Tag: english

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.)

The weekend

August 3, 2010
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Saturday i was certainly doing something, i just can’t really recall what. I had to be doing something. Oh yeah, i was trying to study, but then i realised that i lost my notes. All of them. I possibly left it in the desk at the friday japanese exam. The problem is, i couldn’t find it anywhere where usually lost stuff pop up (various offices etc), so for today’s exams i had to learn from the book and from other’s notes. Managed.

Anyway, saturday evening suddenly the indian friend from Nagoya popped up just like that. After doing the remaining english homework due that evening in a rush, we went for dinner and then to karaoke till morning. After just a few (1) hours of sleep, i picked up my pieces and set off again. I was meeting with a few other hungarians from the Kansai region, and the six of us first went to a buddhist temple in hopes of jumping into the lake as a part of a ceremony. But due to an accident last year, only monks are allowed to jump now, so we just watched the immensely interesting ceremony and then the monks jumping/falling into the lake.

After that we went to the beach, had fun… then on the way back home got lost, but hitchhiked back to the nearest station. After that i came home, ran off to watch the fireworks, then ended up drinking with club friends and dorm people till late. No need to say how overhung i was on monday…

Apple quality

July 29, 2010
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Let me say this first: i’m not an Apple fanboy (though i do enjoy occasionally eating one, i especially like the light sourness of green apple) and i have an iPod because that was the best choice among mp3 players, but no other Apple products. Nor have i used any computers of their brand, not more than a few clicks.

I was just wondering what’s the big deal about the grand Apple quality. I somehow can’t see it. I bought my laptop used, and it was already old then, and yet i have absolutely no hardware problems, no visible dead pixels on the screen, no motherboard failures, nothing. It works, though it’s a five year old model now, so it’s slow like hell.

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Starbucks Oceanside Blend

July 29, 2010
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Starbucks Oceanside blend is a fresh coffee, but much bolder than Tanzania. The ground beans have a very faint smell of something sweet, maybe cocoa, which also gives the ready brew a fuller, almost creamy nice steam.

And it tastes good. The Oceanside blend is labelled to be bold, which is still light and refreshing for me, but indeed is much bolder than Tanzania. Once i had tasted all the coffees Starbucks offers, Oceanside blend will be one of my first choices (along Italian blend and Verona) to have a go with again. It tastes sweet and full like chocolate, and at the same time roasted like popcorns and stingy fresh as if it met a slice of lemon somewhere. Not to mention its label looks nice, a good design.

You should definitely give it a try.

Emo? Not really…

July 27, 2010
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Now in the evening i’m tired, and just as a baby cries and stuff when he’s sleepy, so i get very easy to get pissed off. And i’ve been listening to Nirvana all afternoon because my files were mistagged and i’ve to get back the play count on last.fm. What i concluded is really simple: emos, you’re doing it wrong.

So many of emos claim that their way of thinking is originated from Kurt Cobain and the grungy lyrics of Nirvana. It’s not. Emo kids were screwed up way before they first heard and could appreciate the greatness of Nirvana. They were mentally damaged by the constant flow of those hideous fantastic sad love songs from the radios in the ’90’s (and any other time as well, but seems Chernobil had its effects worldwide). I heard it too, but i rather had fun listening to kid tapes by the Smurfs.

Kurt Cobain and his pals in Nirvana wrote great songs. The Nevermind album only, not counting all of their other songs (even though i’d feel bad if i didn’t mention Lake of Fire in a post related to Nirvana) is worth more than the whole dozen-disc discographies of other artists. The songs might be depressing for some, not for me though, but still, cutting yourself and looking gay is not the way to express your dissatisfaction and/or sadness. When Kurt Cobain went sad panda, he wrote In Utero, but when that didn’t work, he just put a shotgun in his mouth and pulled the trigger. (Disclaimer: i didn’t check what kind of weapon it was or where he was shot, nor do i consider the possibility of Courtney Love or anyone killing him now.) I do suggest that instead of showing off with your scars on your wrists try following that example. (Disclaimer: i do not encourage suicide or suicide attempts or damaging oneself, also any similarity between this post and reality is purely coincidental.)

Trip

July 27, 2010
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Plans are, i’m going to Okinawa (main island) for a week or so in the end of august (0825~0901). If anyone wants to tag along, hurry up because the plane tickets are selling out faster than StarCraft 2 (which i’ll be getting in a matter of days, because due to the exams i couldn’t play for a week now anyway).

Also, just a few days after that, i’m planning to go China, mostly Shanghai. I don’t know if i’ll be able to go to Beijing as well, i hope so. It’ll be decided in a few days anyway… Again, i’m looking for people who want to come along, naturally any chinese language knowledge would be greatly appreciated as i speak totally and absolutely no chinese, though i might be able to figure out the very rough meaning of the half of a written text.

These are my summer plans, for most of it. Maybe also Tokyo for one or two days, so i could buy myself some cheap cheese and meet “old friends”. Also there will be a club trip to somewhere in late september and i’ll be going home for christmas, and also to the school ski trip sometime in february, but that’s still far, far away.

No effect

July 26, 2010
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I realized that tho for a while the Mintia Dry Hard mzs/x senpai suggested worked as expected, by now i pretty much got used to caffeine. That means that if i have one of that candy (?) in hopes of waking my brain up, it has no effect, but when it finally wears out, i fall back down and the sleepiness gets even worse. So i decided to restrict myself to coffee, although coffee hasn’t been able to keep me awake for about a year now, maybe some hidden placebo effect will.

I’ll need it. Six exams in the coming eight days, one of which is a core subject and beside that three more will probably be crazy difficult if not impossible to score well. I’m looking forward to getting over with them.