Hot
May 31, 2004
Agh it’s been getting really hot and humid already! Yesterday I was all grumpy and pissy at the woman because of the weather. We ended up having a great hot pot lunch with the woman’s mother, getting insurance for Saipan, and doing a tad of shopping again. Only 11 more days before going… I can’t wait.
Other than that, I’ve been playing Pikmin, which Dan graciously lent me. I’m at the final boss but didn’t kill him yet due to sheer boredom. I’ll get that big ugly bulb later.
I have a new webpage design that is 95% complete. I don’t know if I’ll use it now or when I switch hosts. This host is gone by the end of June so I don’t know.
Ok. I just wanted to write something here before getting ready for work. Bye.
Bored
May 29, 2004
I’m waiting for the woman. She’s choosing a new swimming outfit and as sexy as it is, I just can’t help but feel bored. Men simply cannot help women choose clothes. They all look the same. It’s not fair to get mad at them either. Would you get mad at a color blind person for not helping choose new paint colors? Eww… old woman looking at something sexy… that should be illegal! Ok. My woman is done. Till the next cell phone update.
Saipan Bound
May 24, 2004
Out of the blue, the woman’s mother decided to treat us to a trip to Saipan! For you geographically challenged, Saipan is part of a chain of islands located in the western Pacific Ocean. On a map, it’s directly north of New Guinea (or Australia, if you’re really geographically challenged… you do know where Oz is right?).
I’ve never really had a yearning to visit tropical islands featuring beautiful beaches, luxurious hotels, and water as clear as a morning dew on a summer morning (where the hell did that simile come from?), but if the trip’s free, count me in! The three of us will be leaving June 11th and be coming back on the 14th. A quickie trip it’s true but given the size of Saipan; “The island is about 20 km long and 9 km wide” (source); 3 days is plenty.
For this, my first holiday outside of Japan, I’m planning to tote my precious camera, swimming trunks, sandals, sunglasses, and my pale, oily skin to the exotic looking beaches. The woman wants to go diving but I hate swimming for some reason. I’m reluctant to even enter baths.
A rather interesting place in Saipan is Suicide Cliff. “This is the infamous cliff where many Japanese civilians jumped to their deaths as the American forces advanced” (source). I don’t know if we’ll be heading there but judging from the size of the island, I bet I can just stroll over from our hotel and snap a few pictures of Japanese soldier ghosts.
Speaking of the hotel – Hotel Nikko Saipan - it’s a 5 star beauty. From the picture, it may possibly the most beautiful hotel I’ll have ever stayed in. I’m also rather dazzled by the pictures offered at this site about the island.
Eating Voyeur
May 21, 2004
I like watching the woman eat ever since our first date at Cow’s and at a shitty bubble tea place. You can tell a lot about a person from the way they eat. The woman, for example, eats quite intently but at the same time, her eyes wander all over the place and she likes to alternate when eating. A bite of this, a nibble of that, a sip of that. Her eating style is like a complicated ballet routine which looks random but in fact it’s so very coordinated. It describes her personality fairly well I think.
I on the other hand, am very focussed when eating. I will eat all the vegetables/salad first. I will then eat the glucose rich food (the rice, noodle, or bread). I will eat small bites of the main course (meat, seafood) alongside the glucose rich food but I will save the majority of it for the end. After all the food has been eaten, I will then consume the soup. It’s very structured, conservative, and it’s a pattern I’ve noticed since I was about 11. It describes me very well too.
I can’t speak for the woman but for myself – everything is black and white for me. The salad is salad. The rice is rice. I am right. I am wrong. You should do this, she should do that. There is no gray area. I am very predictable according to my friends. I’m rather conservative for a 23 year old too – I believe and uphold in many old fashioned values I guess.
Now, as I’m writing this, I’m deviating from my normal eating habits. I have in front of me half a honeydew melon. Normally, I would cut it into perfectly equal slices and consume the fruit from right to left. Today, I just pulled out a spoon and I literally told myself to “dig in”. I guess everyone’s entitled to a wild side.
The Stupid Factor
May 19, 2004
I remember chatting with Dennis not long ago about how stupid it is that companies keep putting out ancient games like pacman, galaga, tetris, dig dug, etc. and just improve the graphics or add some options? And why do people keep buying the same game?
As you all know, I have a Gamecube now and today after work, I went to Den Den Town again and bought myself some games. One game was dirt cheap. It’s called, “Space Raider” and it said on the cover, “Shooting Game”. I figure it was something like those side scrolling arcade games. The screenshots on the back don’t really show the game much. There is one screen of the actual game and the rest are all of the intro. Be warned – this is a sign that the game sucks.
I had a bad feeling on the way home that I just bought Space Invaders for Gamecube… I mean, “Space Raider”, no good screen shots of the game, the game was dirt cheap (1000 yen)…
Sure enough. It is Space Invaders. It’s slightly cooler – you play characters who side scroll and shoot wave upon wave of hideous alien crawlies. You can upgrade the weapon too. When it comes down to it though… I am so fucking stupid.
News!
May 16, 2004
Ok, first, Dennis, since there’s no news, there will be no news flashes. I’m not going to create news like some network news. The biggest news today was that Eri and I saw about 5 crazy people today who inexplicably laugh or did something rather weird by themselves.
Today we bought a Nintendo Gamecube. It’s my first console purchase in years. The last console I bought was a Super Nintendo. I’m rather dismayed by Nintendo after today’s purchase. The box didn’t include an AV cable. How could you sell everything but the AV cable? I see parents buying their kids a Gamecube only to disappoint them at night because they can’t play anything without the blasted cable.
Yesterday we saw the movie to end all movies. Dawn of the Dead is undoubtedly the coolest movie I’ve ever seen. It had tonnes of guns, millions of zombies, people dying, a dog, no unnecessary plot, and a pair of tits at the end to round things up. This movie is the pinnacle of entertainment.
Next, let’s welcome to the fray, Eugenio. He’s decided to start a blog after some strong coercion by me (“Why don’t you make a webpage? Try www.blogger.com. It’s easy.”) So if any ELI people read this page for some weird reason, go see Eugene’s page.
I’m actually working on a design now. I’m trying out some pastel colors and so far I’m unpleased as it all turns out rather flaming. Maybe pastel colors aren’t right for me.
Cell phone blogging
May 12, 2004
Oh yeah! With this new feature I’m a virtual reporter!
Blogger Becomes Cool
Blogger.com got a new facelift and with it came some new features. There’s the long awaited comments now. I’ll probably make the switch over to the blogger comments since dotComments just seems too buggy for me. There’s an email publishing feature now – I update to an email address and it automatically publishes it. Cool ne?
I’ll be making a new blog here pretty soon but I feel so shitty since the free templates look way better than anything I can make.
More updatings coming soon as I have written down a rough draft of something more substantial.
Now with easy uploading and even blockquotes!
Noise
May 08, 2004
One thing I’ve come to really hate about Japan is the noise. I’m on the 10th floor and when my windows are closed, nary a peep is heard from the outside. Since summer is creeping near like the sweat that slowly runs from your hair into your eyes, I’ve been sleeping with the window partially open. The noises have returned. There are first off, the recycling trucks that come around. They take old electronics and machines that you don’t want and they probably strip them for parts and sell them. They take things like televisions, computers, refrigerators and the such. The great thing is, the service is free. The shit thing is, they have this blasted speaker on top that blasts a stupid tune followed by a recorded message of what exactly they take and don’t take. It is really loud and annoying, especially when you’ve just awaken from a cool alien-fighting dream.
Next, in my old apartment, there were the food trucks. They’re these little pickup-like trucks that sell food like ramen, fish, bbq skewers, and etc. They have ridiculously annoying recorded messages as well. The sweet potato truck blasts this message that to me, sounds like, “YAAAAKIIIII…. MOOOOO KWAY MOOOOO”. It’s devastatingly annoying.
There’s the kerosene truck as well. There are many houses that lack central heating and as such, the tenants require little kerosene burners. These trucks provide a much needed service to all the old ladies and dudes that would have trouble lugging around a canister of 18L of kerosene. Great public service. Ridiculously annoying music. This song would fit in Sesame Street because it’s catchy and sung by children. It’s also the kind of song that leads 15 year olds to kill their classmates with automatic rifles.
Let’s not forget the ass kids with their little scooters. I swear that on Wednesdays at 12:30am, there’s one person who deliberately drives his scooter around, reving the little 10hp engine over and over again. Usually I’m in bed naked at that time so my motivation to go downstairs and peg him with my BB guns are quite low. One day though, I will get that turd ball.
Lastly, I’m going to close with drunken business men. It’s a well known fact that Japanese business men, or salary men, as they stupidly call themselves (they get a salary and they’re a man… salary men), work long hours and afterwards are coerced into a drinking binge that leaves them no time for sleep or for their family. They clumsily stagger home while laughing and talking really loudly. I’d like to peg their drunken asses with my BB guns as well.
Blast It!
May 03, 2004
Well at least it took a month before I fucked up. Tonight hosted a monthly meeting with all of us and some higher ups. It was my first of these meetings and I somehow managed to be the last person to be there. They had to send someone down to make sure I was aware of where the place was. I hustle up and make a rather choked comment like, “Sorry, I’m the new guy” and got some chuckles. Ugh. I apologized afterwards and promised it wouldn’t happen again now knowing that everyone meets there and not where I was.
I guess this wasn’t that bad a fuck up. It could’ve been a lot worse.
One Month
May 01, 2004
April has been one long, challenging month. The first two weeks in my new position were marked with very little in duties. I felt people had higher expectations for me for some reason. I don’t like being treated like, “Oh he’s new so let’s take it easy on him”. I prefer, “I don’t care if he’s new, he should be doing as well as we are”. Since I and the other new people didn’t know what we were supposed to do, nothing was really done. It wasn’t until the second week until a million new people came into the company and began their training. Suddenly we found ourselves doing a million things at once. After two of the busiest weeks, I feel rather satisfied in what I’ve accomplished. In fact, I have to say job satisfaction has shot up two fold.
Anyway, how did I repay myself for a month of feeling like I actually worked? I go and have some yakiniku (bbq meat) and eat something bad and get diarrhea! Yay for diarrhea. It’s day 2.5 of diarrhea and I’m feeling like shit. Hehe. I’m trying to drink lots of water and sport drinks and I’m even eating but to no avail. I’m thinking it’s probably something more along the lines of gastroenteritis but I’m trying to fight this one out with diet and mind-over-matter control (“Don’t shit. Don’t shit. Don’t shit”).
Congratulations, jack ass.
