18 posts tagged “personal reflections”

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Someone is watching over me !?

My kind neighbor jaklumen (oh wait, I'm afraid I forgot to add him to my 'hood; sorry! I will soon as I finish writing this) let me know that my recent post has made it to the Vox feature page (where you get "[something] is good" thing and some links to people's posts). I'm not sure the post in question deserves the honor, I was kind of typing out what was going through my head (namely, about how often I seem to end up wondering what that Russian dialogue means when I'm playing a video game, and about if this was a secret conspiracy to encourage more people in the world to learn Russian language). I'm pretty sure many people are writing more informative and interesting pieces... But hey, I'm not complaining:-)

Then I stopped and thought. I seem to recall my posts have been featured up there before; I may be missing some because I don't usually check that page (sorry Vox webmasters; I usually just update my blog or check what my neighbors are up to, sometimes I only do either of those two), but let's see, what I wrote about those burgers getting smaller, and a post about more people are willing to give up (at least a part of) their privacy to gain more security (or at least, feeling of security), and there was one more I think but I can't remember what that was. So- 3, 4 times at least? Is this many or few? Feels kinda many to me. And it's not like I post everyday.

So now I'm thinking: maybe at least one of the Vox Overlords is a regular here and reading my blog on, you know, regular basis! d(^o^)b Maybe I'm getting famous! Just kidding! :-P
It usually gets me uneasy when people's attention is on me; I prefer to hang back in the back and watch other people, studying their relations, how they interact with each other, and figure out who's kissing who's ass, who's the boasting type, who's got the real power/influence over the others, etc. But hey, unread blog is like a tree falling down that no one hears, right? (^o^)

... Or maybe I should start writing about how boring I am and see if that affects my chance of being featured up there :-P

Anyway the point is; if you are reading this, thank you for the honor, and thank you for your hard work to keep Vox rocking, keep it up! d(^o^)b

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Ain't dead yet yo

Just checking in and seeing what's happening in my 'hood...


Been away from my computer this week as my RL was kind of hectic. Be back soon.

BTW, am I the only one who's been thinking that those fecking burgers are getting smaller and smaller in Japan !?!?

4 comments Tags: me, personal reflections

Reading notes to myself

On "Foucault" by Gilles Deleuze...

* Apparently, my reading of Foucault has been unbalanced and not doing him full justice. I have never read "The Order of Things" but from how Deleuze puts it, it is the key book to Foucault's thinking...

* "What is describable" and "What is observable" are quoted as key, conflicting notions in Foucault's philosophy. I should be referring to his original work to fully grasp what he means by these two terms, but I find it hard to think of observable things that can't be described in words. Maybe this is my reading Wittgenstein. When someone talks about things beyond logic of word and language I think of the abstract, notions and ideas, not something that can be observed with naked eye (or any other optical means).

* Or maybe it's the translation problem (I'm reading this book in Japanese edition)

* In Foucault's view Power does not lie in certain bodies (government, king, etc) but rather in the relationship in which it manifests itself. This reminds me of Antonio Negri, though I can't be sure if he actually mentioned such thing in his books. 

* "History of Madness". Insanity was not there in the first place, it was rather "invented" by society and people's perception over the years (and changes in social order etc). Reminds me of Jean Genet when he wrote there were originally no Palestinians, but the invasion and occupation of Israel made them Palestinians (before then, according to Genet, there were just bunch of tribes and villages). 

* In modern society, Power doesn't control through oppression, but rather through seemingly open, transparent environment in which one is led to believe to be "free" to do what s/he wants.

* How come philosophers have to write in such a way to make everything sound even more complicated than necessary?? Meh. (> _ <)
1 comment Tags: books, philosophy, personal reflections

In-the-office affairs, extramarital or not

You know, you can't seriously expect to have an affair/ relationship in your office without anyone knowing about it. It just is not possible. It's probably the fastest-moving news that ever goes down those unofficial channels that real information would go to and fro. (Aside from lay-off rumors, that is.)


Also I can't understand why some people are so convinced that extramarital affairs are very rare thing. From what I know, it's quite common and is happening more often than they would like to think. So naturally, any news of extramarital affair happening in the office goes Warp Five in those channels. 

But hey, what do I know; I'm only preparing for the impending Zombie Apocalypse.

1 comment Tags: work, personal reflections

Twitter-like sit-rep

Current stuff:


Book I'm reading on train; "The Witcher: The Last Wish" by Andrzej Sapkowski

Book I'm reading at home: "Foucault" by Gilles Deleuze 

Game I'm playing: Prototype (on Xbox 360)

Music I'm listening to right this moment: The Phantom of the Opera (It's on tv)

Thing on my mind: Kieslowski retrospective film festival in Tokyo




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There will be bloo... I mean, books

It came to my attention that, in this blog, all I post about are games, movies, anime, tv dramas, hot ladies on tv shows, random quotes, and penis observations- people out there may be thinking that Yours Truly is an idiot:-P


And given the fact that I'm more obsessed with books than games (seriously- I grew up in a family that banned comics, anime, and games), it's not right that I only write about the games I have played and don't write about the books I've read.

So, I will start posting about books. Some stuff I've just read, and also the ones I've read in the past and still feel pretty enthusiastic about. Not that I will stop writing about games and stuff, though. That's a part of me as well. (^o^)v

2 comments Tags: me, personal reflections

In my (not so) secret life

I didn't think this was unique, but apparently it kind of is; I watch some dramas that are mainly focused on female viewers as target audience. Not everything, but for example I have watched Sex and the City from back to back- every single episode:-) I even watched the movie version! (though I have to say it wasn't as good as the drama) Does that sound strange? 

I like SATC for the good dialogues- I have fetish for well-written dialogues. (However I only watched the first episode of Ugly Betty- didn't really grab me) Characters are interesting and it's fun, so why not?
See, in a way guys are biased here. I know women who love watching tv shows like 24, Criminal Minds or CSI. They also watch SATC. So it's not really like there are "guys only" show and "women only" show. I don't see why guys should miss out. Or rather, I don't see why guys should be saying to hisself like, "I am a guy, therefore I'm not supposed to watch -let alone enjoy- what's supposed to be chick stuff." That's lame, man. You are missing out on some cool entertainment out there. 
And when I think about it, I have more female friends than male friends and that may have to do with this attitude. I have no problem watching first Battlestar Galactica, then The Sopranos, then Gossip Girl, then I don't know, Friends or whatever. 
The way I see it, I'm getting more out of my CATV than those narrow-minded dudes. Muhahahaha.

5 comments Tags: battlestar galactica, sopranos, men, tv drama, personal reflections, guy thing, gossip girls …

Mirror's Edge and Japanese mentality over new/ foreign stuff

So I found this game Mirror's Edge in a bargain bin. This may not mean much to non-gamers who have no idea what this game is, but Mirror's Edge made a lot of noise on the scene last year. The game is about Parkour/ freerunning; you get to run and jump all over the skyscrapers, doing crazy stunts and stuff, in first person view. It's one of those ideas that made people say, "why hasn't anyone thought of this before!?". It's got some flaws but it's such a new/ radical experiment it should be noted for its inventiveness. At least, that's what I read about it.


You may be thinking "but I don't know what Parkour is", but if you have seen 007: Casino Royale, you already do. Remember early on in the movie, Bond chases this guy carrying a bomb in his backpack all over a construction site? Jumping through windows and stuff? That's pretty much it. (look up the word on YouTube for some very cool clips)

Anyway, I was surprised to find it in a bargain bin. Bargain bin, naturally, is where you find rather crappy stuff (or way outdated stuff). The game was pretty well-talked about and, it may not be a big hit, but it shouldn't end up there so early.
But on second thought, it made sense when I thought about Japanese mentality; see, there's a big difference in how people take the brand new, next big thing, especially compared to the American mentality. Americans tend to consider new stuff to be "potentially good, even better than the old". Japanese tend to consider new stuff to be "potentially bad, even worse than what's out there". So generally, the Japanese prefer to stick to tried and true stuff they are familiar with. (even if they are outdated, or something more exciting is out there)
I'm not saying everyone is like that, or there's no "early adopters" in Japan, but in general, people tend to be more cautious over something new and unfamiliar. It's not just about games but general tendency (I think).

Also, Japanese gamers have this conviction that, only the Japanese developers can make games that the Japanese gamers enjoy. (this as you can see goes into a vicious circle; you don't try foreign-developed games because you think it's not good for you. Therefore, it remains something new. Since you are Japanese and naturally cautious of something new, any title that a decent gamer of any nationality should be trying- be it Half-Life 2, Gears of War, whatever- remains something new and foreign. So you have every reason to be suspicious. You end up picking up, say, some rather crappy game but has familiar names attached; like Final Fantasy, anything by SquareEnix, etc.)

Again I'm not saying every Japanese is like that (Yours Truly is the living exception to this :-), but I think the tendency is still there. I think people should be more willing to take chances with stuff like these.
... But then again, thanks to their being overly cautious and suspicious of anything foreign, I got this cool game at incredibly cheap price. I guess I shouldn't be complaining (^ ^)v

Post a comment Tags: game, japan, personal reflections, mirrors edge

The age of over self-exposure

I guess I'm old-fashioned when it comes to privacy, or what belongs to "private region" in terms of what I blog about. Seriously, I wouldn't feel comfortable writing about my, you know, relationship and stuff. Sure it's fun to read other people's love affairs and hookups, but I'm not sure if I would be doing that. (but then again, maybe it's just my initial inhibition- once I start I might turn this blog into male version of Anais Nin's diaries:-)

I don't have much problem for people knowing which book I'm reading and which game I'm playing and all... (^o^)

1 comment Tags: personal reflections

Something's around the corner

I can watch cherry blossoms right outside my window. Literally. Cherry trees are just in front of balcony. I tried taking a few pictures for this blog, but they just come out wrong and don't catch the beauty that I'm seeing. I guess Keitai camera is not up for the job. Good thing about cell-phone cam is I can just put it up on Vox without doing any editing or anything... :-P


Anyway. I have been feeling strange. See, my life always moved with phases. This is probably why I have never had so-called "life long friend". each phase would last about four years, give or take, and then something happens and my life take a new turn. Things change. I change. My behavior/ way of thinking change either a bit or once quite radically.
I'm kind of feeling that the end of this current phase in my life is getting closer. It's been fifth year in my current phase, so to speak, so it's not really a surprise. This phase has been kind of a "status-quo", kind of peaceful and okay, though may not be too dramatic or exciting.
Which has been just fine, since the phase before that was quite rocky, depressing and hard. I call it my "What's eating Gilbert Grape" phase when I try to explain it to somebody who didn't know me back then (I was like Johnny Depp in that movie, but without that married lady to hook up with). Long story. I might write about it in here someday.

So maybe something rocky, depressing and hard is coming my way. Or maybe this time, the change is more psychological and it just takes place inside of me. Who knows? I would have to just wait and see.

3 comments Tags: me, life, personal reflections