Winston's World

Why write posts?

2010-03-12T17:48:00.003+09:00

When all you need is more Onion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U4Ha9HQvMo&feature=PlayList&p=58NKeitRqbE

I'm just some fucking guy. lol.

Google Opt-Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMChO0qNbkY&NR=1

Andorran Aid

2010-03-09T08:52:00.000+09:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q_iqrvnC_4&feature=PlayList&p=58NKeitRqbE

Checking out old Onion.

History Proves Me Correct

2009-12-25T05:47:00.002+09:00

Xmas it is.

So should you happen to be lost as have arrived here... Merry to you.

And a Happy New Year. See you in it. Maybe.

Still have a good one today. I will at least for I'm off to Hokkaido for skiing, so see you.

And here's a picture

2009-09-14T10:54:00.002+09:00

The Summer Blockbuster is a Lie

2009-09-14T08:45:00.005+09:00

It's Monday morning and I find myself with 3 things. 1) The worst case of insomnia I've ever had. 2) A day off in the hope that at some point I'll fall asleep. 3) A gut full of discontent about the year 2009 in movies.

So far this has been the worst year for movie watching I can remember. I've seen only 2 movies that have stuck in my mind longer than it took to escape the theater. Watchmen, which was absolutely fantastic, has grown on me the more I've thought about, and will be completely forgotten by the time the Academy Awards come around. And Quantum of Solace which only makes it into 2009 because Japan gets everything late.

It's the last 3 movies I've seen, summer "blockbusters" all, that have really shit me.

Terminator: Salvation was anything but for the audience. Ted summed it up perfectly as we shuffled forlornly out of theatre - "That movie made me angry." For me, the person who had chosen the flick and organized the night out, it just left me embarrassed that I'd subjected my friends to it. I'd read reviews that said it wasn't that good, but I'd also read comments by viewers that said, "Hey, it's not as bad as they say. Give it a try, you'll enjoy it." I now believe that those comments were written by studio plants who were sent onto the forums with the mission of damage control of the bad press.

Because of this mixed press I went into the movie with expectations held not so high. I should have learnt from the mistake that was Wanted. If you're not expecting much, then that is what you'll get. You see, the first 40 minutes of Terminator: Salvation is actually quite watchable. Things are being setup nicely for a kick-ass finale, there's been a shit load of money spent to make the future look suitably bleak, and the story is a refreshing departure from the unstoppable cyborg hunting the Conner family that the first 3 were. In fact I think the setup for Salvation is the strongest of any of them.

And then the film just jettisons any attempt at logic for a second half that makes no fucking sense at all. I mean really, how stupid is SkyNet? Ho ho John Conner, now that my cunning plan has lured you to my Terminator factory I'm going to send ONE and only ONE Terminator from the aforementioned factory to kill you. Yes John Connor, ONE Terminator. That's how nefarious I am. ONE! I shall turn the tables on you. It will be you who will die and not m.... what! You've defeated my sole Terminator! Impossible! Oh no, eieieieeeee I am undoneeeee.... And what's that. You can get a heart transplant from anyone. Look out there's been a medical break in - I mean break through.

Oh. My. God. That was so lame.

Salvation was followed by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I've read the books but am not a crazed Potter fan and couldn't care less if some parts are changed to fit the book into a movie. But if Half-Blood was satisfied with only adding an unnecessary action piece to the story that wouldn't have been so bad. It's major fault is that it is dull. Mind-numbingly, ploddingly dull. Most of the movie focuses on the relationship problems of the kids. Yes, they're growing up and hormones are telling them to go out and form pair bonds with a significant other. But I don't want to watch over 2 hours of that.

Like Salvation the first 40 minutes of Half-Blood Prince put everything in place well. The magic world of Hogwarts had rarely looked better, and I was expecting the plot to start moving along. But instead it focuses not on the Voldemort's history and/or Who is the Half-Blood Prince? storylines, but s/he loves me, s/he loves me not, shenanigans. After an hour I was uncomfortable and restless but kept hoping the the film would pick up pace or at least deliver with the action of the end of the book. Neither happened. It continued to crawl, (if it's not the longest Potter film to date then it at least felt like it), the final battle in the school grounds never appeared (so why did the Death-Eaters gain access to Hogwarts only to leave after a bit of petty vandelism?), the murder of Dumbledore was flubbed, and he didn't even get the dignity of the tear-jerking funeral from the book. BTW, the kids acting is great. It's what they're given to work with that is the let down.

I haven't really gotten into any of the Potter films except The Prisoner of Azkaban, although I've found the others to be at least watchable. But the final book of the series is by far the weakest. In fact it was a pretty bad book with its Mission: Impossible-like bank heist and Ministry of Magic break in. And as the same director and scriptwriter from Half-Blood Prince will be returning to adapt it into not one, but two money-leeching films, short of stunning reviews I'll be giving them a miss.

And then on the weekend I caught the incongruously titled X-Men Origins: Wolverine (yes, it has only just gotten here). Again I'd been well forewarned by less than stellar reviews. But how bad could it be with Hugh in it? I should have remembered the debacle that was Australia. The trouble with a bad film with Hugh in it is that he is so obviously trying his guts out even though he knows that everything else about the film is just shit. The same with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Its problems began long ago with the story and script, and not with the actors who had to breath life into this still-born turkey.

I believe the stupid title is the root of the problem that the unfocused story and atrocious script stem from. What did the audience want? A story about the origin of Wolverine. What did it get? A whole bunch of other mutants shoehorned in (hell, even Professor Xavier makes a cameo) so that there can be some X-Men trainspotting. The best sequence is the rather brilliantly done title credits showing Logan and Victor fighting in the major wars of the last century. Great imagery, but why was this relegated to one minute of the movie? This is the story of Wolverine that should be up on the screen, the story of the rivalry, jealously and hatred between two brothers who cannot be killed and never seem to age. Why do Logan and Victor continue to stay together long after they've reached adulthood? Why are they drawn to combat? Why does Victor gradually become more and more animal-like? Why does Logan even care? Why do we even care?

Well, to answer that rhetorical question, we don't. And that's because we're not given characters to care about. Character motivation is pushed aside so that we can spend precious screen time with a whole bunch of other mutants who add nothing to Logan's or Victor's characterizations. These mutants are in the story merely because they'll put bums on seats (Gambit and Deadpool), provide comic relief (Blob), or have superpowers that look cool (just about everyone else plus Gambit and Deadpool). By the time we're introduced to Gambit the film has long stopped caring about Logan and Victor, and has fallen into trite comic book action. It even admits so when Wraith tells Logan that Logan will be fighting Gambit in few minutes even though they've just come to talk to him. This film can't do anything but pad itself out by playing the "two superheroes who've just met have a fight over a misunderstanding before becoming allies" card, because it isn't holding anything else in it's hand.

And when are we going to see the "animal let out" that Logan et al keep referring to. I'm probably wrong but I can't really remember him killing a lot of people. He stabs Victor a few times, and there must be some guards somewhere that get the claws, but really for a supposed killing machine this is a pretty PG friendly Wolverine. I've recently finished the video game based on the movie, and that is the kind of mayhem I was hoping for from the movie. Wolverine the game is one of those rare games that is better (much better) than the movie it is based on. Crazily violent, Wolverine slices, dices and juliennes hundreds of bad guys on the way to the Weapon XI showdown. Gun-toting meat-sacks are impaled on environmental kills, dismembered by claws, set on fire and even beheaded by helicopter rotors. Great stuff and what you'd expect from someone who keeps on claiming that he's the best at what he does, but what he does isn't very nice, or words to that effect but I'm too tired to Google it to find out. Instead with the lack of violence that it had the movie should have been title Wolverine: Declawed.

So that's my rant. Sorry that after 4 months away all I've got to add to the blogshpere is bile, but there you go. I'm off to knock myself out. Based on the space between postings next time we meet I'll probably be kicking off with "Merry Xmas".

MSxGO

2009-05-23T09:38:00.002+09:00

You just have to see this to believe it.

So that's what Lorenzo Lamas has been doing since the eighties.

Jimbo, crack open the c oldies. It's time to liquor up and watch some shit.

Proof of Life

2009-05-11T20:53:00.001+09:00

Do You Cusp?

2009-04-02T11:38:00.002+09:00

10: IF "N" or "n" THEN GOTO HERE.

20: IF "Y" or "y" THEN PRINT "Remain where you are. The Insanity Control Squad will come to your location."

Watchmen

2009-03-30T13:21:00.006+09:00

SPOILERS FOLLOW.

Hitler is wrong.

There's no getting around the denseness of the 'Watchmen' graphic novel: it utilized not only conventional comic book storytelling, but also, reports, journals, extracts and interviews. Its 12 issues assembled a large cast of characters each with their own backstory and hangers-on, covered a timeline of over 50 years of an alternate history of earth, used flashbacks, various narrators, dealt with BIG issues, had equal parts full-on action and quiet character moments... It is in my opinion the greatest comic book you'll ever read.

So I was utterly amazed at what was put on the screen. Watchmen the movie is a fantastic example of taking a work from one medium and translating it into another. Yes, Watchmen the film is not, nor can not ever be, 'Watchmen' the most lauded comic book of all time. It's got a few hours to tell the story as a film. But even if 'Watchmen' had been adapted as a 12 part TV series, as some rabid fanboy in some backwater of the net frothed that is should have been, would it really be any better? I don't think so. Yes, more minutiae might have been thrown up on the screen, more subplots could have been told, more characters given more time. Basically there could have been more, more, more from the original medium translated with equal weighting to the new medium, which is most important when making an adaption, don't you know?

But why restrict this fictional series to 12 episodes just because the comic has 12 issues. Let's have 18 (because its 12 + 1/2 of 12, an equation I pulled from the same ass that 12 comes from) and devote an episode to 'The Black Freighter' subplot, an episode to the denizens of the ill-fated New York street corner, an episode to Hollis Mason's 'Under the Hood', an episode to the island where the squid was made... Hmmm, maybe we'd better up that episode count to 24, because that's 12 x 2, and thus the adaption can maintain authenticity by claiming some nebulous numerical connection to original.

Or here's a thought. How about devoting the screen time to putting as much as possible from the graphic novel up on to that aforementioned screen, in a way that best utilizes the medium of film. And that is the triumph of Watchmen. So much of the denseness of the graphic novel is packed into the movie's 160 minutes by adapting it to film. Two examples are the many voice overs which for once aren't annoying but purposeful, and the tableaux that in a well-used few seconds hint at unexplored story avenues. These don't distract from the main storyline of the film, but add a depth to the cinematic world. For the astute viewer coming to the story for the first time they provide a verisimilitude to a fantasy world that I haven't seen since the Lord of the Rings movies, and for the veteran readers of 'Watchman' they show that it's mostly all there if you take the trouble to look. Just open your eyes and ears to Watchmen and you'll see that Zach Snyder gets 'Watchmen' real good.

But there's no squid! Well, yes, that's right. There is no squid. Get over it. As many others around the net have already said, in the context of the movie, it works. I found it to be an elegant solution to streamline the story while keeping the same result. And after all though 'Watchmen' is a great work of art, it's not without it's faults. For me the squid was one of them. It's a plot point that really doesn't bear looking at too much. Over looking is more what's required. That dead squid is going to be the most rigorously tested genetic material on the planet. How long would the deception really hold up that its not of Earth origin? But rather than trying to strengthen the case for Watchmen's Dr. Manhattan frame-up by weakening the case for 'Watchmen''s squid frame-up, I'll instead say that the Dr. Manhattan frame-up is at least as weak or as strong (your pick) a plotting as an other dimensional squid. YMMV.

And kudos for the sex and violence. I haven't had to worry about being turned away from a movie for being underage for quite some time, so I never took any notice of Watchmen's rating. This meant that I was pleasantly surprised by the retention of the comic's sex and violence. If you're not into seeing bodies blown up, limbs broken, a meat cleaver in the head nor consenting (and non-consenting) adults doing what they do, then you'd best close your eyes. Quite often. But I was glad that Watchmen retained that visceral aspect, when I expect conventional marketing wisdom would dictate that a lower rating opens the film to a wider audience, and thus bigger profits. Die Hard 4.0 certainly thought so, and it did very good box office indeed. However to me it was just another way that Watchmen tried to be as faithful as it could to the source material.

In case you think I was left in total awe of Watchmen I'll mention two points I didn't think worked well. The first was the delivery of one of my favorite lines of all time, "I did it 35 minutes ago." It just didn't have the gravitas I'd always imagined in my head. The second, again with Ozymandias, was the bullet catching. It was weakly foreshadowed, and then seemed rushed, muddled, or just not framed right (too close up?). I don't know what exactly, so I'd better stop crying about it. So there you go, some complaints.

I gave Watchmen 9 out 10 on the IMDB. It might well have got 10 if "I did it 35 minutes ago" had had better delivery.

Beck

2009-03-25T08:39:00.002+09:00

Last night we saw Beck at NHK Hall in Shibuya. NHK hall is like Townsville Civic Theater's great big sumo brother. It was a very different vibe to the other concerts I've seen in the last few years, which were at Saitama Super Areana or the Budokan, both much larger spaces. But the audience was very appreciative of Beck, and even though it was concert hall type seating, within a few minutes everyone was standing, handclapping, and generally flailing about. You'd never do that at either of the other venues for fear of plummeting to your death. At the Super Arena you might never hit bottom.

It was the first time I'd ever seen a concert that was opened by a magician. Cameron, the magician, came out for about 10 minutes and did some tricks. He was ably assisted by the gimp from Pulp Fiction. The gimp was stripped to the waist and he and Cameron looked like the were cavorting around between tricks in some kind of S&M inspired body-rubbing dance. Those up close were appreciative of it, but there were no large screen TVs so anyone further back than the first 10 rows (us) saw very little. Sleight of hand just ain't the same when the hands aren't visible. Still it passed some time until Beck, and the S&M dancing was entertaining.

Beck and the four others in the band put on a show that covered his whole career, but about half of it came from the last two albums, which was fine by me as I've had them on high-rotation since buying the tickets. About 2/3 in they changed pace and did some acoustic numbers, including the old Korgis' song 'Everyone's Gotta Learn Sometime'. They also left their instruments behind and came to front stage with what looked like Nintendo Dses to do some scratching, rapping and electronic stuff. This was really cool as the keyboardist jumped down and "played" (screen touched) from within the audience. There was also a shaved head pro-wrestler looking security guy walking around with a video camera that was projecting to a black & white array of lights behind the band that was acting as a low resolution screen. There was much cheering from the audience as they could see themselves up big on the "screen".

My only complaint was that it was a tad short. Beck would have come on around 7:30 PM, and we were well on our way back to Shibuya station by 9 PM. Still, rating the night on quality over quantity, it was fantastic. Plus they played 'Chem Trails', so I was happy. And Mari stayed awake the whole time, so it must have been good.

Noooooo!

2009-03-12T22:24:00.002+09:00

Today being March 12th, was the day that new Downloadable Content was to be available for Midnight Club: Los Angeles. Having left the game a month ago at 98% complete (and 69% of Trophies achieved) I was pretty much looking forward to something new for it. The map was to be expanded by 1/3, there was to be something like 26 new vehicles, 2 new vehicle classes, a whole bunch of new races, missions and Trophies.

I tried looking for the DLC this morning on the PlayStation Store, thinking that as it'll probably be slow to download because every other virtual petrolhead would be downloading it too, I'd leave it doing so while I was away at work. Couldn't find it. Oh well, maybe it will be there when I get home.

Same story then, too. A check of Rockstar's official site to see what the problem was had the same info as every other time I visited to fawn over the video of some lowriders cruising around South Central. Available 12th of March. Another visit to the PlayStation store, but still no joy. America must be awake by now, where was my DLC?

So then a google later and I found out the awful truth on some other game site. South Central has, without explanation, been delayed 1 week. Why oh why Rockstar, didn't you update your site with that info?

Well I suppose I can keep playing LittleBigPlanet 1 more week.

U2 3D

2009-03-09T22:41:00.003+09:00

I'd thought that I'd missed U2 3D, or that it had passed Japan by. But last week Pixie and I were talking about bands and the conversation got around to U2 and whatever happened to that 3D movie of theirs. A google later and to our surprise we found out it was starting on the weekend. Five of us went on Sunday afternoon.

It was an experience that left me moved. For one thing the 3D lent the show an almost tangibility. There were times I felt like reaching out to see if I really could touch someone, or swaying back as Adam Clayton's bass scythed the air just in front of my eyes, or even a jarring feeling when the blackness beyond the edge of the screen made me realize the audience members holding up their hands in front of me weren't sitting in the theatre, but in a stadium in Brazil.

And for a change the use of 3D was sublime rather than the typical "axes being thrown at the camera". Band members faded in and out seamlessly at different depths, the use of CG and other out of camera tricks was fairly minimal, and when used was mostly to show some other part of the show that was currently out of the lens. Kudos to the directors for their restraint.

Finally, having seen the same show as part of the Japan leg of the "Vertigo" tour, it gave me a completely different perspective of the show. "Vertigo" had been the best concert I'd ever seen, but I'd seen it from about as high and as far away as one could be in the Saitama Super Arena, and still be in Saitama. This time I was floating right before, next to, above, and on the stage. It felt like being right up there live with the band. I was so wrapped up in the experience that "Where the Streets have No Name" left me with tears in my eyes.

If you have a chance to see U2 3D on the big screen and in 3D, cancel any other plans you've made. Sorry Quantum of Solace, as much as I still love you, this is without a doubt the best film I've seen this year.

3G Whiz

2009-03-08T09:33:00.002+09:00

For more than 6 months my phone company have been informing me that next year my phone service will discontinue, and so I'll have to upgrade my phone to one that is compatible with the new service. They've been sending me discount vouchers for a new phone and what not, and fortunately I've been ignoring them. I say fortunately because their latest campaign is giving away iPhones. I was hesitant to believe it, but after checking into it, it seems true. I'll know for sure when I get the first bill.

The new phone did mean having to sign up for a slightly more expensive package, but only slightly more. And that may well balance out with most of the people I ever talk to by phone (I rarely make calls. Who would I call?) now being free of charge, or at about half the previous rate.

The phone seems cool enough to drive, but will take a while for me to work out how to get it out of first gear. Battery life seems pretty weak, though. But I'm anal-retentive enough that I charge my phone daily anyway. All in all a good deal.

The downside was that I wasn't able to port my old address book over. The friendly but overly explanatory shop assistant assured me that I'd be able to download my old address book from a website that they'd uploaded it to. The website informed me I'd have one chance with one phone to do so. As usual the technological vision of plug and play refused to work, and so I'm left with manually typing in my old address book. This will probably see a culling of many names of unknowns, people who I've met once socially long ago or former workplaces mates who I've never talked to again since my escape. While this well make my new address book much easier to read, navigate and know just who is who, it will also put into stark reality the sad shape of my network of friends.

So in a desperate plea for acknowledgment my phone's new address is:
winstoninabox at i dot softbank dot jp

The 2 people who still bother to come here, please clap your hands loudly to stop winston from fading away.

Wolverine vs. Japan

2009-03-01T21:45:00.002+09:00

The last movie I saw that was as funny as Baz Luhrmann's Australia was George Lucas' Revenge of the Sith.

Together at Last

2009-02-13T20:52:00.002+09:00

I'm drinking this at the moment.

You gotta love Japan.

January

2009-02-09T23:58:00.003+09:00

Where has the last month gone?

Before I forget. Jimbo, I'm winstoninabox01 (winstoninabox zero one) on the PS3. Add me to your friends and send me mail. We've gotta play something together or I've got a headphone for it so we can chat sometime.

Back to my rhetorical question. That's an easy one. 100+ hours in one month on Midnight Club: Los Angeles will eat up the free time. Especially when Monday and Wednesday nights are Japanese class, and we also squeezed 2 one-day ski trips in there. I'm done with Midnight Club for the time being... that's so I can move onto LitteBigPlanet.

The bonus of LittleBigPlanet is that Mari is crazy about it, too. The other night she played it by herself until 2:30 in the morning. I'd never have believed that a video game would hold her attention for more than 5 minutes, but LBP has sucked her in. It is an addictive game. And the huge range of levels available on the Internet mean that there is always a new one to try. I've got a feeling that that is the time sucker for now.

The skiing trips were beyond amazing. Not just for the quality of the snow, which was fresh and constantly being replenished all day, but also for the rate at which that was being done. The first trip I was at the top of the mountain looking across valleys as far as the horizon being absolutely blown away by the view. I watched a dark cloud rapidly rising up the mountain and thought, "Wow, that large dark cloud is closing fast". Then I was surrounded by snow and couldn't see a thing and thought, "Wow, I can't see a thing. Well, at least I don't have to worried about being skittled by an 8-year-old cannonball". It wasn't so bad because I could hear David Bowie's "Let's Dance" (followed by no less than five 70's and 80's Oz classics) booming up from the restaurant that was futher down the valley, so I thought that if worse came to worst I could always just follow the sound. But it was one of those surreal happenings that come along. But it did turn out to be just training for the next trip.

We decided to return to the same place 2 weeks later, only to be met by more snow than I'd thought possible. Most of the huge mountain area was closed due to the huge snowfall and strong winds. We made our way up as far as we could go on the 2 gondalas and 1 chairlift that were working and stepped out into white. Trying to ski was a joke, and we'd barely got anywhere before Mari had gone over in a wave of nausea. I was having the same feeling. We couldn't see anything and the winds were pushing our bodies around so that we had a weird feeling of motion via involuntary movement. We stumbled down to the first cafe stop and sat there drinking coffee and eating chips until the snow subsided enough (but not the winds) that we could at least see where we were going. It did however mean that the snow was great.

What else? Ah, yes. Quantum of Solace finally made it to Japan. Loved it and have seen it twice. Probably a third time is on the cards. The complainers seem to think that it's not Casino Royale, moves too fast, and has vicious editing. I must have watched a different picture. Yes, it's not the same film as its predecessor, and I think that that is a good thing. I liked Casino Royale, but I don't want to watch a clone of it. QoS does move fast, but it's all there if you keep up. The editing is brutal, but again I think that that is a great stylistic choice for the story. The pre-title car chase seems to be a popular target for hatred. Loved it! For once (well Casino Royale did it as well) the rest of the movie isn't overshadowed by the pre-title action. It may even be the shortest pre-title sequence ever. Anyways, I great film.

Until next time.

Day 2

2009-01-02T23:45:00.000+09:00

Body of Lies = good.

No more cheeseburgers at Gusto = bad.

2009

2009-01-01T16:06:00.003+09:00

Apparently we are now in 2009.

What happened to 2008?

2009 got off to a great start when last night on New Year's Eve I couldn't get warm enough. Then at bedtime I had a slight headache. In winter these are never good signs, and I woke up this morning with a sore throat and that yellow phlegm that tastes so nice as it slides down the back of the throat. Popped some pills, went back to bed (but not before a bowl of ozoni), and now at about 4pm I feel right as rain. That's good because I don't want to miss out on any of Mari's mother's cooking.

The holiday at her folks has been so relaxing, and there's still a few days to go. But if you want to be outside and enjoy the sunshine, sooner is better than later. By 1:30 the sun has dipped below the hill that their place backs onto, and the house is in shadow from then on in. At 5pm its cold and dark outside. Fortunately inside is filled with tempura, sukiyaki, okonomiyaki, veal cutlets, fresh vegetables and after the kids go to bed coffee, ice cream and as much chocolate and oreos as one can stuff one's face with. As usual the "lose weight" resolution must wait until the return to Tokyo.

Apart from eating I've done a little work (although this blog entry is a work avoidance strategy) and played quite a bit of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06. I know it's an old game, but after competing LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy 100% on the PSP, and starting the white-knuckle craziness that is Midnight Club: Los Angeles on the PS3, I thought I'd go back and check out one of my older (and slower) titles. It's golf, so one doesn't have to make any split-second decisions or be "in the zone" to play. You can put it down and return hours later and pick it up and play. Great for a holiday.

Hope you're having as good a time as I am. Happy New Year to you all.

Pee Es Three

2008-12-19T20:21:00.002+09:00

Bought a new blu-ray player.

Apparently it also plays games.

Thank you, Mr. Sony.

I'd better not make this a habit

2008-12-06T14:25:00.002+09:00

Over a month since my last post and all I can think of to post is another hilarious Onion sketch.

I love how at the end it just goes off the deep end. The black woman is fantastic.

OK, I'll try to pad this out with something from my life. But since you've last seen me I haven't done much.

I try to get a little gaming done every day. Over 70% of Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy complete. Being a fan of the Grand Theft Auto and Syphon Filter games, this is a game I'd never thought of buying. But a couple of good reviews convinced me to buy it when I saw it available second hand. So far I've spent about 50 hours collecting coins, blowing bricks up, using the Force and driving Lego vehicles around. Why is everything Star Wars that the bearded one has nothing to do with so good? For sure when The Force Unleashed drops in price I'll pick that up, too.

Only 2 weeks left until winter vacation. No plans yet beyond visiting Mari's folks, who we've hardly been able to catch up with year. Even skiing looks doubtful, at least to Hokkaido. I hope that we'll at least be able to do some one day trips. Going twice would be an improvement on the once we went last year, when all we did was Hokkaido.

I've been going to Japanese classes twice a week for the last few months, but that will finish next week. The conversation has been really helpful, and talking to others in Japanese is good practice. Mostly I speak Japanese just with Mari, so I'm used to her expressions and our topics are well worn. Talking to others who have different vocabularies and interests has been fun and challenging. A new course begins in January and I'm considering returning. However I'd earmarked that money for a PS3...

LOL

2008-11-02T10:20:00.003+09:00

If you haven't already wasted an hour of your life at The Onion's You Tube site, get thee there immediately.

Or at least watch this one, which had tears streaming down my cheeks.

Wanted

2008-10-13T23:25:00.002+09:00

Wanted is the secret-society-of-super-powered-assassins movie that you would have written when you were 14 - heavily reliant on plot and violence, light on constructing a believable backdrop for this plot and violence. Thus it holds together right up to the point that it doesn't, which is about 30 seconds after the society of the secret assassins is introduced. How such a secret society would really operate is given no thought, and so the movie is reduced to one crazy gun battle after another. It would have held my attention more if I could have believed in the world of these assassins, but instead I found my mind drifting.

Surely you'd structure it more like a religious cult? Surely you wouldn't plan impossible-to-do-without-super-powers assassinations against ordinary (and unsuspecting) targets when something less spectacular (and less likely to draw suspicion) would suffice? Surely if you knew that there are those with the ability to bend reality a little (that is if you think that the ability to curve bullets is just a slight bending of reality), then you'd have a research division devoted to increasing that ability? Surely you'd...

get a good scriptwriter.

If you haven't had your fill of stupidity then Joe Bob says check it out.

Head of Radio

2008-10-07T21:10:00.002+09:00

Saitama Sooooopa Arena!!! served up a big slice of some English band pie on Sunday nite.

Light show was ball-lickingly good. The ball-licking comment may make more sense if you're a Crue fan. Or not. Let me know you Crue fans out there.

Ting, Ting, Ting

2008-09-01T14:49:00.004+09:00

Last Friday Mari & I went down to the local city office and registered our marriage.

We then went away for the weekend to the Odawara Hilton, and had a jolly good time at its hot natural spa, badminton courts and amusement area which consists of karaoke, a bowling alley, and a coin-op House of the Dead 2. Killing zombies and belting out off-key 80s ballads with your newly wedded one is a great way to spend the weekend. Although it must be said that the one hour of badminton on Saturday left us physical wrecks, the trauma of which I am only recovering from now. The breakfast and dinner buffets certainly didn't help either.

Obtaining the necessary documents and getting time off together has been a fun logistical exercise. But about two weeks ago the paperwork and the timing started to come together. So while this announcement may seem sudden, it's actually something we've been working away at for some time. So sorry if you didn't know. You weren't ignored, we just didn't tell anyone except immediate family, and they only found out last week that Friday was the day we'd chosen.

We've no idea if or when we'll have a ceremony. Judging by how long it took us to get just the official side worked out I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. But with or without one, we're both pretty happy little chickens. Especially me, who still has one more week of summer vacation left.

Adventures in Bureaucracy

2008-08-21T10:38:00.004+09:00

The following is a portion of a conversation between winstoninabox and a MotherState HelpTron concerning how to fill out a MotherState form.

MSHT:... and you'll need someone to co-sign the form.

winstoninabox: Who can co-sign?

MSHT: Anyone.

winstoninabox: Can you?

MSHT: No.

Hulk... Smash!

2008-08-18T14:07:00.002+09:00

The superhero movies are finally making it to Japan.

I really enjoyed The Incredible Hulk. It's a chase movie dressed up with pretty good CG monsters duking it out. There's a little hand-waving about science in the wrong hands, but don't worry that's quickly forgotten with and it's back to the action.

Sit back and enjoy munching on that popcorn while Hulk... Smash!

Olympics vs the Idiot Box

2008-08-14T09:51:00.004+09:00

I'm not a big watcher of sport, but I do enjoy watching judo at the Olympics. Judo is a great sport. A match lasts only a few minutes, which is about my attention span. Fighters are quickly penalized for time wasting so there's always action. There's no trash talking or bragging - every one is most polite even as they grind someone's face into the mat or have their ears turned into gyoza. I also really like the scoring wherein one can win by either accumulating points or ippon, and that there are various ways to do either of those - pinning, throwing or submission. Ippon keeps the match interesting right until the expiration of time as either fighter could still win at any moment.

Fortunately I live in a country rather renowned for judo, so I can watch pretty good coverage of the sport at the Olympics. Unfortunately I can't watch good interviews with the medalists or their families. In case you don't already know, Japanese TV is dire. Japanese interviewers are helping to correct this. Not.

A morning ritual is Mino Monta's Breakfast Show. I like to try and guess whether he's drunk or stoned, and when he gets a bee in his buffed bonnet about something or other he becomes serious and talks to the camera about how things aint what they used to be. I'm also currently in love with both Nemoto-kun the genki weather girl, and Takahata-chan the super genki sports reporter. There being weather everyday, and it being the Olympics and me with nothing to do, I can get my fill of this delightful pair every morning. In her jealousy Mari claims they both 'stink of the countryside' (a Japanese expression that means one is unsophisticated) but she won't dissuade me. Coming from the countryside myself, I find their plainness sexually enticing.

Well, enough about me. Time to bring this post back on track. Sadly the man himself, Mino Monta, is on summer vacation now so I can't enjoy his rambling, backslapping, nudge-nudge-wink-wink interviews. Instead there's a fill-in MC for the morning show. I can't remember his name, but his interviews with the athletes or their families are just terrible. Take the other morning. Ms Ayumi Tanimoto won gold in the under 63kg class. She was also the gold medalist at Athens 4 years previous, and has been a medalist at the World Championships and Asian Games. Obviously a woman at the top of her game and devoted to judo. The MC gets her father on the phone and his question is "Did you ever oppose her committing to judo because it will affect her chances to get married?" WTF? After all, there are no married current Olympians out there. The father made light of the question by saying that as she's got a cute smile (she has) he's happy to have her at home. But like a zombiefied dog with a still-attached human hand in its jaws the MC wouldn't let go of the subject of marriage, and after another equally vacuous question he returned to it. Mari said that as a woman she wanted to ring the studio to complain about the stupidity of the marriage questions. I asked her that when she does would she mind getting Nemoto-kun's and/or Takahata-san's phone numbers.

And then there's Mr. Yuki Ota's silver medal for fencing in the men's foil. Fencing is not a major sport in Japan, so not unexpectedly there's been no coverage of it here. However there was not even a live telecast of either of Mr. Ota's final two bouts, despite them being first a chance for bronze and then gold. Comes time to report Mr. Ota's victory, and it's a mere 30 seconds pretty much comprised of the two anchors talking about how they have no understanding of the rules of fencing. A perfunctory congratulations was issued and then onto the report about baseball, a sport that they do understand and a game in which Japan lost. It was given 5 minutes.

At least there's no Japanese equivalent of Darrel Eastlake.

R2Do2.

2008-08-11T00:17:00.005+09:00

This is my favorite Darth's & Droids so far.

And "Oh, you took player/character separation as a flaw, huh?" from the next one, is pure gold.

Japan doesn't get Quantum of Solace until January! January!!

Thursday and Friday I went to the beach. It was sunny and hot both times. Very hot. Actually, every day is hot. I'm covered in perspiration just walking the 2 or 3 minutes to the station, and have to carry a towel with me all the time so that I don't leave a pool of sweat should I be standing still for a few seconds.

I hid under my shade and only ventured out with heaps of sunscreen on to frolic in the shallows like a harpooned whale. Thus I didn't get burnt. I was amazed to see many people lying on towels with no shade the whole time I was there. Most were baking when I arrived at about 11, and still baking when I left about 1. They looked well done. I guess "slip, slop, slap" from my childhood never made it here. And that was before global warming!

Rengade Squadron

2008-07-31T13:13:00.008+09:00

I'm mostly going to write about a PSP game I played the last couple of days, so sorry if you were expecting something about my life. Oh, wait a minute, it's the same thing.

Since the start of last week I've been on summer "holidays" until school begins again in early September. I say "holidays" because there's actually quite a lot of preparation to be done before returning, but it's not yet the night before there's no point in doing anything. I went to work all last week, and even on Monday of this week, but since Tuesday I just couldn't be bothered and instead have been playing PSP (of course) and surfing the Internet about conspiracy theories, movie previews, YouTube, catching up on everyone's blogs and other stuff which is sure to benefit my character development, if not the world at large, at some indefinite future time.

PSPing saw the completion of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and Star Wars Battlefront II: Renegade Squadron story modes. GTA: VCS is the usual excellent effort from Rockstar. Even though I've finished the story and played quite a few of the side missions, I've actually only completed 50% of the entire content - the game is that big. And that took 3 weeks of fairly constant playing. GTA games are certainly value for money.

By contrast SWBII: RS story mode was knocked over in an afternoon. I was shocked it was finished so quickly. So the next day I went onto the Galaxy Conquest mode which adds a board game conquest level to the mindless mayhem of it all. It too was beaten in a couple of hours, with the only challenge being not to fall asleep in the summer heat. Here are my thoughts about the game.

SWBII: RS is so much a copy of the previous PSP Star Wars title, Star Wars Battlefront II, that I was left with a taste of having paid for something I already owned. The graphics are slightly prettied up, Infrastucture multiplayer (rather than just ad hoc) is added, there's the half-assed story mode (in which the malarkey that Han doesn't shoot first is reiterated) and equipment is more customizable. Also many of the maps are (from memory) clones from the previous game.

The equipment customization leads to the game feeling as if one is playing a hacked version of the game. It gives the game a feeling of blandness. Everyone has 100 points to equip with and every piece of equipment has a point value. You get the drill. Trouble is that with all equipment available at the beginning , there's no real pressure to use different equipment.

Sure, the 100 points means one can't have a Rocket Launcher and an Explosive Blaster Pistol and a Drone and more Health and a Rage Power Up, but so what. I found a couple of 100 point combos that worked well for me, and just kept playing with those again and again. The game doesn't care if you win with style, just if you win. Even in the story mode there's little reason to try other equipment. A couple of times you're forced to use a Det Pack to blow something up, or pick up a Fusion Cutter to repair a vehicle or turret, but basically I could do almost all missions by sticking to my couple of tried and true combos.

And while it's not meant to be an RPG, there's zero character progression. In the predecessor Battlefront II there was no customization; you played a wookie, stormtrooper, etc and your equipment was fixed. But the upside was that as you achieved medals associated with that character, the character's equipment (or ability) was upgraded. Medals were something like achieving a certain number of headshots as a Sniper or repairing a certain number of vehicles or turrets as an Engineer. That gave you something to aim for, and changed the way you played the character, as once the medal was achieved you could do something better.

I was interested enough as to why the change in play style was made to go searching the Internet. I watched a video where the talking head said that one thing that the fans had repeatedly asked for in feedback to Battlefront II was more customization. Dude, there's your first mistake. Never hand on a plate to fans what they want. Fans would have had Angel sweep Buffy up into his arms and ride of together into the sunrise in episode two if you'd let them. And where would that have left the series? Right where Renegade Squadron is - Blandsville. Make fans, or in this case players, work for what they want. If the story mode had been lengthened, and had also pushed some of the more obscure equipment into the limelight, then it could have been a much more challenging game. You could also start out with not all equipment available and/or less points and have to "unlock" the equipment and work up to 100 points by achieving medals. Any medals not achieved in story mode could then be achieved by free play. Thus after all the medals have been achieved, the player has the desired for customization of the character.

SWBII: RS is what it is - a pick-up-and-play Star Wars-themed action game that is designed to be played primarily in multiplayer (if you can get it to work, for when using ad hoc last weekend Ted and I couldn't get our PSPs to talk). Single player mode was an after thought, so don't expect it to have the challenge or depth that the Syphon Filter or Metal Gear Solid series of games has in single player. Not even close. Still, if you've half an hour and want to fly an X-wing or kill rebel scum as Darth Vader, there's fun to be had.

One final gripe, why are there no Ewoks on Endor anymore? I used to love killing those little guys at the Emperor's behest.

Jar Jar, you're a genius

2008-07-05T07:12:00.001+09:00

I hear and obey, Master.

Sofa and Akihabara

2008-06-16T23:54:00.002+09:00

There's a new sofa here! It's L-shaped and has an ottoman (big footrest) on the end. Most comfortable, and I'm sure will provide hours of restful nights asleep in front of the idiot box. Spent half-a-day assembling it over various times of Saturday and Sunday. It's been over 5 years since I've owned something to sit on, so it was so cool to sit down to watch breakfast TV this morning. Didn't make Japanese TV any more palatable, but at least I didn't finish up with a square ass.

This does mean that it's crunch time for many of the books and possessions still in boxes. They used to be in the bedroom, as the bed was in the living space. With the the removal of the bed to the bedroom, the boxes have migrated to the dining space (it's the small area you walk through to get from the kitchen to the sofa). However as there are plans to put a small table where they are now, they obviously can't float around forever. Still, as they haven't been opened in 6 months, there's probably nothing important in them and they can all be thrown out. It's not as if I couldn't buy another copy of Sidney Sheldon's Master of the Game.

Went to Akihabara yesterday in search of new PSP games. It's been a week since the nut-job went crazy with a rental truck and knife. The central street, which is blocked to traffic on the weekends, was open but there were few cars. There were many people visiting the makeshift memorial at the big intersection. There were also heaps of people with questionnaires stopping passersby. And because of a fear of a copycat crime, Akihabara was crawling with cops. They were searching anyone who looked scruffy, people carrying large bags that weren't obviously electronics shopping, and fashion victims who thought that camouflage patterns are still in.

So I probably shouldn't have worn my black t-shirt that has written in kanji "Sorry for running amok with a sword". I don't know what I was thinking (btw I'm not making this up). Still, alls well that ends well. Scored Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony, but couldn't find Def Jam Fight for NY: The Takeover. Adding Dungeon Siege to the other 2 games I've picked up recently - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories and echochrome, and I think I'm set for the coming summer vacation.

Wet

2008-05-20T07:37:00.008+09:00

Not a good start to the day. Typhoon dropping buckets this morning, and then stepped out of the station to have the wind break the umbrella and deposit all the water from the surrounding trees onto me. Got to school completely soaked.

But then things got better. The first 2 classes have been canceled because a large number of students can't get to school in time.

Drying in my chair and looking out the window its really gusty. There is a lull of about 30 seconds then suddenly the wind rips past. Neat. I pity the poor teacher who has to be the crossing guard at the lights outside the school.

I think it's time for a coffee and a quick lie down.

Wired

2008-05-18T11:07:00.003+09:00

We've a coffee machine. Should we ever have any furniture for guests to sit on we'll be be able to serve them coffee. Right now it's doing a good job of fueling my Sunday morning work-avoidance browsing. Coffee goes well with the greasefest breakfast of champions - sausages, hash browns and scrambled eggs.

What else is the Internet good for?

2008-05-13T20:10:00.003+09:00

If you're not reading Darths & Droids, then you must be downloading porn.

Who would have thought that Episode 1 would ever be so entertaining?

Who would have thought Andrew would stick at something so long?

Congratulations on 100 episodes guys.

Live Long and Prosper.

Erh no, the other SciFi tag line.

Reductico ad Expellum

2008-05-11T19:38:00.006+09:00

Over the last few weeks I've been reading about the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Unfortunately it doesn't show a release date for Nippon, but then again although I'm interested to see it I don't want to give it any financial support. Probably I'll never get to see it.

However I could watch this excellent documentary about the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District court case. It's a couple of hours well spent.

Been rereading god is not Great. It's much more tolerable the second time, as I can filter out the more ludicrous bluster.

With the release of Grand Theft Auto IV I can't think of a reason not to buy a PS3. Except for that saving up money for future wedded bliss thing. How important could that be? Maybe I can convince Mari that jacking cars and banging hookers together in 16-person online multiplayer will bring us closer? It practically sells itself.

Mindless Minor Disappointment about "The X-Files: I Want to Believe"

2008-04-29T10:19:00.010+09:00

'...it's really been 16 years since the show first aired'

Wow. Time flies.

I never really watched The X-Files much when it first aired, but I do remember most of my friends doing so. I came to the series primarily through renting the DVDs, and ended up watching all the shows and the movie. As far as TV goes, The X-Files was one of the best I've seen. Even after the departure of David Duchovny I still enjoyed the show, although I felt that the stories that touched on Mulder were the weakest ones.

After Duchovny left Robert Patrick came in as John Dogget, and did a fantastic job. And so I'm a little disappointed not to see his name in the cast list for the new movie. That's it. End of gripe.

Oh, wait. I found another one. The movie is coming to Japan 6 months after everyone else gets it. So that's 6 extra months of avoiding spoilers and previews. There's another gripe.

Fark I Love the Onion

2008-04-19T10:00:00.001+09:00

Just some links, but as I did laugh, you may too.

For those who remember Torg, Opray Winfrey as a High Lord. And does this seem familiar?

god is got Great

2008-04-15T20:35:00.002+09:00

And neither is this book. Christopher Hitchens god is not Great has a great book hidden in it somewhere underneath the diatribe. And annoyingly it's way under referenced. And even more annoyingly the little referencing there is, is in my paperback copy (published by "12" in 2007) incorrectly referenced. I suspect it's taken straight from the hardback without any thought about the changing of the page numbers.

If you didn't like The God Delusion for its language, then you're going to loath god is not Great. And frankly even I, who's batting on the same team as Hitchens, had trouble with some the outlandishness of it. Let's take look.

'In 2004, a soap-opera film about the death of Jesus was produced by an Australian fascist and ham actor named Mel Gibson. Mr. Gibson adheres to a crackpot and schismatic Catholic sect consisting mainly of himself and of his even more thuggish father...' [131]

Now maybe the above is true, but there's not a further explanation, reference or footnote for any of this. It reads like opinions backed up by bile. Gibson has never had even an Oscar nomination for acting, but could you really call him a ham? What sect of Catholicism is Gibson in? What's the story with Gibson's father being a fascist? Is it common knowledge, and I'm just out of the loop?

I recommend the book to those who want a good laugh.

Uhmmm.... Happy New Year.

2008-04-15T20:26:00.002+09:00

Well, the Internet has finally returned to my home life. With the as-near-to-as-makes-no-difference 12 hour days I'm working I'm not giving out any guarantees that this means a return to my regularly irregular blog, but who knows.

So far this year I've reached the milestone of 40, signed on for yet another year in Japan, still not bought any furniture (but come close) and not yet got married (but we're working on the paperwork).

That's about it. Unless you count the copious PSPing I've done in any free moments. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories now 82% complete.

Beowulf 3D

2007-12-23T23:10:00.001+09:00

Quite a bit more sexual and definitely a lot more violent than I thought it was going to be. And contrary to the "3D effects, 1D storyline" that one reviewer claimed, I was really impressed with the depth of characterization and the dark tone of the tale. Especially the second half. This is more than just Shrek for Adults Only. Don't expect any feel good Hollywood endings, and oh yes, there will be blood.

I'm still divided in opinion about trying to make the appearance of the characters as human-like as possible. There's no question about the verisimilitude of the backgrounds, and sometimes the characters too approach a very human look. But then there are just as many times when they look a little like dead-eyed zombies. And I don't mean just Grendal. Maybe if the characters were tweaked just a little so that they were more recognizably the creation of animation, I kind of think the look of the film would be perfect. Still, a stunning achievement that left me totally amazed.

Beasts, breasts and Fu galore. winstoninabox says check it out. But don't settle for the 2D version. Seek it out in 3D if you have to. You won't have seen anything like it before at the movies.

School is out for...

2007-12-22T21:52:00.000+09:00

at least 2 weeks.

And what a fortnight it will be. Soon to be winging our way to Hokkaido where the temperatures are sub, sub-zero for four days of skiing.

Only to return and pack up all the bongos so that the next day we can move to the new place. I'm sure we're going to have the energy and patience to do that. In theory we'll have gas, electricity and possible a phone. Internet doubtful.

One day to sort it all out then a visit to the soon-to-be-in-laws for the New Year. Tempura, pork cutlets, fruits we can never afford to buy, and lots of homemade yogurt. So as usual Santa will have stuffed my stocking with about 2 kilos of spare tire.

To return and get ready for the first classes that begin on the 8th.

As yet I have 2/5 of the lesson plans made, none of the photocopies done, and 232 unmarked book reports in my bag. That's obviously why I typing this. Procrastination - it's the name of the game.

Note to tired self...

2007-12-20T19:11:00.000+09:00

Although they are in similar tubes, toothpaste is not hand cream.

I'm sure I make this mistake at least once a year.
Possibly more.

requiescated in pace

2007-12-02T11:40:00.002+09:00

Ahhh, what a nice lie down. Or chained up.

So over the past couple of months a few things have happened.

It's much colder here. Singlet, t-shirt. work shirt, vest and jacket are needed for the walk to and from work.

Looks like we've found a place to move into. It's about 400m from where I'm currently living and is the perfect location, location, location. Two lines are within 5 minutes walk. And it is big enough that we'll be able to put a visitor or two somewhere.

Have organized this year's Hokkaido ski trip.

Have become addicted to Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror & Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow. Before those 2 games it was Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. This would be the big black hole of time sucking. A long time ago I complained about GTA. But at the time I was new to gaming and didn't really understand how to play the game. Once you get into it it is really amazing how much game can be put onto one UMD.

The two Syphon Filter games are just great. The controls are perfect. Syphon Filter is a "stealth action" series. "Stealth action" means (at least to me) that sometimes you need stealth to complete your goals, and sometimes action. When you first play the story through you are limited to the weapons that are available in the story. But once the story has been finished the game opens up Mission Mode, where you can return to any episode in the story to replay it. Replaying it allows you to achieve different goals that the game sets such as "Can you kill 10 terrorists using just a knife?" "Can you kill 6 terrorists with stealth?" "Can you complete this level in under 2:25?" By achieving these goals new weapons and abilities are opened up for use at anytime in any episode.

I found the episodes with stealth objectives really challenging. They were like action puzzles, as when there were multiple terrorists in an area there was often some trick in how to set them up so that each one could be killed without any of the others realizing it. Sometimes you had to make a noise to lure one away, or to turn and face them all in the same direction and so leave a blind spot. Other times the guards were patrolling and there was a small window of opportunity to kill a guard otherwise another would return and discover something was wrong.

Spoiler for last bonus level of Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
I really loved this mission, which was an assassination of a terrorist using a sniper rifle. There were three guards outside and the target arguing inside with another terrorist. The 3 guards was one of the time critical problems where there was one guard patrolling between the other two and they had to be killed quickly and in a specific order. But the two terrorists arguing had me stumped. It seemed impossible. Once one was shot, the other was alerted and would run away. Finally I realized that during the argument one terrorist walks behind the other and for a second their heads overlapped. Both had to be shot with the one bullet! The puzzle was so simple yet I thought it was genius.
End of spoiler

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is the first game I've completed 100%. That was a pretty satisfying achievement for a game neophyte like myself. And now I've more than 80% completed Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to complete it 100%, too. But the other things that are great about these titles is that they both have Internet play, so I'm really starting to lose time to that. It's kind of fun to put on the headset and run around in a deathmatch with others from all over the world. These games have really been value for money.

Artificial Intelligence

2007-09-11T15:59:00.000+09:00

Anotherblog has been blogging about how spambots are getting smarter. He's right, as daily even my mobile phone receives personally addressed email. So now the penis enlargement spam goes, "Hey winstoninabox, have you ever felt inadequate? Well the ladies no longer laugh at me. Now I laugh at them."

How can it know so much about me?

Still, no matter how knowledgeable these little bots get, they're only as smart as the illiterates that program them. As this excerpt from an otherwise quite convincing PayPal account verification spam email shows:

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choise but to temporaly suspend your account.

Well, that and the fact that I don't have a PayPal account.

Transformers

2007-08-29T21:17:00.000+09:00

Having already taken two hours of my life I was reluctant to give any more time to this movie by posting about it. But as I contributed to the hype I think that I've got a moral duty to say something. If I can save just one life, I've made a difference. Right?

It's bad. The last big movie I can remember that was this bad was Return of the Sith. Or it might have been Mr. & Mrs. Smith? Then before that it was The Planet of the Apes remake. Usually I can find something to take away from the flick that redeems it, so I don't often see a movie that truly disappoints. But with Transformers all I could take away were the SPX, and superb though they were, they were just the sugary coating on a flavorless base.

I won't talk about it anymore now except to repeat - save your money. Maybe like me you heard it was dumb but fun. It's half right. It's just plain dumb.

Maybe I'll do an FF on it, but probably not. It would be one of those FFs that are so time consuming because its hard to forensic it without rewriting the whole thing so that it makes some kind of sense to anyone over the age of 5. That's the job the scriptwriters are paid to do. Paid with my money. Argh!

The God Truthiness: Never underestimate the power of...

2007-08-09T14:53:00.000+09:00

science / a good metaphor.

From dr clam:

The classic statement of the incommensurability of the two things is the book metaphor which Rilstone discusses at some length. What do you think of his arguments there, eh? Basically, even if science gives a full explanation for all the events *inside* the book, it is incapable of answering the question: 'Why isn't this book writen in Japanese?'. Dawkins would say that this was a meaningless non-question, but surely that is a cop out.

Yes, Dawkins would say its meaningless. No, that's not a cop out. Not as far as Dawkins is concerned. YMMV.

Over the last week or so writing these posts I've seen a clash of ways to view the world. I'm sure there's a nice word which encapsulates someone's frame of reference for the world, but I'm not erudite enough to know it. Dawkins prefers to explain the world through science, for others a good metaphor will suffice. Dawkins is a stickler for the scientific method, which “is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning, the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.” Others quite happily see a lack of evidence as an invitation for faith.

So when I look at this definition I've got to do an about face and agree with marco that “God can neither be disproven nor proven.” Science is concerned with the observable natural world, not the supernatural. Dawkins can at best claim (and he does) that God is “though not technically disprovable, [He] is very very improbable indeed” (136).

I'd have to say I come down more on the science side. I'm not that knowledgeable about science, but I do require more proof than the warm fuzzy of a good metaphor before I'd devote my life to the not sky fairy. Again YMMV and I hope it does.

I'll leave these posts for now with this quote from Dawkins that I think answers dr clam:

My own feeling... would have been an automatic, deep suspicion of any line of reasoning that reached such a significant conclusion without feeding in a single piece of data from the real world (106-107).

I'm going on holidays so there'll be no posts for a little while. Enjoy whatever you're doing and thanks for the all comments. I've greatly enjoyed having the visitors.

The God Truthiness: Island Hopping

2007-08-07T19:43:00.000+09:00

In writing the last post I neglected to look at the second last section of chapter 4 - 'An Interlude at Cambridge'. I want to give it a separate post because it touches on stuff which arises out of the chapter and comments made about Dawkins' use of science to critique the existence of God. marco recently declared that “My not reading it [The God Delusion] is in part a protest by one as me who believes that the existence of God can neither be disproven nor proven.” (italics mine) I'll soon examine the implications of that stance, but by way of introduction let's look at 'An Interlude at Cambridge'.

Dawkins attended a conference on science and religion where of the 18 speakers he was the only atheist. In his words:

The theologians of my Cambridge encounter were defining themselves into an epistemological Safe Zone where rational argument could not reach them because they had declared by fiat that it could not. Who was I to say that rational argument was the only admissible kind of argument? (184)

I'm going to talk about my opinion here, and it relates to the 'God of the Gaps' that Dawkins previously mentioned. By building a 'Safe Zone' around God the theologians of the conference are making the same mistake that ID proponents make when they secreted God in a gap of scientific knowledge. Science marches on whether philosophers and theologians wish it to or not. Recently I foolishly claimed “You won't find God being dismantled by philosophy and theology. They are the house of cards that Dawkins is pushing over using science.” and dr clam quickly took me to task for it with “You can't push philosophy over using science any more than you can find the prime factors of the colour blue.” He's right, and I thank him for exposing the flaw.

If philosophy and theology continue to barricade themselves they won't be dismantled by science, they'll just be made irrelevant by it. For thousands of years events in the natural world were explained as supernatural. But now we have the sciences of Geology, Physics, Chemistry etc. Science then turned inwards. Previously Psychology was regarded as part of Philosophy, but in the last 200 years has grown into its own science. The working of the mind is now being demystified by scientific approaches. The ancient science of Medicine now joins in this, too. Gradually Philosophy and Theology are whittled away as a scientific discipline takes over.

I'm going to put on my Damien Broderick cap. Its a funny little cap that gives me a wide-eyed faith in science. But its a cap that becomes weightier as every year more is added to the several thousands of years of accumulated scientific knowledge. Our schools and universities are now predominately scientific institutions (although recently universities seem to be devolving into business colleges and MBA production lines, but that's another matter). I really don't see the future learners at these institutions participating much in Philosophy and Theology. Whether philosophers and theologians like it or not their field is being subsumed by science.

And now even God, once a bailiwick of only philosophy and theology, is being encroached on by science. It's early days, but for every one of today's established sciences there was early days. Days when that science was if not ridiculed by religion, then sometimes actively and brutally opposed by it. But slowly superstition was replaced with fact. Thankfully these days we live in a world where dissent with religious doctrine won't have your books banned or even burned, and you placed under house arrest. My Damien Broderick cap informs me that science will make inroads to the God of Philosophy and Theology at a speedy rate. Dawkins' book is now making headlines about the controversy, but I'm sure others will soon follow. A perusal through his “Books Cited or Recommended” shows there's already a wealth of like-minded books available.

So I'd be very careful in mounting a defense of God by getting him to stand on the beach of his little island refuge with a “No Entry to Science” sign hanging around His neck. It may well take on the appearance of a noose. For as the Allies did in the final days of the Pacific theater of WWII, you don't have to confront an enemy to capture their territory. You can just steam on by leaving them alone on their island wondering where everyone else has gone, thinking that a war long over is still being fought.

The God Truthiness: Building the Ultimate 747

2007-08-07T17:47:00.000+09:00

Chapter 4 is where Dawkins lays it all out. It has his central ideas for “Why there almost certainly is no God”. As the title shows he's still open to the existence of God, but the proof has got to come from science. “Why there almost certainly is no God” is the scientific explanations for creation rather than the hand wave that believers accept.

One weakness of the chapter is that it is written as an answer to Intelligent Design (ID); doing away with all creation myths is just a byproduct. Dawkins begins by showing how ID consistently misunderstands evolution. In ID literature it is referred to as chance. Chance is the bugbear ID frightens people with into accepting their argument for design.

IDer: Do you really think we're here by chance?

Us: No.

IDer: Well we must be here by God. QED.

For an inquiring mind “God” as the answer answers nothing. The ID's answer of “God” is interchangeable with “magic”. If you think I'm being harsh, then take a look at Judge John E. Jones III's decisions in the recent Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, a case where the science (or lack thereof) of ID was put on trial. It must be noted that Judge Jones is a Republican and a churchgoer. If you can't even preach to the choir then its time to give up.

Dawkins then talks about the consciousness-raising power of natural selection. The way natural selection totally changed the way the problem of the abundance and diversity of life was looked at. Before natural selection it was assumed that it had to have come about by a creator, for only a being of immense power could have the ability to create the wonder of our living natural world. Natural selection turns this idea on its head; its actually small steps over a long time. Natural selection is a crane that builds rather than ID, which is a skyhook that suspends. Since Darwin's time the fields of genetics and molecular biology have added to the theory of natural selection, so that even without the fossil record there would be enough grounds to accept natural selection. Thank goodness scientists questioned what religion taught. But I digress, for Dawkins point is that by solutions like natural selection he'll show that creation doesn't require God.

Dawkins begins with life on earth and moves back to the formation of the cosmos. I'll look at Chapter 4 the other way around, because his strongest writing is in what he knows best, whereas when he writes about cosmology he's out of his field and quoting others. His arguments are to show that our existence on this planet at this time has little to do with chance.

'The Anthropic Principle: Cosmological Version' is an overview of current scientific theories for the origin of the universe (multiverse). I won't pretend to understand them. I did some cursory wikipediaing and was left with the understanding that I have little understanding. I feel pity for theoretical physicist's because after applying the last full measure of their brain power to this stuff their brain burns out and they are carted away to the funny farm to sculpt baskets out of gnocchi. Dawkins favors some theories over others, but I don't get why. Nothing is proved, but nothing can be. This is the origin of everything so right here, right now its going to theoretical. The point I took away from it was that at least these scientist are taking measurements, looking at data, forming theories. In short they are applying the scientific method to our deepest question, the origin of the universe, and not just saying “God”.

'The Anthropic Principle: Planetary Version' answers the Intelligent Designer's question about the chance of life appearing in this universe. In answering chance Dawkins invokes statistics:

It has been estimated that there are between 1 billion and 30 billion planets in our galaxy, and about 100 billion galaxies in the universe. Knocking a few noughts off for reason of ordinary prudence, a billion billion is a conservative estimate of the number of available planets in the universe... If the odds of life originating spontaneously on a planet were a billion to one against, nevertheless that stupefyingly improbable event would still happen on a billion planets. (165-166)

That's quite amazing. At a billion to one against we'd still have a conservative estimate of a billion planets. And remember, we're not talking about the chance of something which we could conceive of happening, say a planet existing made of fairy floss. We are talking about something which has happened - we are the living proof of that.

'The Worship of Gaps' apart from showing the vacuousness of ID as science, should also be of a warning to religious apologists to start searching for new sanctuaries for God before His refuges disappear altogether. The gaps spoken of are the gaps in scientific knowledge. ID's proponents argue that since science has no explanation for some things, it must be God. Dawkins sums it up, “'I [insert own name] am personally unable to think of any way in which [insert biological phenomenon] could have been built up step by step. Therefore it is irreducibly complex. That means it is designed.'” It is the laziest of reasonings, and at its heart unscientific. Dawkins goes on to give the analogy of watching a magician's trick. The art of the world class illusionist is such that we cannot fathom how the trick was done. But do we believe it to be supernatural? No, and the same should be with the natural world. Mysteries of the natural world require a natural explanation, not recourse to the supernatural. And so as science fills in the gaps, ID scurries for new gaps to house God.

Dawkins finishes the chapter with an overview of 6 points. For brevity I'll paraphrase:

For centuries their has been the problem of how to explain the apparent appearance of design in the universe.
The natural temptation has been to ascribe it to a designer.
This is false because it explains nothing. A crane not a skyhook is need.
The best crane we have so far is Darwinian natural selection. It build an improbable complexity from the gradual accumulation of the plausibly simply.
We don't yet have a crane for physics.
We shouldn't give up hope that a crane for physics will be found. After all, there was no crane for biology until fairly recently.

The God Truthiness: Interlude

2007-08-07T11:12:00.000+09:00

Let's have a bit of a laugh.

The God Truthiness V: Children are Stupid, Cults are Smart

2007-08-03T16:43:00.000+09:00

dr clam's two posts about The God Delusion's Chapter 5 really stick it to the man. We've commented a little on “The Selfish Meme”, and I'm left with the opinion that further study of the Gospels would be required if we were to make headway in that area, so I'll leave it for now.

“Adaptive? Aye!” is dr clam at his strongest worrying Dawkins at his weakest. In 'Group Selection' Dawkins waffles between the camps of group selection as significant or not in the promulgation of religion. Dawkins claims “there are formidable objections” to group selection (198), but then on the next page states “Those of us who belittle group selection admit that in principle it can happen. The question is whether it amounts to a significant force in evolution” (199). He seems a little unsure about, or maybe he's just hedging his bets about, the importance of group selection. I recommend “Adaptive? Aye” to readers because it's the kind of counter-argument Dawkins' has left himself open to. Gut his exposed underbelly dr clam, gut him!

And Dawkins' hypothetical of the coward in the tribe of warriors concludes with “Hence tendencies towards martyrdom will decline in future generations” (199) is, rather than being a “simplified toy example”, an oversimplified toy example. Maybe its only contrariness because Dawkins blithely dismisses group selection as as a factor, but I' d really like him to have treated it a little more.

However while 'Group Selection' is a weak section, at least it doesn't contradict the purpose of the chapter.

Dawkins' is much more taken with the theory “of religion as an accidental by-product – a misfiring of something useful” (218). And so the next two sections 'Religion as a By-Product of Something Else' and 'Psychologically Primed for Religion' are more persuasive. These talk about the role of children's brains in the acceptance of religion. The ideas that children are very capable dualists (they readily make a distinction between body and mind) and teleologist (they assign a purpose to everything) demonstrates the susceptibility of children to religious ideas. Further I was impressed with Daniel Dennet's 3 stances (physical, design and intentional) (211-212), and Lewis Wolpert's “irrational persistence” (it's bad to keep changing your mind) (217) and Lionel Tiger's “perceptual defense” (humans consciously see what they wish to see) (218) as persuasive arguments.

But in all of this Dawkins focuses on the role of children. What about believers who came to the religion as adults? I don't know what percentage of believers fall into this area, but it could be important. If believers who were brought up since children in a faith constitute a small percentage of total believers, then Dawkins' argument is significantly weaker. So while I think he's worked a fairly strong argument, he could tighten it up considerably.

But after all of these sections 'Cargo Cults' is a very strong finish to the chapter. It was fascinating to read about the formative state of a cult. A cult's growth is fast, and its so adaptive. It would be very interesting reading if a well documented ancient cult could be compared and contrasted with a modern (urban?) cult. After reading 'Cargo Cults' I could easily picture how the cult of Jesus took hold.

The God Truthiness IV: Morality Play

2007-07-31T16:22:00.001+09:00

dr clam finds The God Delusion's Chapter 6 “The Roots of Morality: Why are we Good?” to be “not very satisfying”. For me it couldn't be further from the truth. I will admit that it is a slightly weaker chapter because the last couple of pages stray from its intended purpose. Its final paragraph begins, “The springboard for this discussion of moral philosophy was a hypothetical religious claim that, without a God, morals are relative and arbitrary” (267). If Dawkins had stuck to disproving this hypothetical religious claim it would have been OK, but at the end of the chapter he drifts into the shoals where the voracious dr clam lays in wait. Otherwise though it does a great job of taking God out of morality.

After a foray into the kind of hate mail he gets from Christians, there is the section 'Does our Moral Sense have a Darwinian Origin?' in which he details a Darwinian explanation for altruism. This quote is the meat of it:

First, there is the special case of genetic kinship. Second, there is reciprocation: the payment of favours given, and the giving of favours in 'anticipation' of payback. Following on from this there is, third, the Darwinian benefit of acquiring a reputation for generosity and kindness. And fourth, if Zahavi is right, there is the particular additional benefit of conspicuous generosity as a way of buying unfakeably authentic advertising. (251)

This is followed up with 'A Case Study in the Roots of Morality' which showed studies by first Hauser and then Hauser and Singer which tracked the answers given by people to moral dilemmas. The studies included a tribe that had little organized religion, and believers and non-believers of religion. It was concluded that, “there is no statistically significant difference between atheists and religious believers in making these judgements” (258).

So armed with a Darwinian explanation for altruism plus Hauser's and Singer's studies Dawkins is on solid ground to declare, “This seems compatible with the view, which I and many others hold, that we do no need God in order to be good – or evil” (258).

dr clam says, “Richard's chapter six is about the roots of morality... He seems to be aware of the problem, but he never addresses it.” And in the comments to the post previous to this he says “The problem, which Dawkins' doesn't seem to get, is how to achieve an 'absolute morality' (as defined by theologians, philosophers, Wikipedia etc.) without God. I don't say this can't be done without God-in fact, I tried to work out how to do it without God myself once. I would love to see a serious atheistic attempt to address this problem. Dawkins' chapter is not it.”

As to the claim that “he never address” the roots of morality Chapter 6 does demonstrate that across belief and culture evolution has provided us with a guidebook to morality. And in life a guidebook is infinitely more useful than rulebook. As dr clam also wants “a serious atheistic attempt to address the problem” then I'd suggest a study of this guidebook. Conducting studies similar to Hauser's and Singer's, then looking for trends of the kinds of answers people make to particular kinds of dilemmas. From that a set of moral principles could be designed.

And Dawkins does mention Kant's "act only on the maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will it should become a universal law" (266) as one such example of a non-religious morality, although he does qualify that “it is no so easy to see how to broaden it to morality generally” (266).

We might not have all the answers to morality, but thanks to evolution we are equiped to find them.

The God Truthiness III: Abortion

2007-07-30T13:25:00.001+09:00

dr clam has kindly put his Dawkins' posts into the one place. Thanks dr clam.

I'll look at dr clam's last post first. It's about abortion, the murder of abortion practicing doctors and suffering. dr clam's 3 points (1. Suffering of the Victim, 2. Suffering of the Victim's Friends and 3. Loss of Potential) are spot on.

dr clam begins with, "Given the historical preoccupations of this blog, I can’t very well leave Richard’s book without discussing what he has to say about abortion." But dr clam has missed that this section titled 'Faith and the Sanctity of Human Life' is used, like the preceding section 'Faith and Homosexuality', as an example to illustrate the difference in thinking between absolutionists and consequentialists. It is not intended as a defense of abortion. That said I'm left with no doubt that 'Faith and the Sanctity of Human Life' also elucidates Dawkins' personal views on and defenses of abortion. 'Faith and the Sanctity of Human Life' should instead be viewed in the context of the whole chapter "What's Wrong with Religion? Why be so Hostile?" as examples of the problems with absolutionism. The confusion of purpose may be because Dawkins doesn't illustrate these differences until spending two pages talking about the supposed differences between embryos and adults as viewed by the American Taliban.

Let's unravel the chapter's road map about absolutism and consequentialism. Of the two Dawkins approaches absolutism first by looking at the rise of the American Taliban in the 'The Dark Side of Absolutism' which is the section previous to 'Faith and Homosexuality'. 'Faith and Homosexuality' continues with absolutism but finishes with, "Attitudes to homosexuality reveal much about the sort of morality that is inspired by religious faith. An equally instructive example is abortion and the sanctity of human life" (329 italics mine). Dawkins then explores the 2nd kind of morality he's interested in - consequentialism. "A consequentialist or utilitarian is likely to approach the abortion question in a very different way, by trying to weigh up suffering" (331).

And indeed the rest of the section examines the way consequentialists might examine the problem of abortion, as various slippery slope arguments about suffering are tested. But these consequentialist arguments are used to highlight the lack of critical thinking in the absolutionist stance, which Dawkins finds to be either contradictory due to IVF, or even morally bankrupt in the case of absolutionists who murder doctors. As I said I think this section is muddied by Dawkins' own views on abortion, but the intention of the section is again made clear when the last paragraph begins, “Suffering is hard to measure, and the details might be disputed. But that doesn't affect my main point, which concerns the difference between secular consequentialists and religiously absolute moral philosophies” (336 italics mine).

The God Truthiness II: Sticks and Stones

2007-07-30T08:35:00.000+09:00

Half way through He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Not-Read. Can't write about that, so let's return to Dawkins.

The major complaint I've read leveled at Dawkins is that he's "shrill, strident, intemperate, intolerant, [and] ranting" (Dawkins 16). dr clam says Dawkins has a "style of ridiculing his opponents rather than trying to understand what they are saying". In those same comments another blogger michael krahn directs me to "The Dawkins Defeat", an article about Dawkins failure to lure “dyed-in-the-wool faith-heads” to atheism because "most non-atheist readers will not read 375 pages of valid arguments if they are constantly interspersed with derision".

Now come on people, this is so not an issue. Next non-atheists will be attacking his grammar. As I said I wasn't concerned about his style when I first read the book. I've since reread some parts and found that ridicule is one of the more pointed arrows in his quiver. And I've got to admit that some of them would cut close to the quick if I had any leanings towards belief.

But if you don't like his barbs then remember the reader has all the power with how to engage a book. Or to put it another way - the author has only the power that you abdicate to him or her. Remember this isn't a conversation. Dawkins isn't in the room actually ridiculing you to your face. Put the book down and take a step back. Have a breather. Use the space for milk, cookies and to contemplate the "valid arguments" Dawkins has written.

The complaint that follows from this advice will be that that is all too much trouble. Well that's your choice if you don't want to take responsibilty for how you engage a book. But The God Delusion is the latest criticism of religion by possibly the world's highest profile atheist. To disprove Dawkins' ridicule of believers as being at best indoctrinated innocents or at worst dangerous fanatics then one has to come up with a more persuasive argument than, "He made fun of me so I don't like what he had to say."

To wax speculative Dawkins has made a smart move in writing abrasively. In 2006 Dawkins started The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. He's mounting a campaign against religion. Campaigns require money and publicity sells books. Dawkins style has really attracted publicity. As michael krahn shows even Christians are writing articles about Dawkins. Negative the article may be, but it's still generating publicity, selling books and putting the word "atheism" on the lips of those who may never have heard it. So in one sense it doesn't really matter if Christians who bought the book finish reading it or not. You can be happy dr clam that you borrowed it free from the library.

And while I'm entertaining flights of fancy, despite Dawkins stating that "if this book works as I intended, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down" (28) this book's intended purpose is not so much to convert believers into non-believers, but to "help people to come out [as atheists]" (27). Dawkins envisages his book fostering a groundswell of support for atheism, and to help put atheists together The God Delusion's Appendix has "a partial list of friendly address, for individuals needing support in escaping from religion." Dawkins himself recognizes that atheists are not organized as a group. If this book empowers atheists to hoist their colors and make a stand with like-minded people, then at this opening salvo of the campaign he's achieved his aim. Dumbledore is building and army, are you going to fight?

Get Ya Geek Out

2007-07-27T21:54:00.000+09:00

Risen had its first on-line game last night. When the connection finally got going it was good fun, but there was a kind of frustrating half hour before that where we had no idea why there was no joy. Then suddenly the host was accepting players... and there was joy. Big happy whacking of super-villains joy.

Now have headset AND webcam, so winstoninabox is ready to Skype You. No, Skype Me. Skype Us? Oh, whatever. Let's Skype.

Warning: Objects in webcam may appear closer than they appear.

The God Truthiness I

2007-07-26T14:39:00.001+09:00

While waiting to read the book that everyone else is reading, I read a book everyone else has already read.

The God Delusion is Richard Dawkins' arguement against religion. A little while ago Dr. Clam in a series of blogs had not much good to say about it. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dr. Clam I read the paperback edition, and in the new Preface to it Mr Dawkins answers some of your complaints. I'm not saying you'll find them satisfying. It's not worth buying the book for them, but if you're interested then spend a few minutes reading it in the bookstore.

I did like his answer to "You can't criticize religion without a detailed analysis of learned books of theology." Mr Dawkins' doesn't believe one iota in religon. Not a one. And his book is written from that perspective. He doesn't want to engage in debate that assumes God is real, for he believes the onus of proof first comes from those who believe in God. Once the mere existence of God is proven, then the debate about angels on pin heads can begin.

And this "Prove it" stance challenges believers. It's very in your face. Personally I don't have a problem with it, but that's because I'm not a believer. And it's one of the reasons I'm not a believer. I just don't see anything there that makes me believe it to be true. At step one Dawkins' isn't concerned with questions about why God exists, where He exists, when He exists, etc. Just, "Does He exist?" God can't be seen, felt, tasted, measured, or weighed so this puts God into Dawkins' "extremely doubtful" basket.

I think it's a pretty important first step. If you can't find it, why do you think it exists?

Cloverfield

2007-07-12T07:34:00.000+09:00

If that roar ain't the big G, then I'm a monkey in a man suit.

300

2007-06-18T08:39:00.000+09:00

Beasts. Breasts. Fu. Heads most definitely roll.

winstoninabox says check it out.

Yuck

2007-06-15T08:03:00.000+09:00

The worst thing about having spilt coffee all over the kitchen floor is not having to get down on one's hands and knees to clean it up, but that once you get down there you see that the floor you previously thought from above was quite clean, is actually a sewer of filth and human refuse. I'm surprised I'm not overrun by cockroaches.

Beat Sex

2007-06-11T08:04:00.000+09:00

Turns out I was to Internet play using the DS rather than the PSP.

Mari has no interest in the kinds of games I like to play. But she is crazy about Tetris. She plays it on her mobile phone every morning and night to kill time on the train. Often so much that her phone's battery is dead.

So the other day I picked her up a copy of Tetris for the DS. It was a bargain actually because it has download play, which means up to 10 people can play using the one game by downloading it onto their own DS via WiFi connection. The multi-player game is particularly nasty as when you destroy multiply rows those rows are sent to your opponent. They appear at the bottom of your screen as gray blocks. We played a few games together, and I could enjoy having my virtual ass whipped. I have no skill at Tetris.

But the game is also playable over the Internet. Yes, you can play against people from all over the world. After a few tries I was eventually holding my mouth the right way and got the DS talking to the Internet. Suddenly someone called "z"-something (no idea what the something was as it all happened too fast) from God-knows-where connected to my game and we were playing. Within thirty seconds "z"-something had filled my screen with gray blocks, realized that he or she was battling a complete dweeb, and broken off the game.

Somehow I thought my first time would be more memorable.

Is this an Earthquake Which I Feel Before Me?

2007-06-06T08:37:00.000+09:00

Woke yesterday to an almighty shaking. I thought it was an earthquake, but the shaking continued for more than a minute. So then I thought it was THE BIG ONE (Doomsayers predict Tokyo is long overdue for a big earthquake). But the walls weren't a tumbling down - at least not for me. No, it was just the apartments next door being demolished. The crashing and banging eventually drove me from bed on my day off, and into the arms of Akihabara.

Ahh, Akihabara. Geek Kapitol of Japan. I was in search of a PSP headset so that the Internet games could really get going. After a bit of walking around I found a store selling them. Surprisingly hard to find really considering it is a Sony product. It's not as if Sony is a small company in Japan.

But the treasure chest was positively overflowing with booty as Sid Meier's Pirates for the PSP was also found. Now the biggest decision of my life has become which to play - be I a pirate or a superhero? If only there was a pirate + superhero game.

I returned home to find a large rubble-filled hole next to my apartment.

My Left Foot

2007-06-04T07:43:00.000+09:00

A while ago I had the problem of needing to buy new socks for work. Like a typical male I treat clothes shopping as a problem to be solved, thus I solved the problem by buying 5 pairs of the same socks in the same color. In Japan you can buy socks with toes. I love these kind of socks. Very freaky looking.

So sitting in the dark of my room this morning (I have thick brown curtains to keep out the 5:30am sunshine) getting dressed I was surprised to find as I unrolled each balled-up pair of socks, that they were all for my left foot. It's a little confusing and disconcerting when you're in a half asleep state to try and put a left-footed sock onto your right foot. Then when you finally work out why your big toe can't squeeze into the tiny little toe position, stand up, get another pair, sit down, try to put them on, only to once again be confronted by the big toe conundrum, it's really confusing. When it happens three times in a row I suspect foul play. Next time I see Mari I'll be questioning her heavily about the head and shoulders with a smelly sock.

Good News in Dots

Check out Ms Alix's website for some great news.
It's only about a year after the rest of the world, but Crank is finally coming. This had better make up for Transporter II, which blew chunks of awful CG action.
Ted and I successfully played Marvel Ultimate Alliance over the Internet using our PSPs. If anyone else has a hankering to play then drop me a line and we'll work out a time when we can get together and kick Dr. Doom's shiny metal ass.
Weather continues to be beyond good. 6 weeks until summer holidays.

NOT so Secret Service

2007-05-21T07:53:00.000+09:00

Walking to work this morning a car passed me with "Japan Secret Service" printed on the side.

What the Secret Service are doing driving around the suburbs at 7am, I don't know. But whatever it is, it can't be too secret.

Ting, Ting, Ting

2007-05-09T21:32:00.000+09:00

[the sound of fork on glass]

Attention please.

Mari and I are getting married.

Country and time T.B.A.

You may return to your regularly scheduled program.

Marvel vs. DC

2007-05-07T22:26:00.000+09:00

Spent the last few weeks playing Justice League Heroes on the PSP, and was loving it until I bought Marvel Ultimate Alliance. You see JLH has NO multiplayer. So while it is fun, it just can't compare with getting together with a mate (say, Ted for instance) and snickting evil-doers all afternoon as Wolverine.

All this got me thinking about X2.

Visi-tron

2007-05-01T00:58:00.000+09:00

Recently Miss Nina breezed in from Bavaria.

Had a very nice afternoon in the park, followed by a long sit down at a coffee shop, followed by a walk around Shibuya. She was here for an all-too-short time before magically fluttering away.

While in Tokyo she enjoyed scaming her way into the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo by way of non-existent nuptials, food poisoning, and free dinners paid for by former clients. No relationships between the three, and they are all a lot more innocent than I prefer to paint them. Probably makes more sense if you were there. Which you weren't.

She sent me this lovely picture. As you can see she is remarkably fresh faced and cute. Pity about the poor homeless geezer next to her. He looks like he's on Death's door. No, I wouldn't want to be him, not at all...

"Are you interested in atomic bombs?"

2007-04-20T07:35:00.000+09:00

was the left-field question.

Childhood flashback of Sesame Street's Ernie being approached by a suspicious character wearing a trench coat. "Hey buddy. You wanna buy an "N"?"

"An atomic bomb!" I blurted.

"Shhhhh."

Turns out students are taking an excursion to an A bomb-themed art exhibition. Some teachers were doing recon to check it out, and this was the way to invite me.

In breaking shiny consumerism news I've discovered that the gunmetal gray supercharged Aston Martin DB7 coupe that sits in the car yard up the road is in fact affordable.

The plan is to stop paying rent and live in the car. I can thus put half my former rent toward parking, and the other half toward paying off the car. In ten years I'll have my own home AND car. It is so owned.

Run 4 Your Lives

2007-04-19T07:37:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was practice for evacuating the building in the event of a disaster. Apparently we're not to run around in circles screaming, but walk quietly in 2 lines from the burning building. We then walk about 5 minutes down the street to the sports ground, where we'll start triage.

I was given a hardhat to wear, which means that I'm to be fighting the fire. I thought it meant that I was to perform the YMCA dance. This drew blank stares from all. It's not that no one knows the song or the dance - both are actually very famous. Even school kids these days know them. But it's famous as a cover by a Japanese artist. No one knows the Village People. Thus my overly energetic rendition fell on deaf eyes.

You People are Pests

2007-04-08T10:40:00.000+09:00

Whenever I stay at my friend Allan's place I request him to play an SCTV (Canadian comedy show) sketch of John Candy doing Orson Welles. Candy, angry at the quality of the production, hilariously berates his director before storming off with a roast chicken. No matter how many times I see it, I laugh. But I never knew the sketch was based on an actually incident.

And now via Cinephobia, this has come to my attention.

Just enjoy the full manicness of Welles' scathing.

There is a Wikipedia article about the recording, but it's funnier to listen to it first before reading about it.

Dreamgirls. More than meets the eyes.

2007-03-24T23:44:00.000+09:00

Just back from watching Dreamgirls. Very enjoyable. Eddie Murphy acts, and Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson can really sing

But I left really wanting to see Transformers, for which there was a short preview.

The preview was preambled by Steven Speilberg and Michael Bay encouraging viewers to come and see the movie. They both finished with some very cute Japanese, which sounded not at all like they were reading it from a cue card, and didn't at all understand what they were saying. These promos by directors is a kind of weird thing which happens over here for big Hollywood films. They're kind of funny, because those who are usually behind the camera are a little befuddled when put in front of it. Although a wild-eyed Peter Jackson extolling Japanese to see King Kong was a tad scary.

I digress. The Transformers preview showed me all I needed to see to be convinced. Thankfully it gave very little away about plot, and even less about the visuals of the Transformers themselves. The smidgen that I did see made me go... WOW!

I've decided I'll watch no more previews about it until 4 August, when I intend to be first in line (although not to watch a preview). For a Michael Bay film, that's got to be a first. But I trust the bearded one's guiding hand.

Memoirs

2007-03-22T14:35:00.000+09:00

Finished two books this week. Both were memoirs. One was more fictional than the other. I'll leave you to decide which was which.

Flashman's Lady is another in the Flashman series. As usual it was thoroughly anti-PC, and thoroughly hilarious.

Grinding It Out is the autobiography of Ray Kroc, the businessman who saw the potential of the McDonald's brothers' hamburger. As I've no interest in McDonald's or its products I've no idea why I picked it from amongst the Patricia Cornwells or Dan Browns that covered the bookshelf. But it was a really entertaining read. Especially Kroc's pre-McDonald's life. He didn't get into the hamburger business until he was in his 50s. Up until then he'd worked or was working several different jobs (paper cup seller/ real estate agent / pianist) during the depression and after. And this slice-of-life of the times was simply fascinating. I'd recommend the first half of the book to any GM who wants to get a feel for the era for their next gangbusters campaign. I'd recommend the second half to anyone who wants to found their own business empire.

My favorite quote - A man who represents himself has a fool for a lawyer.

Way of the Gun

2007-03-20T16:32:00.000+09:00

I've disappeared into a new PSP game. It has the pithy title of Gun: Showdown. I bought it on the title alone. And also that it's in a wild west setting.

With nary a gay cowboy in sight, Colton White blasts his way around the territory bringing six-gun-, double barrel-, rifle-, dynamite-, tomahawk- etc.-justice to those who killed his father. A fair few good ol' boys who just happen to be causing mischief at the time get blown away, too.

But it also has many missions that aren't shooting. There's Texas Hold'em poker in the salon, runaway steers to be corralled, and even emergency medical supplies to be delivered by pony express. All in all it's been keeping me captivated.

The feature I really like is Colton's quick-draw ability. When he goes into quick-draw mode time slows down, allowing him to blast away at numerous bad guys. But it's limited by a meter which rapidly decreases. However the meter can be refilled by performing "Head Shots" (in the head, natch) or "Weapon Shots" (shooting a weapon out of the baddies hand). How wild west is that? I love watching the bad guys staggering around when they're shot. Teehee, look at 'em flail.

Gun reminds me a lot of From Russia with Love. I really enjoy shoot-em-ups that have a storyline. That was what eventually got me a little bored with Star Wars: Battlefront II. You could play endless battles, or even play a conquer the galaxy game, which is basically the same battles but with the added "thrill" of taking over the galaxy one battle at a time. However it leads to nothing. After conquering the galaxy, you receive a screen with the one word "Victory" printed in blue. What a let down.

Belated

2007-03-08T09:16:00.000+09:00

Today is not Mari's birthday.

Nor was it yesterday.

It was actually 2 days ago, but we both got the date wrong and thought it was yesterday.

So we went out to dinner, and I gave her a blue Nintendo DS with kanji training software.

I thought these were a pretty safe bet for gifts, as about 6 weeks ago I bought the same for myself, but they promptly disappeared into her bag. I've held mine for a few minutes, and even used the excellent kanji software. But as I was forgetting what mine actually looked like, I thought the birthday gift would be a good plan to get mine back.

Happy Birthday Mari.

Hoist the skull & cossbones!

2007-03-06T10:09:00.000+09:00

There is a gaming God. I went looking to find a swashbuckling PSP game, and what should I find? Only that the greatest pirate game of them all has come to the PSP. IGN gives the PSP version 9 out of 10. Avast, roger the cabin boy, and any other number of piratical non sequiturs. I be setting sail for Akiba in a purchasing frenzy.

Ewoks. Must. Die

2007-03-05T11:19:00.000+09:00

Friday night turned into a very early Saturday morning. A few hours of troubled sleep where the dream was green intersecting lines (sniper's lasers) with red moving circles (enemy indicators). Saturday morning became Saturday night. It amounted to about 20 hours of continuous game play. And still they come.

I haven't had such a great day of game play since I played From Russia with Love through twice in succession. But I think it affects your perspective. When I looked at the ceiling it seemed to be swirling in and out of focus. It was definitely breathing in and out. Definitely.

Four of the eight stats are now "Legendary" (highest), two others at "Elite" (2nd highest), with the remaining two stuck on "Green". Although my sniping and demolition skills show no sign of improving, I've learned a few things along the way.

Dagobah is is a great level for stormtroopers. Turn the number of enemies up to 500% and prepare to fight, fight, fight. Keep running from one enemy CTP to the next enemy CTP to rack up big points.

Endor, with its respawning AT-STs is best for Heavy Weapons or Engineers. As an Imperial Engineer with "Legendary" technician skill there is nothing that can hurt you once you get an AT-ST to cruise around in. Burn, ewoks, burn.

Hoth is good for sniping (although I'm not good at it). Dial down the number of bots. I've found that teams of 4 or 5 (rather than the usual 10) works well. Don't go to 3 or less, because they may respawn in the AT-AT if Imperial, or hop in the snowspeeders if Rebel, and then you'll never get them out. With 4 or 5, even if this happens you'll still have 2 or 3 targets always available.

Surprisingly with half or less the number of enemies to a full-blown game, there are more sniping opportunities. With fewer characters on the map friends don't steal your kills with front on assaults while you're lining up the head shot. Also with fewer characters, bots have fewer opportunities to sense enemies, and so remain motionless longer. It becomes a little more cat and mouse, as sniping should.

If you're Rebel, don't bring a tauntaun to an AT-AT fight.

Birthday Report

2007-02-25T13:01:00.000+09:00

Thanks to the efforts of viral marketing (apparently Skype keeps track of birthdays...), my birthday was remembered by many people. arigatou one and all. Especially for the loot. It's so nice to get loot.

Some asked, "How did you spend the day?"

Well my loot from Mari was to be a day's skiing. Horrray!

We got up at 4:45 yesterday to get ready for the 5:33 train we had to take to get to Ueno station for the bullet train. Mari said she felt cold, which wasn't really that unusual as February had become very cold for the last few days. Probably it was trying to make up for lost time with the warm winter we've had so far.

We both slept on the train, but when we got to the ski field Mari still couldn't feel warm. She said she was going to go and lie down at the health center. After about 20 mins of sleep she had her temperature taken, with the result of 38.9C. After aspirin and a taxi ride to the local hospital she said she was really starting to feel much better, and maybe we could just go slow in the morning. Hmmm. The doctor gave her the usual swag of pills they dole out here. Sensibly, we decided to go back to the station area and have lunch while we waited for the next train home.

While we waited, lunch brought shivers and the inability to stand upright. After getting back to Ueno I was already half carrying Mari through the terminal, when she completely collapsed. The very efficient station man radioed for a wheelchair. Travel tip - I've found that should you want a cheap bullet train trip, simply buy the cheapest ticket, go to wherever you want, then collapse when you get to the station. No one checks the tickets of an unconscious person.

We had a taxi ride back to my place, in which she slept all the way. It was nice to see Tokyo from a car window. I so rarely get to do so.

So now its Sunday afternoon. She's slept pretty much since yesterday, but was able to eat some toast and yogurt for breakfast. As these things usually go, she'll no doubt make a complete recovery just in time to get to work Monday morning. Poor Mari.

Like an arrow...

2007-02-22T14:59:00.000+09:00

Wow, is it really that long since I've been here? (he asks rhetorically)

I've just finished reading Dave's latest blog, and feel that if he's going to pen to paper, then so will I.

What can I say about the last few months?

It has consisted of work, skiing, and PSP games.

Work is as work does.

Skiing is great. This Saturday will be the 5th for this season. It's been a warm winter, so I hope some more skiing can be done in March. But that will very much depend on how quickly the winter season starts to wane. Much improvement has been made; but there is much more to go. A couple of cartwheeling falls also served to slow me down. Having one's thigh bone rammed into one's pelvis can do that.

The rest of this post is strictly for geeks.

PSP has seen a return to one of the original games I bought: Star Wars: Battlefront II. When first bought about a year ago this game was played for a few days then relegated to the bookshelf by Grand Theft Auto. There was nothing wrong it, but its wanton killing sprees just didn't compare to the thrill of wanton killing sprees with carjacking. There it lay until a couple of weeks ago, when on a whim it got pulled out. After running around killing and being killed for awhile, I discovered that there are actually some points to these missions - awards, medals and promotions can be earned. So now my aim is to get my 8 abilities up to "Legendary" status. "Endurance" is there, with "Frenzy" (what a cool name for going crazy bonkers with a futuristic shotgun) coming in second on "Elite" level. The others are all at "Veteran", except "Marksman" which may forever languish at "Green" as I seem both unskilled at dishing out 6 head-shots in one mission, and unlucky that when I do find a malingering patsy, someone else blows him away first.

Two pretty cool missions spring to my geeky mind. Both involved conflicts with Darth Vader. In the first I was trying for head-shots in the Hoth battle, when I saw Vader's stark, black form walking across the white snow scape. BANG- one head shot. For a regular character this would cause instant death; Vader merely looked around, wondering what hit him. Reload, and BANG - second head shot. He turned and looked at me. While I was reloading he disappeared from the screen as he Force Jumped the distance between us, landing right in front of me. Force Jump requires a moment to recover from, and in that time I panicked and mashed the buttons to shoot him pointblank. Scratch one Vader. Which is pretty cool 'cause if he gets anywhere near you he throws his light saber and you're instant sushi.

The other was on Endor. I was piloting a commandeered AT-ST when I saw Vader. I shot at him, and he blocked the AT-ST's bolt. I shot again, with the same result. A third for the same. I realized that he was in some kind of loop - he could have run away, or attacked, or cut my metal legs out from under me. But instead he just stood there blocking the bolts. With my rebel scum buddies having almost overrun the rest of the map, I spent the last 30 seconds of the game pinning Vader down with my AT-ST. There's a perverse kind of enjoyment in exploiting a stuck game character - but it's especially fun watching Vader take no damage when going toe-to-toe with an AT-ST.

Another Productive Day

2007-01-04T16:21:00.000+09:00

Teach me, oh Internet!

Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager. Skip "Countdown to 2007" and go straight to "Chad Vader - Episode 1". You can go back and watch the countdown later.

McCourt's in Session is kinda amusing, too. Check out Episode 2. "I'm finding in favor of the defendant because he appears to be some sort of wizard. Case Dismissed."

I'm hoping to leave the house tomorrow.

Oh dear. This is just another couple of links, isn't it?

And not a creature was stirring...

2007-01-04T11:06:00.000+09:00

Dave was commenting on the lack of blogger activity, and looking back on my own blog (that'd be that one you're reading now) I haven't really put much in lately myself. A couple of links to movies I wanna see hardly counts. So I'll write a little something else about what's been happening.

The ski trip to Nukabira in Hokkaido went pretty well, but failed to equal last year's. Although there was snow, it didn't snow while I was there (snowed everyday last year). And this year I'd wanted to try more variety of courses. Last year's field had only 3 courses, of which I used only the beginner's course. So apart from price the big reason for choosing Nukabira was its 8 courses (3 beginner / 2 intermediate / 3 expert). However due to the lack of snow only 3 courses - 2 beginner / 1 intermediate - were open. In fact, on the first day there were only 2 courses. And when the 3rd course opened it was so iced up I skied it only twice and returned to the other courses.

But the biggest problem was the slopes had to be shared with several high school and university ski teams who were slalom training. Now this wouldn't have been such a problem if there had been any supervision of these teams, but there was none and they were left to do whatever they wanted. They had booked the fields until 10am, after which they were supposed to share them with the public. This required them to remove their slalom poles from half of each slope so that the public could ski down one half of a slope. And for safety there were poles placed down the slopes to demarcate their area from ours. But this "system" just didn't work.

The problems were numerous.

The ski fields had just opened for the season, and so there weren't many members of the public there. And so there was no real show of numbers for the ski teams to remove the poles. There were times when we were the only members of the public skiing.

And so after 10am every morning they had not removed the poles from the "public" side, and continued to ski down there. And after we complained every time to the management to have them remove the poles, they then often used the demarcation poles as just another slalom run! Thus there were another series of complaints. Now this didn't happen just once, but for 3 of the 4 days.

There was no hands on supervision of the teams from the ski field's management, so on the slope the teams could do whatever they wanted. This was especially apparent at the top of the slope where there was no direction of the public for where they could ski. Twice we had to "negotiate" with the coach on the top of the slope just to be "allowed" to ski down the public side. He acted like he was doing us a special favor to let us ski down just this once!

Someone in management was obviously siding with the ski teams. Once we were stopped from getting on the lift by the lift officer because he'd heard from the coach that it would be "better for our safety if we used the other slope" (the iced up one we didn't want to ski on). Unbelievable! Suddenly a member of management jumped out from nowhere and confirmed this. We complained and he immediately relented (knowing full well that they'd been advertising that the public could use half the slope after 10am), but then told the lift officer that no other members of the public could use this lift. Especially kids.

So basically what happened was that the ski teams ran riot, and every morning we had to fight and complain to get what had been advertised. This tended to make the mornings a running battle, but the afternoons were very enjoyable. I however won't be recommending the ski field to others.

Since then Mari and I went to Mari's folk's place in Shuzenji to see in the New Year. And as this year is the Year of the Boar, what better way to celebrate than a trip to Wild Boar Town. Who can forget the jumping boar, or the wild boar ramen, or even the wild boar race? Yes, the height of culture can be yours by the expenditure of a mere 700 yen and an hour and a half of your time. We spent about 2 hours there, but that was only because we arrived just after the wild boar race had finished, and so we had to wait for the next one. No queuing, no delays! Act now!

Links to YouTube seem to be all the Rage, so here's a little more Die Hard Xmas magic to tide you over until July 4th. Thanks to Cinephobia for pointing it out.

Live Free or Die Hard

2006-12-22T11:49:00.000+09:00

Want to see the teaser trailer for Die Hard 4?

It's 1:16 of action shots. It has no explanation of the plot and almost no dialog. But John McClane seems to be getting bad ass on some terrorists, so what else do you need to know? Most of it seems to be from one or possibly two action sequences in the film. If you really want to wait, then July 4th next year is the date.

Sin City-State

2006-12-07T08:40:00.000+09:00

Check out the trailer for 300. It's short and spoiler free.

How cool was that! I've been humming the music all morning.

Yesterday I was given admin privileges at work for a short while in order to update some stuff on my computer. I took that to mean I could also download Firefox and Skype. So now I don't have to worry about that crappy IE being in my life at all, and I may now be available during the day if you want to say "Hello". Said availability is dependent on my being free.

In other news, Ms. Alix arrived safe. She's not as drunk as I thought she'd be.

U2 / Bond [spoiler free]

2006-12-03T23:35:00.000+09:00

ichi, ni, san, catorce! Friday was spent in a complete buzz. Sitting at my desk I found myself humming Vertigo, Where the Streets have no Name, Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own, etc. Even though I was as far away from the stage as it was possible to be, I had the greatest time. This fellow has some nice photos and a track list for the evening. Highly Recommended.

Casino Royale has no gadgets, no unstoppable henchmen, no space lasers, no arched eyebrows, no invisible cars, no monologue card totting villain, and thank Christ no smarmy, know-it-all, foppish, secret agent. If your idea of Bond starts and ends with Roger Moore, then you'd best stay away. You'll be one of those few who are decrying Craig as the anti-Bond.

The rest of us who've seen it know that Casino Royale is a Bond for adults. It doesn't treat the viewer as child. The actors are given time to well... act. Yes, this film requires acting of the leads, and they all do a fine job. Who Bond is, is as important as what he is. So while the plot sometimes intrudes, it is mostly a character driven story. And as such there are also very few of that Bond staple - the big action set piece. But don't worry, action has been replaced with copious violence. This is not a film that I'd recommend taking a younger viewer to. It is brutal and bloody.

Bond is not a superman who at most breaks a hard sweat as he dispatches space station loads of wrongdoers. This Bond carries the physical and emotional scars of his actions. He's more of the level of Jack Bauer of 24. So while obviously stretching credibility a little, Casino Royale doesn't fall into the "as if" baloney of almost every previous Bond film since Connery. I can't wait for 2008 to see what happens next. OK, that last sentence is a spoiler.

Daniel Craig IS James Bond. Highly Recommended.

Who said Internet quizes are a crock?

2006-11-30T15:25:00.000+09:00

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Stoked

2006-11-29T20:49:00.000+09:00

U2 is now minus 24 hours and counting.

Casino Royale is minus 3 days and counting. Casino Royale seems to be the Bond flick people have been waiting for. Audiences are very satisfied with Daniel Graig. A peek at IMDB just now showed a user rating of 8.1 (out of 10) from 25,480 votes. To put this in perspective, Goldfinger has a 7.8 from 25,618 votes and From Russia with Love has 7.4 from 14,398 votes.

Is Casino Royale really better than these two classic Bonds?

I'll certainly be there to find out.

Happy Baitday Michiko...

2006-11-25T09:46:00.000+09:00

proclaimed the chocolate writing on Michiko's cake. This was at a Spanish restaurant the other night. Maybe "baitday" is from a Spanish dialect?

That was last Sunday, and was the first day in this fortnight of entertainment. Thursday was lunch at the Tokyo Hilton. A surprising value-fest it was. Reasonably priced with a smörgåsbord of finger food, cakes and sweets, ice cream and coffee. And an amazing 3+1/2 hour time limit! Does this look like a man who has had all he can eat? No! So it was off to the Japanese pub for more finger food and just a few beers.

Friday, needless to say, was a slow day.

Tonight is gayboy DVDs and sleepover at Allan's. Then Sunday is hunting with Ted and buying own Xmas present in Akihabara. I'm getting a printer/scanner from Santa.

Thursday is U2. Saturday burgers and 007. Then Ms. Alix must be arriving sometime soon after that. Miss Alix, it's very cold. Be prepared!

Oh, and I'm supposed to be attending something called work inside all of that. But fortunately not for long, as the Xmas hols are just around the corner.

The Other Half

2006-11-13T18:30:00.000+09:00

I'd been told that the area of Tokyo I've moved to is considered upmarket. Certainly not the part where I live, so I was wont not to believe it. However a few minutes walk across the tracks revealed real houses, some with gardens. Multiple garages were abundant. And then I found this stable, and just had to take a few pictures with the mobile phone. I reproduce them so you too can view the opulence we are all missing out on.

Someone doesn't believe in supporting the local car industry, hey.

What I really like is the glass garage doors. You may look, but don't touch peasant.

Tomorrow's Predicition

2006-11-13T04:00:00.000+09:00

It will end badly.

Who Weathers the Weathermen?

2006-11-12T23:50:00.000+09:00

I'm informing you today. I walk outside at lunchtime, and am forgiven for thinking it is a summer day. The sun is shining, and by the time I'm back from the Post Office, I'm sweating.

I'm informing you tomorrow. It's raining. It isn't pleasant outside. By the evening the rain stops, and the the wind takes over. Through the night the wind howls.

I'm informing you the day after tomorrow. Winter arrives. Everyone wears coats and scarfs. I buy a blanket, and extra sockies for my feet. Tomorrow's prediction is for 4 in the morning.

24

2006-11-10T07:26:00.000+09:00

Friday last week was a holiday, and so teachers had planned a little drinky poohs for Thursday nite. I was supposed to go hunting with Ted early Friday so I thought I'd just stay for a few and then go home.

But while I was at the party I received an e-mail from Ted canceling, so now there was no reason to get up early.

The first party became the second party.

Then the second party became karaoke. This was my first time to go to karaoke with no other non-Japanese. Thus the selection of songs for the night was predominately Japanese, with my chiming in with the occasional strangulation of U2. I’m getting pretty hyped about their concert in a few weeks.

3 am was the darkest hour as I struggled to stay awake, but fortunately the 2nd wind arrived.

4 am came and went and there was a little time to kill until the first train. So we decided to eat ramen for breakfast. Hmmmm, ramen.

5:30 and I collapsed into bed.

I’ve got no idea how Jack Bauer does what he does.

I'm the Boxernaut Bitch

2006-10-30T22:39:00.000+09:00

So where does one go when one gets a new computer from Ted (thanks mate), and can surf the Internet at home again?

Why it must be YouTube of course, so that the Juggernaut video can be seen. It's pretty funny for the first couple of minutes (it's about 9 in total), but it's kind of repetitive. I recommend switching off after the first fade out and you'll be left in stitches.

And wow isn't the new version of Mozilla's Firefox just kick ass. The spell checker while you're typing is a gift for the lexically challenged such as myself. Put that with the tab browsing and there really is no reason to keep torturing yourself with IE. If you haven't switched now, what are you waiting for?

And then there was Skype. In a stroke of good fortune in my first time back on in what must be 6 months Dave, Jimbo, Simon and Alix were on at the same time. Much talk about a future game ensued. I'm in the early stages of planning something that I hope will come together around New Year. Stay tuned gamers.

It's almost 11pm. Probably too late to return to the monsters, so it'll have to be straight to bed.

Oh no. She's shooting at my helmet!

The Hunt cont.

2006-10-23T11:27:00.000+09:00

Ted was free again on Saturday arvo, so we met up in Ebisu to try and once more justify our PSP purchases.

Damn hunting is fun. The plan seems to be to find a dark, not too noisy coffee shop and then kill, kill, kill. Works for me. In our next meeting we should finish off the 1st level treasure hunt missions. Then it's onward and upward to level 2. Yippee!

Now if only we could find another hunter, then we could start to tackle the group missions.

Lest it should appear that I only inhabit a fantasy world populated by monsters (unlike the fantasy world I regularly live in populated by Yamada Yuu) after the hunt I and a few friends knocked back a couple of beers. I also ate the finest damn burger I've ever eaten. It had fried pumpkin in it.

Hmm, wish I had something more salubrious to write about, but really that's about it. Sitting on my arse, drinking, eating and PSPing. At least I (mostly) went outside to do them.

In my further slothful adventures I did read Fight Club, and found it to be one of those rare cases where the film is (marginally) better than the book. The slight changes the film made were for the better.

Let's Hunting, Motto

2006-10-19T08:30:00.000+09:00

Last night Ted and I were to play our first game of squash. I was looking forward to this with trepidation. It's been about six years since I’ve played at all, and frankly winston ain’t the man he was (or even fooled himself into thinking he was).

Fortunately the day before, fearing my serve’s fury, Ted threw himself down some stairs and busted his knee. I was saved embarrassment.

We decided to spend the allotted squash time hunting monsters on the PSP.

This was the first time to play Monster Hunter Freedom in multiplayer mode, and it was frankly pretty cool. I’m sure this is the same enjoyment those of the World of Warcraft ilk get from mindless hack –n- slash with their friends and acquaintances. Even with just the two of us, both who had little idea of how to complete the missions (I didn’t help with some horrendously wrong advice about depositing treasure), I really, really had a great time.

Once again it was confirmed that my gaming skills are pretty lame. I’ve played quite a bit of single player MHF, and have equipped my character Sydney (appearance based on the red-headed Sydney Bristow of Alias) with weapons and armor beyond the starting gear. Yet there was Ted, clad only in hides and wielding a completely unmodified sword and shield, going toe-to-toe with the same critters as me.

At least it was only virtual lameness. The real pain begins when his knee heals.

Hassled by da’Man

2006-10-12T08:34:00.000+09:00

After the near typhoon-like weather of Friday, Saturday was a glorious day. So what should I do? I know, let’s stay in and watch Stargate SG-1, Miami Vice, and Lost.

The great weather continued all long weekend. Sunday night was a Korean restaurant with friends. Yummy.

Monday afternoon I thought to get out the skates and go to Yoyogi Park. I’ve been there a few times skating. It being a public holiday the park was filled with children on bikes being followed by parents who squawked, “Danger! Danger! Slow down!” every few seconds.

I’d just finished my first circuit when the old man security guard on his bicycle stopped me to inform me there was no skating in the park. This was news to me. He assured me there was a notice on the park’s gate. Despondent I left the park, and sure enough there was a notice. I then realized that in all the times I’d been to the park, I was the only skater I’d ever seen.

Two wheels gooooood. Eight wheels baaaaaad. 8-(

Fooled You

2006-10-04T16:44:00.000+09:00

Obviously rumors or my backness are greatly exaggerated.

I now have internet on at my new place, but no computer to use it with. This leaves me with the option of stealing work’s time, which recently has been impossible due to much workidness. And as I really should be doing something else more workified right now, let’s get this over with.

A lot has happened, but I’m not sure if it’s such interesting reading for your good selves.
I went to 2 weddings in the one day a couple of weeks ago. The first one’s service was Christian, but in Japanese (“Amen”, however, remained “Amen”). It was interesting because the service was understandable for those even without much Japanese simply because it copies the service in English. The priest even had the same intonation as an English-speaking priest. Stand up now, sit down now, vows now, reading of goat entrails now.

The second was a full-on Japanese service with costumes and bells. And the reception was very Japanese, with the couple changing clothes twice, many speeches, candle lighting, cake cutting, the whole works. It was the second time for me to see this style, and it’s really interesting – these disparate elements are put together with the formality and timing of a military tattoo. The already long day extended into beer and karaoke for the late evening. The next day was slow.

Recently I’ve become interested again in Torg. The mailing list for the game has had some great debates (that usually end in flame wars. sigh) about fundamentals of the game. It’s a shame that really good ideas get lost amid the egos, but I’ve taken some of the elements away and opened up the old rules once more. I’m half forming a long term plan to one day (maybe in the New Year) look at a game based on its excellent rules. Much like Pulp-Fiction based on Masterbook that I once GMed. I’m not interested in playing out the Possibility Wars again. The canvas is simple too big, and it just wouldn’t be the same without Dave co-GMing. But a smaller mythos might suit me just fine. No promises.

Walking Dead vs Belly Dancing Transvestite

2006-09-20T07:59:00.000+09:00

Went to a Turkish restaurant on Friday to celebrate my friend Kou's impending wedding.

Hilarity ensued.

Another Lost Weekend

2006-09-19T13:09:00.000+09:00

Decided to see what this Lost craze is all about, and rented the first 3 DVDs. I enjoyed the 6 shows I saw. But the mystery of the island was too easily solved (minor spoilers):

Fact 1: They kill a polar bear on a tropical island.
Fact 2: If you're naughty, the island punishes you; if you're nice, you get something good.
Fact 3: It appears to be like Monster Island.

They have obviously stumbled upon Santa Claus' backdoor to Pellucidar. QED.

Also checked out X-Men: The Last Stand. Thoroughly enjoyed it. What I really liked was that even though I'd seen the preview, the movie retained a few surprises.

And like the also recently seen Superman Returns, I liked how X-Men: The Last Stand wasn't afraid to make big changes in the story.

Watch until after the credits.

Some Things Change

2006-09-11T17:52:00.000+09:00

I'm back, in a manner of speaking.

My computer still doesn't work, but I must. Summer vacation is officially over, so to escape the job of marking over 200 speeches, I'm posting. It's good to have the internet back in my life, and even better that it's usage is restricted. Since I'm working, I can't spend hours watching previews for upcoming movies, or reading blogs of people I've never heard of. That's gotta be good for my usage of personal time. I can spend it on a more worthwhile activity like monster hunting.

I could regale you with my many PSP adventures over the last month or so I've been away, but maybe it's better to inform you that I've moved. I've left the big smoke of Yokohama for the even bigger smoke of Tokyo. Should you ever want to send me anything, such as a birthday Rolex, or a Xmas Aston Martin (just in time for Casino Royale!), then send me an email and I'll pass on my new address and phone number. A by product of the move is that I've now got floor space for freeloaders. Not much mind you, but it's there. Form an orderly queue and let me know well in advance you're coming. Japanese school holidays are the best time to catch me. Well actually, they are the only time.

Back to the bloody swath of the red pen.

Windows is Starting Up

2006-08-18T16:14:00.000+09:00

.....HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHa.

Still continually crashing, I think you mean (I'm on my 5th restart in an hour).

So this is short.

Have a new addiction with the PSP - Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06.

Golf - it's a funny game.

Nothing Changes

2006-08-03T09:12:00.000+09:00

I'm still holidaying.
XP still dying minutes after coming alive.
But with a sick computer I've had heaps of time to play PSP, watch videos and read.
That's about it for now.

Backward to go Forward

2006-07-28T09:42:00.000+09:00

A couple of weeks ago I upgraded my OS from 2000 to XP.
Since then my computer crashes anywhere between 5mins - 1 hour after starting.
So all I've been doing is reading your blogs etc. until it crashes. I haven't bothered to make new posts here.
Normal service at Winston's World will resume when my OS decides to work.
See you then.

A Necessary Evil

2006-07-11T09:43:00.000+09:00

This is an ad hoc opinion about Evil in Narnia.

In Narnia there are distinctions of evil. I'll refer to them as Pure Evil and evil. I'll borrow heavily from dr. calm who said, "it is better to have evil entering the new world from an old, stale world that has had plenty of time to go wrong, than just appearing there..." Pure Evil is not natural to Narnia. It comes to Narnia from an external source. Pure Evil can take a physical presence. A Pure Evil creature is different from the creatures of Narnia.

Evil is but the sinful actions of Narnians (or its human visitors). The main difference between the creatures of Narnia and a Pure Evil creature is that Narnians have the possibility of redemption through Aslan, whereas Pure Evil creatures are offered no such redemption.

I'd like to picture Pure Evil as a virus invading Narnia. Narnia as a training ground for souls doesn't require Pure Evil. And the motivations of Pure Evil are difficult to fathom. To overdraw the long bow of viral Pure Evil, it may well have no other motivation than survival. The most powerful embodiment of Pure Evil is the White Witch, and she espouses neither a unifying theory nor higher purpose for her subjugation of Narnia. She enjoys wielding the power of life and death over lesser beings, but by The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe her rule has become one of never-ending vigilance and the knocking down of upstarts, rather than a glorious march toward an eventual goal.

Narnians without contact with Pure Evil would still be able to complete their soul's training; Narnia at conception had no such thing, nor was it needed. Or to put it another way there is already enough evil in Narnia without Pure Evil. And so while the removal of evil from one's self is required for admittance to Aslan's Country (which might be viewed as the absence of all evils), Pure Evil is at best a distraction for, and at worst the destruction of, a Narnians higher path.