Curiosity Killed the Cat

Things to do in 2010

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:55:46 GMT

A few things I want to do this year:
- Continue enjoying life in Japan
- Blog more about life in Japan
- Learn more Japanese
- Visit the Sydney office
- Visit the Seoul, Beijing or Zurich office
- Hang out with KKD at AX
- Move back to CA
- Buy a place in SF (probably a condo in one of the newer developments South of Market)
- Start doing serious stock market investing

It's going to be a big year, I think.

できました！

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:41:19 GMT

Specter's Flute is done! A sweet and sappy ending. And we get to see how Luke joins up with Layton for further shenanigans. I can't wait to see what Descole has up his sleeve in Eternal Diva.
I managed to solve 156 puzzles so far. The rest are either hidden in some place I missed my first go round, or locked until I solve more puzzles in Secrets Mode. Not bad for lacking any Japanese fluency. The word puzzles were the hardest. Whenever I read "please input X hiragana for the answer" I just groaned, pulled out the dictionary on my iPod, and kept trying words.
I think my favorite puzzle type were the 'dropping things and bouncing them across the screen to a waiting basket' ones. I solved three so far; you basically have an object (first an apple, then a watermelon, then a bomb) dropped at the top left of the string. You're given a certain number of strings you can arrange on a grid so the object bounces to the right of the screen into a waiting basket. There are various horizontal and vertical blocks set up to make things more interesting. Perhaps I just like dropping apples. It gives me illusions of being Newton.
Time to start Diabolical Box! Oh! And the London Life RPG! All I've done in it so far is set up my character (in a Mii-like fashion, you can choose your gender/face/hair/clothes) and found an apartment. Tiny London is adorable, and I love seeing the tiny 8-bit styled sprites of characters from the games. There are folks from all the games, I think; I've run into a number of residents from St. Mystere and Mist Halely when looking for the apartment. Also, you arrive in Tiny London on the Molentary Express. So far my favorite bit of London Life is the warning when the game is loading, which warns you about tiny letters, tiny characters, tiny clothes and tiny life.

Kicking around CA

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:44:54 GMT

This holiday season I have basically been:
- napping
- doing family holiday stuff
- shopping
- playing Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute

I have bought Prof Layton and the Diabolical Box but am not going to start on that until I finish Specter's Flute. I'm up to puzzle 100'ish of what appear to be about 150'ish story puzzles, so I am already 2/3rds through the game. The plot is moving along nicely, and I can't wait to finish and watch the Eternal Diva movie!
For what it's worth, Remi is simply full of win. She kicks ass. Literally. She knows martial arts. She has been labeled "the explosive woman" for her rather hot temper (although she's not violent unless provoked, and the other party really, really deserves it.) I will miss her presence in Diabolical Box, I'm sure.

Otherwise I'm just hanging out, taking it easy, meeting up with friends, etc. We're going to see Avatar later today. Should be pretty.

The Specter's Flute

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 09:11:54 GMT

Walking home from Nakameguro station is bad for me. Yesterday we had our holiday party at Roppongi Hills, so I took the Hibiya line back home. Only a minute's walk from the station is the Nakameguro branch of Book-Off (they in fact have an ad in the station itself saying "Book-Off: Just a one minute walk in this direction -->") So I went in and got me a copy of Professor Layton and the Specter's Flute. When I got home I realized I got an extra bonus - a Layton hint coin charm! ♥ (While I was at it I also finally picked up Ouendan 1+2. READY STEADY NEVER LOOK BACK~) I figured Specter's Flute would help improve my Japanese comprehension and prepare me for the Eternal Diva movie. I already convinced one coworker (who's never played the game) to go see it with me.
So far I've really been enjoying the game (although I am only an hour and 8 puzzles in.) The animation is really gorgeous (and has been eagerly anticipating Eternal Diva), although I miss Layton's British accent (but am glad not to listen to Luke's cockney).
Anyway, I was actually doing okay in the game until puzzle 7, a wacky logic puzzle which had me scratching my head and wondering whether it was my incomprehension or lack of logical reasoning that lead to being unable to solve the puzzle. So I typed in the puzzle directions and sent it through Google Translate (which helped, but it still required a leap in logic I did not get until I "solved" the question by moving forwards and backwards form my original answer.)
I figured it would be a lot faster to type in the puzzles and send them through Google Translate for at least a first past at comprehension. And if I was going to do that I might as well put them up for viewing. So I started a Specter's Flute gameblog. I'm also adding notes on my impressions of the game as I play through. Hope you Layton fans out there find it useful!

Layton-esque

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:05:10 GMT

Holy crap, there's going to be a Professor Layton movie coming out next year?
Just saw an ad for it on the train. "Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva"... definitely want to go check it out when it's released :3 Guess I should get the Specter's Flute game in Japanese if it's going to be a continuation. Argh, I still have to get Diabolical Box in English... trying to solve brainteasers in Japanese will be a lot more challenging!
Ooh, wikipedia is great. There are Layton soundtracks I need to go out and find now!

Azuki Pepsi

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:19:35 GMT

Last Friday as I was heading home, I stopped by the convenience store. I was thinking of picking up some fruit juice as I've gotten a mild cold lately, but ended up buying a bottle of Azuki [red bean] Pepsi. As you might imagine, this was really a Bad Idea. I blame the Beaujolais I had at TGIF.
Now, azuki bean is used in all sorts of sweets and desserts so surely this couldn't be as strange as Shiso Pepsi? (Dunno, I never tasted Shiso Pepsi.) Unfortunately, it is way too sweet. In fact it's almost medicinally sweet. But, if you pretend you're drinking a sparkling cordial, it's just about bearable. It sort of tastes like cordial (with some red-bean notes in it).
Let's just say the next time I am thinking of buying juice, I'd better damn well buy some juice.

Convention planning

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:33:26 GMT

So, KKD, which con should I attend next year?
1) AOD
Pros
- San Francisco
- Small, intimate setting
- We run it, so we take good care of ourselves
Cons
- Short duration
- Not everyone staffs
- Timing (I will be in SF end of December, so to go back end of January is a bit much)
2) AX
Pros
- Long duration
- Everyone and their dog shows up
- Gong Show
Cons
- Los Angeles
- People tend to be more stressed out with staffing

Regardless, I'll get a hotel room and be an attendee, although I expect a comp badge from one of you folks.

More invites

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:48:15 GMT

Designers! I have 5 invites for Typekit. Typekit is a service that provides web-embeddable fonts to your site. No more Verdana and Georgia for you! You can learn more about them on their site or their blog.
Drop a note if you want an invite. I'll need to know which email you want the invite sent to.

OS and Burger comparison

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:49:15 GMT

So if Windows 7 gets a Whopper, what might other OS burgers look like?
A Vista burger would probably come with all sorts of warnings on its wrapper asking if you REALLY want to eat the burger, and then there would be an extra warning underneath the wrapper, just in case you weren't sure the first time.
An Apple OSX burger would probably be something exquisitely crafted, with every sesame seed on its bun perfectly arranged for harmony (visually and taste-wise.) It would also probably cost three times as much as a regular burger.
An Ubuntu burger would be very simple, just a burger and a bun. Then on the side you'd had to add all your own fixings. You'd probably get something you'd really like, though, since you put it together yourself.
Having only seen fleeting impressions of Chrome OS on other people's laptops, I'm not sure what a Chrome OS burger would be like yet. But it would probably be low calorie and light weight.
These musings brought to you by the lunch I had today. All 7 patties of it.

Oops

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 15:16:23 GMT

So I found that there is, in fact, a place on my Android phone for phone charms. However, I picked up a charm from Asakusa so Hatsune Miku is still on my keys and getting leekspin stuck in my head.
Incidentally when we went to Yodobashi in Akihabara, I briefly walked into the figures section and saw the full complement of Hatsune Miku leekspin cell phone charms (sans Chrome logo). They came in a box set. I'm not sure what you'd actually do with 7 phone charms?
More in the Japanese-Think-Of-Everything department, Kitchen Edition II -- my stove has a 'rice cooker' option. It's great, you just tell it how many cups of rice you have. Which is good, because rice cookers here are complicated and expensive and have way too many buttons, and I'm glad not to have to buy one.

Schwag

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:22:35 GMT

Now I can get Leva's Polka stuck in my head every time I enter/leave the apartment! Brilliant!
It's actually a Chrome phone charm that Good Smile Company made for us to celebrate the Hatsune Miku and GSC themes they made for Google Chrome. Except my phone doesn't have a place to hang a charm, so I stuck it on my keys.

Also in the Japanese-Think-of-Everything department, my microwave has a sake button on it. I especially like how it's combined with the milk button.

The cake is a lie

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:58:46 GMT

But it sure looks pretty.
From the Google Chrome 1st Birthday Party I went to last night. It celebrated both the first birthday of Chrome and the launch of Artist Themes. A number of artists who did themes for Japan turned out, which was nice. I was rather tired after running around most of the day taking care of paperwork, so I left early, and did not have a chance to sample the cake.

Neighborhood meanderings

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:27:27 GMT

I took two days off (I worked during Silver Week to prepare for a Toolbar launch, so I figured I deserved it.) I had fun wandering the neighborhood today; I figured I should get that done today before the big storm of doom hits tomorrow. Found several nice grocery stores just a few minutes away, very handy. I also wandered down towards Sangenjaya area and ran into a Book-Off. I now finally own Ego-Wrappin's early maxi singles Swing for Joy and His Choice of Shoes is Ill. A happy Tama is me. Oh, and I found a random Katteni Shiyagare album too. Woohoo.
Tomorrow I am going to take care of paperwork like getting a multiple re-entry stamp on my passport, setting up a bank account, etc and so forth. I also will be going to a Chrome 1st Birthday celebration in the evening. I hope the storm doesn't mess up the subway system, because otherwise it's a long walk!

It's finally finished

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:57:34 GMT

Spent most of the past few weeks working on Chrome Artist Themes Gallery. It's nice to finally see it live. Obviously I didn't make any of the themes this time 'round, but a gallery with 100+ pages in 40+ languages == massive changelists and submits. But the upside is I got to see a lot of these themes as they were being built. I've also, at some point, probably installed all of these themes on my various machines (let me say now that the Mac themes implementation is not quite up to par with the Windows one, but that's what you get for being on pre-alpha release...) Some of my favorites:

Cath Kidston - it's flowerly and pink and oh-so-girly. It's the one I've settled on using long term.

Yulia Brodskaya - her paper designs are simply amazing! Lovely vibrant colors.

Boa Mistura - soft textures, calm pinkish-purple colors. Light and airy.

Hatsune Miku - NEEDS MORE LEEKSPIN (consequently, when the Japanese marketing guy asked me what I knew about Hatsune Miku, I answered, "Gong Show". He was amused.)

PukPuk - a golden theme with some nice artistic swirly designs

Akira Isogawa - I love Japanese patterns.

Jon Klassen - another with nice paper textures; a calm watercolor painting with cool color tones

Baron Ueda - pink and brown, an awesome color combination. And grunge!

Stefanie Posavec - words, words words. Good for a bibliophile, and a nice soft reddish pink palette.

Moving Day

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 06:28:42 GMT

[This is a truncated version of Moving Day in my Japan blog]

I have moved to my long term apartment in lovely Aobadai. Nothing really major, just got a van taxi, stuffed my boxes in the back, and unloaded at the new place, then spent an hour unpacking everything.
The building is new and still has that new carpet smell. It's a mixed-use building so the first 20 floors are offices and 21+ are apartments. That means I have an awesome view! I have north-facing windows so I can see the lush greenness of Yoyogi Park, which is a nice bit of peace in a city of tall buildings (speaking of which, Shinjuku's impressive skyline is just beyond the park.) I also have a view of the Keio Inokashira line so I can watch trains coming and going.
I'm probably going go to Daiso tomorrow and start picking up misc things one needs around an apartment - a set of dishes, a teapot... who knows. Daiso is always a fun place to browse.

Holy Crap

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:18:02 GMT

The TV just Rickrolled me.

Here I am trying to find some innocuous program to have on as white noise, so I think, "Hey, this TV gets some Japanese music stations, let's have some recent J-pop playing." Apparently it is EIGHTIES HOUR on Music ON station right now and they are playing Rick Astley. And Pet Shop Boys.

I take this is as a sign I should just Go To Sleep Already.

Weird Things On TV, Part Ib

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:38:37 GMT

Somehow, hearing Daleks go "MA-SSA-TSU! MA-SSA-TSU!" just isn't the same.

Things I need

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 13:55:46 GMT

1. This poster. Too bad shipping to Japan costs more than the poster.

Weird things on TV, Part I

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:36:06 GMT

Doctor Who, on Disney XD?
I love this country.
Also, if I had realized that Maaya Sakamoto was dub Rose Tyler I might have watched in Japanese. (But..but... Eccleston...♥) I only found out when the credits were rolling.

Japan blog link

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:36:22 GMT

Click me! Click me!
That blog was originally going to be a food blog about SF, and document places I've eaten, things I've cooked, markets I've shopped, and any other food observations I had. I never got around to writing that blog, but I kept the name and so now its my travel blog.

Down and safe

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:54:32 GMT

And awfully tired to boot. I think I'm going to take a shower and pass out. More tomorrow, after my first day at work and a good night's sleep!

The countdown begins

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:42:43 GMT

Went up to the Japanese consulate in SF today to put in my Visa application. Looks like it means I'll be flying out to Tokyo come the weekend (depending on what flight I end up booking)...
Stuff is mostly packed, just wrapping up a few things...
I will set up a separate travel blog to log all my thoughts, (mis)adventures and photos of my stay in Japan.
Should be fun!

Still here...

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 22:58:11 GMT

...and still putting snowflakes everywhere I can.

Useful Mac link

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:55:05 GMT

You know that effect in a Mac dock where an icon will bounce when it wants your attention? It can be really annoying. I was once watching a company presentation, and in the middle of the presentation, a little icon started bouncing on the bottom of the screen. It was amusing the first few times, but after a few minutes you just wanted to smash it into next week.
Well, apparently you can -- using a simple terminal command (and subsequent rebooting of the Dock).
Sweet.

From days gone by

Fri, 08 May 2009 05:41:51 GMT

I logged into my Hotmail account, as I am wont to do every few weeks or so to clear out the junk mail and on a whim, decided to find the oldest email I still had.
It appears to be a message from 2/20/99*, a really old (and very bad) fanfic I was co-writing with servalan.
I have also found old gems like a friend's "One Act Scottish Play" and "A Tale of a Math Class" (which was co-written by about half of the AP Calculus class) from high school.
I think these are the only reasons why I keep this account...

*Okay, technically the oldest email is from 2/5/99 but that's just an autoresponse I got when I was setting up an e-groups account. I don't think that counts.