Vacation, Day One
Jan 25th
Yep, as expected, did the thing where I shoot awake, mind racing, thinking “OMG I’ve got to do that analysis for work!!” I’ve got to break myself of that for this vacation. Also realizing there’s so much stuff to do, I don’t know where to begin! For those watching from home, I haven’t taken more than one day off in a row since last June or something.
Today will be doing all the local errands that have been stacking up for a month. Will also clean up around the house, clear a workspace, set some goals. I’ll also have to meditate a little on the fact that I am not going to do the thing where I suddenly make mad plans or feel the need to do something drastic and not relax (like, “I’ve got two weeks free, why not visit Nikolai in Milwaukee or Drew in San Francisco for a day or two, I’ve got the frequent filer miles!”) just because I’ve got the time.
I plan to finish writing/editing the game I’m working on in the next few days, but I need a few days of downtime before swapping out one workload for another.
Nope. Today’s gonna start the vacation off small:
Clean up my bookshelf.
Run some errands.
Go to the art museum.
Check out the new Herman Miller chair at the showroom.
Work out a bit.
Come up with some goals re: Continuing Japanese.
Bust open the first section of Popolocrois II.
Finish the movie Gamer.
Maybe spend an hour or two on FFXIII.
I’ve got two weeks, I’m going to teach myself to relax again, and stay open to new challenges.
Tuesday Thoughts
Jan 19th
* It’s been 11 years since Heisei 11.1.12, which means I’ve been married for 11 years, going on 12. So far: Awesome. Looking forward to 11 more.
–Incidentally, this is the first year in three years where I didn’t have to cancel/move anniversary plans due to working late putting broken shit back together. So that was a nice touch.
* Jason Thompson’s King of RPGs comes out today. If you are into tabletop RPGs but do not seek this manga out, you are dumb. I saw it about 7 years ago when it was done up comic style, before the anime facelift, and it was some good, light fun. I can’t wait until my copy is delivered.
* Rah Digga went to college for Electrical Engineering in New Jersey. Wow. My dad was always pushing me (lightly pushing, mind you, not like Burning My Sociology Books or anything) to become an engineer like him. Who knows, if I had followed in his footsteps I might now be pursuing a lucrative career in rap.
* Recently listening to: Hearts of Space. All the time. Best internet radio subscription I’ve ever purchased. These soulful, moody tracks are the soundtrack to my workflow.
* Two weeks of vacation start in 3 days, and they can’t come fast enough. I need to remember to take vacations with better frequency to avoid total burnout.
* Alternative writing software: Look into PageFour, Liquid Story Binder (likely the latter, as it has visual organization tools that I like). Scrivener for Windows would be a dream, though.
* My new glasses allow me the power to fire lasers out of my eyes.
* I might tire of Busta Rhymes’ focus on lyrics about money, but I will never, ever tire of his style, his lyrical flow or his phenomenal beats.
* I love reggae, it’s one of my favorite types of music: But only live. The only “reggae albums/studio songs” I can listen to are Bob Marley, period, and hate just about anything else (even the songs I like hearing live). I have no idea why this is.
* Will probably start blogging more about the Japanese I’m learning day to day. For example, all this time I never knew the Sen (銭) in Sentou (銭湯, or “Japanese public bath”), of which tou = “hot water” or “bath” was actually the same “sen” which used to be the standard for money before the Yen (“Oh, it’s THAT /Sen/. I never knew. Huh.”). Like 100 sen = 1 yen or something IIRC. Sen isn’t used any more, I think the last batch was printed around 1944, so they’re kind of an artifact.
* I love my Gunnar Optiks computer glasses (model: Shredder), I just need to find a way to get prescription lenses in these things so I can wear them longer. Unfortunately, it looks like “If you don’t live in California, you’re screwed”. Oh well, will keep trying.
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Amazon Prime…
Jan 18th
So normally I get most of my friend-feedback and comments on the crosslinked posts to LJ, Facebook, etc and I doubt this will be an exception.
Anyway, for my friends that have Amazon Prime: You guys pretty much talked me into trying it out for a year, considering all the home goods you can get without paying for gas/time to get to the mall, etc.
However, a question: What the hell do you do with all the cardboard boxes? Do you have any room in your recycle bins with all the box that you go through?
Just curious on that point: While Prime may save me some trips to stores and hook me up with awesome prices, the return in “labor of cutting up boxes and feeling white guilt at the mound of recycling matter” seems a tough balance…
Tuesday Thoughts
Jan 12th
* Body fat down 2 percent since last month, but body weight unchanged. That means muscle, right? Makes sense, as I’ve been taking it to the next level at the gym and at home. Even bought some stuff, using it too! (swedish ball, a new pullup bar, resistance bands) I’m eyeing a 300lb Olympic bar and weight set (only $150 at Dick’s), but want to get traction on the stuff I have first before Buying More Crap. Still got far to go to get back to post-college weight, though.
* In the past 4 weeks I have purchased 4 floor lamps. All but one of them are completely different. I’m Japan-ifying our dining room even more with shoji paper floor lamps, and the living room with shoji-bulb thingies. Will take pics later.
* Bought pants. I went genuine clothes shopping at the Mall! It’s been, what, 2 years since I did real clothes shopping? In any case, I picked up two slick pairs of pants, one shirt, and realized that 95% of my clothing needs are fulfilled by Sears and JcPenny’s, just as has been the case for the last 20 years. I don’t mind Nordstroms, but price vs the style is a “yech” ratio. Looking into a new suit once I lose some more points.
* I still have Christmas/New Years/Aw fuck it Whenever cards to write and send. I dunno why my mind freezes up at the end of the year like that. I just don’t often know what to say. ” ‘Sup. Christmas, eh? YEAH! Well, see ya next year.”
* Saw Avatar in 3d. Aside from the eyestrain and verdio-headache from sitting near the bottom of the theater at the IMAX, it was awesome.
* Ordered another vat of Muscle Milk (vanilla creme). Since they lowered the fat calories ratio, it’s been my drug of choice. No lactose == friendly stomach.
* Realized I need to read Getting Things Done again, as I totally fell off the rails and am no longer getting much of anything done.
* Tonight I make soup. Wild rice, chicken, maitake mushrooms. Maitake mushrooms make everything delicious. I have no idea why they are not more popular than shiitake or portabello, they go well in everything from pizza to soup to toppings for omelets or meat to… well, anything. Hopefully we’ll see a cycle of more people using them, more appearing in stores, prices going down, etc.
* Exercise of the week: Stability Ball Plank.
* Reading:
Fiction: Still reading Greg Egan’s latest, Crystal Nights.
Nonfiction: Still cutting through Options Made Easy, Making it All Work.
Work: Overview of Flexcache
Manga: Between series now
RPG: Fusou Bukyouden, Weapons of the Gods
* Time to retire www.bladeoftheimmortal.net . Nothing more is going to happen with it, I’m plain tired of the manga at this point, might as well cut it loose and focus on other projects.
* Tenra Bansho Zero: See next item.
* Two weeks of vacation. Approved. Taking off last week of Jan/first week of Feb to do stuff around the house, travel a bit in the area, do some Sharpening the Saw stuff while thinking about what my goals are for this year, and hopefully finish the last of the pre-editing Tenra work.
Year of El Tigre
Jan 1st
明けましておめでとうございます!It’s the year of the ->寅<-. Yippie!
“10 years ago” has been the Internet Theme for the past day. For me, 10 years ago…
* I had just left Japan and returned to the US, been in the states for a little under a month with 1 wife, 3 cats (Subaru, Chobi and Ku-chan), nowhere to live and about $4,000 to my name, saved up from a teaching/consulting gig in Japan.
* I was just starting my career over from scratch, temping at the Duke University Glaucoma Center. At this time, I started moving back slowly towards computers as a career, but I was still looking into consulting and training work.
* It was about a week before I “tried to teach myself Linux over the weekend”. LOL!
* I had been playing Thief: The Dark Project for 2 years, and Thief II for a few months.
* I was a size 34. Now I’m a size 36, trying to get back to 34.
* I was still feeling shitty about my previous relationship breakup (due to it being entirely my fault). Cut to 10 years later, when I dwell on it I still feel pretty shitty. Funny how time sometimes doesn’t blunt pain.
* I was looking forward to the next Matrix movies.
* Nikolai lived a few hours away in DC, Drew in Boston.
* My hometown in Japan was still called “Sakai-machi” (and I worked mostly in “Azuma-mura”), and both hadn’t yet been assimilated into Isesaki-shi.
* I was into my first year of posting on RPGNet.
If you have 50 bucks, you can buy the best anime ever
Dec 31st
I just noticed the other day that my favorite anime epic, Twelve Kingdoms, is now packaged into one super-DVD set for only $50 at Amazon.
Link here: http://www.amazon.com/Twelve-Kingdoms-Complete-Aya-Hisakawa/dp/B0021BSOHW
If you’re not familiar with it, it’s basically the story of a high school girl that gets whisked away to a confusing, dangerous and splendid China-analogue world that runs parallel to ours. She has a great destiny there, and the series follows her and others in various tales of growing up and adventure. 5 story arcs in all, the first and third (which focus on Yoko) are the best IMO: Quite stirring and epic.
It’s slightly above the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex series for “favorite anime”, above Fruits Basket, Full Metal Panic Fumoffu, and Vampire Princess Miyu.

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