Hindsight

Hi JP.

Papa got your ticket and will send it tomorrow Saturday via PRIORITY MAIL
ADDRESS TO YOUR APARTMENT

ITENIRARY:

JULY 28, 2003 - MONDAY

THAI AIRWAYS INTL ECONOMY

LV TOKYO NARITA - 11:00AM
DEPART: TERMINAL 2
ARRIVE BANKOK 3:30 PM
ARRIVE: TERMINAL 1

E-MAIL IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS….LUV U—-MOM

Viva granted me access to his VCD of Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” so I watched it this evening. It turned out to be a gorgeous film. Fluid fighting (never enough but then again never too much either) and a moving story and soundtrack. The use of slow motion never seems quite overdone - it’s all quite the poetry in motion.

I realized later after doing an imdb.com search that Yimou is responsible for “The Road Home” and “Happy Times” - both are films I’ve been wanting to see.

I just did a double take reading user comments at imdb - someone had the same thoughts and observations that I had while “Hero” progressed: I thought to myself “…Rashomon”.

Rashomon is Akira Kurosawa’s film that was probably recently adapted as a modern tale through Edward Zwick’s “Courage Under Fire”. The same event is told from the three characters involved. Each perspective is different. The same happens similarly in “Hero”.

I suppose after seeing the same, predictable Hollywood movie, seeing recent films like “Solaris” and “Hero” are extremely refreshing and, more importantly, challenging.

While I’m at it, I noticed that imdb lists Wong Kar Wai’s next film, “2046“, as in post-production. I’m curious to see what his next work is - I still need to see “In the Mood for Love”.

It hasn’t stopped with films. I am still addicted to Beck’s “Sea Change” album. Undoubtedly a downer, it’s so beautiful I can’t help but listen to it over and over. Lonesome Tears and Lost Cause are undeniably infectious.

Yesterday when Takashi sensei pulled out a CD to show us I tried to remember why the name on it sounded familiar. George Winston. And then I realized that he was on the Windham Hill records label - publishers of instrumental and piano works.

When I was in junior high school I used to listen to 94.7 on the FM dial. At the time it was simply called “The Wave” and they played new age and ambient music. Although I was 13, some of my friends could not understand why I liked instrumental and new age music so much. They just thought I was weird.

Years later they re-themed the station to play “smooth jazz”. I didn’t listen to the station anymore.

David Beckham has had a huge following here in Japan. For those of you who haven’t heard of him, he’s only the people’s favorite gaijin soccer figure here in Japan. He was a Manchester United soccer player that recently made a contract switch to Real Madrid.

You can tell from that last paragraph that I have no clue how to talk about soccer.

Takashi sensei’s get together today was fun. Food galore.

Among the many discussions he told us that the elementary school kids he taught recently called him “Bekkame”. “Bek- as the first syllable of David Beckham’s name and “Kame” because Takashi is Takashi Kameyama. Good times.

Today’s company included Dion, his friend Natasha, Livia and I. In addition, Maki, Steven and Marcus joined us. Dion and I knew Maki from the elementary school workshop we had to attend last year - Steven and Marcus were new faces but very, very cool fellows from Australia who we had a great time talking with.

The piano took center stage as Dion performed, among other things, Canon in D and his own personal creation. Later we found out that Marcus did singing and performing arts (among many, many other things) before coming to Japan. He gave the piano a try. We were treated to a great contemporary piece of music…. that he composed himself. I wanted to talk to him more, but I was in discussions of Japan with Natasha and later with Steven, Maki and Takashi sensei’s son Shun.

Shun just graduated to high school and still enjoys the good video game or two. He asked me (through Maki), “why is it called a video game? we call it terebi (TV) game”. I spent a foolish amount trying to explain why it was “video” and not “TV”. We went into a short discussion about why I thought Final Fantasy VIII was not good (different battle system from the others). He told me why he liked it (most other FF battle systems were too similar).

After the night was over, Takashi drove us up to a mountain in Wakamatsu. There were quite a few kids who had to have been drinking in the area, but they are (shall I say) mostly harmless.

The view was clear, beautiful.

Kitakyushu at night. Smokestacks were scattered about the cityscape. Towers filled up the rest. Hives of people. The most interesting thing that caught my eye were the smoke towers that I could only see because of the flashing strobes embracing them. My eyes panned the horizon and I noticed them - beacons of industry.

There are bits of writing sitting in a .txt file on my desktop, but I haven’t had the time to post them up.

As my time in Japan counts down I want to spend less time going to dinners, parties and the like. I guess I just like being with a small group of people - there doesn’t need to be some crazy hurrah.

Still, tonight I am off to Takashi sensei’s gathering for us. He was a soccer coach who invited us to his home last August.

We met him at an elementary school workshop at Kitakyushu University. Although he’s bit older he is very well in shape. Doesn’t smoke, doesn’t drink. A model father and a nice guy with a good sense of humor.

Hopefully I’ll have some pictures to share.

Before first period one sensei went into a mad rage - I was at my desk in the staff room when I heard it.

Whatever the issue, he was yelling at her in true, enraged Japanese fashion. Short bursts of words, like bullets. Piercing. Of course the poor girl was crying after much restraint. Sometimes I wish I could understand the context. But I’ve asked before and people don’t generally wish to explain. Then again, I’m not quite the insider.

Back home some other teacher at this point would probably say, “Hey, take it easy on her.” He’s only been yelling at her on and off since I left and came back after first period. From what I know, albeit little, she isn’t a troublemaker.

Maybe it’s not my problem. But I would still like to know.

Apple announced their new Powermac G5 computers. The new physical design of the G5 case is sexy as hell. It’s ultra-minimal. The inside looks like something off of an exposed panel on a deck of the Enterprise.

The cost for the systems isn’t all that bad either. I was expecting some crazy prices to show up.

But can you see it? I’m speaking like a convert and I don’t even own a Mac. I never have. Apple’s marketing department is very effective in causing a stir.

Steve Jobs says “…we’ve caught up with them on the PC… integer… floating point…. with real world apps”. And so on and so forth. In his keynote speech in San Francisco he brought about all the figureheads at development studios and what have you. It was all quite impressive and exciting. The G5 outdoes even the most powerful Windows desktop they have running.

He pushes the Apple brand even harder by talking about the past year and the 12″ powerbooks. “The smallest notebook in the world”.

He didn’t acknowledge all the very, very tiny laptops released here in Japan. The Sony U1, for example. The world is not the United States. Though it must be for most people back home.

Sony PCG-U101. I used to wonder, “why would I want something so small”. But even after being here for just ten months, I understand. Tiny. Really tiny. Put-in-your-shoulder-bag tiny.

The Powermac G5. “The World’s Fastest Desktop”… for now. It’s obvious that Windows competitors will edge up the speed at the end of the year if not later. It’s the neverending cycle.

Still… I wouldn’t mind owning an Apple. Time will tell how the initial batches of these Powermacs fare in the real world. I’m primarily interested in its video capabilities. From my previous job as a tech support rep, I know for a fact that troubleshooting Macs was pleasant. Dealing with a call about PCs was like trying to resurrect the dead. Everytime.

It’s exam week at Tahara JHS and I had no classes today. I decided to go through my ‘webwork’ folders to get rid of any extra files, screencaps, .PSDs and such. Lots of nostalgia came about as the process went on.

One of my former roommates, Joey, was studying for some final or other. He ended up writing that fine expletive pictured above. I pulled out my video camera since I didn’t have a digital still camera back then. Later I captured some pictures from a video box to my computer.

I found that picture among my archives.

I cleared out remnants of concept images, old documents that had no sympathetic value to me anymore and other tidbits of information. It’s all surreal to think that I’ve done that bit of webwork in the past three years. Lots of crappy clients and lots of good memories of workplaces where I used to deploy my poor web design. Ah, nostalgia.

The kids at school had three periods of tests. At 2:00pm, teachers were heading home. Morizono sensei offered to drive me to Shimosone station (tsuyu, or rainy season, is in full effect). I wasn’t going to refuse.

McDonald’s seems to be the “exotic escape” at the moment, at least from eating Japanese food. Don’t get me wrong - I love Japanese food. But this was my version of “having something different”.

Dion came by and we ended up talking a bit over dinner. Cheeseburger in his hand and chopsticks in mine. Using the mini tripod that Rosalyn lent me, I asked him if I could take a picture. He didn’t mind at all, so I put the 10 second timer on and we resumed talking.

He’s moving into an apartment 9 floors above me around the 14th, so he’ll actually be a neighbor of sorts about a week before I leave Kitakyushu. I’m glad.

My deepest condolensces go to Canny’s family and friends. Though I didn’t know her personally, I do know Eartha and I know how hard this must be.

The last time I talked to Eartha online she was reminiscing about the many good times she had with Canny. And I suppose this is the best way to approach such a sad event.

It’s hard to place myself right now. I found that many people left comments in the previous post about Canny’s disappearance. And, as such, the comments page became somewhat of a posting board for updates on progress regarding the whole investigation. I came home today to more postings.

I don’t know what more to say.

Nej posted about the release of his seventh geisha issue. I was fortunate enough to contribute a “page” to the issue.

Thanks, Nej.

I bought “Ocean Blue” last August when I arrived in Japan. I used it when I had the chance to pick up some Japanese releases and it served me well. Soon it will be in Sissie’s hands - its new owner.

Farewell, trusty console…

I opted for a combo bento of sorts today rather than my usual run of 1,000 yen sushi.

Here is the successor to Ocean Blue. Meet MB or Midnight Blue. It’s a Playstation 2 with a network adapter and hard disk drive already bundled.

PlayStation 2 broadband (BB) has started to get a push here. The 3 releases currently advertised include “Minna no Golf Online” (”Everyone’s Golf” or “Hot Shots Golf” as it’s known in the states), “Final Fantasy XI Online” and “Nobunaga Online”.

“Minna no Golf Online” (or MINGOL as it’s called for short) is enjoyable for those who can’t devote a lot of time towards online RPGs. I’ve already had a few sessions that were a lot of fun. Online play is free until July, when Sony will start charging a 500 yen a month subscription fee (roughly $4.00 US).

Included with the PS2 BB Pack is the latest version of its “BB Navigator” software, which is still in its infancy (version “0.20″) but shows what Sony has been planning to do all along, especially with their upcoming “PSX” media center.

The interface for the navi software is beautiful and, in my opinion, surpasses that of the XBox’s.

Without a game in the console, the system starts up and allows you to jump into the “channel” menu which offers the following channels:

Game
Movie
Music
Photo

Game is self explanatory - you can load up games that have been installed into the hard drive (in my case, “Minna no Golf Online”), manage save data, and so on.

I haven’t experimented with the Movie options that much other than play a DVD movie (which the PS2 has been able to do since its initial release).

Music. Just like the XBox, you can load up CDs and copy them to the hard drive via the music menu. In addition, if you have a NetMD minidisc player, you can hook it up directly to the PS2 via USB and dump the tracks straight to the MD - it’s available right from the menu.

Photo is where you can upload photos to your PS2 - I haven’t tried this but the option is there. Supposedly it supports most Sony digital still cameras off the bat.

While not a full fledged, net-surfing computer (*yet*) it’s easy to see where consoles are headed. Similar to the XBox, it’s not a bad package considering you have a solid video game system that can get online, take photos from a digital camera and send & receive e-mail. Maybe that’s all some consumers need until the next iteration of consoles.

What other kinds of features should we expect from consoles in the coming years?