great fun. Emma and our other teacher Fuyu had a good time and I have to make a lesson plan for next week.

Friday: I spent almost all day writing an essay.

Saturday: I met with Sarah. What can I say? It had been too long and I can't wait that long next time. We had a wonderful evening. Followed by going to Tescos with everyone.

Sunday: Cleaning. Writing more essay.

That's so structured, I don't like writing like that. But I have felt I have done something worthwhile most days. I have more work to do. The essay I have been working on is at 3700 words, but needs a little touching up before I hand it in tomorrow. But I should be good with it.

That and dottings of CSI Season 5 every day. And some Star Trek.

Asleep on Pins

Hey fans, I am still here.

I won't be long, I'm just saying that the JCS is getting off to a great start this year, and we're really eager for it to do well this time. We have a lesson which is going ahead on Thursday, followed by a trip to Housei's old restaurant, Yoisho.

University is going well, we're entering the third week and I am enjoying the work we're getting now. Although I still can't stand getting out of the warm bed and climbing into a cold chair, desperate to sleep.

I am worried about lots of things right now, though Ems takes my mind off them, and it's only when I'm left thinking about them for a while that they begin to annoy me. One minor thing is that I lost my spare stylus for my phone. Which makes two in as many weeks, so now I'm stuck using my finger, which sucks. Other things include a Development Project and 3D Animation projects.

Becky's also gone to Canada for a while, which is a shame, I'm going to miss her. On the way back from Gatwick, I managed 122mph, a personal record. And I think the fastest I've ever traveled in an automobile (maybe not on).

I watched Mission Impossible 3, which was much better than I was expecting, despite the weird lead character, and I saw The Island, which was fantastic compared to how I'd heard it reviewed. A very underrated film.

Anyway, nothing much new, I'm being overcome by a few stresses, but I'll be fine. Probably sleep will help. I'm not like this very often.

Needed Update

Hey all.

Sorry for the lack of updates. As I've told a few of you reading, my grandmother passed away on the 25th. I haven't really felt like saying anything until now. I'm sad, but I've been expecting it for a while, she was 93.

So since then, I have a lot of news, which, frankly, I'm going to paraphrase. We went ahead with our planned trip to Brighton. Mizuki and Emma and Housei and I all drove down to Brighton for a fantastic day, where we ate Italian food, and played sliding coin games, as well as giggling on the very rocky beach. We had a wonderful time, made only more wonderful by Emma constantly calling me out every time I crept over 90mph.



It's a shame Becky couldn't come as well, but she had babysitting. We also had a group trip to Ikea, with Becky and Kiana. Becky spent a ton of money on bedclothes and lights and the like, and I got some non-alcoholic Pear Cider as well as a small posable mannequin, which I thought would be useful for my new lectures.

I have started University. I'm taking subjects like XML and 3D Animation, with lots of Database stuff thrown in. I'm also teaching this semester as well. I'm teaching the 1st years how to take apart computers and put the back together. I love that job. It's good to get back into the routine of playing pool between lectures and having sandwiches with friends. I can do that now that my loan has come in. Due to the amazing ingenuity of Roehampton University, a simple MS Access interface managed to baffle the best staff the University had to offer, and they neglected to press the "Submit Registration to Student Loan Company" button, delaying both my and Emma's loan.

Housei's friend Hiro left a few days ago, but they took us to a restaurant in Earl's Court, which was very tasty, but since they were paying, I felt reluctant to eat the food, which was in the manner of ordering several dishes and sampling each. I feel more like Emma all the time. The lights in the restaurant kept going off and on again every few minutes. Eventually, the bulb on the wall near our table popped, fell out of the light shade and smashed on the table below, sending shards our way. Although they were not clearly visible, the shards posed enough of a risk for them to quickly take away the food, not charge us for it, and offer us many desserts. We said goodbye, and took photos of us with the sign. He also gave Housei a really cool stool he'd designed, which was made of white metal, but is hard to describe in shape. I should just say it didn't look strong, but due to its design, it was very strong. He and I discussed the use of aesthetics in design, and it was very interesting to hear a designer viewpoint on it. I didn't need to take him to the airport, he, and his brother, made their own way.

Housei left this morning, and we said out goodbyes last night, as well as taking loads of photos. It was very sad to see him go, we had a lot of really good times together, but I feel bad for Emma now, who won't see him for months and months. He may come over again in February, but it's still a long time. She's going to miss him, and I can tell.

I went to Heathrow with Laura today, to pick up one of her friends. After that we went to a long needed Tesco shop, and with my newly given loan, I finally bought some long overdue treats, such as Naan pizza, and chocolate digestives.

I also got a call from Sarah today, and we chatted for ages about all sorts of problems we both had. I chatted with her brother too, who I hadn't spoken to in a while.

There have been some other family developments that I'm not comfortable discussing here, and in honesty, right now things are kind of depressing for myself and my family, but my sister is there for me a lot, and I'm there for her, and we're sharing a lot of grief. I don't really feel like sharing my feelings too much right now because of it, so my updates will be a bit more sparse for a bit.

This isn't like Dan's blog, which began with the immortal words "This time, I'm not going to update 17 times in the first week, and then twice in the year after that.". With his update frequency, twice a year is optimistic (he made an initial post and one post with a quote from my blog).

Also, Justin Caldwell, of Des Moines Area Community College, is a homophobe.

120

We did the Fresher Fair yesterday. I put the poster and last year's poster on my Flickr account. Interesting people, some geeks (in a good way) some far too cool to join (in a bad way). But I'm expecting an interesting year in it with new management strategies.

I left early to go to Thorpe Park, which was fun. I couldn't afford to spend £4 on a poncho, so I was soaked. It was the worst weather I'd seen in months. I think in a year (9th September 2005 flooding). But being with Sharan, I got to jump all the cues. This was her birthday party, and she works there, so we got in free and had a fantastic time. I rode Colossus twice, going upside-down 20 times in total. Which was great because I hadn't been upside-down all week.

Before going in, I had a little time to kill and in the rain and ample space of the car park, I did my first drift. It was fun. I was low on petrol and didn't have a spare tyre, so I was more cautious than usual.

I gave Becky's friend Helen a lift home, initially not thinking Woking was so far away. But it was. But driving with Becky back from Woking at 2AM had an advantage: empty, long roads. Which let me do something I have never done before: 120mph. Now I know that it isn't much to never sports cars that easily do 150mph, but on a student budget, it's a hell of a speed. And my car did it well I could push more out of it, but the long straights seemed a lot shorter without the Peugeot (I managed about 93mph on the same road in my 106).

So, 120 and drifting in the same day. I think I will rest my car today.

That's about it.

For those that found the secret blog, well done.

Hard Work, Too Hot

Freshers Week has started. So I have met lots of new people, some very interesting, others rather dull. I have also been very busy. I have spent several evenings with Emma watching Star Trek and playing various games (I completed Lost Levels, well, I thought I did, but there are more strange levels afterwards). I have done a lot of driving too.

Emma and I and Housei made a sign to welcome Housei's friend to England. It was like the signs people usually hold up at airports, but far more ornate, with badly written Japanese on it, and we found it very funny. So did he. He (Hiro) is a designer putting on an exhibition in Earl's Court. We drove him from the airport to his hotel, and had a good chat with him.

I have spent a few evenings with Dan though, just hanging around with him and his flat which he is now a flat rep of. His flat seems cool. The JCS is also restarting, so I have some posters to design.

Becky has been coming around a lot too, though fetching her from her house is a bit of a drag, as I have to drop her off too. Though doing it late lends time to driving fast on empty roads (I haven't learnt).

I gave Mandi a lift today, and I made my first Facebook group. You have to be on Facebook to see what it is. Unless you're Yukina, then you have to ask Erin. I have been busy. I also helped Laura move some of her stuff, and she met my sister.

Anyway, nothing too exciting. I'm going to order my parents a new computer now. It's a shame they don't want ionic cooling.

Scary

That is my car. And I'm in front of it. And it led me to be absolutely petrified today.

The past couple of nights, I have used my car to relieve tension from stresses that have built up. This basically involves seeing how fast I can take Roehampton Lane before I decide it's unsafe. Since it's residential and has been mutilated by a bus lane, this is around 70mph. That's the same speed I hit on that road when I was driving my friend's Soarer.

Last night it was around 3PM I was doing this. Pretty empty. Tonight was different. When I joined the motorway, I joined with a nice Porsche, and I stayed behind him for a while. Out of solidarity for German car drivers, I don't drive in any way to annoy them, and respect their vehicles and use of the road. This usually applies to everyone, but non-German car drivers lose that respect quicker.

He was driving tamely, he wasn't doing anything daring or fast. When I got to Roehampton Lane, I wanted to see how I fared compared to the previous night. This was only around 11PM. So after the lights changed, and seeing the same Porsche behind me, I drove a little faster than him, and sped down the road. At no point was his speed exceeding mine. We weren't racing. But then I see HIM getting pulled over by the police. Bear in mind, American readers, that the police in this country tend to be rather lenient in comparison to your police when it comes to speed, and rely on machines to do all the catching and fining.

They didn't arrest me, when clearly I was driving faster, and that scared the life out of me. I haven't been arrested before, and I can't afford a ticket. So I was scared lifeless by the thought of it. But, better him than me. By the looks of his car, he can afford it. I don't drive that fast when people are in my car, but I was alone. And the good fuel made my car more responsive.

Tonight we had an IB dinner to discuss how we felt about the IB 3 years on. Certain people were conspicuous in their absence, and I missed some that had even RSVPed but not shown up. I'm way too tired and eager to play CS to recount all the details, but I ended up speaking to a lot of year below friends (I think of them as Lower Sixth formers, but they were in the Upper Sixth far more recently than me). I didn't get to show them my car, but I did show them my sexy hair, which still looks fresh from yesterday.

That, and completing more Lost Levels, that was today.

Some Hiding

I'm letting you know now, now that it is time, that there is a link on this blog to another small blog of mine, one with very different subject matter. It is on this page, but I'm not going to tell you where.

I want the first person to find it to say so in a comment. Don't say where it is, just say you found it.

I got a haircut and I saw Dan today. I hung out with Dan and Beth for a while, and I saw Erin (new Erin) again, as well as a few other people. I got Becky to come over for a bit and all of us played Mario Bros: The Lost Levels for several hours. It made much screaming and incredible joy whenever we finished a really hard level, and it made everything worthwhile.

I also spoke to Natasha, who is now in France. It was good to chat with her, she's very remote now. But we'll see her sometime.

Not much else, other than Sarah told me that Roehampton was on the news. I didn't see it on News 24, but I take her word for it.

Storm

There was a beautiful storm that lit up the entire sky tonight. We watched from the window, but in my excitement, I ran outside to observe it, and the whole cloudy night-time sky was illuminated with these bright lightning flashes. It was amazing.

Through an amusing twist of events, Kiana was locked outside by Emma for this storm.

I spoke to an old friend Sarah the other day. It was very cool, we chatted for ages about all sorts of classic stuff. I hope we can meet up sometime in the not too distant future.

Today was another day of solid Mario and Star Trek. Which is good, because tomorrow is very busy. I did walk to the shops with Emma and Mizuki, and on the way we noticed a car with a sign on it saying it was for sale, and another sign from Wandsworth Council saying that it was illegal to sell cars on the street. I hate it when the council interferes with private citizens going about legitimate business. I could not see any point to criminalising private car sale through in car advertising. Another peeve of mine.

We also got to watch the fourth episode of Prison Break Season 2. I like how it's always getting better. I don't know who can't like that main character.

I also made a CounterStrike first. I shot someone, took their grenade, and hurled it into a known hiding place. I usually do things similar, but to no avail. I got a double kill. I hardly ever kill anyone with grenades (I think it was the first time), and I have never managed a genuine multi-kill in CS, and I did it and won the round to boot. Go me.

Not much else to report. I'll be seeing you online.

Post Editorial

That last post was quite something. And it was quite specialised. It was something that I feel I could have submitted to a Facebook newsletter or something. And at around 1360 words, was an epic undertaking to read if you aren't a member of Facebook. So if that was the case, I apologise, and I hope you become a member soon.

Anyway, since then, there has been more waiting for University to start.

The house made a trip to a wholesaler, where we found that the prices aren't that much below Tescos, and that getting to Acton shouldn't be taken lightly. We hit 20 minutes of solid traffic, which we only cut short by making a quick dash the wrong way down a dual carriage-way, which cut hours from our journey.

I also asked out that girl in Wimbledon who was very beautiful. She has a boyfriend (which I suspected), but asked me to go with them for drinks after work some time, which was a good result.

The ZSneXBox SNES Emulator that we have been glued to for weeks has a cheat function: you press the right analogue stick on the controller, you jump back in time about 15 seconds, to whatever you were doing then. It saves a lot of problems, especially in games like Mario (it wouldn't work so well in a chess simulator). We completed Mario Bros. 3 easily using it, and felt guilty for doing so. We have been playing it since without the use of cheats, and it has been far more painstaking. But a lot more rewarding. We didn't even use the Warp Whistles. There have been days where we've spent four straight hours on one world, and it has been great for me and Emma doing just that. Today was close to solid gaming (Point Blank 3 broke the Nintendo monopoly).

I'm about to embark on a CounterStrike game, so that'll tally up some, but it's online, so real friends don't usually participate. I found an excellent server. It's fast and full of pretty good players, but not too good so that I can't do anything.

Facebook is opening up it's gates to regional members soon, that's going to make it weird. The JCS is also planning its stuff for Fresher week.

Anyway, I'm out of here for now. Sorry for no updates.

Call me!

QuasiBlog Editorial

As you'll know by now, I'm quite into Facebook. It's the only social networking site I go to, it's the only one I've been interested in, and aside from this Blog, the only one I contribute to regularly. So with the furor that some recent changes have made, I give you a personal and opinionated response.

I logged onto Facebook a few days ago. It had changed. I saw new and exciting things. Things were different and I could now find out what had happened with people that I had added, and saw a catalogue of everything I had done the past few days. This gave me the opportunity to follow a direct link to a post I had made in a group the previous day to check for replies. This gave me the opportunity to look at Status changes that had been made (which I could do already, but it was on another page, and when people download things at my house, it slows the connection a lot). It basically made everything faster and more efficient.

The News feed was just as fun. It gave me the opportunity to see what had happened with people who called themselves my friends, with any events they deemed important and public enough to put onto their social networking site. This saved a lot of time too, because it is very rarely that I have the time and boredom to check each person on my friend list for changes. And a lot of the changes are trivial changes, and shockingly, I don't mind knowing if one of my friends likes a new band that I haven't heard of, because, being my friend, I value their opinion and I may well enjoy their choice of music as well. And I like knowing if a friend just went to see Severance and loved it, because it means I can talk about it with them.

One of my friends goes and puts a new movie on their list of favourite films. They found it important enough to makes changes to their profile, and they now have this profile change sent to their friends. As their friend, I can now use this information to initiate a conversation with them on the topic, and I can do it as soon as I log on, because now news is brought to me instead of me having to wait to be bored to trawl through profiles, possibly not even noticing a change like that.

I have a couple of beliefs about all the fuss created. This new feature has brought to light exactly what people share about their lives online. Suddenly people are aware of what other people can know about them, suddenly they realise what their profile contains and how eager they are to share that information. Of course, when this realisation is brought about by a change of what they're used to, the primary reaction is to blame the change. And lots of people did that.

There were so many people, such as Billy "Bill-The-Thrill" Andre, a Junior at Boston University, who insisted that the Mini-Feed and News-Feed were invasions of privacy. Can I inform you that to invade privacy, there must first be privacy to invade. Nothing on any of the feeds was at any point private, so there was nothing to invade. Instead, it made things easier for people who are interested in you to find out what you have been doing in your public social networking site.

This blog is in total public domain. There are no checks and no IP limits and no location based restrictions, anyone with a clear internet connection can read this. On this blog I put stories and events from my life that I would like people I know to read, and people who can't spend time with me to remember me by. I am aware that anyone can read this, and that it is not hard to find. Hence, while it may not seem like it, I do show some discretion in what I say. That should be true in every aspect of the internet, and is particularly true when possible employers want to find out about you.

Facebook is different. It is based around Networks which you have little control over. I believe it has popularity for this reason, that the (main) Networks have to be proved and you have to offer some kind of valid identity before you even join. So to begin with, only already with a connection with you, either on location (which is optional) or based on Educational Facility (which is not, but discretion is possible through Limited Profiles and Blocking). So already it is different from public blogs (like Blogger) and from normal social networking (like MySpace). The people who can see your profile are limited from the very start, and that isn't changing.

So the problem obviously cannot be that people you don't know and trust have more access to you through Feeds, the problem is that they have easier access. I have to ask, why is that a problem? These aren't random people. These aren't just people that happened to go to your University, or live near you. The only people who can access this feed are people that You have selected to be "friends". So the problem lies that you don't want your "friends" to see what you've been up to, you want to make your "friends" check your profile if you do anything different.

Here lies that problem, and it's the same problem that MySpace has. There are far too many people who will add just about anyone they see walking across the cafeteria as their friend in an effort to boost their numbers. They'll bolster their count in an effort to be as popular as Tom, and they ensure that the term "friend" becomes reduced to something that means nothing of the sort.

It's the Facebook Whores that now find that their public profile is just that, and it's now readily available and offered to every passing face that they added to their "friend" list. That's what they are afraid of, that is why they don't like the Feed.

Heaven forbid that the Feed could offer a very fast and efficient way of informing my actual friends of a fun group I found, or that I just saw and loved Jackie Brown, it's something that's just for stalkers to know every detail about you.

Can I ask, why do you add stalkers to your friend list?

There is a Limited Profile option that people have ignored thoroughly, and suddenly now that there is a major and apparent new change, the people who have lived their entire lives through Facebook and MySpace are up in arms about privacy.

Mark Zuckerberg announced that he has responded to the criticism, and introduced more privacy settings to Facebook. Doubtless, everyone will go and make sure that the Feeds are completely crippled as soon as they can. I won't alter my privacy settings, because I do not mind people who are on my friend list knowing what I do on Facebook. It's actually the reason I joined Facebook. To be Social. And Network.

In the group 'Minifeed is not an Invasion of Privacy', Casey Fitzpatrick, a Freshman also at Boston University, said "If you use a public restroom, should everyone else that uses public restrooms be able to know that you JUST used the public restroom, how long you used it, and what you did?". All I hope is that she doesn't add her restroom durations to her Facebook Profile. Not that it would matter, she's not my friend, I wouldn't be able to find out, even though I also sometimes use public restrooms.

I am glad there are privacy controls, but I doubt they will be used appropriately, and I am sure that the Feed that I have used and enjoyed everyday to see how my friends (people I know and care about in real life) are doing. The publicity and high profile of the protests has made it so what I do online has become slightly harder, and progress, as I have always believed in, has been reversed.

Facebook Groups

Facebook is taking off, and with more people returning and joining in Roehampton, it's getting to be a big deal.

Recent changes, including (mainly) the introduction of a mini-feed, have prompted outcry.

I feel very lonely in the fact that I like this feed. While I can understand some people genuinely being against this, it seems the majority of protest stems from the groups that people have created about it becoming so large so quickly.

The reason people joined these groups? The mini-feed. No one would know about it otherwise.

And joining an anti-feed group has become passe IN ONE DAY. This is the speed that the internet moves. Blink and you miss a whole fad.

There are also groups calling for the extermination of the stingray that killed Steve Irwin. I know some are saying this in irony, but reading some things said, I can't help but feel that certain parties are lacking irony. Might I ask, what would it achieve? Stringrays are awesome, and deadly, as we know.

Stringray... Stringray! Da da daa da daa da.

I picked up Kiana from the airport today, she moved in for the second time, and we saw a bit of the Transporter 2. I'll watch the rest of it tomorrow. Becky came round and watched TV and Emma came back. Busy day. Shopping tomorrow. We're out of toilet roll.

An Important Update

Absolutely nothing happened today.

Zero. I stayed in almost the whole time.

I did a but on the computer, a few productive things, a few not so productive things, but the most noteworthy was that I spoke to Erin for the first time since I was in San Francisco, and we had a fun little chat about what we've been up to, and about how cool life has been. It also made me realise I haven't been reading her blog enough, so I'm going to tackle a minor backlog when I can.

"I though I would trust Yukina's judgment."

I cut myself shaving today. Only a really, really tiny one, but it's one of the most annoying things to happen in the bathroom. That and slipping. I don't think I've had a cut while shaving in over a year. Incredible. I doubt I mentioned it on my blog.

Someone linked a quiz, and I found one that seemed quite representative. For a blog quiz at least.

Caffe Vanilla Frappuccino

Smooth and sweet, you fit in to almost any crowd. No one would suspect you of being a coffee tweaker!

What Flavor Frappuccino Are You?

The news of Steve Irwin's death is very sad. It made front page on Slashdot, which is rare for a non-geek (the claim that he was a scientist is valid, but it's reaching). There were some amazingly funny comments on Slashdot, but I won't repeat them, go and look yourself. But I will say that while I laughed, I am sad that he's gone. He's one of the celebrities that was just so unpretentious and likeable, I don't see that in celebrity very often.

This new movie Crank seems pretty exciting. I mean, as a movie fan I love deep, thought provoking, emotional and powerful films, my favourite directors are Spike Jonze, Tarantino, and David Fincher, but as a guilty pleasure, I love mindless action movies. Jason Statham seems to be pretty good in these. I've only seen the Transporter so far, and it wasn't the best action movie I've ever seen, but it certainly was watchable. And as an action star, Statham has a likeable charm about him. So for fun I watch those movies. I'm never left thinking about them for long, but they do the trick. That, and ingenious horror. I love innovative horror movies that really scare you. I liked Saw and The Ring a lot for those reasons (not Ring 2, it made me want to cry). But when I went to go and see Mr and Mrs Smith with Dan, he hated it and I loved it. It was thoughtless action and it was great. So I'm going to see Crank if I can. And Transporter 2 (maybe tonight).

I pick up Kiana from the airport tomorrow morning. I also drop my father off at the same time, and so I get to be double useful. Plus my car is warmed up by the time I begin to drive Kiana home.

Speaking of car...

I have a new one. I sold my Peugeot, and with the money from that and borrowings from my future Student Loan, I went and purchased my short term dream car:

BMW 318i

I have wanted a BMW 3-Series for a few years now, and since I have been driving long enough to warrant a significant drop in insurance, I have my own BMW. I'll post pictures of it soon. Now, it's not hugely special, it's 13 years old and it has a few dents, but damnit, it can move. It has a 1.8 litre engine (the Peugeot was a 1.0 litre). I paid about as much as Dan paid for his car, and I'm really happy with it. I have driven it at 110mph only so far, there's always too many cars on the road to get it to top speed, but I love it. It's so comfy, and I installed my old sound system in it, so I have all my MP3s available.

Damn, I am happy with it, it's a wonderful machine. So I'll be seeing you in it if I see you around.

Well, if you're reading, it was good to chat to you today Erin, and when I see her online I'll call Yukina too. And you should totally do what I told you to do instead of that thing I didn't want you to do.

Gorgeous

A few days have provided a lot of excitement for me of late.

I went to the Goodwood Revival on Saturday, which was a recreation of a golden era of motoring. Cars from the 60s and earlier were on display and were being raced, and the dress code was strictly 50s - 60s era. Which meant I got to wear my hat.

It was very enjoyable, and I got to see some incredible sights. Very old Jaguar cars [see photo] racing (I mean old style cars, filled with turbo chargers). Ford GT40s were flying everywhere, and since my father and I were positioned at a nice corner (very wet and cold, but it provided good skidding), we witnessed a few spins, a couple of classic saloons making side on contact, and a wonderful Ferrari 250 LM smashing in its front corner. Factor in that they made 32 of them, and it's quite a spectacle.



The phone rang while I was at home one morning, and I answered, as it's usually for me, and the person on the other end started speaking Japanese, and despite my requests for her to 'hold on', she didn't understand. So for the first time in well over a year, I had to speak Japanese with no other options, but I managed to squeeze out a few words to get her to wait a minute while I fetched her son. I mean, it wasn't hard, but I have not had no choice of language since I spoke to Rumi-chan on my last night in Osaka.

As for other news, well. Becky has come over and visited every evening and we've watched a lot of Arrested Development and played a lot of video games, particularly Donkey Kong Country. I also took her job hunting today, where she got an interview from one of the most attractive women I have seen in a very long time. I'm going to have to ask her out. I managed to speak to her and I got some minor flirting in, but not nearly enough.

Anyway, it's 3 and due to my new earlier hours, I'm tired and should sleep after just one episode of Frasier.

New Company

The past couple of days/nights, I have been seeing Dan and we've been hanging around with one of his friends, who, despite my expectations, turned out to be very enjoyable company and we had intelligent conversation. She was quite knowledgeable about film, and we chatted about some of the good films we knew.

So I'm quite happy about that, I have made some new friends. Plus, I'm spotting all the new students and making friends with the ones that seem lost or need help with luggage, which should be a good way to know more people next year. It's a shame it always happens when my hair is curly.

I managed to call Kiana finally, and I found out when she's back. It's only a week away, but it was later than I expected.

Not much to say, except Emma got hair extensions, and they look pretty convincing.

Happy?

I got to chat to Ritti last night. That was fun. I told her some news, we chatted about what was up, who she'd spoken to, how people were, it was all good, and she asked me if I was happy.

"How loosely woven is the fabric of our happiness. A tug or two and it unravels to reveal how empty our everyday lives really are. ... Simple beast! He has peered beneath the masks of happiness we all wear, and seen what lurks below, infected by our sorrow, his once care free [canine] world has been shattered, forever."

That quote, prosaicly beautiful, wouldn't look vastly amiss in classical literature. Poe or something. Alas, as documented in the remainder of the play, the speaker is flawed, as he learns merely minutes later that what he has just said is as fragile as the happiness he seemingly destroyed. He goes on to say:

"Even the happiest of us can find reasons to be unhappy if only we look for them. So don't look for them. Take a tip from our dog friends, and treat yourself to your favourite toy; whatever that might be. ... This is Dr Frasier Crane, reminding everyone that life is too short to dwell on every bump in the road."

I say that because that particular episode of Frasier was poignant, and I enjoyed it a lot. It involved the characters trying to find every depressing thing about their lives, and it didn't achieve anything, and convinced that they had no reasons to be happy, they found their fortunes changed at the mercy of biscuits.

So I replied to Ritti that life was really swell. Not just at the acquiring of new material possessions, but because I'd spent a lot of time with Emma and Housei, and we'd done a lot of fun things, like race Mario Kart together, and complete Mario Bros 3, and sit there making translation puzzles for each other. I realised that being around them made me laugh so much. Emma gets me like no-one outside my family. Housei is just a really fun guy, and they obviously care for each other.

I picked Becky up from Reading today. She was too tired to get her rats, but I hope she plans on getting them tomorrow. They aren't hyper-pleasant smelling. Mandi came over and saw them. And I saw her rats too, they seem very cute. And slightly smaller than Becky's.

I leave you with that minimal news. And this picture I made. It's geeky, but keep up with the news.

I Remember the SNES

I saw Qian, and I gave her the presents for her and Weiwei, and she really liked hers. So I'm glad, I made the right choice. She gave me a tshirt too, a really nice one. Emma says it's too good for me, but I will wear it immediately after showering.

Well, I picked up Becky's rats after that. I'm looking after them for the weekend with Emma, and we found one has proceeded to bite anything that comes near, the other is friendly and nice and defecates all over our sofa. But we prefer him to the horrible one.

I was planning on going to Geek in the Park, a geeky get together with Web Accessibility lectures and lots of techies showing off. Becky said I was a nerd, but she can hardly talk, she's going to a reading festival!

I'm looking after her rats because she's going to Reading (the music festival, for those unfamiliar), and my parents are away. I drove her at 6AM, her and her two friends, to Reading. My car doesn't cost much to run, I am proud of it. It was very tiring, and since I didn't sleep, I technically got to bed at 10AM.

For the rest of the day, Emma and Housei and I watched YouTube movies and then I turned on the XBox, booted up the SNES Emulator on it, turned on Mario Kart, and House heard the intro music and almost flipped, stating (in Japanese) that he was really good at it. Turned out, he is. He drives Bowser, and I drive Koopa, but he is fast. We then played Super Mario Bros 3 for about 6 hours, getting to world 6 I think, and it was really fun. We'll play more SNES soon enough I'm guessing. More Star Trek downloaded.

Anyway, I'm going to watch Frasier now. Goodnight.

Oh And Speaking of Normal

I'm seeing Qian today. I have missed her and Weiwei. I'll be giving them their gifts as well. I don't have much to say, other than I have been watching one eBay item incessantly, almost obsessed, never closing the window, even though it ends in eight hours. I'm quite interested.

Post 180 by the way.

Hey Hey Hey

Mizuki's back!

The house is returning to its term time state of affairs. In two weeks Kiana comes back, and the house will be alive and bustling like it is during the term time.

What else is back? Prison Break. I surprised Emma with an episode from the new season, and she was happy enough. It is good to start getting back into the Serial television phase. We had it with Lost and we miss Lost. And now we have a minor place filler for the mean time. Which is a pretty good show. And omigod they're pulling some nasty stunts for a beginning of season.

Anyway, I might have to go up to Norwich on Thursday or Friday. It's a 3 hour drive, but it'll be worth it once I get there.

I have now watched Frasier from Season 1 to 3, and have begun to watch Season 5. The quality television I have been watching has risen. I have also been filling my 42" screen with more Original Star Trek then I have ever seen before. I'm noticing more precursors to TNG than I anticipated, and it's a better series than I remember. And I'm getting more Futurama jokes.

I drove Mandi to my old school today.

I'm not going to tell you why.

Anyway, it's far too late, and I'm needing to play some CS on German servers. Speaking of all things geeky, I got rated +5 interesting on a Slashdot comment I made. Here is the link to the article, but you'll have to find my comment yourself. But it's really cool, isn't it? Only if you know what it is and you don't think I've made a typo if I go /..

Anyway, this is now appearing on my Facebook, and this is the first entry where it should auto-update. Hugs to you all.

Sad Movies

You know that sad movie that really tugs your heart in the right way? I see them every so often, where the main character dies, or loses his/her girlfriend/boyfriend, and it's really sad, but makes the movie great. And I think it's good to have that kind of emotion every so often, taking over from the usual Hollywood endings, but aside from relief, I wonder how sad it would have to be to become unwatchable/unreadable. I know of certain films and books that really hit hard, and become difficult to watch or read, but afterwards, you do feel satisfied with the story.

I read something today that didn't have that quality. It was too sad to read, and having read part of it, I feel much worse than before I read it. I regret reading it. That isn't on the merit of writing, that is on that the content is too sad for me to deal with, and had I read all of it I would be in a worse position.

I haven't had that before.

I Made You Sweat, Didn't I?

Don't worry, this blog isn't going anywhere.

It's just, there's nothing much to write. I have been looking for cheaper car insurance, I have been seeing my sister, and I have been hanging with Emma tons.

Oooh, ooh, Facebook! I signed up for Facebook. Roehampton can now, it's great. I found many people online, though the low quality and sometimes inaccurate pictures make it so I cannot tell for certain if it's the person I'm looking for. But it reunited me with some people I didn't want to lose contact with in California, and Dan started a Roehampton group. I saw some photos of me I wasn't expecting, and I am enjoying it. When I do the redesign, I'll incorporate some kind of badge. Maybe.

Don't worry, minions, a redesign is coming, as soon as I'm not too lazy.

I installed and started playing Prey, which is better than I was expecting. Mandi, you can come over and play as soon as I make my room suitable for humans. Which could be very soon, but I'm very bad at that. But right now, the mess is insane.

Now just because I'm not leaving threats doesn't mean you should stop commenting. I'm loving the extra comments I'm getting, and I think 10 is the highest in a while. And don't expect those daily updates either. Sleep tight internet land.

Here is a picture I didn't draw and am linking without permission.

What is Normal?

Well, I haven't updated in days. I think I'll stop updating until December, when I'll only make three posts, then I'll go and stop again, and then start again in June of next year. How does that sound?

Terrible, I know.

But here's an ultimatum, people: Unless I get four comments on this post, I won't update again. And these comments must be from different people. And only one of them can be anonymous. So you'd better comment, or QB go Bye (remember, you can comment anonymously).

After that you don't have to comment as much, or at all. I just need to know people have kept reading after America. CounterStrike... wow, I have missed that. I'm still not any good, and I barely ever get positive kill ratios, but I love it so. I think I'm getting better after 3 days of almost solid playing.

I saw Dan and Natasha today. I haven't seen them in so long, and it was good to re-acquaint myself with their annoyances and intricacies, and I displayed my annoyances at full blast with the windows down. We had a fantastic day, and Dan brought his car. We drag raced for the first time, and while his 1.2 litre engine does outshine mine a bit, and he did get out from the lights faster, I did beat him home. We argued about who won all night, but I think we enjoyed it. It was a hell of a rush, but I don't think we'll do it often at all. I'm still better at CS no matter what he says.

I also saw Stacey and Mandy today, I hadn't seen them in ages and it was good to have a chat.

Don't you love planning things? I hardly ever plan stuff, people always ask me to do plans, especially in academia, but I hate doing them unless I care about the event enough. I seem to plan endlessly when I care about it.

It was very good to see my friends again, friends are the most important thing when you realise that money is fleeting and time is short. So I love my friends and hopefully they love me. I keep trying to see people online and I keep missing them, so I am sorry, and I will try to be online more.

Anyway, comment away. I'll comment on your blogs too if I see the opportunity. Erin mentioned how much happiness can be attained in achieving something you expected yourself to be incapable of, and how you can make yourself so happy by surprising yourself. While not to the same extent as her, I have surprised myself in what I have done recently, and I am very happy with some of my hobbies.

Post 175

What an odd number to notice! Well, it's one above my sister's lucky number.

Just a brief post to say hello, not that Google has taken over all search capabilities of MySpace, and that I didn't watch that Mac thing.

Our microwave started shooting sparks this morning. Unless I like my food with extra radiation and burning, we decided to replace it. Since my landlord is no longer doing anything for us, we went to out leasing company, and they promised us money for a new one. So now we have a nice, shiny, powerful (800W) microwave sitting in our kitchen, waiting for some serious use. I have yet to find a use for its powerful grilling capabilities, but I will.

So short, and so little to say. I'm in England. Life here is boring. I will be seeing Becky tomorrow though. Yay!

Welcome Back to England

I'm back.

I feel different from when I returned from Japan. I missed people a lot more this time, but I had a wonderful time. When I last made an entry (which was at the end of yesterday for me), I had just seen a musical, and was very hungry. I'm back in my house, my room, and listening to the soundtrack to the musical.

It's good to have things back to normal. The keyboard feels so deep compared to a laptop keyboard. The keys actually move. It's leading to a lot of typographical errors, but I'm working on getting more used to it.

After I woke up on Thursday morning, I cleaned up, I packed up most things, and I went on a last shopping trip in local Brooklyn. I just bought snacks and some drinks for Henny. Reaching home with not long before I had to leave and a slice of pizza, I finished everything and waddled with my heavy bag all the way to the subway, and from there caught a series of interconnecting trains all the way to JFK.

I spent my last money on tickets and an Oreo McFlurry, before boarding my final route home. And it was one of the worst flights I have ever taken. I just felt so ill the whole way, I had a nasty headache that wouldn't let me sleep, and while it had built up all day, I was able to resist it until I was on the plane. After a while I was brought some aspirin, and it helped. But not being able to sleep on the plain caused some problems, and I was quite tired for my return to England, much like I was after Japan when I slept on Dan's sofa the next day.

It was very good to see my family again, and I showed them the presents I bought and the sweets I'd purchased, and we had a good laugh over an English breakfast. Then I drove home (what a relief to drive again, drive properly), and saw Emma, which was also an amazing feeling. We hadn't seen each other properly in so long. Her hair had grown and she was full of bouncy energy, and it was great. After much photo sharing, I needed to nap.

And since then, I have been reading about Nigerian scams and CIA handbooks. It's great. My computer is so much more powerful than the laptop. I appreciate the laptop's higher resolution though, and in tribute I set mine back to 1600x1200, at least for a bit. Everything's small, but it's the best resolution for a 19" monitor.

I need to play some videogames before I sleep, I'm still adjusting though.

I'm back, I'm home, everything is going well, and I have missed this country. Not enough for me to want to stay here forever, but enough to plan to enjoy the next year to the full extent. I probably won't blog as often as I have done while I was in America, but less happens here. Hugs to you all, I'm home.

Lucky Last Day

If I hark back to August of last year, when I was about to leave Osaka, I remember being about to leave, about to go back to the hotel and sleep, when Emma and I chanced upon some friendly people and we had an amazing evening. Some people I met I still have contact with. This was August 11th (and 12th) 2005. Today being August 3rd (and 4th), I somehow recreated that luck and had another comparable, magical evening, that has been a perfect end.

I entered the lottery for Rent, as I always did, and then I walked to 34th Street, so I could see the Empire State Building. When I got there, I walked back quickly, in case they called my name. After a few names, I got used to not hearing my name, and felt like I should go home early. Then I heard him say my name, and I was ecstatic., I started shaking with happiness and anticipation. It was amazing. Someone asked if anyone had an spare tickets (like I had wanted to do the previous days), and I said I did. I'm not sure if those were the rules or not, but it was ok. When you enter the cheap ticket lottery, you put down whether you want one or two tickets. I always put down one, but it seemed that almost all winners put down that they wanted two. So I did this time. It worked.

This girl gave me money and I bought her a ticket as well, and then I went for my usual coffee, finding I only had $12 to spend, I had water. I made that quick entry, and then made my way to the McDonalds to attempt to draw money, which worked, and then bought a pretzel from a street vendor. Then I went and queued and made my way into the Nederlander theatre.

I sat next to the girl I bought the ticket for, in the very front row, at the very furthest left of the central seat block. It was an excellent seat. I love the front row. She told me of her previous theatre trips, how she'd just been in London and seen lots of shows there, how this was the third time she'd seen Rent here, and was a very colourful and interesting person. Then the show started, and I was blown away by a very powerful performance.



Most of you will be at least partially familiar with the idea behind Rent. Urban Bohemia in New York, struggles with AIDS and addiction, and trying to make that one beautiful thing in your life before your time is up. The writer, Jonathan Larson, worked on the project for ten years, and died as it opened. The tragic story is deepened by the show's brilliance, and I found the whole show to be a discovery of sadness, and while a lot of the issues don't translate directly into my life, there isn't much that isn't relevant to being alive.

After the show, my new friend and her friends took me to go and meet the cast, where I had my programme signed by all the main cast members, the people who played Benny, Mark, Maureen, Roger and Joanne. The guy who played Roger, Tim Howar, enquired about my accent and chatted with me for a while about London, as he'd been living there recently. He was a nice guy. I also made a brief video which will start my video blogging, which could take off, or could be awful. With 5 signatures on my now wonderfully sentimental programme, we all made our way towards the Subway, where I headed Downtown and they headed Uptown, both headed for Brooklyn.



I walked around the streets near Henny's place, very happy. The evening had come together, and I realised then that it wasn't just the evening. The holiday had come together, everything had worked out ok. It hadn't been too expensive, it hadn't been too troublesome, and while it had its stresses, everything was worthwhile.

Lightning flashes signaled a tropical storm, which brought a holiday from the heat, which signaled the end of my time in America. It was a ramshackle holiday that barely held together, and brought about a lot of self reflection and joy, as well as some beautiful revelations. Who am I right now? I can't ever know properly, but I know where I am in my life. And right now, I am happy. I have lived America, and there were times I wanted to leave early, there were times I didn't want to go. Now is neither, I know that I have done what I needed to do, I have reached the perfect level. I know where I am, I know what to do, and I have a better idea of what truly makes me happy.

I came here to do that. I'm done.

A Happy Ending

It's my last day in New York. It's my last day in America. In less than 24 hours, I will be in the air, and on the way back to England. Considering I'm almost out of money, that's probably a good thing.

I've hit a few revelations on this holiday, such as my consideration of religious guidance has been worthwhile, though unpractised, and that through that, I will become a person of love.

I listened to a lot of music too. A lot of music that wasn't mine, and some of it made a big impression. Santana and Michelle Branch is my road trip song, and that cool Cure song which has that awesome synth intro and chorus (The Walk?), that played in Starbucks, as did Jack Johnson. The DDR Butterfly song as well was important, but the most memorable songs will be On The Radio, and listening to Kiana and Charlie sing Light My Candle or something, with and without backing.

Kiana plays a lot of Rent songs, and I really enjoyed them, which adds sugar to the fact that today I won a discount ticket to go and see Rent.

They hold a lottery every performance for 34 tickets to go for only $20. I entered everyday (twice on Wednesday) only to lose, while several winners won twice. I found it unfair, until they called my name today, the final day that I could enter, the last day here. And I have the ticket. And I'm seeing it in an hour and a half. I cannot express how happy this has made me, it's what I've been hoping for since Monday, and it has made my day (which hasn't been as hot, thankfully).

So, I have had faith in karma re-established, and I'll enjoy my final bite from the Big Apple. I have $12 left, and Becky still wants sweets. I think I'll have to get my credit card working. I owe part of this lack of money to the comedy having a two drink minimum, and no cheap drinks, as well as Chambers Street station eating $6 of my money in a failed ticket update. But I have enough to get back to England, and I leave with no bitterness. Plus, Starbucks water is free.

I'll post this, and relax for a while. I have a show to see tonight.

I Laughed

I spoke about how New York didn't feel like Africa at all.

I went to two and a half hours of some pretty good comedy, including a writer from The Daily Show and a film comic, and I really enjoyed it. I got some great lines to steal, and I had a long laugh. It all cost about $20, and was worth it. I stepped out of the air conditioned building; it felt like Africa.

The heat got worse. It's still bad. I have a terrible headache, which I think is helped by the large amount of sugar in my system, and I feel too tired to do anything tomorrow but sleep. I woke at 7:30 today to try and get to Comedy Central before 9. After 45 minutes of trying to find it, I actually forgot what I was doing and almost passed out. I also didn't manage to get my good steak. Instead I went to a steak take-away, or as I call it, if you'll forgive the obvious pun... a take-away steak. It was terrible and I will be very ill, but I didn't mind too much. In the best case scenario it'll put me off meat enough to make me vegetarian when I get back.

I am disgusted with the use of my Flickr Account. Checking out the number of views, I see that people who are looking at it are all looking at the hot photos of me. The one of me staring at Monterey Beach has nearly 30 views, while the dull pictures of New York are relatively ignored. What? What is up with that? Oh well.

Reading comments on Yukina's Blog, I almost threw up when I read what Erin said, because I was in semi-uncontrollable hysterics:

Yukina: Good news. The dirt on my feet is coming off a bit, well still dirty though.
Hehehehehehehehe
So what did you guys do without me??

Erin: orgy

While that won't make much sense, it was probably the best thing said ever on the internet. Out of sheer respect, I mirrored the page, and framed a print out of it. I wanted to reply, but anything added to that page would only make it worse.

Carlos updated! After over 2 months of no updates, he finally said something. It was a relief. And I felt lucky to get the first (albeit anonymous) comment in. That's what I get for checking everyday. I rule, oh yes. Anyway, ego aside, I need to rest, and cool down more, and then progressively sleep. I don't know how you sleep progressively, but if it's possible, it will be achieved tonight. Adios.

Further NY Theory

Perhaps a couple of you giggled at the mention of how New York smells; maybe in reverence to Bill Hicks, maybe just on solo reputation. I don't blame you, it's not a fantastic smell in this city. Nor does every street glow with cleanliness. This is a very populated city. It stinks and its dirty. But I knew that before I came. That's in integral part of New York. It would be a different city were it pleasant to be around. London is hardly clean (cleaner, yes), and only Japanese cities have impressed me with odour and dirt levels. But when I holiday, I try to experience what it's like to live there. I'm living in New York. I don't have a hotel or a tour guide. I am just trying to experience it.

This brings me back to the character and personality of the city. This is like the most densely populated part of London, multiplied over a massive area, spanning islands. It is just full of people, all going about fast paced and stressful lives. And I am more stressed here than in California, especially in the record breaking heat, but that is the lifestyle, and I love it. It's like the city is throwing obstacles at me at every corner, and when I dodge, I get great rewards. A wonderful view, a gust of cold air, a massive commercial store selling stuff you've seen in every television show about New York... spectacles. It's somewhere I could live, I'm enjoying it like I expected, and I could live here (if I could afford it) for a while. Not forever, but I am a city person, and this is THE city.

But I am always reminded by memories that it isn't really important where you are, it's who you're with. My old friend Christopher Kiew-Smith said that just before I went to Japan last year. I only learn its truth more and more each time I go anywhere.

I was too hot today. It's just too hot. I have to go inside somewhere every few minutes to survive. Cold drinks are crucial, and staying out of the shards of sun makes life easier. Starbucks has been my friend. It's like walking into a fridge.

I just encountered a group of very friendly elderly women, who chatted with me for a long time about all sorts of topics. I spoke about my life and my plans, and they seemed to be impressed, and they shared their tips for the city. The one I spoke to mainly grew up in Brooklyn, and recommended good things to do, such as a comedy club and a good steak house nearby. It was very fun to share stories of my experience, and it was good to speak with genuine New Yorkers, despite being occasionally interrupted by a noisy Frappucino machine.

The subject of comedy came up because I just purchased a ticket to Improv, the club where Seinfeld shot the comedy scenes and Eddie Murphy started out. I should have considered comedy beforehand, but I'm going to the matinee soon enough.

I'm considering a temporary blog redesign just for the next few days. It just involves an image change rather than a redesign, but it'll be relevant and temporary.

I've spent my time in Starbucks now, and I've used my last free drink coupon. I still have a free McDonalds one, but that isn't as tasty or refreshing.

Thoughts on NY

I'm considering this blog very focussed on travel. It's when I do my most frequent posts, and when I feel like saying the most. I have a lot to say on New York, and this is my outlet.

Tall buildings creep up on you. You walk along, and you don't notice towers until they are next to you, and craning to see the top takes you by surprise. This is despite there being so many. I noticed this when Henny pointed out the Rockerfeller Center, and out of almost nowhere, it loomed overhead.

Today was hot. Particularly hot. This city suffers the same difficulty as Japan. With the air conditioning making the indoors survivable, you don't expect to scorch outside, and it shocks when you do. It was quite breezy later in the afternoon luckily, enough to temporarily cool you until you approached an open office building door. The select cuts of sun that managed to get through the buildings were also refreshing, but you could feel the extra heat, and you quickly wanted to escape the beams. Frequent cold drinks made it more bearable, but the heat added to the personality of the city. New York is very distinct from any other city, the lattice of roads and the eclectic building styles make it instantly recognisable, and wherever I look, I know I could be nowhere else. And I don't do much, I wander the streets, thinking about how everything appears, how everything smells, how it sounds, all the aspects that create this distinctive, modern atmosphere.

Anyway, I took a few shots of the buildings and I got a few pictures of me taken by Henny. I'll post them when I can. I'm going to look for Chinatown and Little Italy, and either eat there, or look for a decent steak.

---

I walked, today, from Times Square all the way down to Greewich, where by accident, I found Lips. From there I walked further, made the quick post about my feelings of the city, then walked further. I found the Moondance Diner, and walked further, until I finally made it to Chambers Street Station. My feet are extremely tired right now, and I'm looking forward to relaxing this evening, but I have an early start tomorrow. I'm going to try and get tickets to a taped TV show if I can. I didn't manage to get my meal, and I think I found Chinatown, but I'm not sure. I might go out and find a cheap meal before I sleep.

Flickr

I don't have much to say, but I want people to see my Flickr account.

My Flickr Account

I hope you all enjoy it, and look at all my photos from America. Don't abuse the privilige or I'll delete it.

If You Can't Take the Heat

My laptop is too hot. It's not overheating, it's just very warm. I gather a laptops get that way, I guess I just haven't noticed this one ever being too hot to touch. I guess it's part of the heat in this part of the world, and that I have been using it a while.

The Starbucks I was in had issues with its wireless, and I couldn't post. Instead I went to another one a few hours later to post.

After writing that post, I walked down to Times Square, and made it in time to check out different musicals. Nothing was showing on Broadway on Monday, so I didn't bother checking much out, and proceeded to get another discounted (free) McDonalds. It's not healthy, but it's very cheap. And I'm not eating the burgers. I wish they had a deal like this for Taco Bell, I'm saving a fortune.

Heated wandering and a few hours later, I returned home, annoyed that The Daily Show was full, and looking for rest for my feet. New York is big. I didn't quite walk the length of Mido-suji, but I did a big walk, and I covered very little of the place. I tried finding the Nintendo store, but I was disappointed in finding nothing at the said address. Apparently it's further West, but hey. I'll look again tomorrow. Henny is photographing a premiere at the MOMA, and it'd be cool to hang around for that. He said he'd take some photographs of me while he was there, so I can get some nice shots of me in New York. Professional photographs. Excellent. I'll wash my hair. God... I should take my nice jacket, but it'll be scorching. I will be wearing the good jeans.

Since in England the month rolled over to August about five hours ago, my Flickr account allowed fresh photographs to be uploaded. I was very happy about that, and I filled my front page with new images. Good thing is, the upload counter isn't showing any uploads, so I might upload some of my less impressive pictures and I won't be charged in bandwidth! Or it could be an error and I could waste all of this months bandwidth on rubbish before my good photos come through.

For several hours, I uploaded and commented my photos, and I put up a lot of good ones. I have saved some bandwidth for later. In those hours Henny also worked on his laptop, with his headphones on. I felt very geeky when I used my DVD drive for a coaster on the sofa.

Tomorrow I will be going to New York again, attending the premiere, and looking for more musicals to go and see. You do feel central to the world, especially in popular culture and the cutting edge of the West.

On the day before Yukina left, we had a meal in San Jose. In this I had a very tasty dessert. I offered some to Yukina, and in offering I was overly gracious and very Eastern. She accepted in the proper way. Erin took a photo. This is the result, Douzo.



We laughed so hard at that picture when we saw it. It summed up the entire time in California with Erin and Yukina. Just silly, and fun, and doing silly, funny things. This is one of the beautiful views I got from Big Sur, Pfieffer Beach.



We all did dancing moves, and this is one of mine. In fact, it's the only one where there's a photo of it. I look rather cool, even though I'm totally posing.



The same night, just before the posing photo was taken, we had a perfect sunset over the Bay. We had a photo taken of it, and since Yukina's camera was pretty good, the photo came out really well. This was just one evening that we had a lot of fun. We took more photos inside, and I think that was a really good evening of my pink shirt. I remember it all well.



Those are a few of my photos from this holiday. I will post more when I won't kill your pathetic computers with massive downloads for each image. GO AMD WOO!