November 4th, 2005 §
Having found a fourth for our Vampire rendevous, we gathered on Wednesday night for a little beer drinking and character creation. Which is to say, the dorks have risen and are playing Vampire: The Requiem. What the hell is that, you ask? According to the site:
“It is a Modern Gothic Storytelling game, a roleplaying game that allows you to build chronicles that explore morality through the metaphor of vampirism. In Vampire, you play the monster, and what you do as that monster both makes for an interesting story and might even teach you a little about your own values and those of your fellows.”
Modern Gothic. Which means that the events take place in the here and now, post 9/11 in the midst of terrorism, globalization, and outsourcing. Vampires however, with their impressive centenarian-on-steriods status, seem to have resisted the waves of modernization and organize themselves around a feudal society infrastructure. The densest concentration of vampires can be found in major cities (natch), each of which is ultimately ruled by a Prince. According to our Storyteller, Princes keep to their territory and don’t try to gain more power and influence by ruling additional cities.
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October 31st, 2005 §
One evening a couple months ago the doorbell rang, and being the ever intrepid gaijin I went to see what Japan had delivered to our doorstep. Usually the doorbell heralds one of three things; someone from the apartment downstairs in need of computer help, our landlord collecting the monthly neighborhood tax, or the delivery of a package (my favorite). But this time is was something new! A representative from NHK (the Japan Broadcasting Corporation)!
Obeying the masochistic urge welling up inside of me, I opened the door to see what form our communication would take and if I could decipher heads or tails of why he was at our door. After waving around several pamphlets and asking if we had a television he said, “You have to pay, don’t you know?” Blinking several times I told him I’d talk to my husband and ended the very confusing interchange that never would have occurred had I simply not answered the door. I told kzi what happened, and we surmised that the NHK representative was just trying to muscle me into an NHK subscription with his English phrasing. The pamphlet wound up in the garbage and I haven’t thought about it since.
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October 11th, 2005 §
So I finally got around to taking a few pictures of our bare but warmly lit apartment (click here for the set).
All rooms are represented somewhat accurately, except for Auz’s room which is not represented at all, because, well, it is not warmly lit. Don’t be fooled by my mad optic skill(z), our apartment is quite small, though I do feel confident with my portrayal of how much furniture we really don’t have.
October 2nd, 2005 §
On Thursday kzi and I took a magical trip to the Kakegawa Kacho-en, a bird and flower park boasting several greenhouses filled with magnificent plants and birds. “Oh, like a zoo,” you think, but nay! Better than a zoo! From the website:
“We feature a variety of birds and species which belong to owls, parakeets, toucans, penguin, emu and waterfowls etc. Most of the birds (except owls) are unleased and fly free within the huge greenhouses. Do not hesitate to touch them! You can even feed them directly from your hand! Perfect satisfaction is guaranteed to all the people who truly love birds and nature.”
As someone who truly loves birds and nature, I can testify that yes, perfect satisfaction is indeed guaranteed. Is it possible for anyone to be unsatisfied after touching a penguin, feeding emus, and being accosted by an endless succession of small yellow parrots? In order to avoid a rather bland step-by-step narration in the style of family photo albums that will utterly fail at conveying my excitement and wonder for the bird park, I’ll just post a couple photos and a few words for each. The remainder of the photos will wind up as a photoset on Flickr (note: there is currently only a placeholder for the Kacho-en).
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September 27th, 2005 §
A little over a month ago I made a quickie-post on my Free Speech blog that made brief mention of a wiki for direct action, and a torrent site curated specifically for the activist crowd. In this post I’d like to flesh out those ideas more in as non-technical a way as possible. Where specific technologies are involved, I’ll do my best to offer an explanation of why the technology is important to the fundamental ideas of what I’m brainstorming. I’d like to emphasize that I’m at the brainstorming stage, so you might run into some half-baked (or not baked at all) ideas, inconsistencies and the like, so please don’t flame me if x doesn’t exactly make sense in light of y. Without further ado, let’s delve into the world of wikis, torrents, and useful content.
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September 16th, 2005 §
The evenings are beginning to cool off, which means that Chapter One: pnts and kzi vs. Murphy’s Law and Japan[1] is drawing to a close. It was chapter of epic proportions in which we saw our heroes move halfway across the world, engage in mighty battles with the most formidable of bureaucratic systems, dodge deportation and food poisoning, discover innovative ways of using clothing for pillows and blankets, dance lithely between pronounced cultural differences, obtain gruesome facial wounds, and drink lots of beer.
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September 15th, 2005 §
It’s been one year since kzi and I were married…
Definitely not the best scan, but proof positive that I bought kzi for cheap. I think Colorado might be the cheapest (and easiest) state to get married in. Due to kzi’s work schedule we haven’t celebrated yet, though I did receive Silent Hill 4 simply by virtue of being me.
Apologies for the drive-by post, this evening finds me exhausted and… terse, if you will.
August 16th, 2005 §
It tastes like soap but the install is pretty simple…
August 14th, 2005 §
Accessorizing my keitai completes me.
I purchased my first keitai accessory at the Central Japan International Airport while waiting for the Asiana Airlines counter to open. If you can’t tell from the picture, that’s Hello Kitty with a sake drum and a sake cup. I purchased my second keitai accessory at the Incheon National Airport in Korea - Hello Kitty wearing some traditional Korean gear. Pictures forthcoming.
August 1st, 2005 §
A few key bits of information you will need for the following post:
1) For various reasons all too boring and complex to get into, kzi is currently in possession of legal status with a temporary vistor visa and I am currently illegal, for overstaying mine and having a new replacement passport sans any kind of documentation.
2) Neither of us currently have gaijin cards. Gaijin cards are supposed to be carried at all times by any non-nationalized foreigner. When kzi went to Korea several months ago to renew his visitor visa status, the officials at the airport took his gaijin card before he left the country. And I lost mine. We have been planning on re-applying after our upcoming trip to Korea (August 9th - 11th) after obtaining working visas.
Got all that? Visa status and lack of gaijin cards? Onwards and upwards…
The day began with an innocent search for internet substitutes until we get a real connection at the apartment [1]. Correction: the day began with me crying and flipping out because I’ve been without constant net access for way too long and my brain is liquifying and running out of my ears. Then came the hunt for internet substitutes. We found a passable option with a wireless usb card synced up to the cell networks for delivery of data. Unfortunately, without a Japanese credit card or a slew of other documents *and* a gaijin card, there was no way the helpful uniformed employees were going to allow us to make our purchase. So we decided to go and register for our gaijin cards a little sooner than expected.
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