Hindsight

I previously wrote about my Toshiba laptop’s hard drive. Last weekend, I was using my laptop when the display gave way to nothing. A black screen, followed by the formation of a nice white cloud, like this:

It’s time has definitely come and I’m selling the laptop on eBay.

You’d be surprised to see lots of broken electronics being sold on eBay, but it makes sense: tech savvy individuals who can repair the stuff can either use it or simply resell it on eBay or elsewhere. It’s a win-win situation really.

No, I’m not related to Kratos.

I don’t own a PS3, but Kevin does. A few weekends ago I finally finished Heavenly Sword. Also considered “God of War 2.5″ to me, Heavenly Sword builds upon the combat system that God of War brought to PS2 gamers. Once you get it, kicking ass with Nariko (the game’s protagonist) is rather fun.

The game is short… well, for those with a lot of time. It can be finished in about 6 hours or so. But what a great 6 hours… It’s got a fairly decent story, fun gameplay and excellent, poignant cinematics. I would like to wager that the cutscenes in the game rival that of Metal Gear Solid’s - the execution is solid. The soundtrack to the game is also catchy - as I played the game, I told Kevin, “this sounds a lot like… oh it is by him!” (maestro Nitin Sawhney). I’d really like to know if they will release a soundtrack on iTunes or elsewhere… I’d certainly pick it up.

Jade Raymond. Producer, Assassin’s Creed.

Quite a few people at work are on the hypewagon known as “Assassin’s Creed“. I’m not sure what all the business is about, but Jade Raymond might have something to do with male gamers on a subconscious level. I only tried a good ten minutes of the game (i.e. a tutorial), so I can’t speak about the game just yet.

Instead, I’m waiting for Mass Effect next week. I like shooter/hybrid RPGS (see Deus Ex) and science fiction. It might be a decent fit…

Earlier last week, I noticed that my laptop hard drive wasn’t accessing data as usual. Booting into XP took longer, running programs and accessing data took suspiciously long. Knowing how my hard drive “sounds”, I knew that something was up.

I took the cautious step of copying over all essential files and folders on the laptop over to an external hard drive two evenings ago. Yesterday, while transferring some last not-so-essential files, I got the classic BSOD. Over several reboots I witnessed the laptop crash upon loading into Windows, crashing before the interface even popped up and finally not even loading up at all (”Disk failure error”).

The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite 5105-S701 power laptop. It was purchased in 2002. The laptop had a rough start to begin with: it was purchased off Amazon.com and shipped from California to Japan (I was several months into the JET Programme). When it arrived, the hard drive had problems the first day I ran the laptop; a real downer when first receiving a brand new system. I’m pretty sure the laptop was thrown around hard during shipment overseas.

In just a few days, the laptop was shipped from Kitakyushu to Akihabara in Tokyo, where a Toshiba repair center quickly replaced the hard drive and got the system back to me. Since that time, I’ve put the laptop through quite a few paces: I brought it with me to the schools I taught at, kept it on for days on end as an FTP server. I made the Statement of Agreement website on it, followed by the video and wrote quite a few reviews for Gamecritics too. I’ve done a lot with it.

The laptop has recently acted as a side machine/internet laptop. The DVD-RW drive is spotty and the right speaker doesn’t work. Other than that, the machine has pretty much been my side for quite awhile.

It’s easy to wonder why I would be so attached to a computer. Specifically, a hard drive. But if you look carefully at the what and when of it all, the laptop has been around during some of the most interesting times of my life. It helped me create some very cool works.

After taking the hard drive out from the bottom of the laptop, I searched for the hard drive on eBay via the model number printed on surface. The cost ranges from $65 for the same drive to around $45 for smaller, 30gb model. I should be diving in for a replacement, but I’m waiting for payday to come around.

30gb hard drive, you served me well.

I’ve been unemployed for three months now. In May I travelled in order to catch some inspiration and visit old friends. I still have more pictures to post from that time but I wanted to break the silence for now and throw out more recent happenings.

PowerMac G5

Just before I left Japan I decided to take a plunge and purchase a Dual 2.0ghz PowerMac G5 and Final Cut Studio. This was not cheap at all. In fact, it plunked one of my credit cards so hard that its bank actually increased my interest rate, which leads me to the following…

eBay

I’ve sold just about any big item or item of non-value, non-sympathy out there to more appreciative (and paying) bidders. I am actually able to make some extra cash right now as well. Apparently, I’ve been on eBay for seven years - I started window shopping there when I was still in college.

Exercise

A family friend’s son is staying with us and he had the same mindset about jogging. We started about six or seven weeks ago. At first, we ran 4-5 days of the week for about 20 minutes with a five minute break in between. But our bodies weren’t getting enough rest. Now, we run three times a week. In total we’ve definitely run over 50 some odd miles total, and my blood pressure is 103/66. Can’t say that Wal Mart’s machine will be accurate but if my friend had a 145/105 reading and is on medication, I’ll believe my number.

Work Search
It’s starting to take its mental toll on me…being home that is and not having a job. I’ve been searching on craigslist in their LA and Orange County sections… locales to me. Out of the many resumes I’ve sent, I went to one interview. It didn’t seem a fit to me and I was under-qualified. I keep searching for something that I can be happy with.

Projects

My next video is 80 percent complete and holding still. I need to shoot the establishing scenes soon - this has been a problem due to my friend’s scheduling difficulties. I want to get it done soon so that I can continue smoothly on my short reel.. an experiment with Apple’s “Motion” software.

I also just paid for ecto prior to making this post. It’s worth 18 bucks to update multiple blogs under one tool. That and thus far the updates seem constant. This may have well been the first time I’ve paid for a small piece of weblogging software, and so far I’m happy.

I’m here. But I’ve been trying to keep myself busy as well… Learning software (more on that in the future), selling things, keeping mentally busy and physically fit to some degree.

I have no regrets with my path thus far, I am just hoping that there is a happy ending to this chapter in my life.

First, randomosity:

Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)
Quicktime Trailer (11mb)

“…the more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let things upset you…”

This was first spotted by Nej at jeansnow.net

Bill Murray plays a washed up actor doing Japanese CMs (commercials) in Tokyo and meets a soul searcher in the process. The film will be released stateside in September, and I’ll be sure to catch it.

The new Sony CLIE

http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/PEG/PEG-UX50/index.html
Japan is good at making me lose money.

***

The last few days have been mellow yet intense.

Sunday night I went to Koichi’s one last time at around 6pm. I had little to do so I figured some yakitori wouldn’t hurt. Alex came down eventually from his own engagement and we ate and drank. And drank more.

It was about 8 or so when we headed down the small streets to meet up with Stacey, who had joined up with a Taiko group. Drummers were “feeding” others more and more Asahi. Both Alex and I joined in and, believe it or not, I drummed myself some. Alex accomplished this as well. Go beer.

Amber wanted to meet up once before I left, so we shared our recent stories at McDonald’s by the station. About an hour and a half later I said a brief farewell to Tim and Yuki.

Later in the evening I went to Kameyama sensei’s home along with Dion and Livia, where we ate yakiniku, talked about teaching experiences. It got very intense at one point: what will make the system better, what needs to be changed and so on and so forth. I ended up listening quite a bit, but it was arresting throughout.

I got a tie from Kameyama sensei that had repeated imagery of a matsuri. An outline of a taiko drum here, a festival-goer there. It was neat.

Tomorrow I have to cancel my J-Phone service, send in my DSL to terminate my Yahoo BroadBand access and turn in my textbooks to the BOE (in addition to my inkan and other personal documents). It’s all coming to a close.

While I originally wanted to post something about this entire experience, this year of being in a foreign country, the story isn’t really ending per se. It’s just going to continue as I move forward. So I’ll end there, and I’ll weblog again when I get to a net connection either in Osaka or Tokyo.

Until then, I am swimming in thought of moments with kids at junior high, drunken discussions at Yakyuudori and times of revelation.

As I say in e-mails to friends…

More to come.

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.