Kimura’s blog

November has come

2009-11-08T09:39:09Z

It's that time of the year.

It won't be of much concern for the unfortunate souls who are not gamers, but most of the game publishers from the West, particularly America, have this strange fixation that every big-name title HAS to come out in so-called Holiday season (which in their part of the world starts with Thanksgiving, I understand). So there is this deluge of games coming out from November to January, mostly in November (and December).

This is clearly very stupid. One hot game coming out in August will completely dominate the fecking market, but I guess the suits are still under the impression that average gamers are 12 year olds who need their gift from grandma to buy games they want.

And this year's holiday season will just be crazy. There are so many titles that any sane gamer just can't miss. This will have seriously negative impact on my intellectual readings (I'm immensely enjoying reading "Descent into chaos" by Ahmed Rashid; if you have any passing interest in current Afghan conflict or the whole Islamic extremist movement, this is a must-read).

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Grandma sick

2009-11-02T10:04:12Z

This weekend is not that great as my grandmother apparently spit blood and there were some family-related activities. She's stable now. And the last two weeks I took care of some household appliance replacement frenzy (long and tedious story, don't ask). Good thing is, I'm actually good at this; you know, measuring stuff and space so they would fit, think how and where the power cable should go, etc. My meticulous, database-keeper side works pretty well in my office as well, though it disturbs me slightly- it's obviously a gift I inherited from my father, and I grew up hating my father.

But you know, coming to terms with your blood is one of those things you need to go through to "grow up".

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Quick update

2009-10-24T09:54:16Z

* On the train I'm reading: "The Appeal" by John Grisham

* At home I'm reading: "Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia" by Ahmed Rashid

* I'm watching: Cold Case season 3, NCIS season 4, Boston Legal season 4

* I'm listening to : "21st Century Breakdown" by Green Day

* I'm playing: Halo 3 ODST, Biohazard / Resident Evil 5

* Good film I saw recently: "Frost x Nixon"

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Quote of the week

2009-10-19T09:57:25Z

"Guerrilla warfare is Afghan's national sports."

Some expert dude on CNN program GPS, hosted by Fareed Zakaria

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Laughing Man Business Card Case

2009-10-16T14:06:26Z

Should you encounter someone who otherwise seems to be normal produce this business card case,

Laughing Man Card Case

You should

(a): Call Tokyo Metropolitan PD, saying you've got a tip for Major Motoko Kusanagi at Section-9.

(b): Check every electronic device on your person to make sure they haven't been hacked.

(c): Pretend you are too cool to know anything about Japanimation.

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Quote of the week

2009-10-14T12:31:54Z

"Charm is a way of getting the answer yes without asking a specific question."

Albert Camus

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Searching for a new keitai

2009-10-12T09:45:22Z

I need to change my keitai / cell-phone. I am not happy with my current one. Actually, I have been unhappy with it for quite a while, since I found out it's got the most ridiculous system to type English text mails, but I have put up with it, thinking it may just take more getting used to.

But no, it's not the question of getting used to, it's all about wrong software design.

See, when I want to write an English text and change from Japanese to English mode, by default I can ONLY WRITE IN UPPER CASE LETTERS. I need to either go to another menu to change to lower case letters, or hit a key for each letter I type. This crap is clearly designed by people who never actually write in English. (It's Docomo N902i, if anyone cares to know)

Moreover, this key I'm supposed to hit to make letters into lower case, is just below the "send" button. I have accidentally sent half-written texts because of this layout. Meh.

Actually, this is the only real complaint I have of my current keitai- I don't care about watching tv on it (why would I hurt my eyes over such a tiny screen??), and I can't use iPhone anyway as long as I stick with Docomo- though current models are way thinner and lighter, which may be good.

Problem is, very few people actually care how the English input mode is like before they make their purchase, so I doubt if those shop attendants could actually tell how it works. I have begun preliminary search, let's see what I can find..

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Oil exporters considering to stop using USD

2009-10-10T09:54:38Z

If you happen to frequent business-oriented news sites like Reuters or The Wall Street Journal, you may have come across this article; some middle eastern countries (I suspect they wanted to say OPEC) are considering to stop using American dollars for their oil export transactions. They want to introduce some sort of currency basket and, according to the article, they are already in secret negotiations with central banks from EU, Japan, China and Russia.

Some American "experts" immediately fired off comments saying there are all kinds of technical difficulties for them to implement such move; but you know, technical difficulties are not the essential problem, those are the stuff they can hire experts to figure out if they have really made the decision to ditch USD.

I'm no currency expert (therefore you shouldn't rely on this post to make any kind of investment decisions), but even the fact that the news like this comes up is another sign of the slow decline of the American dollars as the world's de facto standard currency. It's not like it will go down the drain overnight, but a decade from now, it's probably not enjoying the position it is enjoying today. (You may want to read Fareed Zakaria's fascinating book called "Post-American World". He basically says that, while the U.S. succeeded in globalizing the world, it has failed to globalize itself.)

According to this certain study, in 2050 the world's biggest economy will be China, with the U.S. as No.2. And where Japan would be? No. 8. Surpassed by Brazil, Russia, and India. You know, there was this article on News Week that really struck me, comparing Japan in Asia to Austria in Europe; it said, like Austria, Japan will most like follow the path of slow decay and decline, once powerful and important, now living on memory and nostalgia, so to speak. You could say this view is now the basis of how I see Japan as the country and where the Japanese society is going in general.

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Quote of the week

2009-10-09T13:12:37Z

"You are your own worst enemy."

"Restless Heart Syndrome" from the album 21st Century Breakdown by Green Day

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Chanel, brunette and my nerd cred in peril

2009-10-04T10:00:27Z

Okay, I have been meaning to blog one thing that's 'fit to print' here during the 5-day weekend in September but I haven't- mainly because I have many other stuff going down IRL yo (yeah, although I have time to write complete nonsense in Japanese a while ago, I know:-).

I have been wanting to get me a new perfume/ eau de toilette/ whatever (is there a correct term for perfume for men??). I used to wear Givenchy's Ultramarine, but I have come to believe it no longer suits me; its fragrance is like, "Look! I'm all clean, young and bouncing around for no good reason! Yay!" It no longer represents where I'm at in my life. I need something more, you know, grown-up, sexier and more intelligent (I'm not saying that's what I am; I'm only saying I want to pretend I am:-).

The problem is, me finding the right perfume in a department store is as tough a mission as those fashionistas and Gwen Stefani fangirls hanging out in Harajuku going over to Akihabara to buy enough parts to build up a brand-new Core i-7 PC from scratch. It's not impossible, but it will take huge amount of effort.

So I got in touch with a Japanese female friend of mine who's been buying her own perfume since she was 14, and asked if she'd help me out. She said buy me a dinner. I said no problem.

We went to Shinjuku and made a tour in Isetan and Takashimaya. Since this was not really my familiar territory, I watched and learned how you were supposed to behave. She told me many interesting things about perfume in general. We picked three, nailed down to two, and I ended up wearing each on my wrist and walking around (scent is designed to change over time as it evaporates from your skin temperature). We talked this and that, checked how they smelled, and eventually decided the best pick was- Chanel.

I was secretly suppressing my grin as I went back to their booth and made my purchase; a complete geek like me admiring their Keira Knightley poster (she looks so much better there, but I guess it's easier to look better when not wearing some pirate clothes and wielding swords:-) and nonchalantly making small conversations with their shop attendant like I belonged there.

Or maybe I should change how I see myself. Maybe I do belong there, as well as still being a complete nerd. I am an anomaly, embodiment of contradiction. Hmm. Something I need to chew on, I guess.

Anyway, from now on my official perfume/ eau de toilette/ whatever will be : Chanel Allure Homme: Edition Blanche (I failed to ask why it's called 'white edition':-). I really like it.

As promised we went to eat in an Italian place. Somehow the conversation turned to Gossip Girl because we came across a poster for DVD during our shopping (I have watched the drama but never read the books; she's read all the books but haven't watched the drama). She asked who I think was the hottest among the cast. I said Blair. She laughed and said, Oh Kimura, your brunette again. I was like WTF? Then she pointed out every female actor/ model/ whatever I say is hot is always brunette, never blond. (I have known her since my university days)

Really. Then I started to think of my personal pick of three hottest ladies on screen;

No. 1: Juliette Binoche in "Damage" (Many people would think Juliette Binoche as the muse of Leos Carax, but for me this Luis Malle film captures her at her absolute moment of hotness)

No. 2: Irene Jacob in "La double vie de Veronique" (I'm almost convinced Kieslowski shot this movie just to record her beauty:-)

No.3: Eva Green in "007: Casino Royale": (which by the way was the only James Bond film that I thought was good)

... Looks like she's right:-) Although in real life, I don't really care about the color of someone's hair...

And by the way, everything in this post is seriously not helping me boost my nerd cred:-( I need to geek myself up! (^o^)

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