Tag: english

I’m off

August 25, 2010
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In two hours i’ll close my door behind me and not come back for a week. (This not counting the cases of returning from the 20m range of the dorm realising i forgot something.) Until then, i try to rid my room of anything that would end up rotten and smelly in this one week (not much, mostly trash only) and decide what to pack and what not. So far the only thing sure is my sleeping bag (bought yesterday), a towel, and my toothbrush.

Also it seems that i won’t write about all that stuff i watched lately anytime soon (to all i listed earlier, i since then watched Hyakko too). I’m not nerd enough to bring my laptop with me (not to mention it’d pretty much double my luggage), so there won’t be any blogging in the coming one week. Maybe if i feel like it i’ll occasionally plurk. I’ll try making photos, though i only have my phone for that purpose.

Hell, it’s about time.

Sherlock

August 20, 2010
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I’ve heard about this new british series remake of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary stories of the legendary (consultant) detective, Sherlock Holmes. I loved the novels, so i decided to give it a try. It’s great.

It’s set in the current London, although in a world where Sherlock Holmes, Dr Watson and Inspector Lestrade are not famous figures from a crime novel but real people of pretty much the same life as their literary counterparts. The story of the three episodes are loosely based on the original novels, of course adapted to the modern world with smartphones, snipers, memory sticks and stuff. And of course Dr Watson isn’t writing short novels about their adventures, he’s blogging about them.

The scenery is London, for most of the time. Whenever the sky is visible, it and everything near the horizon are blurred. The occasional writings on screen (text messages, thoughts etc) remind me very much of Hustle. One more similarity is that the music of the opening sequence is… strange. I don’t really like it. The only other problem with the series is that it’s only three episodes. After i watched the third today, i started looking for the fourth, but apparently there’s none. Whaaat?!

I want more!

Lyrics

August 18, 2010
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These are on my mind (and my player) lately.

They wanna keep us down
But they can’t last
When we get up we’re gonna kick your ass

Van Canto – Kings of Metal (Manowar cover)

The clans are marching ‘gainst the law
Bagpipers play the tunes of war
Death or glory I will find
Rebellion on my mind

Van Canto – Rebellion (Grave Digger cover)

I left my baby and it feels so bad
Guess my race is run
She’s the best girl that I ever had

The Clash – I fought the law
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Tired nonstop

August 18, 2010
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Last night we went out to have fun on the beach, then after we came back we just talked and drank for a while. I wasn’t as fresh in the morning as i would’ve wanted…

Nevertheless i got my student id copied and sent to the travel company for the chinese ferry ticket. Of which, even this way, it’ll take days to get just a confirmation of, and i’m not exactly jolly about that, because my schedule for getting the visa will get a bit too tight.

After that i went for my usual round in the gym and the running tracks, in the hottest blaze of the Sun it was totally refreshing. I thought i’ll just collapse, but luckily that didn’t happen.

Just had time for a quick lunch and i had to go back for band practice, which took pretty much twice as long as i’d have thought, but at least it was fun. Then we had a band dinner and since then i’m just fighting my urge to sleep.

Oh, and translated this week’s Xros Wars episode as well. And almost tore my shorts.

To read

August 16, 2010
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Just a few minutes ago i read another short story in the Neil Gaiman book Smoke and Mirrors. And after i was done with it, i realised what i like a lot in a book. It’s when it makes me dream. That while i’m reading i can see the story, as if i was there, as if i was the narrator himself, in the book’s world.

It’s not only Gaiman, there are plenty of books that are such. Actually, most of those i read were like that. It doesn’t mean it’s a great story or carries a grand message, it’s just that the book is entertaining. I could go on with examples, but there’s simply too many.

It’s such a nice feeling when i’m walking on the corridors of Hogwarts or checking out the underground cavern in Bod’s graveyard, and even though i’m aware that i’m sitting on a train (even if while reading i stand up so that an elder lady could sit down) or on the toilet, the shriek of the Ringwraith or the final appearance of the Hound of Baskervilles can make me shiver to the bone.

I wish i could write like that.

Newbie

August 13, 2010
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Last weekend i finally managed to build my new computer. It’s really nice. My goal was to build one that will be able to run StarCraft 2 without problems, and even after years it won’t get all that slow. I think i managed.

  • AMD Phenom II X4: quadcore beauty, for teh power
  • 4GB Corsair DDR3 memory
  • Gigabyte 880G motherboard: micro ATX, because that’s what i planned, even if it turned out different
  • Saphire Radeon HD5670: not the strongest, but just what i need
  • Western Digital CaviarBlue 1TB HDD: don’t really need that much space, but it was sooo cheap…
  • LG Flatron 21.5″: for widescreen entertainment—it’s huge and bright
  • plus a Logicool wireless mouse+keyboard, Sanwa woodbox speakers, Zalman CPU cooler, GMC case

I installed Windows 7 and Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, just as it was on the laptop. With Wendy‘s help i already migrated all my documents, music and video, just some programming stuff and the server root is left. And yeah, StarCraft 2 runs without much problem.

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Starbucks Africa Kitamu

August 13, 2010
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Starbucks’ Africa Kitamu coffee is said to be this complex and that citrusy (apparently the marketing people at Starbucks have some stats that coffee labelled “citrusy” sells better, as every second type of whole bean coffee is marked that), but i’d rather put it simply as delicious. True, that alone wouldn’t make much of an advertising i guess. It’s smooth and bold, and the flavours are really complex. At least multi-layered.

Has a touch of cocoa, has a splash of the charcoalish roastedness i love so much, but it’s neither that bold nor over-roasted. They say Africa Kitamu matches well with citrus fruits, and it’s true. Having a glass of my usual grapefruit-orange juice mix before-after my mug of coffee really makes it taste even better.

I’ve read a few critiques about it, and even for people who usually don’t like coffee or only drink it with milk and sugar, Africa Kitamu is something they can drink and enjoy without problem. Too bad it’s not easy to get. Give it a try nevertheless.

Summer Sonic 2010 (day one)

August 11, 2010
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Summer Sonic is one of the best summer fests for foreigners. (Because most of the others are pretty much japanese bands only.) Although i haven’t been there last year (went home instead), this year i couldn’t help it. Especially when i saw Dream Theater and Coheed and Cambria in the lineup. Those two bands alone would worth the roughly 15000 yen entry fee.

It was held on Maishima, an island of Osaka. The train station was much farther from the location though – it took a 20 minute shuttle bus ride (thus 800 yen plus) to get there. The area of the festival was much different from what i got used to. It wasn’t closed at all – they only checked the wristbands at the entrances of the stage areas. Even there… Well i’d say a cunning person with a printer could pull it off without much problem. This is how the wristband looks (plastic). (Also, my pink spot is visible too – a drop of bbq sauce fried me there a while ago in Kyoto.)

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The Thing, part 2

August 5, 2010
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Since today all parts i ordered but the memory modules arrived, i decided to try to put it all together. It was not fun. First, it was damn hard to put the cooler on the cpu, but after a long time of trying and many cuts on my hand, i managed. Then i wanted to install the video card, and lucky i did. It turned out the case i got is a bit too “slim”, meaning just the card is taller than how wide the case is. Troublesome. Whatever, i’ll return it and get another tomorrow, since i’m going Osaka anyway.

What i could get to work was the screen. It’s huge. And it’s very bright (a bit too bright compared to my laptop so i’m still trying to figure out how to decrease brightness – edit since then i found the control buttons hidden on the screen so now my eyes are not burning out). And did i say it’s huge?

Also, i’m right now typing on the new keyboard and using the new mouse. The keyboard will need a bit of tweaking, because it’s japanese layout so even if i hack a hungarian layout on it there’ll be missing keys. There are a few unassigned keys anyway so i’ll figure somehow.

And tomorrow, yeah tomorrow i think i’ll get it all together.

Punks at 大津 B♭ live house

August 4, 2010
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Friday afternoon there was a really nice punk rock party at the B♭ (B-flat) live house in Otsu, just about an hour by train from here. It was organised by Spike (スパイク), a local (?) punk band. Because i had an exam in the afternoon i was roughly half an hour late compared to the official start time, but actually i just arrived a few minutes before the first band would start to play.

The problem is, that except for Saboten and Spike, i had no idea who are playing at the moment. Apparently mostly everyone in the crowd knew all of them, so they didn’t see the need to introduce themselves—i only recognised Saboten because in an mc the (ex-)bassist-vocalist (he apparently has problems with his wrist so he stopped playing the bass) referred to themselves by name, and Spike because every other band said Spike’d be the last, and they were.

Most of the bands played fast and energetic punk rock. There were eight bands altogether, Saboten, Garlic boys, Shachi, Tac, Spike, the all-(cute-)girls Kurikinton (くりキントン), Lagoazul and Highmount 40. From six pm, they played straight till eleven, so by the end i was pretty tired, but it was really fun. (Also i’ve seen ads that Maximum the Hormone will be playing there in august, naturally in the few days when i’ll be at Okinawa. Just my luck.)