Category: valeblog

Convenience

I’ve been trying to use linux for pretty much as long as I’ve had a computer. I’d kept running into blocks though: at first I was using my computer mostly for gaming, and that’s still not a strong suite for linux 20 years later. Then my workflows were dependent on tools that only worked on Windows (like Office’s Publisher, or Dreamweaver and Fireworks—hell I still miss the productivity I had with Fireworks). Then I had a laptop half of whose hardware wasn’t supported by any linux distro at that point. Then gradually those issues went away and I’ve been an Ubuntu main for over ten years now. Some linux elitists will look at my desktop and hiss that it’s not just a terminal or a tiled window manager that looks like it’s still 1995.


Arabaki.

I was looking at Reol’s tour dates when I found a surprising entry: the Arabaki Rock Festival, end of April. It was surprising because fests like that are usually in the middle of summer (see Summer Sonic or Rock in Japan) and this one, well, definitely isn’t. At first I wasn’t all that interested, since it’s held near Sendai which is quite a distance from Tokyo to go for a Reol show, but then I looked at the lineup and changed my mind.


Kamikochi I’m back

Last year I was so depleted financially due to the Karakoram expedition that I wasn’t back in Kamikochi until the end of the season. Since I still wasn’t well off enough to afford another attempt at Denali this summer, I can instead hike in Japan every weekend as I please (or as the weather allows). Naturally that means that I was hiking next to the Azusa river at the first chance.


The Global Rescue Experience

For my trip to Pakistan last summer, I’d signed up for the Global Rescue travel insurance in addition to my “normal” membership. I’ve been using this setup for most of my expeditions, since the membership covers helicopter rescue (a very important aspect especially in rural Pakistan) and the travel insurance covers pretty much everything else (though they refused to pay for my camera that was stolen in Argentina). For the Broad Peak + K2 expedition it wasn’t even a cheap endeavor with the travel insurance clocking in at almost $9000. However it included “interrupt for any reason” coverage, meaning it should pay up for pretty much any reason.

View from a little above crampon point on Broad Peak

『RESONANCE EMOTION』 Vol.0 -ZERO TO HERO-

LUPINUSで逃してしまったWisteriaが俺にとってのメインだったが、ちゃんと最後まで楽しめるライブが渋谷THE GAMEで開催された。

Wisteria

AA=山嵐

大学の軽音部で何回かMad Capsule Marketsのコピバンが見れてかなり好きな音楽になった。AA=がその後継として(語弊)存在してることは数年前に知った。そしてやっとライブで本家が見れた。山嵐のツアーの最後のステージでAA=が出るという豪華な組み合わせはさすがに逃しません。


花見できた

最後に花見行こうとしたのはもう数年前になる。その時も行ったもののすぐ雨が降り出したのでファミレス入ってランチで終わった。コロナ禍もあってなかなかそういう集まりも難しいとな… でも今年はもう諸々の規制のほとんど解除されたこともあって、石神井公園の八重桜の下で花見できた。

花見はソメイヨシノに限るとかいう人いるかもしれないが、俺はそういう差別はしない。夜のジョギングとかで公園も石神井川沿いの満開のソメイヨシノはたっぷり見てるし。

この前の四阿山登った時道の駅で買った雷電IPAのケースを差し入れとして持っていったが、意外とちゃんと解散する時まで全部なくなってよかった(持ち帰りたくなかった)。一日中天気がよくてこんな快晴で花見できたのは多分大学ぶり。

二次会では新しいお店紹介してもらったし。やった。


MARUDASHI CARNIVAL ’23

最近発見したバンドのEarthists.を見たかったので渋谷のMARUDASHI CARNIVALいってきた。Earthists.以外でもC-GATEなど日本のヘビーなバンドが勢ぞろい。ただこの日はかなり予定が複雑で… 朝から奥多摩で山登ってから御岳渓谷で軽くボルダリング、からのEarthists.だけ見てから一旦抜けて友だちと炙り食べてワイン飲んでの予定があって、から終電までMARUDASHIに戻った(そして終電で帰ってから近所で更に飲んでたけどそれはまた別)。


Knotfest Japan 2023

Knotfest is back! I’ve been there both times it was organized in Japan (though I only have a blog post from the 2016 event). I had to look through my photo archives to confirm I was there in 2014 too, and I was surprised to “learn” that apparently I’d seen Korn live back then… This year the plan was different.


Hearing Loss Park 2023

I’ve been to Loud Park twice before, in 2012 (got a shirt but no blogpost) and 2016, so I was pretty happy to hear it was coming back after years of covid-forced absence. The lineup caught my eye because of Pantera—I thought they’d never tour again since the Abbott brothers died, so this was a chance I wasn’t willing to let go (even though I’m not that much of a Pantera fan).